After due consideration, I have decided that the attack should take out its target, but not the rest of life on Earth. ._. It’s probably not the most realistic outcome, but the destruction of all life on Earth would have created a bit of a plot-hole. And you know how much I hate those and do my utmost to avoid them to the greatest degree possible. >_> Please stop laughing.
But there needed to be at least a bit of collateral damage, of course…and for once, the victim could not be Snuka, since this is a focus episode for him. So Mopey gracefully agreed to take his place…or rather, failed to look up at the right moment to notice the meteor coming hurtling into her direction. Sometimes, it’s easier to ask a character for forgiveness, rather than permission…and I’m kinda counting on the effect that Mopey will have an opportunity to work off her frustration/aggression on the helpless mega-sloth immediately after being released from her current predicament – that should hopefully alleviate any need for further retribution. Hopefully.
And should that not work out, there’s a good chance that any excess frustration/aggression will be vented on Snuka – his focus episode should be over by then, and he’s standing conveniently close. Plus, he looks guilty, as usual. We’ve been over that. >_>
When you have to tell the truth, no matter what the result will be, you have to be able to prove that …
It’s Not An Act
By TeraS
The hotel disappeared in the rear-view mirror as Cassie left for the final time. She had no intentions of returning there, no matter what happened next. Keith had explained that it would be a bit of a drive, but that was okay, it allowed the silver-tail to gather her thoughts.
Knowing that this would be her last night with Keith, at least before his ebon-maned Eternal made herself known, finally crystallized her thoughts. Cassie knew what she needed to tell him, and what she couldn’t tell him, as well. There was no possible way she could just lay out his entire life’s future; that would cause nothing but problems. The possibilities of temporal paradoxes and the dangers that came with knowing one’s future would only complicate things.
But there were parts of the story she could reveal. The question was how that would come to pass, if Keith would even believe her and if not, just how far the Temptress would go to make their future happen. Turning onto the highway leading from the city core, she realized there was only one way: the truth.
Everything else would have to look after itself.
He’d said she could arrive any time, he would be home. She wondered what his home looked like; she only had the map to guide her along with the address. She didn’t expect a mansion. That wasn’t him. She didn’t expect anything more than a place that reflected his personality.
She didn’t expect the home she’d found. Not that it wasn’t a reflection of her adored one: the red bricks were expected; the seeming ordinary look was meant to be. What Cassie didn’t expect was that Keith’s home was so very familiar to her.
Pulling into the driveway, she found herself looking at the same home that the Eternals had where her Realm met this one: same interlock driveway, same layout of the home, same two floors and all. The only thing missing was the fence where Tera met with her heart in the evenings. She knew this place intimately in the future. It wouldn’t be, she expected, exactly the same inside, nor would it have the additions built onto the home over the years as their family expanded. But the beginnings of their home were here, and Cassie thought that it was so very much like the Eternals to be just themselves regardless of the Palace, the Realm, or, for that matter, what royalty were expected to do.
Once more Cassie realized just how much change the Realm had been through because of them. Once more the Temptress realized how much she’d changed for them, as well.
“Welcome to my humble abode my Lady.” The blonde was startled when Keith called out to her from the side of the house as he approached. Her adored one looked … right. The plain red (of course) shirt and jeans weren’t a surprise. He had been clear that she shouldn’t dress up; there wasn’t any reason to. That didn’t mean the Temptress exactly followed his suggestion … exactly. Opening the door, Keith discovered Cassie’s idea of ‘not dressing up’ was a silver top that hugged her curves, a silver skirt and–this being a concession to him–low red heels.
“You didn’t have to dress up, Cassie.”
Taking Keith’s offered hand, her reply attempted to sound innocent: “Do you like?”
His answer would forever stay with her: “You’re beautiful, but I don’t think anything will match that silver dress.”
There was the smallest twinkle in her eyes as Keith led them towards the backyard: “I’ll remember that.”
It wasn’t a fancy restaurant. It wasn’t some grand club, either. It was, however, one of the moments the Temptress would admit put everything else to shame. A simple wood picnic table set on a simply furnished patio. Dinner cooking on the barbecue to one side as she and Keith just spent the afternoon turning towards evening talking. The meal wasn’t anything fancy, but this just showed the silver-tail something of the red-tail-to-be’s talents. She would be sure to … encourage … him in making dinner for her again … sometime.
The sun soon began to set among the houses around them, the night turning cool. Finding herself curled up on his sofa, just talking, gave the Temptress a very strong feeling of deja vu. She wouldn’t, however, do what she did on that spring night in the Realm, at least not this evening.
They’d been talking about the house when Keith mentioned his library. It didn’t take much for him to show it to her. It was exactly how she expected it, the shelves, the telescope in the corner, old cameras tucked away along the tops of the bookcases, and, in one corner, a leather chair–the same leather chair that would find its way into Keith’s office in the future. She’d brought in her canvas bag and placed it on the floor, resting against a bookcase. When she looked upwards, her eyes found … the book, dog-eared, well-read, looking so very much out of place with all of the other books around it. She tapped a finger on the spine: “Interesting book.”
He knew what book she was touching: “We all have our fantasies, Cassie.”
Green eyes met so-blue ones, her hand now waving in the direction of the chair nearby: “Let me tell you a story.”
The Temptress began to pace back and forth, just out of reach. From time to time, one hand pulled on her blonde mane as she put the words together. “There is a place called the Realm. This place is the home of the succubi and incubi.” He was going to say something, but a wave of her hand stopped him. “To be clear, these are not the same as legends make them. They call themselves ‘succubi,’ never ‘a succubus.’ It’s the same for the incubi: none of them is ever an incubus. They aren’t part of …” She pointed to the floor: “…down there. They believe in passion, love, and the Goddess herself.”
Keith watched from his chair: “Where are you going with this, Cassie?”
“I know your fantasy.”
“It’s only a fantasy Cassie, it’s not real.”
The silver-tail crossed the room, standing her ground a tail’s length from him: “What if it was?”
Her adored one seemed intrigued: “If it was, then, are you suggesting you are … one of the succubi?”
“And if I was?”
Keith had always told the truth. This time it was more truthful than Cassie expected it to be: “If you are, it doesn’t change that I love you.”
Cupping her hands over her mouth, Cassie fought back tears: “I am Cassiopeia of the Succubi.”
She couldn’t quite see through her tears, but she felt his hand touch her arm: “Cassie? Look at me, please.” He’d left the chair, and she knew that look. He wasn’t thinking about himself when he asked the next question: “Is this the real you?”
“Almost.”
“What’s different?”
“You don’t see my tail … or horns.”
“They’re silver … aren’t they?”
She should have known; he was always so perceptive: “How did you guess?”
“Silver seems to be your thing.”
She was sure she looked a mess as she wiped the tears: “Silver-tails are said to be all about glamour. Like how red-tails are about love.”
Keith stepped back: “Show me the real you, Cassie.”
She could have shifted forms in an instant, but not this time. She drew the process out, starting at her heels, shifting from low red ones to taller, sleek, silver ones. As the change came, Keith watched as the silver dress reappeared, the silver bracelet remaining on her left wrist as it did. Passing over Cassie’s forehead, a pair of–he thought–cute silver horns came into existence.
The long, sleek silver tail hovering over her shoulder, moving on its own, the tip seeming to look at him, made her story real. The Temptress, in all her glory, turned in a slow circle for her adored one. She needed him to see that this was her real self, the one that, in the future, he would come to know so, so well.
She noticed something. Yes, he looked at her tail. Yes, he looked at her horns. But he didn’t dwell on them. Again, he surprised her: “Tail or not, horns or not, I still love you.”
Her tail wrapped around his waist: “This is me. You can’t understand how much I love you, what you mean to me.”
His touch against her cheek made her eyes flutter: “Can you tell what you mean to me?”
The truth had to be said, no matter how hard it was. The sigh in the words was heart-breaking: “Yes. But we can’t be together.”
He never expected those words: “Why?”
Cassie tuned towards the bag she’d left against the bookshelf and handed the silver framed picture to Keith.
“Tomorrow … you will meet someone who is perfect for you.”
Keith started to reply, but Cassie stopped him by placing two fingers against his lips. “You’ll understand the moment you see her. She told me that when she first saw you, you looked … right. I never understood, not really. Now I do. You are … right … and that’s so difficult to explain.” Tapping the tip of her tail against the frame, she continued: “The future … I can’t tell you about it, but you make that happen. That is the future you gave … that you will give … to all of us.”
His so-blue eyes looked at the photograph and then back to the Temptress: “Cassie … are you …”
Her tail wrapped around his waist once more, her smile not hiding the delight: “There won’t be a day when I won’t be tempting you.”
“But …”
She nodded: “I won’t know you like I do now, I won’t remember this time with you; it hasn’t happened for me yet. But there will come a day when I will.”
Her adored one was quiet for a time, Cassie was surprised when he brushed her blonde mane off her shoulder, allowing the tresses to fall against her back in waves: “It won’t be easy to hide the truth from you.”
“I know. That’s not who you are.”
He seemed very thoughtful: “I’ll … figure something out.”
Cassie smiled: “That’s very much you.”
She shivered as his hands rested on her hips, her fingers finding their way to his own, bringing her love closer, deep green eyes meeting so-blue. Her voice seemed so very small: “I’m sorry.”
“Whatever for?”
“Not being perfect for you.”
Her love’s answer was, when she thought about it later, so very much him: “You are perfect, Cassiopeia of the Succubi, in all the ways that matter.”
Yeah, something like delayed blast fireball would have been more stereotypical, but I’ve somehow always liked the idea behind the meteor strike spells that feature in a number of RPG systems.
There’s just something charmingly megalomaniac about the idea of messing with that sort of celestial phenomenon just in order to win a fight against a bunch of orcs or goblins more quickly than you could while using direct force. It really sets a magic-user apart from the common crowd – unless it’s a common crowd of insane mass murderers (which you could conceivably encounter in a fantasy world, of course). I feel it stresses the specialness that magic-users should display, their aloofness from the mundane world and its trivial problems … trivial problems like the survival of all life on the planet.
And you’ve got to admit that meteor strikes have a good track record when it comes to getting rid of mega-fauna – the dinosaurs can attest to that. Or rather, could attest to that if it hadn’t happened to them. Or rather rather, could attest to that if it hadn’t happened to them and they’d evolved, in the meantime, sufficiently highly to be able to attest to something either verbally or in writing. But you catch my drift.
It was a close-run thing, though, for the rest of life on the planet back then…so perhaps Latho’s concerns aren’t entirely unfounded. Which only further justifies using that spell here, though – after all, Snuka took it out of the Necronomicon, and you aren’t supposed to be able to get anything out of that book that isn’t both insanely dangerous and plainly insane. ._. So, well done?
Cassie’s story is getting to the point … eventually. You can find the previous parts here, here, here and here, here, here, here, here, as well as here. When you need to explain, to get to the point and you can’t say everything you want to, that’s when things become a …
Juggling Act
By TeraS
She’d had to look at the date on the newspaper twice to be sure. Cassie thought she had more time. But there was no question, no escaping the truth: come tomorrow, Tera would be here. Come tomorrow, the red-tail Queen-to-be and Keith would meet in that park and say hello, and the path of their lives, and the silver-tail’s own, would be settled as it was, as it would be, eternally.
To be honest, she thought as she walked out the hotel room door for the last time, returning to the Realm would be welcome after spending so much time waiting. Things had their time and place to happen, and even knowing what she knew didn’t make the waiting any easier.
Her thoughts were running in circles as she waited for the elevator. Lil had told her that things would work out; the picture she gave Cassie, the one the Temptress now carried in a bag, was the way to make that happen. All she needed to do was drive to Keith’s place, be with him, and then just reveal the truth of everything. What could possibly go wrong with that?
The silver-tail had picked up her ebon-maned Monarch’s habit of pacing while she thought, which meant she had walked out of her floor’s elevator alcove several times, missing the elevator when it arrived and then continued without her. That wasn’t a bad thing, really; it gave her more time to think. It wasn’t a good thing, either, because it gave her a lot more time to think.
Finally making a decision, Cassie pushed the call button once more and then leaned against the wall to wait, closing her eyes. She would see Keith tonight, hold him, tell him she loved him … and then just … let go.
The silver-tail missed the soft chime of the elevator. She didn’t miss the voice that called out: “Good day, are you waiting for the elevator?”
She knew that voice; once again, Goddess was having far too much fun with the entire situation. Looking towards the elevator, she beheld a bespectacled man in a simple suit with a white collar. Her first reaction was to embrace him, for he was, after all, the one her best friend called “heart.” Her second thought was that might not be the best thing to be doing when he’d not yet met Tera by the fence. That still was some time away, after all. What’s more, his own Eternal was there, wearing her own white collar, and Cassie wasn’t about to make a scene that would be impossible to explain to the both of them. How does one explain that they’d both been there for her in her darker moments, the ones where she’d been looking for meaning when she’d lost souls that meant so much to her, the times when she’d been trying to understand Goddess and words didn’t come to help with that, save from their simple assurance, hope, and most of all, love shared.
Noting their concerned looks, the silver-tail entered the elevator: “Um, sorry. My mind was elsewhere. Ground floor, please?”
As they descended, Cassie fully realized what Lil meant in the park. Keith was the focal point to so many lives that Cassie knew and so many more that of whom she had no idea. In this moment, possibly two of the most important to Keith and Tera were less than a tail’s length from her and, right now, they had no idea.
Fidgeting with the straps of her canvas bag, Cassie turned towards the couple next to her. She still didn’t quite understand what it meant to be an Eternal, but it seemed so very clear that these two souls holding hands were meant for each other. The Temptress felt somehow boxed into a corner, wanting to tell all and yet knowing that she couldn’t, at least not yet.
But she could start with something simple: “I must apologize for my manners, my name is Cassiopeia…”
The rest just happened.
Sitting in the hotel restaurant, Cassie still wasn’t quite sure how it all happened exactly. She’d intended to sit off in a corner somewhere to wait, but, discovering that the place was packed, that there was but one table left, and Tera’s heart and his Eternal would be turned away, she’d decided that wouldn’t happen. And so, pulling on her blonde hair with her free hand, she offered a solution, and they accepted.
As such, she found herself sitting at a table with them, across the table from them … and it felt right. They shared some small talk: Cassie mentioned that she believed in Goddess; they accepted that and told some of their own experiences with her. It mattered to the blonde what they both thought. She still couldn’t tell them everything, but she could ask for some advice. “This is… going to be very forward of me, but, may I ask you something?”
He was taking a sip of water, so his Eternal replied: “Seems like you have been wanting to, Cassiopeia.”
The table cloth became very interesting as the silver tail began: “I adore someone, but … he is meant for someone else, for my best friend. I know that, when they see each other, they’ll know it’s meant to be. I’m happy for them, I know they’ll be perfect together and it will mean the world to them both.” Seeing them both nod, Cassie continued: “I love them in ways I can’t explain. I see them and I wonder why Goddess seems to have a plan for everyone … but me.”
Tera’s heart offered: “We don’t know the plan Goddess has until it’s revealed, you know. You seem like a wonderful person, I’m sure there’s an answer for you too. Just listening to you, it’s clear you want them to be happy. That’s nothing to be ashamed about.”
“Oh I’m not, far from it. I’m more … wanting to know what comes next.”
“We can’t see into the future, Cassiopeia.”
“I can guess. I can see them being in love eternally, having two daughters. I can see them being there for others, putting themselves behind the needs of those around them. I can imagine … so many things for their future.”
His Eternal was, as always, so very perceptive: “And you?”
Cassie leaned back in her chair: “I’ll adore them from afar. That’s good enough.”
The look the two across the table shared meant something to them: “What does that mean?”
“I’ll be there as the favourite aunt for the girls. I’ll be there to share the good and the not-so-much with them all. I won’t walk away from them.”
“But?”
Cassie sighed–this was Tera’s heart, after all. He didn’t know her now, but he would: “There’s not really a ‘but.’ It’s more … they’ll both need someone. I hope that’s me.”
“You love them both, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
The Temptress was surprised when they each took one of her hands: “There’s nothing wrong with holding love in your heart for them both. The future will look after itself, Cassiopeia.”
She chuckled lightly: “The future goes through me.”
“Maybe, maybe not. If it does, then make it the best one you can.”
Cassie looked at the canvas bag sitting next to her: “For them, I will.”
A rather striking succubi work of art this time on the Tale for the Image of the Week. Style matters in many ways, it can add a lot to the form of a succubus. It also can bring about a rather delightfully sinful succubus who enjoys being so very naughty…
Striking eyes and expression, I love her form and how everything fits her so well. There’s an air about her that seems to give a hint of her strength and her character as well. A seductress approaching her prey and I really like that idea…
Baking has become something of a meme for me in many ways. I think the idea of a succubus having more than one way to tempt someone is a perfectly reasonable thing. An image this week of a succubus who knows a tasty treat is the best kind of temptation…
There’s really no other way to describe this succubus other than cute. The cookie is the icing on the cake of what is a cute, fun and tempting succubus. Lovely tail, her expression is wonderful, and she’s just the most cute thing in that outfit she is wearing.
A joy and something to bring a smile is always a good thing…
A pause in Cassie’s story this week. It’s mainly because something came to my thoughts, perhaps something that Cassie might have written in the space between meeting Lil and finding herself needing to explain … everything … to Keith. The words are scattered, unsure, but perhaps they are also …
Truth
by TeraS
Perhaps I won’t be able to say what I want to when I see you tonight.
I’ll be leaving this note in your library, hidden among your books. Not in the book that matters, that one is for Tera to find, the one that will bring you together as the Eternals you are meant to be. This will be in the one beside it.
I don’t know what book that will be, but, knowing Goddess and how she’s been pulling on the three of us, it wouldn’t surprise me if she has sorted that out, as well.
Tera told me once that you said: “You had my soul at ”Hello.’” Those words didn’t have to be said, you didn’t have to say hello to have mine. I am your Temptress, but you are my Temptation.
I don’t feel jealous about what you and Tera have, or will have, or whatever the right words are to say what is happening, or will happen, or has happened. I see the two of you and wonder what it’s like to have an Eternal, to know what that’s like.
Then I wonder why there must be only one Eternal for each of us. I’m not sure where I heard that, but it seems so very unfair to those of us who believe we have found ours and can’t have.
I don’t want to be Queen. That’s for Tera, she’s the one who should be. But is it so wrong for me to want to be with you and her? Not as a plaything, not as window dressing, and I know that you both would never want that to be, either. I don’t want to be between the two of you, and I know that could never happen. The love you share is … legendary.
You made the Realm what it is you know. You gave Tera the way to make what she wanted to happen. You offered not just her, but all of us, yourself, your soul, your love. I don’t think you really understand what that meant to us all.
Tera is the Queen, you are her King, or will be soon, or have been for a while when you find this. I couldn’t be happier that you are. There’s a purpose to all of this, why you met Tera, why I came here before you two met. Through you, Tera was given something she was told she would never have. I see that every day and I can’t help but wonder what the future holds because of the miracle your love made real.
I keep telling myself that just being close is good enough. But oh, I want more, in all of the ways that my teasing and tempting of you says. This time seeing you as mortal only made me love you more. I’m not ashamed of that; I wear my love for you openly and, every time you hold me, I know that I’ve made the right choice. I’ll never be called your Eternal. But I am your Temptress … eternally.
I’m not a red tail, but my love burns with a fire that is as bright as Tera’s own.
Unfortunately, I’ve repeatedly sprained my wrist in the last few weeks so Im talking an enforced rest from drawing and colouring, but there’ll be new stuff/finished stuff coming when I am rested and in less pain.
In the mean time…
Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! podcast appearance
A few months ago I was invited to chat with the lovelly and talented Liv Albert of the Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby podcast. We shot the Classically-themed proverbial for two and a bit hours, and Liv has thankfully edited that down to about an hour and a half so I sound like I stuck to the topic – the Epic heroes, rated…sort of… Enjoy!
YouTube Subscription – thank you for signing up!
As YouTube now puts ads in my videos anyway, I recently asked you all if you’d help by subscribing – if I get to 1000 subscribers so I can claim that bounty! Thanks to your support, I’m now only 129 away and every little helps – if you have an account/channel and wouldn’t mind (and haven’t already!)… this link will take you straight there!
Recently my GCSE Classical Civilisation resources have hit 90 users, and I’ve been discovering who uses them and where, and seeing to my utter delight how they’ve helped the spread of Classics in schools! Now I’d like to do the same for my Comix.
I have a bunch of tables and tools I use regularly at the table outside the ones already published in, like Vornheim and similar books, like the one in these pages for making random dungeons quickly that still have enough structure and logic to go beyond "monsters in rooms", while being flexible enough to handle a variety of different settings:
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I put this one and all the others (about a dozen) into the Cube World Sandbox Kit. 24 pages, with pictures, now available in The Store for 20$.
Something of an interlude within Cassie’s story this time. You can find the preceding chapters here, here, here and here, here, here, here and the chapter before this one is here. Our own doubts can derail us from what could be, would be, or will be done. When that moment comes, sometimes we need an …
Act of Goddess
By TeraS
It wasn’t what the Temptress really wanted to be doing. She had an entire day to wait before seeing Keith and telling him the truth. The worst thing was sitting in her hotel room or the hotel’s bar listening to the off-key piano player and staring off into space.
She understood what she had to tell him; those were the easy words. The harder ones were those explaining that she loved him, wanted him, desired him … and couldn’t fulfill those wants here and now. Otherwise there and then would never happen. Cassie knew, without question, that Keith loved her in return. She feared how he would react to her pushing him away.
Truthfully, she didn’t want to. Selfishly, she thought she would be fine with Keith being hers, that things would work out. But then she also knew that wasn’t completely true.
Frustrated at her indecision, the silver-tail wandered the streets alone, wrapped in her thoughts and not really paying much mind to things—at least not until she arrived back at the park that started all of this. The bench she’d shared with Keith, the same one that he would share with Tera, seemed forlorn and alone among the fall leaves. As she settled in, it seemed apt that her own mood was reflective of the scene around her.
Cassie could see the garage across the street, see those inside working. A couple of times she saw Keith speaking with someone, working on that red convertible, being consumed with things and not seeing her.
She was, in a small way, grateful for that.
Just before noon, Keith stepped outside carrying a wooden box. The silver-tail watched curiously as her adored one set the box against a wall, rested upon it and seemed to fall asleep. Once again Cassie was reminded that this was Keith from before, he was human, and spending his evenings with her was, obviously, taking a toll … and that hurt inside.
The Temptress tried once again to come to terms with having and not having. Was this the right thing? Was this really all meant to be? Was she just making things up to soothe her own soul? There was a sound to her right. Someone was walking through the leaves towards her, which drew Cassie’s attention.
It couldn’t possibly be!
The Temptress couldn’t find words as she watched the woman with a mane of the darkest black hair, and the most piercing green eyes she’d ever seen approach her. It wasn’t Tera; that would have been a relief.
Cassie couldn’t find her voice as the visitor settled onto the bench beside her, embracing the confused silver-tail and hugging her tightly: “It seems like yesterday when you were running around the Realm with blue hair.” The hug was unexpected and so dearly needed.
The somewhat older woman considered Cassie critically: “My, you have grown into a beautiful silver-tail, haven’t you, Cassiopeia?”
Cassie answered finally: “Lil? What are you doing here?”
Lil—but not Lil—seemed confused by the question: “Whatever do you mean?”
“You never leave your cottage. This is so unlike you.”
Tapping a finger on her cheek, Lil replied: “Is it? That doesn’t seem like me.” She shifted on the bench, her hug fading away: “I’ll have to reconsider that.” She then focused her attention across the street: “He does look right doesn’t he?”
Cassie didn’t know why that bothered her–This was Lil, after all: “Leave him alone, Lil! He isn’t Tera’s …”
She held up a hand: “Of course he is. He’s the focal point of what was, what might be, and what will be.” Then she looked directly at Cassie: “You are here for a reason, Temptress.”
Feeling defensive, her answer was sharp: “Stay out of this, Lil! This is not your concern.”
Something changed in Lil’s manner and Cassie shivered: “It was my concern. All things must have happened as they were meant to. His was the soul that made all of us what we are. His beliefs in both of you made everything possible.”
“I don’t understand, Lil.”
The brunette seemed to relax: “Don’t you? You seemed to know what you wanted from the beginning.”
“I’m not his.”
Lil’s answer was shattering: “He was yours. He is yours.”
Clutching at the older succubi’s hand, Cassie begged: “Please, Lil, don’t give me false hopes. I know there is one Eternal for each of us.”
“As a red-tail will say to you … ‘Perhaps. Perhaps not.’”
The Temptress sighed, her fingers rubbing over Lil’s hand: “I just … want to be loved. Is that so much to ask for?”
“You’ll have to ask yourself that question when the time comes.”
The red-tail regarded Keith once more: “Tonight you will find the way to make everything happen. It was something that changed us all.”
“I have to tell him I love him, that the Realm exists, that his wish is real. Then I have to let go and have him fall in love with Tera. How do I do that?”
“You know the answer. He will understand.”
“Lil, I don’t.”
The brunette stood up, drawing Cassie from the bench to stand beside her. The embrace was comforting, the silver-tail could almost feel her red tail wrapped around her. She relaxed into the hug, closing her eyes as Lil spoke: “It’s obvious, Cassiopeia. It’s the one thing that matters for us all.”
A wind blew, leaves flying around them, a shiver tracing up the silver-tail’s spine and, when she opened her eyes, Lil was gone. But she left something behind on the bench. Cassie understood as she picked it up what really mattered wasn’t the now or then, it was the future still to be. For that was all that mattered now, no matter what Keith thought of her afterwards. The picture she held in her hands, surrounded by a silver frame, said it better than she ever could have.
Looking back to her adored one, still resting by the garage, Cassie sighed: “Faith manages.”
and every little helps – if you have an account/channel and wouldn’t mind (and haven’t already!)… this link will take you straight there!
