Maybe We Were Lovers In Another Time

“Edith!”

A mess of cardinal, fierce locks flung backwards.

He found himself staring into a pair of olive eyes, strong yet gentle.

“What lovely eyes,” he thought.

“Is there something on my face, my dear Ellard?” She chuckled.

“None that would blemish that dainty face, my lady.” He smirked, before pulling her in from the waist and spinning her around in his arms.

“However, enough of these pleasantries… Edith, this war, it is different. All the battles that we had in the past, they are bagatelles compared to this one. We may lose this war, even if I know your father says otherwise. His sharp disdain for the ones across the border obscures him from wisely discerning their true strength, and thus the number of men we would need. So, I shall ask of you, to be prudent in battle. To stay alive.” He sighed.

Her fingers gently caressed his jaw, and her lips touched with the knight’s. A sombre kiss it was, yet it enough to appease the unease in him.

“Promise me, promise me, Edith.”

“I promise you, my love,” a mellow smile crossed her face, “I promise.”

It was darkness, total darkness. He was staring into nothingness.

“Edith!” a voice shrilled from behind.

He spun back in an instant, the landscape was different now – smoke fogged the grassland, clattering of metal rang in the air, piles of body patched on the field – the place smelt of death.

A lone soldier, about half a dozen steps behind the lady, had raised his sword and was spurting – like an anguished beast towards his captors – so quickly. In a flash, he was right behind her – sword in mid-air, ready to dash it upon her.

The knight ran towards and he knew he could not reach them in time; he pulled back his sword and hurled it towards the trailing soldier.

The soldier plopped down onto the crimson coloured field.

“I did it, I saved.”

The beautiful princess fell, her fingers still clasped tightly onto her sword. He ran towards her – his legs weak – and drop onto his knees, to her side, one arm hung around her back, and the other laid on her belly. He felt a warm viscous substance brushed against one of his arms.

“Blood. No, it cannot be.” his heart sank.

“Edith… stay with me. I will bring you back to the tents, and the doctors will treat you…”

“No… Ellard, I would not make it,” she writhed in agony, “promise me you will survive this battle, stay alive, and… I love you, Ellard.”

Her once rosy cheeks were paling; her eyes were losing their intentness  – she was losing the war inside her.

“No! Please, Edith, please. I cannot live without you.”

A cold stream of tears flushed down his cheeks. He pushed his other arm towards her back, readying to pull her up into his arms, but she tugged. She tugged his sleeve and shook her head with much struggle.

He could sense it, she was dying. Her face was sapped of colour, and her eyes were cold, yet a faint smile still rests across her. Her smile was sad, yet in a way it comforted him. He pressed his lips onto her cold, quivering lips.

It was a stinging kiss, it was a farewell kiss.

He gazed into her olive eyes, they were still the same when he first saw them and fell in love with them – nothing changed, nothing of his love for her had changed since the first day his eyes set upon hers.

“I love you too, Edith.” His voice trembled, a tear plummeted onto her cheek.

His eyes did not leave hers, and neither did hers. And when she did his soul gapped. He howled, cradling her lifeless body against his chest. He roared in grief and torment, he cursed the Gods above, how… how could they take away the love of his life.

An arrow was piercing through the air, towards him in projectile motion – there would be enough time for him to fend off the bolt.

A subtle grin laid upon his face, and he closed his eyes with no fear or tarry for this ached land.

He felt a penetrating pain in his left chest, a hot tingling sensation seared through him. Quavering, yet his arms still wrapped tightly around his love. The excruciating twinge in his chest started to escalate, he was not sure where the pain stemmed from, the wound or of his loss.

“You, Edith, are the love of my life,” his fingers curled onto her cold cheeks, “I love you with all my heart in this short fateful being, and I shall love you in the next, and the next and in all my lives,” he whispered.

The numbness was growing on him. His eyelids felt heavy, he wanted to shut them, soon, just for a moment.

“Baby!”

He felt his body being jerked.

“Baby, you okay?” a melodious tone ringed in his ear.

A ginger haired girl was staring at him up tightly with her emerald eyes.

“Edith?”

“Who’s Edith? I’m Edelyn, you sillyhead!” her eyes grew more intent.

“Oh yeah, I’m sorry baby, just had a dream,” he murmured, rubbing his eyes he felt his face drenched with tears.

“The same old one?”

He nodded.

Oddly, the agony he felt from the dream was still lingering in him. The grievous ache was crawling amidst his entirety.

His gaze turned towards her. She looked somewhat like her from the dreams just with lighter hair and darker eyes. He enveloped her in his arms and was relieved he could sense her warmth and gradual heartbeat.

“I love you so much, Edelyn,” his voice shaking.

Maybe, just maybe, the girl from his dreams was his love in another time, from another life. A time long forgot by the masses, yet not for him – for a love so strong binds him to it, and maybe for an eternity.

Maybe, that girl from his dreams now laid right beside him, in his arms.

Maybe, their love touched the heavens above, and thus reunited them, the pair of tragic lovers.

Maybe, he will get to love her in all his lives.

Maybe, she was his lover in another time.