I:II

Shana’s Return

“I miss this place,” Shana said quietly. Walking barefoot among the leaves, she listened to the quiet crackling of softened branches and mud under her feet. Her white skin, still implacably pale in the light from her years of confinement, seemed to glow with a new light.

Jaden caught himself staring at her small form, her plain white dress and purple cloak warming her against the air, and her black hair still in disarray from their voyage on the river. He caught his breath when he realized that he was staring and turned away his eyes.

Shana, pretending not to notice, continued to walk along the muddy path and smell the crisp air. Jaden had pleaded sweetly with her not to bare her feet in the cold, but she would have none of it: one of her fondest memories of Dragonfell was walking through its graden and feeling the grass and leaves between her toes. Only days have passed since memories started to return, and the deadness in her heart could only be livened by feeling the things that she was most fond of before: the smell of a flower, the embrace of Jaden, the gossiping she did with Sarah… so many things she could not remember. But, finally free of Rosia’s spell, she was determined to get her life back and remember all that she had lost.

“M’lady,” Jaden said at length, “we must get you inside. You’ll catch your death if you stay out here.”

Shana smiled softly and slowly nodded her head. When Jaden came to take her arm to escort her out, she surprised him by embracing him tightly and leaning her head against his chest.

Lost for words, and more than a little bewildered, Jaden simply held her there and leaned his cheek against her hair.

Thus they stayed for several long minutes, quietly listening to the birds and the whispering of the wind. Jaden did not want to ruin this moment for Shana, but a voice inside his head told him that it was time to get her somewhere warm. He was about to tell her so when she felt her breath in deeply and heard her sigh.

“M’lady… what is it?” Jaden asked in concern.

Shana had a single tear in her eye, which she let slide down her pale cheek and into the folds of his tunic. “I remember…” she whispered.