and this time I'm not leaving without you; Ashley

[Ashley]

He looked at her, feeling in his ember colored eyes. It seemed that they were glowing, their look mirroring the waves that lazily lapped at the cave. It seemed that she too was hiding parts of herself; not out of secrecy, but perhaps from a wish to just be known for who and what she was. He knew that she had the ability to transform into fish—but not much else. She was a grown woman. But in age—he was old enough surely to be her great great grandfather, and yet here they stood—or lay, in this case—as equals, reminiscent of the same responsibilities that do not go away, no matter how many times the world seems to rotate around the son. He breathes; a slow, purposeful exhale, flipping his tail upward, whipping the rest of the moisture onto the cave wall. He makes no move to get up. Instead, he wills the water to rise up, each drop making a musical sound as it rose and then dropped back down into the water, changing color as it rotated and shifted in ribbons and musical notes around them. A show for them both—a test of her ability to discern him.

He turns to her, his voice warm like honey. “Have you ever thought of just, giving it all up, and walking away?” He does not tell her his story; that his daughter had usurped him, and then been the cause of his death. That stone statue, and its rigidity. That he felt so at home in something so fluid and freeing was no wonder to him. He took his pride in being his own man. He knew that family was aboard in the land. His mother—he had yet to see her again. And yet, he stayed as far from them as possible. He had been betrayed by that power. Honor had been the death of him, and yet it was to his honor that he held true. Never again King, but always a leader. Always a warrior.

Always Ashley.

ashley

I walked the path, it led me to the end.