Human For A Day

This post was originally in response to Picture Prompt #13: Other Realms.  It sat unfinished in my draft folder for sometime.  On Sunday, the Blog Propellant issued Mission Not So Impossible: Part 1. I am coming to this two part prompt a little late, but hope I will be forgiven for missing the original deadline. Part 2 will be coming shortly.

The sound of her own giggling was almost more than she could bear.  The strange constrictions in her shoulders and chest as her vocal chords produced a musical laughter, just made her giggle all the more, tears springing to her eyes. “I can’t…stop…oh!…,” she gasped in short breaths as she tried to speak, then collapsed onto her back in the soft grass, giving herself over to the giggle fit. 

 “I just told a silly knock,knock joke,” he wondered aloud, eyebrows raised with a quirky smile playing at his lips. “I meant to illicit a smile, a giggle perhaps. I had no idea I was so amusing.” 

 “Oh, you don’t understand, you silly boy,” Moira propped up on her elbows, still chuckling. “Do you realize how peculiar it feels to laugh in a mortal body? Normally laughter is music.  In this body, I can feel the music.  It is extraordinary!  I suppose this is why I get tonight…” A wistfulness passed across her face and she settled into quiet.  

 He collapsed down beside her and turned her face to him. “And explain again why we only have tonight? Til dawn’s first light? Isn’t that what you said? That’s not very long.” 

“I’ve explained this to you,” she sighed.  “I have one full day before my reign begins to experience mortality. Dawn to dawn.” She brushed his hair from his face with her hand. “Though I wish we had met a bit earlier in the day.”

“But if you’re the queen, or whatever you call yourself, why can’t you tell them you want to stay longer?” 

 “That is not my right. It is my responsibility to guide my people, it’s what I’ve been trained to do. Now hush, and let’s enjoy the stars with what little time I have left.”

Moira gently pulled him down into the grass with her as she tried to savor every moment she had left.  She vowed to remember this forever. She would not become me her father, who had forgotten the lessons of humanity so long ago.

They allowed the field to envelop them as they stared up into the expanse watching the stars dance by.  Moira gave herself over to the new sensations: the blood cycling through her body, the air breathing into her lungs, the Earth turning as it circles the sun around the Galaxy, the heartbeat of the boy next to her – beating in time to her own.  She was connected to everything, part of everything.

Gradually, Moira could make out the faintest light reaching out from the horizon.  She sighed. It was time to stand and face the light of day.  She turned to the boy and reached down to help him stand.  Behind her, she felt the familiar snapping sensation when a being crosses over the realm.

“Reina,” her handmaiden stepped towards them. “I must prepare you for your coronation now.”

Moira nodded then turned back towards the boy.  She drew his face in and kissed him firmly on the lips. “I shall always remember you. We will watch over you.”  Moira pulled herself away and, stiffening her back, turned to follow her handmaiden back to her own realm.

The boy watched, amazed as the pair walked toward the edge of the forest, Moira turning back for one last glance before their skirts faded into bushes and their faces shimmered out of sight.

 

  

 In response to Picture Prompt #13: Other Realms.