bookofblood

Apparently, somewhere on the Nonce, is a tribe of winged creatures called the Fathathai. A gentle, shy people, almost like angels. There are very few of them on the island because they don't find love very easily, and so a Fathathai wedding is a rare event. But anyway, the legend goes that there was one of these creatures bu the name of Numa Child, who did fall in love. You see, he fell in love with a woman he met here on the Nonce, called Elathuria. She was, he thought, the most beautiful woman he had ever set eyes on. There was only one problem. She wasn't flesh and blood as he was. This island is home to some very strange life-forms. And Elathuria was one of these strangenesses. She was a plant.

I've learned two things in my life. One, that love is the beginning and end of all meaning. And two, that it is the same thing whatever shape our souls have taken on this journey. Love is love. Is love. Well, when Numa Child first met Elathuria she was in full bloom. She was perfection. No other word for it. Did I tell you Numa Child fell in love in a heartbeat? I mean, literally, it was that fact. He saw Elathuria, and that was it. His fate was sealed.

So Numa Child told Elathuria instantly. 'Lady,' he said. 'I will never love anyone the way I love you.'

And much to his surprise, Elathuria invited him to kiss her.

'Quickly,' she said. 'Because the sun is hot and the hour is passing.'

Numa didn't think very much about the significance of this. He was simply happy to be invited to kiss his beloved.

And as they kissed and talked and kissed again, the hour of the Nonce ticked away.... When Numa Child kissed her again, there was a little bitterness on her lips.

'What's happening?' he said to her.

She told him: 'Time is passing, my beloved.'

And to his horror, he saw that her blossoms, which had been so bright and beautiful when he'd first set eyes on her, were now beginning to lose that brightness, and her green leaves were beginning to turn gold and brown. Finally she said to him: 'Don't leave me, love. Promise me you'll never leave. Find me again, wherever I go. Find me.'

Of course, Numa didn't understand what she was telling him.

'What do you mean?' he asked her.

But soon it became clear. She was leaving him. The wind had risen, and it was shaking her, the way it would shake a tree, so that its blossoms and leaves fall, and its beauty carried away. That was what was happening to Elathuria. She was losing her very being, right in front of his eyes. It was terrible.

Elathuria was still strong enough to speak to Numa. 'Look for me wherever the wind comes,' she said, her voice getting more and more hushed. I will grow again from the seed that is carried away from this place.'

Numa was, of course, happy to hear this, but his mind was filled with questions and doubts.

'Will it really be you?' he said to her.

'Yes,' she told him. 'It will be me in every particularity. Except one.'

'And what's that?' Numa asked her.

'I won't remember you,' she replied. Even as she spoke these words, a breath of harsh wind sprang up and shook her violently, so that she was entirely shaken apart -

The wind scattered the seeds over a considerable distance, but Numa was determined to find some trace of her - any trace - so he searched like a wild man, not resting until his search was rewarded.

At last, after a long time searching for her, he finally found her, rooted in a new place. She was still growing, but he knew her immediately, and fell in love with her again, just as he had he first time.

And she with him. History repeated itself. Not once, but over and over. Though Numa Child swore his undying devotion to Elathuria, the hour would always pass, and the wind would always come and and she would be carried away to some new place. Sometimes he would find her quickly. Sometimes not.

Love makes its demands, and you listen. You can't bargain with it. You can't fight it. Not if it's really love.