There is nothing else

“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.”
Kenji Miyazawa


Time passed.

In that remote corner of Ashenvale, it held no meaning anyway.

It was only the forest, arching above them, singing with a thousand voices, as they lay in the grass, side by side.

Rising her hand in front of her eyes, she dreamily looked at the shallow scar that crossed it.

There is pain in every choice we make...

"We have to go back..."

Eireannan turned his head around to catch a glimpse of her profile, the silken hair spread all around her head, in the lush grass.

He knew it as well. But it felt good to pretend, even for a little while, that they could remain hidden forever.

Oh, he had what to go back to. The Scourge was still in the Plaguelands and so was Daria, trying to keep up the seemingly endless fight. The hatred, the pain and the occasional nightmares, they were all there, and the time spent in the Scarlet Monastery had only added another collection of terrifying memories to the one he already possessed.

But that was his life and he held no regrets.

Things were different for Laandra, though.

She had turned against her friends, against her own kind and there newfound allies for the sake of him. Became an outcast.

Yet, there is no pain to last forever...

Severing the ties that linked her to Azuremyst Isle had made her heart bleed. Everything she had ever accomplished in her life stemmed out of the shared meaning of all Draenei people. Fight the Legion. Be kind to those in need. Be fair and courageous and never give up. Follow the ways of the Naaru and dedicate yourself to the Light.

Leaving had left her without any sense of purpose, other than dragging Eireannan out of the Scarlet Monastery.

Caring for him.

But he was now well enough to do it himself.

Oh, she could always go back...Forgiveness would be there, for her rash acts. And so would be the memory of betrayal.

Eireannan stretched out his hand to touch hers. And as he did he looked again in amazement at his own untouched skin. The marks were gone. But that, he sadly thought, was not to deceive anyone...he hadn't changed, and the darkness was still there, dangerously lurking inside his soul. He traced with a finger the line of the nearly healed scar. It would have been easy to remove and he knew she could do it herself, if she wished.

But its her binding. Her oath. Her own thing to remember.

" Come with me", he said, softly. " I know I have nothing to share other than endless fields of blighted land and all to frequent nightmares. You deserve better. But if it were otherwise, I'd rather have you with me than ever let you go..."

"Yeah..." Laandra sighed, closing her fingers over the scar and letting her hand drop on the side. " I thought so too..."

And I am scared.

Of loving you so much so as to want to go for you

to the very edge of the world...

I am scared that one day your path would not seem so dark anymore. Not even to me.
Because I have looked into your soul...and found it clean.

And as light and shadow blur...

all that remains

is this love I have...

you.