Solstice Party: the bonfire :: milliways_bar

[jack_inthegreen]

As the sun sets and the evening grows colder, Jack lights a brand and stands on the dancing platform, near the bonfire.

"Everyone!" he calls. "Everyone. Can I have your attention, please.

"We're going to light the bonfire in a few minutes, but first I've been asked to say a few words. As many of you know, we have great sorrows in the bar today. Friends who are endangered, and the outcome is unclear. I have been asked to speak a blessing to the Universe to bring them safely home."

He pauses a moment, holding the torch high, and then speaks to the stars. "Father and Mother of us all, hear our plea. We have great fears tonight. Loved ones whom we wish to see and touch and make speech with again. See them safely home is our cry. Guide the warriors who seek them. Protect their champions. Bring them home to us that we may celebrate the lives we cherish."

He stands quiet again, and there is no sound but the crackling of the torch. Then he holds the brand to the bonfire, and in a moment it bursts into a great flame.

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[of-all-blood.livejournal.com]

He lifted his uppermost hand, lightly brushed his fingers over the trailing tips of Atreyu's hair. He could almost feel the other's heartbeat, but he could feel his breathing, his warmth, the life within him. He felt himself... wanted.

And he knew.

There was a nearly saddened chuckle, a new kind of resignation, touched with content. With ... even a kind of joy.

"My world has lost me."

[son-of-all.livejournal.com]

Atreyu draws in a breath, holding it a moment, then releasing it in a slow sigh, stirring strands of hair against Cynric's ear. Even now, he can offer only unjudging support, though the words do cause him an entirely selfish throb of joy.

"If you want it again one day," he murmurs, "it will wait." He had to trust Fantasia to do the same. They would manage with luck, as Falkor would say.

[of-all-blood.livejournal.com]

"One day," Cynric softly echoed. "And then... only if you are there."

But he knew. While he could walk away from his world, he could not ask Atreyu to walk from his. He could be Cynric Firstborn wherever he dwelled.

And there was, on an isle in the south, another Lion to swallow the lands.

"But until then, I stay at your side."