Saga of Rivers and Shadows: Return

Endings commonly mirror beginnings, a reverberation where the notes sound better for having been through the brunt of the matter. And so references are made back to how she felt as she left, buried and lost and without hope for her future, before a godling found her and took her away.

But he also left her behind to suffer at the hands of darkness, and only she proved able to free herself. And once done, she found the strength to help those lost people save themselves. Find their own peace.

And now, knowing her inner strength, her life blooms all the brighter. Hope can return, given a chance. It merely needs the right soil in which to grow. Unfortunately hers is laced in blood, but perhaps, for her, the price might be worth the reward.

Goodbye to her, and onward to joy.

Return

She rose up from the lake
back home in a world she knew so well
with the wind carrying
honeysuckle sweet memories
that seemed all the better
against a backdrop
of shadows.

She walked back the way she came
without the gifts of that other world
towards her home
that she left not so long ago
in an agony she felt
all the clearer
in the memory of hindsight

She stood once more on the doorstep
of her home and saw the difference
of old self and new.
No longer did she see the cairn stones
that buried her life
but a foundation upon which
her future could bloom.
And so she opened the door
and stepped through
into a future full of tomorrows
with hope.