Dearest, Just Wait a Few Days More…
* * *
In front of a small cottage a littleways outside the Enchanted Forest edge, a woman stood, alone, as she looked almost absently at the towering, magical oaks that made up the land, her head well preoccupied with her own flow of thoughts --- most of those which only her and a handful of others could afford to think during a time when a silent war was being waged. Although she looked as seemingly normal as the reddish-grey peasants' dress that she wore about her, the woman nevertheless managed to look impressive; she was both beautiful and unusually tall for her age and her jet black hair, tied into two very long braids that hung loose behind her back, swayed freely with the slight wind, and even when she casually stood she somehow radiated an untold aura of power, mystery and reliability, something which a simple peasant woman simply didn't have.
It was perhaps that, or the fact that she seemed to know everything for everybody who passes by the cottage or that she knew more than the normal peasant girl should, that everyone who did pass by her cottage to ask questions or whatnot thought of her as a sorceress --- sure, a sorceress who was also the sole parent of a son, but a darn wise one.
And one who had a lot of sense, something else which most within the area didn't quite seem to have. She was so impressive and normal to everyone that those who saw her didn't give any thought that she could be something else within that guise, like a witch, a professional mercenary, or a princess.
Or even a Queen.
Which the woman actually was.
* * *
Daystar had vanished from sight even sooner than Cimorene herself had thought he would.
Having watched her son slowly --- and pretty much cluelessly --- leave from behind the covers of the many magical barriers that surrounded their 'temporary' home, Cimorene felt many things within her heart as she began asking herself things, mostly about what her sixteen years of labor and loneliness had produced in the form of her son, Daystar. As she looked upon her grown son from, for the first time, the outside, she felt proud of him. As she saw his general cluelessness about the entire journey, she felt doubtful. As she remembered the memories that she and Daystar had shared throughout the past sixteen years, she felt happy for them and sad for the father of the child who missed them. When she saw him finally leave their home, she inevitably felt lonely.
And when Cimorene's eyes strayed to the forest into which Daystar disappeared into, onto the hidden castle within and the battlefield surrounding it, she felt and remembered love.
And hope.
Cimorene herself had expected and told herself that this day would inevitably come to pass, but even now she couldn't help but feel a little miserable and worried. Daystar would leave his home and venture into the forest which was his heritage, and begin his somewhat-clueless quest to end the silent war that she herself had fought against once and for all. Daystar was leaving Cimorene alone again perhaps, Cimorene tried not to think, for good: although she had taught him everything she knew and had to know about the Enchanted Forest and the outside world, there was still a million things that could go wrong with Daystar's journey that could ruin everything, and even she had to be slightly doubtful that Daystar could learn to use the forest's magic like his father, her husband Mendanbar, could quick enough to help him. He wasn't exactly what Cimorene and the others had expected of the hero who could end the war --- in a way, Daystar simply wasn't enough. Yet.
He's not much, but he'll have to do, Cimorene sighed to herself. I hope I've done everything I can for our son, Mendanbar dear, but I can't help but feel that I haven't done enough…
She wished she could at least tell Daystar at least something about his quest to make it that much easier, although she had been told, and had told herself, from the beginning of those sixteen years that she couldn't do that. She simply couldn't tell Daystar because that would ruin everything before it was time; the wizards that she fought used finding spells to find the person who held Mendanbar's sword, and the only way Daystar could possibly conceal himself from those was if he didn't know about the sword. But cluelessness wasn't safe, either, and Daystar was still inexperienced at best. Still she managed to put her faith in him again; somehow, Cimorene thought, what she had taught Daystar would help him reach that time and keep him safe.
It's all for the best that I didn't tell him, Cimorene comforted herself, it was for the best that Daystar was kept in the dark about this until it was time. Daystar will be fine by himself.
Somewhere inside the forest was the Castle, with its mismatched towers, many stairways and its secret passages, and although the tall trees blocked her view Cimorene somehow managed to see the castle and all its beauty, before the wizards made their attack, clearly in her heart. The sixteen years she had spent raising Daystar for this day had passed by like a dream and now, although Daystar still had a long way to go to rescuing his father, Mendanbar seemed all so close to Cimorene again. The rakish look, the rumpled black hair, the thoughtful grey eyes…she began to see and remember him again, Daystar looking much like he did, and hope surged once more with the prospect of seeing him again after so long. She smiled to herself.
With that renewed hope in her heart, Cimorene was now somehow sure, with a previously-unknown feeling of certainty, that Daystar will succeed in his quest. Daystar would learn quickly; he had to, and that combined with what he had been taught the past sixteen years would help Daystar immensely. When he succeeds, everything will be put in its place again; when Daystar frees Mendanbar the wizards will be defeated once and for all, and the war will end along with their Society. When that day finally arrives she, alongside her friends, will be there to see it, and it would be then that she and Mendanbar are finally reunited, happy again as husband and wife.
Turning back towards her cottage with those hopeful thoughts, Cimorene whispered a few last words into the forest she had left behind for so long, knowing that somehow, within the two magical barriers and the castle within, Mendanbar could hear her heartfelt words.
"Dearest, just wait a few days more…"
* * *
Afterword: Okay, that's that. I had the idea for quite some time, actually; I was kinda disappointed that Cimorene didn't play too much a part (other than melting Antorell and sending Daystar packing) in Talking and she had to be feeling *something* when a) Mendanbar got trapped sixteen years ago and b) when Daystar left, so I thought about it and came up with this. Well, I'm running out of things to say so I'll be leaving now. Hope you liked it!
Disclaimer: Cimorene, Daystar, the Enchanted Forest and related names and places belong to Patricia C. Wrede and Scholastic Books.