A sight for sore eyes to the blind would be awful majestic
"Hello," she'd cured her fair share of blind people. Same for the sick and crippled. It was a regular thing. But this girl with her sunny smile struck a chord in The Healer. Something was different about her. "Are you she?"
"She...?"
"The girl with the golden touch?" That was new. It had a rather lovely ring to it as well. Her head dipped in a nod, and realizing how futile the gesture was she said,
"I am." and that sunny smile grew, swallowing the young girl's face nearly whole.
"Splendid!" She chuckled and the blind girl continued, "Oh I've heard so much about you, are you wearing your hood?" Another nod, then a quiet yes. "An odd thing isn't it to wear a hood when everyone knows you regardless?"
"I suppose..."
"But then again what do I really know I'm BLIND! Why DO you wear it anyway?"
"That's a secret."
"That's too bad but I suppose I understand. You don't know me and I don't know you so why WOULD you tell me amiright?"
"You talk a lot," she doesn't try to say it to be unkind, but it sounds harsh to her own ears. "I-I'm so-"
"Yeah I get that a lot. Lack of eyesight means I gotta make up for it somehow right? Talking. It's my real eyes. If that makes sense... it doesn't but trust me it's true."
"Right..." She stepped forward, reaching for one the babbling girl's hands. As soon as they touched she was silent. "What is your name?"
"What's yours?" She blew out a slightly frustrated breath. Most patients were awed or afraid. She didn't know if she hated or preferred this new type presented before her, grinning like a lunatic. She smiled despite herself, shaking her head and answering,
"That's not important-"
"It is to me, I want to know the name of the person that would give me the gift of sight."
Well. That was fair she supposed. And what would it hurt? She chuckled, finally leaning closer to the oddly grim faced girl and telling her in a whisper, as if to protect her name,
"Elsa."
"That's delightful," the blind girl closed her milky eyes and sighed blissfully. "Your name is incredibly beautiful." It was the only thing left to her that was.
"And your own?"
"Anna." Elsa breathed the name in. She was close to Anna's face. But she had to be for this part. Close enough that a shift of her neck might press their foreheads together, she shifted the grip she had on Anna's hand, threading their fingers.
"Anna," she breathed the name out slowly, letter by letter allowing the weight of each to pull at her lips as her eyes slipped almost closed. "Tell me a secret?" Anna's own eyes remained shut but her brows furrowed.
"A secret?"
"You DO know what a secret is?"
"Excuse me, Elsa," Anna scoffed. "I'm blind, not dumb." Allowing them both to laugh for a moment, she brought them back down with a squeeze of the hand wrapped in her own, butting her head softly against Anna's.
"I'm serious, Anna. I need a secret."
"What kind?"
"The kind that you've held closer to your heart than anyone or thing. The kind of secret you've never told any other soul." She bit her lip and squirmed for half a moment. Then took a deep breath and, taking a chance, leaned her head against Elsa's, through the cloth of the hood.
"That's pretty serious."
"That's the way it works," Elsa shrugged. "It's this or no sight. Which would you prefer?" She wasn't certain Anna would answer, started assuming the girl wanted to back out. Some people didn't want the help she could provide and she wouldn't force it on them. But Anna never moved back, and eventually she squeezed Elsa's hand.
"In my dreams..."
It would be the most beautiful thing that they ever had seen
Have you ever gone to bed blind and gotten up the next morning with the ability to see? It's a pretty novel thing. Anna had lost her eyesight when she was very young. A nasty, messy thing that whole affair had been, yeesh, you don't even WANT to know, just... so she'd been about four or five when it'd happened and had lived her life since then to the very best of her ability.
Happy, you know, pretty content at least. She wasn't totally helpless and she had good friends that loved her and a mother that took care of her. So imagine her surprise when one day her mummy just up and asked if she'd like her eyesight back. Like asking what she wanted for breakfast.
Bacon and eggs please. And yeah, sure, eyesight sounded alright why not?
Everyone everywhere had heard of the woman. The Healer that walked around always with a huge hood thrown up over her head. The woman that took your hands whispered into your ears and BOOM, sickness gone. She'd heard that this woman could help the crippled walk and bring the dying back from the brink. She'd heard that and a thousand things more. But no one had ever told her what it was really like to be in her presence.
She - Elsa -was a quiet woman. Even before the holding hands and whispering starts. Hardly spoke at all, but her presence was something else entirely. She felt when Elsa stepped into the room. Felt a flood of energy that, even as she sat now saturated in it, was hard to describe. It was so much to handle at once. A power. In her silence a deafening something that roared and shrieked and made Anna's head spin. And yet it was also oddly soothing.
But that was probably the holding hands and whispering part of things.
Which felt uncomfortably clinical and disarmingly intimate at the same time. A strange combination of emotions she tried her best to roll with. But as she spoke in her own shamed mutters she would swear she felt this pressure. Like the room was swelling with that screaming energy something Elsa possessed, wore about herself like her hooded cloak. It probably WAS the cloak.
It made the most sense really.
So with the hand not gripping Elsa's tightly, she grabs a fist full of the cloak. It calms her anxious nerves crawling about like bugs beneath her skin, enough so she can tell her heart's desires. Her dreams are very personal. They're the only times she can see. Some small part of her wonders if gaining her sight will make her dreams less significant or entirely meaningless. She hopes not.
When she falls silent it's hard for her to not fidget. In fact it's impossible. She's some parts embarrassed and some parts terrified. There's a reason she's never told anyone her dreams. She's always been afraid that by speaking of them, it negates their power. She's afraid that now they won't come true. And she kinda wants to cry.
But then Elsa speaks. She can only describe it as gibberish. But she hears her name amongst it, and besides that, every strange syllable that comes from Elsa's mouth is heavy with her wailing energy something and it warms her insides. It's like a giant blanket being draped over her, immediate soft fuzzy comfortable heat. Her closed eyes tickle first but then it spreads throughout her body.
And it does tickle; she wants to laugh and it's almost unbearable holding back but she manages it until Elsa speaks but not in those tongues. She says,
"Anna?" And she's still whispering so Anna feels compelled to whisper too.
"Elsa?"
"Well, go on, open your eyes," She laughs. This beautiful breathy sort of thing. She buts her head against Anna's again. "Let me see my work."
So she does. And at first things are... not there. Like, she can't focus. She can't speak. It's hard to breathe. She can't focus, but... hazy shapes. Hazy shapes with splotches of color. Blinking and squinting, releasing her white knuckled grip on Elsa's cloak she rubs at her eyes. More blinking and squinting and. And there she is.
Elsa. The Healer. The girl with the golden touch. She's so close their breaths mingle. She's so close it might be uncomfortable but it isn't. Her eyes are blue. A bright brilliant unbelievable blue. And Anna smiles so hugely it hurts. Because. Because Elsa's eyes are blue. She. It's real it's.
"I," she breaks off and laughs. Not of her own will, it bursts from her uncontrollably. "I. I."
"You. You. You...?"
"Your eyes are blue." This time when Elsa laughs it's a snort and her eyes squint shut. She draws back but doesn't let Anna's hand go, shaking her head.
"They are, would you like to see yours?" Anna nods and Elsa finally untwists their fingers to pull her cloak aside and grab at a small mirror hanging from her belt. She fiddles with the knotted string keeping it upon her belt, finally handing the mirror over with a grin that the shadows of her hood can't hide.
Anna takes it and a breath. Deep. She closes her eyes again. Because this is the moment right? This redefines everything. She can see. And she's about to look into a mirror. This is it. This. Is. It.
She takes anther deep breath and opens her eyes, lifting the mirror before her face.
"Oh damn it."
Elsa blinks, the smile fixed upon her face falling. "What's wrong?"
"I still have freckles." When Elsa laughs this time, it's less laugh and more cackle. She's howling with laughter and it's louder than her energy something ever was. Anna's scowling. "It's not funny. I always thought they'd go away!"
"It doesn't work that way," she's shaking her head, gasping, her lungs begging for air in between her persisting bouts of amusement. "They don't just disappear."
"Well how would I know I was blind!"
"Didn't you ever ask anyone?"
"...it's not funny." Elsa looks at her and she glares back and Elsa is smiling. And it's sudden that Anna realizes it. That she sees something in those shadows she hadn't seen before. It's odd. She has this feeling, like, like Elsa had been what is before her eyes the whole time but it's really only now she's noticed.
It must be the hood. It must be magic. Elsa's talking now.
"-they hurt or anything?"
"Huh?"
"Your eyes? How do they feel?"
"Perfect! Great, fine, AMAZING I can see, I can, I can actually," when she stares hard it's like those deep shadows don't exist. "I can see."
"Good," Elsa stands suddenly, dusting off her knees and behind. Anna's frozen. Kindly, Elsa holds out a hand for her. She takes it and Elsa pulls her to her feet "Good." She holds Anna's hand still and looks down upon her. Elsa is taller.
She hesitates.
"I'm coming with you."
Ok. So. Hi. This is a thing. Listen to music y'all. Kay out