A/N - I think this is the first short story I ever wrote. I really like it because of the song I had to write for it. Isn't it pretty? Someday I will write a tune for it and sing it to my child ...

Blind to the Sunrise

The tiny, thin wail of a child was heard and his mother rushed in, her golden locks in disarray from sleeping on them. She picked up the wailing boy and cooed to him, rocking him back and forth in her strong, protective arms.

"Hush now, little guy," she said softly, walking over to her chair. "I know you miss your father. I miss him too." A single tear fell onto Link's face and his mother wiped it away quickly, her cheek still sparkling with the wetness. She sat down and the familiar creek of the chair soothed the baby. His mother rocked him for a long moment, stroking his tiny golden curls and watching the tiny mouth yawn with pleasure. She smiled at him and he grinned sleepily back.

"Oh Liam, when will you come home?" she whispered to the air. She shivered, even in the summer heat. Almost four months had gone by now and there was no sign of her lover. The rumors were all gossip but on some days she was reduced to believing them. Had he gone off with some beautiful dame? Or was he wounded and unable to come home? Other more unpleasant thoughts she put aside, not wanting to even think them. She held Link so tight he began to cry again.

"I'm sorry my darling," she said, running a soft finger tip around his plump face. "Would you like me to sing to you?" The baby wailed louder and she took it as his usual yes. Her voice rang out, singing the familiar tune that had been passed through her lineage:

Before you were born

I saw you in his eyes

In my arms on that morning

In the music of the sunrise

And you are made of paradise

Of sunsets and tomorrows

Wild songs of the angels

And dreams of my sweet husband

Tonight I rock you in my arms

And sing of our tomorrows

A song to call your own

A vision of my love

And this is my prayer

My child of the heavens

Wherever life leads you

Within you goes my blessings

She stopped and smiled at the sleeping child, who sighed contentedly in her warm embrace. Gently, she laid him in his crib and stroked the carved wood. She remembered Liam making this when they had been married for a few months ...

"No problem milady," he'd said, smiling and kissing her cheek. "I love working for you and our new child." He patted her stomach gently and she smiled, looking at herself.

"I really think you shouldn't be walking around right now," he'd said, looking at her side ways as he carved. "With only these few weeks left to wait ..."

"But I hate to feel helpless and if I were lying in bed right now I'd be helpless." She tweaked his nose and he'd laughed, catching her hand and kissing it.

"Alright, have it your way," he said, smiling. The memory was a good one. It was one of their last. That was the day before the letter came, telling Liam of his family in the distant land of Cyrria. They needed his help and Liam would rather die then not help them. They'd said a long goodbye to each other and he had promised to be home in a matter of weeks, so he'd be able to see his "little man" or woman, as Thayett had reminded him.

Thayett loved Liam so and it had been months, not weeks, since he had left her. But they loved each other, didn't they? And true love was not to be broken, ever. She sat down and sighed in an exhausted way. The sunrise would be here in but a half hour and the sky was beginning to lighten. Picking up colored embroidery thread, she began to stitch on her ever lasting master piece. Liam would have wanted her to keep busy and she wanted to keep busy, to keep her mind off thing.

Her stitches were tiny, invisible even. Each one made the lines and curves of her design longer and more complex then before. She rubbed her eyes and got up. She could not stitch by candle light, it hurt too much. She would wait till dawn. She walked to the window and opened it, a cool breeze blowing back her curls. Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door. Quickly, pulling on her robe over her nightgown, she opened it, revealing a man covered in sand and leather. His large hat covered his face and she could not see his features.

"Please, may I have some water," he croaked. Thayett beckoned him inside and he graciously accepted. Her heart had sunk. For a breif moment, she had thought it would be Liam but it was a dreamer's wish. She brought the stranger his water. He drained it and she gave him another and another until his thirst was quenched.

"What brings you to this town?" she asked and the man looked wistfully at the window.

"I am trying to find someone," he said at last, after a long pause, in which Thayett thought he had decided not to answer. "I left this place a year or so ago. I have been in war and was rewarded by losing my sight. My family had less luck than I. Only three of my cousins survived with minor injuries. The rest of them ..." He trailed off and a wail came from the other room and Thayett excused herself to go attend to Link. The poor man! she thought. How awful it would be if this had happened to Liam!

When she was back, cooing to her baby he asked, "Are you married?" Thayett waited for a moment but answered, "Yes, I am. But my husband had been gone for a long time now." The man seemed to be staring in her direction, though she knew he was blind.

"Is something wrong?" she asked and the man shook his head.

"You know the people of this town well?" he asked and she said yes, bouncing Link and he giggled, sleep gone from his system. He reached out for the man and Thayett had to struggle to hold him. "I am wondering if you know of the person I search for. I am looking for my wife. Her name was Thayett." Thayett felt tears fall from her face and she walked towards the man. Gently she put a hand to his cheek and whispered, "Liam. Liam, your home."

"Thayett? Is it really you? I'm not dreaming again?" She pulled away his hat to reveal his eyes covered with white cloth. He was truly blind and could not see her but she hugged him with all her might, Link squirming between them. "Oh Thayett, I thought I would never see you again." He cried through his bandages eyes and Thayett gently handed Link to him. The man held the child close, so tenderly.

"What is his name?" he asked.

"Link. I have named him Link." He hugged her again.

"It is a good name. We shall never change it." Thayett slowly, almost timidly, began to remove the bandages from his eyes. Liam's eyes that were once an ever changing brown, were now blue and pale from blindness. The sun had just risen and shone behind him from the window, shadowing his expression. He was blind to the sunrise. He cried and turned from her. "I'm sorry, I am so sorry. I hate for you to see me like this," he said bitterly, his voice soft to hide his tears. Thayett kissed him and held him.

"Liam, I wouldn't care if you lost your right arm. I will always love you for you, for who you are inside." Liam wept into her shoulder and Thayett onto his. Her husband was home at last. Link cooed and gurgled on his fathers lap for the first time.