our cities of clouds
Character: Olivier Armstrong
Summary: She had a dream, once.
Even she had been a child once.
She had been silent, reserved but never shy. She had been slightly antisocial, only having one real friend she confided to. Her parents had never minded this. Their daughter was behaving properly in public and the friend was someone they could agree with, the heir of an old and rich family. He was the right person to deal with their often complicated and unfamiliar daughter because he had the patience and compassion of a saint. He was her counterpart because she was socially awkward while he loved people – and they loved him as well. They were as different as sapphire and emerald and yet, they shone together.
And so, she had spent beautiful summer days running over golden fields in the eastern area where his parents had huge lands and where they could play all day outside without ever having to worry about cars that might hit them when they went to get a ball that had rolled onto the street. It was perfect in her eyes. It had been her kingdom, the perfection of childhood where they laid on their backs as they stared at the clouds chasing over the blue sky.
In the end, he had been her first and only true friend because he had been the last one to bother getting past the icy walls she had build around herself to protect what was left from the so-called kingdom where no one died – too bad that her grandfather had died when she had been four, leaving a far too heavy and huge sword in her care.
When she had been an older child and then a young teenager, she had always dreamt of returning to the golden fields of the east where she had been able to laugh and dream all day long. This had become her dream, her vision.
Years passed slowly up at Briggs and one day, the friend arrived again. He wore the same blue uniform she wore, only having one star less on her shoulder. She smiled thinly as he handed her the report she needed to sign and for a moment, she wondered whether he remembered at all but when his green eyes flashed for a moment and the boyish grin returned to his face, she knew that he remembered.
And so she knew that he held out the hand for her to grab so that they could return to the kingdom where nearly nobody died. And a part of her wanted to grab this hand because Briggs was so cold and she longed for the eastern sun where the sky was as blue as her eyes and where she could go outside without wearing a thick coat over her uniform jacket and the trio of shirts beneath.
But she would stay for another lifetime, for another eternity. She wanted to wave as he passed her but contained herself. He would go home and she would stay in the eternal winter because this was where she belonged to even though she loved the sun more than the snow.
And yet, he turned his head. "Dream well," he mouthed before he vanished into the snow.