A/N

Hi! I'm writing my first one-shot! Yays! I actually wrote this for a book report in school; I had to write the next chapter of the next book in a series, so naturally I chose HON. I had read online that the first chapter is in Lenobia's POV, so this is what my hand started to write. I actually hope something like this happens in Hidden. R&R!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own HON or the characters or the plot.

~Smiley

Lenobia

It wouldn't be the first time Lenobia's world has gone up in flames, but somehow her Martin was always there to save her.

Thanatos had left around two hours ago to perform the reveal ritual with Zoey and her circle, and, as usual, Lenobia was in her stables, grooming her mare and chanting the three-word phrase that kept her head above the water when the flood gates had opened and she drowned in memories.

Horses and happiness…horses and happiness…horses…and…happiness…horses…and…and…

No, she thought to herself. That door must stay closed. Always. Horses and…

Him.

For Lenobia, there was no happiness without him. Her Marin. Her love. Her life.

She died the night he was killed protecting her. The night he was consumed by the flames that burned her life. The flames that had been sparked by the undying hatred of another. Even now, two centuries later, it was still burned in her memory.

So maybe that's why she didn't notice. She stood there, drowning in her own tears, while Travis was screaming something she couldn't hear.

Martin had told her that their love had belonged in another time. He had promised her he would find her again. But she was too busy being blinded by the denial of love that her heart couldn't see that he had, indeed, kept his promise.

So when Lenobia saw the flames engulf her stables, she was living in two different centuries—two different realities. Lenobia saw the flames, and instinct had her leading the horses out of the stables. However, instinct also had her heading back into the stables, and this time, no one saw or stopped her from trying to burn with her Martin.

Except, of course, the human stable hand, Travis. The one who had the same changing eyes as Martin, the same grey horse, and the same undying love for the Horse Mistress.

"Lenobia!" Travis screamed as he tried to work his way around the flames to Lenobia.

However, Lenobia heard nothing.

Meanwhile, Travis fought through the flames and back the cries of agony to reach the Horse Mistress. Travis's legs were badly burned, but that couldn't stop them from reaching her. Nothing could stop him from getting to Lenobia, not even death.

"Lenobia!" he screamed again.

The sound was muffled to Lenobia, sounding as if he said something from the other side of a closed door. So Lenobia stayed in the middle of the stable—in the middle of a raging fire—but was thousands of miles away, carried by thoughts of Martin.

Little did she know, however, that he was coming to rescue her, yet again, from the heartless flames.

When Travis finally reached Lenobia, her storm-cloud eyes where clouded over with memory. She hardly felt his arms around her as Travis shielded her from the flames with his own body. He lifted her and carried her unflinchingly through and out of the burning stable.

Her soul found this familiar. Her heart recognized it.

"Martin?" she whispered the one-worded question.

Travis's soul answered her. "Lenobia, girl, I told you I would find you again," he said in a perfect Okie twang, but she saw him with her soul.

"Goddess, no! You're burned again!" Lenobia cried, eyes swelling with new tears.

"I'll live," Travis said.

Lenobia remembered one of the last things Martin had said to her: "Too late, cherie. This world is too late for us. I see you again, though. My love for you don' end here. My love for you, it never end."

Lenobia's tears became tears of joy when Travis said, "It's not too late, girl. This world is perfect for us. I've found you again because my love for you can never end."

"Travis, I—" Lenobia started.

"Don't try to tell me you don't love me this time, Lenobia. I know you, and I know you do, cherie." He put a special emphasis on the word cherie, his name for her from another era. "Don't tell me you can't. That has never stopped us."

"That's not what I was going to say, Travis," Lenobia said.

"Then what were you going to say?" he asked, his olive-and-amber eyes confused, but Lenobia knew. She had always known.

Lenobia simply kissed him, and that was answer enough.

A/N

Pretty please review! It would make me super-duper happy!

~Smiley