Author's Note: 14 followers! Whoo hoo!
They were enclosed in a deep pile of fluffy snow as if it was a bowl.
"Milori?" Clarion asked nervously, afraid he was hurt.
Her wrists were suddenly grabbed in firm grasps and immobilized.
The snow started to clear from the air, and she saw his eyes wide with terror.
"It's me," she said softly.
He let go instantly and sat up, quickly pulling himself out from under her.
She scooted off of him so they were sitting across from each other.
His chest heaved and his eyes were unfocused as if he was seeing something else.
"Honey, it's alright," she said soothingly and slowly scooted closer. When she set a hand on his arm, he jumped so hard it made her startle too.
Blinking hard, his eyes settled on her. "Clarion?" he asked as if surprised and looked around.
She moved closer and touched his cheek. "We were getting the fairies out of the avalanche," she explained.
"We fell. Are you alright?" he asked quickly and started patting her down for injuries.
"The fairies and I are fine. Are you? What happened?" she asked with a furrowed brow.
He shook his head and started to get up.
She caught his hand. "Milori," she asked quietly, wanting to know what was wrong so she could help him.
Fairies started swarming around them and peering in.
"Are you both alright?" one of the fairies asked.
Meeting her eyes, his promised that they would talk later in private. He stood and held down a hand to her. When he pulled her to her feet, she swayed slightly. Without a word, he swept her up in his arms suddenly and whistled for Blizzard. "You need more dust," he said in concern. "See to the fairies, Spruce," he said in general, just expecting Spruce to be there.
"Yes, my lord," Spruce replied from behind them.
Milori waved his hand to send the snow collapsing that was in their way. He started limping to Blizzard, the fairies parting the way for him with absolute silence.
Clarion glanced up at his face to see it serious and fierce. No fairy would dare to attempt talking to that face. Whatever he had seen in his head had disturbed him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, hoping her love was strong enough to battle his demons.
He flew them to the tree in silence, but she knew something was weighing heavily on his mind that he wasn't ready yet to share. His demeanor radiated authority and strength like only a true warrior who had survived horrors could. He slid down off of Blizzard when they landed in the tree and lifted his arms to catch her. She slipped into his arms. No words were needed between them. He took her to the middle of the tree and set her down on her knees, as if knowing what she needed to do, and pulled her cape off of her. Then he took a step back.
She leaned her hands down on the tree. Her bond with it was strong being the queen. Even though she was too weak to summon the dust, it sensed her distress.
Milori stood back and watched to make sure she'd be alright. The dust surfaced and crept up her arms to cover her body. Then it started glowing a gentle gold, and she closed her eyes as life flowed back into her.
He looked so sad and alone when she finished and looked up at him, his golden eyes studying her to the depths of her soul. She would have given anything to make him realize she was always right there beside him. So she said the only words that had any hope of reaching him.
It suddenly struck him deep in his heart just how innocent and selfless this creature was. And she loved a crippled fairy who was haunted by demons that terrified him, yet she wasn't afraid. She was strong...so much stronger than him. He had witnessed sunrises over mountains, births of hundreds of winter fairies, summer nights filled with butterflies, and meteor showers created by Clarion. But this...this was the most beautiful scene he had witnessed yet in his life-moment her skin stopped glowing, she looked up at him with her beautiful diamond eyes and softly said, "I love you, Milori."
He sank to his knees as if emotionally moved by something incredibly powerful. At first she feared that something was wrong, but then she saw the way he was looking at her. And it left her speechless-it was as if he was gazing upon the most miraculous thing his wise eyes had ever beheld.
Author's Note: I'm sure some of you who thought Milori was hurt are relieved. We'll see throughout this story how his PTSD flips on and off like in real life for soldiers.
We witnessed not only how Clarion and Milori work together during a crisis, but how they subconsciously lean on each other emotionally and morally. We know that Clarion admires Milori's quiet strength and looks up to him for what he has gone through in life, believing him to be an incredibly noble ruler that she tries to model herself after. We already know that Milori doesn't see himself as anything great (not even a war hero), which humbles and also saddens Clarion.
Milori is a bit of an introvert, so we only see glimpses of his internal thoughts throughout the story. Most of the time we witness his emotions through his actions. We've seen glimpses of Milori feeling humbled by Clarion because she is self-conscious and doesn't see herself as a legendary ruler. Milori tells Clarion now and then throughout the stories that he believes she is a strong ruler, but we know she thinks he's biased. In this chapter, we saw something about Clarion move Milori in a powerful way in a way we haven't seen before. And we don't yet have the full insight to understand what he was thinking during this moment.