This chapter is based off of somewhere I used to run to as a kid (starting at ten years old). I know, a meadow, so cliche, but it was the most magical place in the world. To get there my friends and I carved out a pretty wicked trail system through four different properties that were wide enough for quads and snowmobiles (just in case). At the end of the first set of trails you reach this old stone farm divider covered in barbed wire and poison ivy. If your tough enough to climb over the top through the tiny path we were able to make you hit a massive old cattle field. Honestly crossing the field is the hardest part! The ground is all rigid and bumpy and the grass grows high, and randomly you'll always hit standing water - if it's spring or winter the whole thing is flooded, and if that's the case it's actually safer to brave the freezing cold and travel barefoot. That way your shoes and socks are still dry by the time you reach more forest. I can't even begin to tell you how many animals I ended up having to rescue out there throughout the years. After you spend enough time anywhere you know it all like the back of your hand, including when to help something in need - like an abandoned nest of baby rabbits, or a lost fledgling. You also learn how to avoid disrupting deer, how to avoid the coyote clusters - I'm probably boring you to tears right now aren't I? Anyway, after getting across the field you hit more trails which lead to our "base camp". We dug out a fire pit, brought tarps out for a little shelter, and that was our spot to go. The parents hated it. Just outside of camp a little deeper in to the woods there was a place we called "the fallen tree" but it was more like... maybe fifteen or twenty massive trees, all knocked down in the same direction from a nasty storm - possibly a tornado touched down for a second or two. At the base of every tree the roots were all pulled completely out of the ground forming water holes (which was SO COOL). While wandering away from camp one day at first thinking I was going to the fallen tree, I spontaneously went off the path and thats when I found my secret meadow! Over time I treated it a little more like a garden and I pushed a path from it back to camp. The only people that knew about it were the friends that I brought there. So in this chapter and the next I'm going to use my meadow as a reference, therefore making it immortal in some way even if it doesn't really go with the typical POTO plot.
^^^^^entirely too long of an introduction! haha!^^^^^
From what I'd learned when we rarely used a horse for an act on the stage, it was never appropriate for a lady to ride without a sidesaddle, especially in a dress, but sitting on top of Caeser wasn't too much of a challenge before. I could still keep my legs over to the side and stay respectable. However when Erik mounted the horse behind me I was so shocked that I nearly fell off, and if it weren't for him grabbing me firmly around the waist and pulling me back up, I more than likely would have hit the ground. It all happened so fast that there was a long delay before my mind even registered that I was now sitting in his lap and when I noticed, all I could do was stare at him and hold as still as possible. Why did I always manage to find a way to embarrass myself around him?
"You'll want to be more careful than that while we ride." he smirked and leaned forward to take the reins. Caeser didn't wait to be told where to go. As soon as he was sure that Erik and I were both ready, we were on our way in to a tunnel to the left of the gondola... another very dark and scary tunnel.
There was a substantial amount of air flow coming from the direction we were headed and being so deep underground caused the breeze to carry a damp unnatural chill. I wondered how it was that my angel managed to live this way and go on so casually about it. All of this darkness was unbearable to me and yet he hardly seemed to be effected at all, but I knew better than to ask any questions about his lifestyle at this point. Bringing anything up about who or what he was would only anger him. Anything along the subject would need to be handled tactfully, and I still had yet to learn exactly how to mention anything without taking the risk of upsetting him again, but still I tried.
"It's amazing how easily that you can survive in all of this darkness." I said, biting my lip with worry. It was only an observation, not a question, so would he still be angry? "I only wish I were as brave as you are."
"If I told you that even now you have more courage than any man, would you believe me?" the warmth and vibration of his voice rippled through me in a way that I was sure could only be sensed in such close proximity, without the light... in the same way he'd sounded to me when he sang his nightly serenades. If not for the fact that I was seated on top of him and without being able to make out any of his features, hearing him this way almost reminded me of our old meetings in the high chapel. He had the voice of an angel.
Could he tell that I was blushing? I laughed and shook my head. "I'm not feeling very brave at the moment."
"Hm." again, I could feel his voice vibrate in his chest as he hummed lowly in thought. "This tunnel is exactly the same now as it would be with a thousand candles lighting our way, did you know that?"
"What about rats?" I quipped. "How could you possibly know if there are any rats without being able to see?"
"Everything makes a sound, Christine, including rats, and even if I were to hear a few rats up ahead, they would surely scatter before we came close enough to encounter one. Rats have just as little interest in people as people do of them, and they are far more intelligent than anyone has bothered to give them credit for."
Was it all in my mind or did he sound as though he were defending the rats somehow? Was he so fond of them? "I would have never guessed." I shrugged. "Perhaps someday I'll make it a point to pay attention to one some day, but I still don't think I could actually like one."
He took a deep breath and brought his arms up above my head and around me, pulling the reins slightly tighter and Caeser slowed his pace. "Lower your head with me, the ceiling swoops down here."
How had he even the slightest idea where we were astounded me. I bent down as far as my flexibility would allow, until my ear grazed my thigh, and he followed suit, resting his head on my back. Suddenly the sound of the horses hooves sloshing through shallow water echoed loudly all around us.
"Will this water get deep?" I felt so silly talking in to my legs on a moving horse and every step Caeser took caused my body to jostle around in my awkward position, cracking my back.
"Not at all. At one time this particular tunnel was the arch of an ancient aqueduct before the theater was established on top of it. I will bring you back for one of our lessons - with lighting of course. The acoustics here are convenient for practicing lower scales."
The sound of the water stopped and was replaced with the familiar sound of solid ground before Caeser stopped walking all together.
"Take the reins and shield your eyes." Erik said, gently pushing the leather straps in to my hands and sliding down to his feet. I heard him walk away but he was stepping so lightly it was impossible to determine in which direction he was headed. Surely this was a skill that any working phantom would hope to posses. I laughed inwardly as I tried to imagine this same man sneaking around the opera house undetected. It seemed preposterous that someone like him would want to go on living as a ghost, but I supposed that if I could move without making a sound I would find a way to use it to my advantage.
Without the heat of him around me I was much more aware of how cold it really was. Cold and dark... and he'd left me alone without even bothering to explain himself. I wrapped his cloak more securely around myself and wrapped my arms tightly around my legs. My neck was starting to strain painfully from being forced to lay low for so long "Where are you?" I squeaked.
"When I open this door the sun will flood the room. Shield your eye's and uncover them slowly as the horse begins to walk again." he called out. To my relief it sounded like he was only twenty or so feet ahead of me. At least I already had my face buried in my legs.
There was there unmistakable groaning of a massive wooden door being nudged aside, and then Caeser was in motion once again. His only reaction to the sunlight was a few agitated grunts, however when I peered through my lashes to adjust my eyes stung so badly that I wanted to cry out loud. At first all I could make out was Erik's silhouette but as we drew closer I was finally able to sit up and blink through the light and dust to behold the Eden behind him.
We had arrived at a large grassy meadow, a patch of paradise in the center of a dense forest where the sun could beam down and penetrate the earth. The ground was layered in dense tufts of tall wispy sage and lemon colored grasses and bright green ferns. Enchanting clusters of baby's breath, periwinkle, daisies, and black eyed susans were splotched across the scenery... and were those fairies bouncing in the breeze or simply the dew droplets of the morning still clinging to each tiny petal?
"Oh my!" I gasped. Another place that my angel brought me that I would forever wonder if it was real, or if this magical woodland bubble was a dream.
Erik came to the side of the horse and took my waist, lifting me down to stand with him. "I bring Caeser here at night to taste the grass and fresh air." he gestured toward a tree that looked purposefully planted slightly to the right of us. It was a relatively small tree, but it was covered in vibrant red shiny apples, and a flat stony walkway was laid out in front of us that lead the way to a mossy covered rock sticking halfway out of the ground beneath it. Inconspicuously and tied high within the branches was a long and wide billowing ribbon of black and gold silk, that turned and flashed lazily in the breeze.
This was some sort of Eden.