Yours was the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
And I don't know where I am, I don't know where I've been
But I know where I want to go
- Bright Eyes
Could a moment last forever?
The ground was somewhere between silt and sand. Marbled white and grey. Streaked with reddish brown. It rolled grittily between his fingers, catching against the ridges and smudging into his pores, gave under the slightest shift of weight. Swept along to huddle against the bare smattering of stones along the beach. Whitewashed and worn like the salted shores of Aerilon.
Even if he laid the few wandering pieces of his memory out in front of him, he doubted he could piece together how they got here.
A bottle of stolen liquor lolling in one hand. Laura's shoes balanced in the other.
A clutch of purple flowers winked out of a thin tuft of scrawny grass. Waving lazily in the lilting throes of the afternoon breeze. The pointed petals unfurled like the outstretched arm of a ballerina. Delicate and lithe. Their inky colour watered to soft violet. Barely larger than a fingernail. Stretching out to warm under the gentle kiss of the orange sun. Each cradling a cloud of opalescent pollen; coveted at its center.
The afternoon nimbus glanced off the water, shattering yellow diamonds onto the rippling surface. The gentle rush of water… lapping gently at the sparkling shore. The ebb… and flow… forward… and back.
Over and again.
The steady rise and fall of lungs at rest.
An earthy breath.
She stood just a little way out. Enough to clasp her long skirt loosely in hand, gathered up to her thigh, the clear water lapping at the back of her knees. Something had caught her attention enough to draw her forward. Bent until the tips of her hair trailed in the water. Too warm to notice. Too happy to care.
The sun was caught behind her; as if ensnared in her orbit.
It reflected off the water to cast a golden halo and set embers in her hair.
The current pitched her forward a little, eliciting a happy little shriek, and she dropped her skirt to catch her balance again. The red fabric bleeding crimson as it kissed the lake.
Ghosted laughter turned up the corners of her mouth, brightened her cheeks and prettied her eyes as she turned back to him.
Catching what was sure to be the stupidest grin to have ever graced his face.
"What?" she asked, her own smile growing as she splashed back to shore.
Soaked to the waist now. Curls messed merrily over sun-kissed shoulders. A million, tiny incandescent droplets glittering at every wayward strand. The cool promise of coming nightfall raising tiny hairs.
This is the first day of my life.
He shook his head.
"Nothing."