There was no specific prompt this week. For Valentine's Day, we just had to write something romantic. I think I managed that.
The first time she wanted to
Salem shifted restlessly in her bedroll. It was earlier than she was used to going to bed, and she was too excited for sleep.
But on the other side of their camp, Ozma was tucked into his bedroll, gently snoring. It had been three days since he'd freed her from her tower, but only this evening had he finally defeated the last of her father's retainers. He was exhausted and had collapsed as soon as they'd finished dinner.
Salem sighed as she turned over again, still unable to rest. It was pointless. She decided she may as well walk around for a while. She was still getting used to the idea that she could just do that whenever she wanted to.
Salem opened her eyes, and her breath caught in her throat as she looked up.
The whole sky was spread out above her. The previous night had been cloudy, and they'd slept indoors the two before that. This was Salem's first time truly seeing the stars.
What she'd seen from her bedroom window had made her think of the night sky as a sliver of black with a sprinkle of lights. But this was so much more than that. There was blue up there too and violet in shades she hadn't known existed. The colors played against each other in a tangle across the sky.
And then there were the stars. There were too many of them to count. They had to be infinite; there couldn't possibly be a number big enough to describe them all. And for the first time Salem saw the constellations. Seeing them in books she had thought it absurd that anyone could make pictures out of the random placement of the stars. But there they were right above her plain to see: the scorpion, the goat, the archer drawing his bow.
This was what her father had kept from her all those years. This was the beauty the outside world had to offer.
Not for the first time, Salem realized that she could do whatever she wanted. She could get up and sprint through the grass just to feel the wind on her face. She could call on her magic and fly through the air just to feel a bit closer to those stars. She could run and never stop running.
But as she turned her head to look at Ozma sleeping in his bedroll, she found she didn't want to do any of those things. All she wanted to do was wake him up to share this sight.
Salem frowned. She couldn't wake him up just for this. He was exhausted from fighting, and he must have seen the stars a thousand times before.
But… she was finally free. And this was the only thing in the world that she wanted.
Salem got up out of her bedroll and moved to sit besides Ozma's. She gently shook him awake.
"Hm, what?" asked sleepily.
"Ozma," she said, not even trying to hide her excitement. "Look." She raised her head to look back up at the gorgeous view above them. "I've never seen so many stars before." Even worried as she was about Ozma's reaction to being woken up, she couldn't keep a smile off her face.
As a minute passed without him saying anything, Salem realized that he must have been annoyed.
"I'm sorry," she said, lowering her gaze. "I shouldn't have woken you just for-"
"No," interrupted Ozma. "This was worth it."
Salem turned towards him and realized he hadn't been looking at the sky. He'd been looking at her. The smile returned to her face, a match for his own. They stayed there, just staring into each other's eyes for a bit longer before turning up to look at the sky.
It was perfect. Salem was free to go wherever she wanted, but she had no reason to be anywhere else but where she was.
The entire world was open to her now, but she didn't want to take a single step farther away from Ozma.
The first time he wanted to
The room crackled with energy as Ozma battled the warlord. Lightning, fire, and wind clashed all around the combatants, tearing apart the great hall of the warlord's keep.
This man was a tyrant, abusive to his subjects and heartless to his enemies. He was the worst villain Ozma had faced in the weeks since defeating Salem's father. Even now Salem was elsewhere in the keep, fighting to free the warlord's prisoners from the dungeons and torture chambers.
And he was a master of his magic like few Ozma had ever encountered before. He was matching all of Ozma's power and then some. The warlord hurled another blast of fire hot enough to melt stone, and for the first time in a very long time, the hero of legend began to fear that he was going to lose.
There was a lull in the storm of magic, and Ozma saw his opportunity. Taking a moment to gather his power, he fired a concentrated beam of emerald light from his staff.
The warlord merely scoffed and raised a hand. A blast of eerie violet flew from his fingertips and met Ozma's beam. The magic clashed for a moment before Ozma's was overwhelmed. The resulting explosion hurled the hero back against the wall.
Stunned for a moment, he could only watch helplessly as the warlord twirled his finger in the air, forming a blade of wind that hurtled across the room at a breakneck speed. Ozma cried out in pain as a long, deep gash opened in his gut. Blood poured down his body, and the mighty hero collapsed to the floor.
Ozma felt like he was looking at the world through a fog. His head was already light from the blood loss, and he was only losing more each second. He knew he had to get up and fight, but he couldn't find the strength.
Ozma realized this was to be his end. He'd fought so many villains and monsters before, always aware of the possibility of death, but never fearing it. It seemed that one of them had finally proven the better warrior.
The legend of Ozma would end here. The warlord's tyranny would continue. That was terrible, but could anything more be asked of Ozma? He had done so much already. To lose here… it was acceptable.
Only…
He would never see Salem again.
Ozma felt a sudden surge of strength. He raised his hand and slapped it onto his wound, calling upon his magic to summon fire. He screamed in agony as the wound cauterized, but the pain only helped to wake him from the haze of blood loss. He sprang to his feet as quickly as he could, a gust of wind calling his staff to his hand.
The warlord stared at him in shock, completely motionless.
"Wha… What?"
Ozma answered with a bolt of lightning that sent the warlord scrambling to defend himself.
"I won't die here!" Ozma shouted.
He gathered his power and once again fired a blast of green light from his staff. The warlord answered as he did before with his own violet energy. The beams collided and held against each other.
"I have to see her again."
Ozma's beam grew brighter.
"I have to hear her voice again."
Ozma's beam grew stronger.
"I have to tell her HOW I FEEL!"
Green energy cut through violet, spearing towards the warlord and blasting a perfect hole straight through his chest. The tyrant collapsed to the floor, dead before he even realized what had happened.
Ozma stumbled and would have fallen if not for his staff. The fog he had felt before was slowly returning.
"Ozma!" cried a familiar voice, and he turned to see Salem running into the great hall with several wounded and emaciated people behind her.
Ozma smiled at her even as his vision began to swim. He managed to remain standing just long enough to collapse into her arms instead of onto the floor. He tried to reach up to touch her face, but he couldn't find the strength.
Salem's face was the last thing he saw as he sank into unconsciousness.
The first time they did
Ozma and Salem huddled beneath a rocky overhang as the storm raged around them.
They hadn't found this shelter before the rain started, so both were soaked and freezing. The ground was turning to mud beneath them, and their shoes would likely be ruined by tomorrow. They'd run out of food in the hectic days since defeating the warlord, and both were hungry.
Still, this was the first quiet moment they'd had together in some time.
"Ozma," said Salem softly.
He turned to her, though it was too dark to really see her face.
"Would now be a good time to tell you that I love you?" she asked.
A smile spread across Ozma's face.
"Now is the best time there could be."
The two leaned into each other and kissed. The moment was perfect.