When I woke up the next morning, seeing Talim lying there so peacefully, I was pretty sure she felt the same way. Shortly after I got up, she woke up too. Either that, or she was already awake, and waited for me, who knows.
"This... this is wrong!" were her first words that day.
I was surprised to hear her say that: "What! If you're worried about the difference in age, you really don't look much older than I am."
"No, not that." she assured me, "You know I'm gonna die soon! You know I want to sacrifice myself. Doing this, I..."
"Yes..." I interrupted, since I had a good idea of what she was going to say, "... but that shouldn't stop you from doing anything else. Should it? Actually, it should give you one more reason to continue."
She looked away, thinking. I'm not entirely sure what she was thinking about, possibly because I'm not a mind reader, but I could guess she was reconsidering the rest of her life. A small breeze is what came next. Talim stood up, as if it were some kind of religious sign. She stood there for a moment. It was somewhat funny, since we were somewhere in the woods, where we could barely even catch any wind. I can see how one could take this as a sign.
Talim turned to me, smiling. Getting her to smile at me like that, it gave me a feeling... which I can merely describe as good. I mean it felt good, but I can't describe how good.
"Promise me something!" she started to demand.
Curious to know what I have to promise: "What?"
"Promise me that no matter what, stay with me!"
I wouldn't want it any other way, so I said: "Give me just one good reason why I should leave you!"
She smiled again. We looked at each other for five minutes or so. It's easy to forget about time this way.
Talim was the first of us two to wake out of the trance. She kind of woke me shortly after, by saying: "We've got to go on!"
Almost as if not knowing what else to do, I started to pack up our stuff. She laughed as she saw me busy. After some twenty minutes, we were ready to move out again. Though as we left the woods, call me desperate, but I wanted to be sure I didn't lose her, so I held her hand. We kept doing so, until... well, I have no idea when we let go of each other, nor do I particularly remember ever letting go either.
