Authors Note: And, I'm back! Sorry about the wait. It is my general plan to post every Saturday, Hopefully not quite this late, but I offer no guarantee's about either. College is crazy, and I have homework out the wazoo. Basically, I will be posting every time I write, which should hopefully be every Saturday. If I know you are looking forward to it - I will be more likely to. Just sayin'.
The strange lights seemed dimmer this night. The music seemed higher and far more haunting than previously. Snow could not decide if it was simply the mood she was in, or if it was something more.
Blidarmd had spent hours carefully growing each plant one by one, in complete silence. Snow had watched him. He seemed to enjoy it. She had also listened to the pounding beat, that was always there when she looked for it, but seemed quiet and calm now.
It had sounded almost peaceful. As natural a part of the surroundings as the plants, the sky, or Blidarmd. Perfectly normal and expected. And though she had no practice pinpointing the origin of a sound, Snow could come to no other conclusion but that the beating was coming from Blidarmd, as it followed him wherever he went.
And yet, that seemingly simple fact led to a strange and startling conclusion. How else could that rhythmic beating be made, but by the beating of his heart? And yet, though it seemed the only option, she almost could not believe it, for if that was his heartbeat that she could hear, how, then, could she not hear his footsteps? For he moved silently and surely through the garden without the slightest of sounds.
Twilight had fallen. The sky turned to velvet and the stars began to arrive. As soon as the day left, Blidarmd stood and left, walking back toward the house. Snow had watched him leave, then turned toward the woods, waiting for the lights and sounds.
They were beautiful. But the longer Snow sat and watched the stranger she felt, as though her thoughts and wonderings were leading her places she did not wish to go but could not escape. She thought about how she could hear Blidarmd's heart, from so far away. She wondered what she was going to do once she was done learning. What should she do with such knowledge and power? What would she do? She did not know, and the lights and sounds seemed to pull her toward them.
Abruptly she stood and turned her back, walking just a little too quickly toward the house, leaving the unsettling lights behind her. As she entered the house, lit now with soft light from several glowing candles, Snow felt herself calm, her worrying thoughts stopped at the door and shut outside in the chilly air./p