Prompt #9 - The time is now
The Two Rivers was an odd place, full of customs that seemed quaint and somewhat strange to the royal-born Moiraine Damodred. She couldn't deny that the villagers of Emond's Field had a real fire within them, though; most of them were far from the simple country people she'd expected to find.
"I suppose at least they're young," Moiraine murmured as she thought of the three young men she'd come for: Perrin Aybara, Mat Cauthon and Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn. Lan looked up. "If they'd had many more years in this village, they'd be almost impossible to do anything with."
"I have to disagree with that," Lan said. Moiraine raised an eyebrow. "All three were enchanted by your beauty, I suspect they would still do whatever you asked of them." Moiraine blushed only slightly, used to such compliments from her faithful Warder but her vanity still applauding.
"Yes, if I told them to jump, I suppose I would receive a chorus of 'how high', but…" Moiraine trailed off. She stood up and began to pace back and forth, her silk-slippered feet making no noise on the stone floor. "I would be able to get them away from Emond's Field easily enough, although there is the al'Vere girl and the Wisdom to consider. But I have no doubt that the Dark One will soon send out an army of Trollocs and Halfmen to attack this place, if one is not already approaching. Then they will want to return here, to protect these village people while the fate of the world is balancing dangerously upon them."
Lan stood up and took Moiraine's hands, but instead of sitting her down and pacing back and forth in her stead as usual, he pulled her onto his lap, her legs curled up with his. Moiraine looked at him, somewhat surprised and a little disapproving of the unusual manhandling of her.
"Now, Moiraine Sedai, you listen to me for once," Lan said. Moiraine opened her mouth to snap at him, to remind him that he was the only one short of Siuan Sanche than she did listen to, but was silenced by a finger on her lips. A somewhat intimate touch, one never shared between the two.
"Stop worrying about what has been and what may be. As you so often tell me, the Wheel will weave as it will and we cannot change that fact. Have you not thought that seeing an army of Trollocs may well drive them away from here in a bid to save the villagers?" Moiraine moved her head back slightly so she could speak.
"Of course I considered that," she snapped. "I may be unfamiliar with country life, but I am not completely stupid. And how exactly do you propose I refrain from worrying whether or not the Dragon Reborn will abandon the world in favour of a few farmers and some fields?" Lan took her chin in his hand. Moiraine stared at him, wondering what the reason was for his sudden intimacy.
"Do you trust me, Moiraine?" he asked.
"Obviously," she retorted. "Do you really think I would make you my Warder if I didn't?"
"Then trust me on this: what will happen will happen," Lan said firmly. Moiraine closed her eyes momentarily; when she opened them her physical closeness to Lan hit her. She was pressed against him with his arms around her waist, and his face was just inches from hers. Her eyes scanned his face before settling on his lips, then dragging themselves back up to his eyes. His eyes which, she realised, held a sudden passion. Moiraine had never seen any such look in Lan's eyes before; some of her usual inner strength drained away into a similar passion, but also a fear of the unexpected.
"Trust me," Lan repeated, then his face was closer to hers and his lips were warm and soft and his hair was soft too as she ran her left hand through it as her right hand settled on the back of his neck, and – a scream and a crash, and they broke apart. Lan quickly moved her from his lap to the sofa and rushed to the window.
"Trollocs," he said. One word, and Moiraine felt the heat in her lips and her blood be replaced by cold determination that the creatures would not prevent the Dragon Reborn choosing the path that would save the world.
The moment had been broken, but as Moiraine stood up Lan swept over to her and kissed her hard, pulling her small body against his large on as she stood on her toes to kiss him back harder. They broke apart reluctantly, Moiraine reaching for the Power as Lan drew his sword. Then they were running out to the village proper, ready to defeat the Trollocs and hoping against all hope that this would be the Dragon Reborn's incentive to leave the Two Rivers. It was time for him to discover his destiny.