Prompt: Write about unrequited love.
Oh, boy. (No pestilence intended, but is anyone actually reading this?)
As long as Natalia has had rabbits in it, there's always been fear.
Fear, just a word, not a long one, at that. And yet it causes chaos that cannot be undone, families to be torn apart, and death to spread like wildfire. I write this testimony from the Citadel Of Dreams, where rabbits are free and music and dancing is encouraged widely. Yet there is still fear. Captain Moonlight may say what he likes. Fear has always been a part of our history, and always will be. If fear could bring my family back to me, I would dive into it like a fish into water, but it is not so.
My name is Gloria Joveson, and my life has been constructed of fear for too long.
I have been alive for twenty-six years, and sixteen of them have been filled with nothing but fear. All I want is for my family to come back together. Yes, Whit is here with me, but it's not the same. Oliver travels around the country with a group of motley strolling players, Iantha lives in Glen Clair and I haven't seen her in five years, Flora might be dead for all I know, carrying a harpoon on her back and living on the Valiant with a group of hunters who kill scaly –backed beasts every other day, Winslow has lost my trust permanently, Smallden dodges wolves and power hungry Citadel lords with Wilfred and Sabine Longtreader and would most likely be killed if he came within thirty miles of where I am now, and Emma, poor, innocent, Emma, lives in Cloud Mountain and knows nothing of the danger she is in.
But most of all I want my father back. Impossible, improbable, and altogether a child's wish, but I wish it all the same. I loved–and still love– my father with my entire soul. Ten years old was much too young to lose a father, but alas, many children younger than me met the same fate on the same day I did. Take Sabine, for instance. Garten Longtreader didn't die, yes, but in her own words, "He might as well be dead, for all I care." I thought being the second oldest Joveson in the family was the best thing in the world. But now I know that having so many younger siblings to care about is an energy consuming job. I was never ready to feel the loss I've been feeling for the past sixteen years. If Father were here, I might be alright. But Father will never be here again, so even though I write this with no hope but hope for The Mending, here is my biggest wish:
Please come home, Daddy–I can't do this without you.