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neesh
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Tower
The first time I met her was like a fairytale. She was trapped in a tower and I was saddling up my steed, testing the point of my charger. She let down her hair and let me in to her solitude. I saw her and thought of a mirror. I started to believe in destiny, in true love. Look at her; I leaned across to steal her heart and whisper love in her ear, but my calm hand quivered, my silver tongue was heavy and my steady foot slipped. She picked me up and laughed good-naturedly at my fumbling. My confidence failed me. Is she a sorceress?
"Yes," she said. "But I like you. Do come back."
Only a man in love is willing to play the fool twice, and I came again. I learnt her passions, her fears, her likes and dislikes, her favourites and her favourite and her idea of fun. I told her nothing of myself, only listened, and remembered. "You keep your eyes so open I can read everything there is to know about you," she told me. I wondered if I could read her eyes, and I swirled in deep lakes, floundered as the icy darkness filled my lungs, and she had to resuscitate me with a kiss. She laughed at my efforts. "I like that you tried." I climbed down her hair and out of the tower, sodden and shivering, panting to catch my breath.
I returned, and returned, and listened and learnt, and even we were silent I learnt. A woman's passions and her fears are subject enough to fill a century of such encounters, but one must also learn her habits, her peace, her loneliness. In the quiet I learnt these things.
"I think I love you," she whispered to me one day.
The tower trembled at my heartbeat. I spoke, for the first time in our three years, and bade her leave the tower with me, come with me and be mine. I promised her all my happiness, all my care and love. I promised her my support, encouragement and time. I promised her that she was my passion and my fear, my favourite, my fun, my destiny. I promised her all that my eyes told, all she could read in my palm, all she could see in my heart, for as long as it was mine to promise.
"But I can't leave the tower," she said glumly, and frowned. "Do promise you will visit me every day, and always love me so."
I left the tower with a crash, re-saddled my horse and now I test my lance anew.
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