Prompt #004 - Insides

Prompt # 004 – Inside

Within
Time Frame: The Titan’s Curse – Chapter 18
Pairing: None
POV: Artemis

**

“Hope, like fear, comes from within.”

-Deep Wizardry By: Diane Duane

**

I do not wish to look. I do not wish to see.

She is in my arms now—her tiny fragile body. Centuries upon centuries of battle, and now she is broken. My invincible hunter is now a bleeding, crumpled rag doll in my arms.

But her eyes—I do not want to see them looking so empty, so distant. She is looking to me; the night’s sky as she always had, but I do not want to see her now.

I want to watch those eyes burn for the hunt. I want to watch those eyes scan the ground for prints. I want to watch those eyes looking far onto the horizon—longing for the next adventure she will lead.

But now as I look inside her, all I see is her love. And I am scared to see it. For such raw, unfiltered emotion from my lieutenant can only mean the end for her. I see into her soul through her eyes and it is so beautiful—silver like moonlight on freshly fallen snow.

Her dark hair falls into her eyes, and I brush it away, tucking it back beneath her silver circlet—the mark of my blessing.

I offer to heal her wounds but we all know somewhere inside she is wrecked beyond repair. I do not seek within her body, I do not wish to see how broken she is. I have seen enough blood and death to last eternity.

So instead I look into her through her eyes—reflecting back the twinkling stars. They are smiling down upon her tonight.

“Stars,” my hunter whispers. “I can see the stars again, my lady.”

I do not wish to look. I do not wish to see the stars opening their arms to her, waiting for her, calling to her. Do not beckon her! I want to shout at them. Do not call her from me!

But even I cannot divert the Fates. Life and death is not the duty which I was given.

I close my eyes, listening to the stars calling her.

“Yes, my brave one. They are beautiful tonight.”

I open my eyes again. I watch them sparkle in her eyes. Her soul, silver as the moon dances behind them, her face filled with reverence as she gazes upon the night’s sky.

The stars are within her—the night’s sky a part of her.

My hunter goes still and I whisper a blessing, my eyes closed for I do not wish to see.

Take her, I tell the sky, let her be free.

The stars were within her—the nights sky a part of her.

Now she is within the stars.

And a part of the night’s sky she shall be forever.

~fin~