The Meeting

What separates us, and what brings us together? Surely this should be no great mystery to us. The world has mastered the art of magic and machinery, toyed with the great wheels of the multiverse. Yet it is the nature of our own selves which remains the great mystery.

Two souls, close in beginning, could not currently be any further apart, even as they now move toward one another. Despite the small space which now separates them, in mind and in spirit they remain, distant.

Calia walks across the harsh stone toward the shore, with slow methodical steps. She took this path so long ago it has become second nature, surely it does not still halt her step, what could she fear? One who raises the dead as she? What force causes her pause?

Daena wanders too, through the short grass by the rocks. While Calia might wrestle with her own personal demons, this does not seem to be what slows Daena’s step. It is memory which weighs her down, as her hand strokes the weeds, she recalls a lost past, before the fall, before they parted ways.

This was no ordinary place for their meeting to take place. They shared many moments here long ago. Though their respective worlds have changed greatly, this place, it’s cracks and crevasses, the sounds and smells — somehow remain the same.

Calia reaches the rocks by the shore, stopping for a moment to take in the cool breeze as the waves crash before her. Standing alone — reflecting on when she was last here.

Beneath her sits the skeletal remains of a large rat, another victim of death.

She knees down to pet it, caressing its skull softly. What cruel fate befell this poor creature she wondered. What desires did it once have? Life is unfair, she concluded this long ago, why must creatures be forced to succumb to death?

She leaves the rat be, standing once more to look upon the great ocean ahead of her.

Daena continues her own journey, descending the crest of a small hill before halting abruptly. Do her eyes deceive her? could it be? No — she must be mistaken, it cannot be…

You see, this meeting was not arranged, neither knew of the other’s presence or proximity. So how then? What force brought them together, here and now and in this place.

A cruel joke? fate? Surely, it is more than pure circumstance

Regardless, Daena continues her walk — though with more caution in her step. The grass gives way to harsh stone beneath her feat as she moves forward.

Calia turns, halting Daena’s approach. They lock eyes and Calia turns to face — raising her arms and forming a defensive stance, to which Daena responds in kind. The world appears to pull around them, as both conjure the magic and skill they know so well.

Energy flows from Calia into the rat carcass, causing it’s lifeless body to stand once more in undeath. A practice which seems to disgust Daena — drawing her bow tightly, poised to strike.

At the precipice now, the fleeting emotions of their past coming to the fore, they stand ready to fight.

Then, just as the outcome seems without question — a pause, as a stray beam of sunlight bounces from a small necklace around Calia’s neck — causing it to glimmer. Almost at the same instant, Calia too spies a matching necklace around Daena’s neck, as if some cosmic force was pulling their eyes at the same moment.

Abruptly, almost as quickly as it begun, their desire for conflict ceases — this item they share snapping them back to fonder memories. Memories of friendship and pleasant times, here and elsewhere throughout their childhood.

The both drop their hands slowly, the trees calm, and the rat falls lifelessly back to it’s slumber.

Daena walks towards Calia. The world slows down around them, falling almost silent as they meet.

They stare for a moment at each other, conversing without words, before Daena reaches her hands out towards Calia. She hesitates for a moment, but eventually responds in kind. Their hands touch and they stand close, for the first time in an age.

They stare for a while longer before both closing their eyes and resting their foreheads against each other.

The world remains calm and the pair stand for a while in this moment. Standing in unification of a shared past…

Calia: Sharingan Siren Cosplay
Daena: Cat Storm Cosplay

Photography and Writing: Mike Crick

Camera:
Sony A7 II
Lenses:
Sigma 24–70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art
Tokina ATX-M 85mm f/1.8 FE
Tokina FíRIN 20mm f/2 FE MF
Tokina FíRIN 100mm f/2.8 FE Macro

Thanks for Reading!

Originally Posted on https://thevaliantknight.com/