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mood |
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 hopeful |
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For a moment he thinks he is blind. But this is no darkness. There are shadows, subtle shadings that drift across his vision. Mostly, however, there is light. Bright and warm, a myriad of orange hues that shift and dance in front of him. He strains to see, to make sense out of the abstract forms. It is as if there is a veil...
He opens his eyes, and for a moment he truly is blind. The light pierces his eyes and he flinches. A scrap of memory crosses his mind, of blue banners raised to the wind, and the first, startling rays of light peering over the horizon's edge, the entire world on fire with its brillance...
This is a different dawn. This is a different world, he realizes. He can almost hear the last fading strains of a faraway melody, sorrowful and yet hopeful.
Soft ground gives beneath his hands as he pushes himself into a sitting position,. The smell of dirt and flowers assaults his nose. The scent is so harsh and unfamiliar that he nearly gags, until the scent softens, blends into something much more familiar and enjoyable.
The waking pains of a new world. He nearly laughs at the thought.
He pushes to his feet, expecting frailness, expecting dizziness, and getting nothing more than the familiar movements of his body. The sight of young trees greet him. Young and fresh, with pale tender limbs and leaves that glint with dew. A swallow sweeps by him. He turns, and there is the city, golden and pale.
He walks toward it, moving without thought. He lives again. More memories threaten to flood his mind, and he shoves them aside. He had wanted rest. Instead he is given life, with all its strifes and heart aches. Perhaps this is not a blessing, after all.
Another memory, one he cannot still.
Aredhel, her deep eyes sparkling as she laughs at something only a young girl would know, drowning in merriment as she looks to her father.
Well...
Perhaps it is a blessing.
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