The Note - REALLY old

((another old old post... at least 15 years old,  kept it for posterity, now sharing it with the world))


Emerging from the shadows, Tamriel strolls across the patio to sit upon the railing of the patio.   She sighs as she watches the last rays of sunlight disappear beyond the horizon.  Blessed nightfall.  For a few hours at least, her eyes would be safe from the pain of the harsh light. 

If only all of her pain could be removed so easily, she thought.  Her mind began to wander back to a distant night.  A single conversation...

She closed her eyes, reliving that moment over and over, as she did each nightfall.  A single tear drifts down her cheek.

"I cant go on like this... I have to know" she whispered into the wind.

She slipped back inside, taking a parchment from the desk and a quill dipped in ink.  Returning to the patio, she sat down and began to write:

I once looked into your eyes
Now they haunt my dreams
Reaching across time
Tearing at my heart
I once heard your voice
Now it carries on the wind
Echoing in my mind
Touching my soul
I once felt your touch
Now I feel the phantom caress
Stealing away my reason
I don't understand
I know we can never be
I am his
And you belong to her
Yet in the darkness
As I lie here alone
It is you who fill my mind
Thoughts of what may have been
Had the fates favored
And I can't help but wonder....

Do you ever think of me?

Leaving the note unsigned, she set her pen down and rolled the parchment tight. Tying it with a silver ribbon, she called out into the night.  Moments later, a beautiful falcon answered her call.  Whispering instructions to the majestic bird, she tied the tiny scroll to his leg and he flew off into the night.   She hoped that the scroll would find its way to the one she intended, and that he would know who sent it... and care.

The Ring (First person fanfic blurb)

(ok, this is old, written almost 10 years ago now, but I just found it and had to post))

A ring…. A simple silver band… something so small for the significance it carries. It was to have been his, but the Lords saw fit to punish my lack of judgment by taking him from me… I still vividly recall the day of the funeral.

As I stood in front of my locker, fastening the final clasp on the sash of my dress uniform, there sat the box on the shelf. It was exactly where it had been since I bought it three months before… but now it seemed to stare right at me. As if my hands were acting of their own will I reached for the box, taking the ring from its velvet cage, placing it securely on my left thumb… a reminder that he should have been at my side.

There it remained throughout the day, and throughout the next several weeks… until the day I set foot on the Galactica for the first time. That day the ring returned to its velvet box on the shelf in my locker, where it sat for two years. Until today…

Why today? 24 hours ago everything was as it should be… The Galactica was to be decommissioned… we were all hanging in limbo, waiting for out next postings… I was returning to Picon… the final flight with my squadron was only hours away… a flight I missed due to getting into a little disagreement with the XO. We never saw it coming… after 40 years we were thrown into the midst of a war, forced to fight in vipers that were classed as museum pieces. And I had my first real taste of combat.

None of us could have been prepared for this… but we were here… My hands were still shaking from the adrenaline of landing two linked vipers, thus saving the life of one of my best friends… it was the least I could do… after all… I killed his brother. I reach for the velvet box one more time, taking the ring and slipping it on again, to remind me not only of what I had lost… but of all that was still left to live for.