Pilgrimage:

As the dying, crimson suns drive off the passing showers,

Leaving the forest glade newborn-fresh and adorned with diamonds,

A tall elf suddenly appears from within a vast and aged oak, his eyes alert,

Somewhat imperious, doublet and hose new pressed and shimmering green.

He whistles gently though, three enchanted notes, redolent with magic, and waits.

Shortly a golden pegacorn lands, folds her wings and approaches him gladly.

She makes her bow, horn echoing the three notes as it softly touches the moist grass.

He returns her salutation, hugs her silken neck and leaps, with easy familiarity,

Upon her back.  Her angel’s wings unfurl and she reaches skyward.

In seconds they are soaring above their once verdant, undulating forest world,

And, as higher still they fly, glimpse in the coruscating distance one way

The encroaching scrublands and cruelly marching desert sands, the other

Their destination, the endless roiling and unforgiving sea of Alegarn,

Home of his true, eternal and unreachable love.

He settles then, the steady beat of her wings lulling him into a familiar reverie,

Transporting his mind to that place of dreams and wild imaginings

That lies within us all, where everything is possible, and

Where the precious Ula walks at his side, enthralled, through his forest home,

Protected by his faithful fire dragons and silently padding wolves.

                       

He recalls, his heart a tight and aching knot now within his breast,

His very first, astounding sight of her, her poniard stabbing insistently

At the throat of the vast and vile formori which held him firmly

In its unyielding, vise-like grip, intent on a swift drowning and hearty meal.

Even as he struggled frantically for release, her familiar beauty struck him,

Her cascading cobalt hair framing an exquisite face which he had, somehow,

Always known, every line and every feature, etched deep within his soul.  

As the monster eased its hold at last, and slid away, falling deeper, pumping

Its ichor into the turbulent waters, Einion kicked in desperation and rose,

His lungs aflame, to the heaving surface where, gasping, he tore at the air;

Sweet and succulent it was, divine and never again to be taken for granted.

He felt then her strong arms holding him, protecting him and keeping him

Afloat, reassuring and returning to him a life almost lost.     

           

At his hearts’ slowing and eventual judgment to remain within him,

He took charge of himself, at last, righted and emptied his upturned coracle

And swung deftly in.  Then he turned to her, his rescuer, and fell once more,

Now endlessly, gloriously into her deep green eyes, drowning again but

In awestruck wonder and strangely familiar, total and unconditional joy.

They stayed thus, unmindful of the world, intertwined in one another, for all of time 

And no time at all, two stray and partial souls on a dying world inexplicably joined 

And complete at last.  Suddenly thunder rolled and lightning broke their trance. 

She shook her head as though stunned, and then pushed the coracle ashore.

           

There, with the timpani rolling above, they talked – talked as their hearts sang.

Through the rising and the setting of the chasing moons they shared their lives

As never before, awed and elated at the marvel of their oneness, their total union.

           

Suddenly his mind returns to the empty now as they lose height and he gazes below.

He soon slips disconsolately from the pegacorn, stands in that place and recalls

With desolate melancholy the absolute joy followed implacably by

The mercilessly aching, heart wrenching and final farewell as they parted,

His last sight of her when, tail glinting, she dived back into her forbidding world.