We saw a lot of cows.
When we got there, he was waiting for us outside. We held each other like we had in the airport, for what seemed like forever. Beth spent the next few days with us before going home by bus, and I cried when she left. She was as much a part of me as he was. Even though she said "I've had you this whole time, it's Jake's turn," I knew it was hard for her to let me go.
We were right. It wasn't long before we began remembering a great deal about the history of our true selves. In my doodles were scenes of the beginning, which was up until then almost totally unknown to me. I drew the hillside on which our clan once lived, the forest beside it. I drew a cave deep within the forest, and a dark form sleeping inside. One night we lay in our bed holding each other and talking, and we fell into an almost trance like state. Our true selves emerged and began talking of the times that were, bouncing random memories off each other until we could piece together what had happened.
He was the dark hunter from my past, whom I had almost forgotten. It explained how we had been such good friends from the beginning, how we had loved each other so easily, how even before we started dating we knew we were soulmates. It felt like we'd always been there because we had been. And he knew what had happened to the clan, he knew why they had to leave me behind.
I was decended from the long ago ruling family. The pendant I wore was a symbol of the position my ancestors had held. When the council took over they used their influence (some of which was magical) to fade the leadership away from us. The council, directly or indirectly I'm not sure, was an agent of the forces of banality that the Moonchildred battled. Their constant fear was that someday there would be a decendant who would reclaim the leadership of the clan. They drove my parents away from the clan through blackmail, they would leave and I would be allowed to stay and live. My parents left me with the storyteller, a position of authority in the clan, to cause the council worry. The truth was barely known and never spoken of. For a time their fears were subdued, but something triggered their fears anew in those months after the old storyteller's death. And it had to do with my hunter friend. They saw the budding romance between us even before I did. To them, if I ever tried to claim leadership they would have a hard enough time holding on to their position of power, but if I had a mate it would be nearly impossible, my family would continue to grow and their grip of power would be permanently lost. And they especially objected to my taking a mate who was an outsider and so different from the rest of the clan.
They held a small meeting, only the council members themselves and a few elders were present. They brought the hunter in and asked him how he judged my survival skills. He answered truthfully, that I had the ability to survive under strained circumstances. They made up some story to convince him and the clan that they needed to leave, and to leave me behind. The dark one suspected they used magic to cloud the clan's judgement so they would agree more easily. They threatened the hunter when he protested, they would injure me or worse if he didn't comply. That night at supper they drugged my stew with a deep sleep potion. He knew there was something wrong with the whole scheme, but he feared for my safety. He lay me in my tent as I passed out, and draped my cloak over me. As I drifted into a deep sleep, he whispered to me the same words I would later say to the man-hawk, that we would be together in the next story, and every story after. The council had wanted to take everything that would link me to the clan, my cloak, my pendant. The hunter insisted I keep these things and they grudgingly allowed it. They packed up the clan, and used sorcery to cover up the evidence of their existence. That was why there had been absolutely no scorch marks on the ground or tracks on the road.
They followed the road between the forest and the ocean. After a few days of travel and the constant feeling that this was wrong, the hunter decided to turn back and find me. The clan stopped to camp for the night, and the hunters went into the forest to find meat for the evening meal. The dark one strayed away from the others stealthily, he knew they were under orders from the coucil to keep him under close watch. He used the shadows as only he could to hide from them, and began making his way back to the hillside, back to his beloved friend. They trailed him closely, so it took him a while to make it back. But when he got there I was already gone, in search of him and the others. The clan caught up with him fast, so he didn't have time to look for me. He hid in the forest for a long time, until they finally gave up the search and went on their way. He went to the village and they told him which direction I'd gone, and he tried to find me but I was already too far ahead. He returned to the cave in the forest and made that his home. He spent the rest of his life there as a true shadow, brokenhearted and isolated and alone.
But now we were together, and now we knew the truth. Those forces would never be able to separate us again. It didn't matter to me that I was of the ruling family, or that the clan abandoned me because of it. All that mattered was that we were together again, free to love each other and live the life we had once been denied. We were truly Imzadi, now and forever, and that night Forever truly came into perspective.