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And I find myself without 
A single, romantic word
About, our love
But I'll tell you this
It's you I miss
After you've gone
I stand still
Still as stone
While the rest of the world
Moves on...
If time is curved
Circles back and swerves
Leading me to you
Slowly but sure
One thing pure
It's you I miss
Uncertain bliss
When I'm with you
It's always new
And somehow the same
I'd call it strange
And strong and pure
One thing sure
It's you I miss
Without your kiss
Without your touch
I miss you much...

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					untitled song

Title:  Mysterious Time
Chapter 7
Author:  nat-chan
Genre:  Romance/Alt. Reality
Disclaimer:  standard
E-mail:  natia_99@yahoo.com or nymphnat@animail.net
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Darien gaped in horror, "Wait!"  He cried, "Hear me out!"

She stopped, eyebrows raised, then she stepped back.  The
roar of the gateway behind him ceased.

"Speak."  She said with interest.

"It was me that found her....she didn't come looking...it
was fate...I had no one....and she was everything..."  Darien
cried out brokenly, looking into her eyes.

The tall woman looked at them both considering.  She turned
to Serena, "Is this true?  Did he find you?  You did not
seek him out?"

Serena nodded, "He discovered me in the woods...near the
sacred gateway."

Darien continued feverishly, he could remember it so
vividly now, with a richness unlike any memory from his world,
"She was sitting in the forest and I came walking through, I..
...I saw her..."

She had been there, in her shimmering layers of dress, her long
hair trailing around her as she sat, eyes closed, basking in the 
peace and the feel of the forest.

He had blinked several times, uncertain if she were real.  She 
looked like a faerie, or a nymph....a dream....

And then she had opened her eyes and looked at him.  He had stood
frozen at that moment.  Something had happened, and suddenly
they knew everything.....with something stronger than recogntion,
more beautiful then telepathy....deeper than magic....


The tall woman watched the memory as it filled his mind.  She saw
their romance as it spun itself.  The way they could not resist
the strange and perfect connection they shared.  The agony it
had caused them both.

She thought of her own lover and shivered at the thought of 
suffering this situation.  Of watching her precious son grow 
up through a gateway.  Of her lover without memory of her, 
clutching at vague images in dreams.

She reached a hand to Serena, "You have suffered for you love
long enough.  If he can leave his world.....then let him remain.
Perhaps there is another magic at work here.  I sometimes forget
ours is not the only magic."  She smiled, "Whatever bond of the
soul it is you share, I will not stop it."

She looked at him a long moment, "I believe it was fated that you
meet.  But the rules have been long standing.  It took me far
to long to address this matter properly because of that.  I apologize."

She let go Serena's hand, "Go to him.  You have my blessing.  Suffer
no more."

The tall woman vanished then, and left them to each other.

Serena started towards him brokenly, "My love...I am so sorry
for all this!"

He broke into a run and grasped her to him, struck by overwhelming
deja vu, "Serena....I remember...I remember!"

She cried into his arms, "It was cruel of me to burn that image
into your memory....but I was selfish, I couldn't let you go!"

"It was a gift!  A gift my love!  Don't you remember...how I told you
you were everything to me?  You have given me every gift of love.  Your
heart...a memory against time....a beautiful daughter....I love you."

Serena cried in his arms, "I watched you both.  I watched how kind
you were.  How lovely she is.  I ached to be there.  I missed you
so terribly.  But I was there every moment!"

Darien rubbed her back and held her close, "It must have been torture."
He whispered.

"No more than yours."  She returned.

They were silent a moment, as the tragedy finally spent between them.  It
changed and became joy. 

"At last....I never would have believed it, but we can be together!"  She
smiled through the last of her tears at his handsome face.

He smiled back and leaned down to kiss her, her silver hair tangling through
his fingers.  She murmured softly in reply.  The feeling returned, warm and
languishing and deliberate...a feeling more than love.

Then she pulled back, smiling, her eyes alight and alive as he remembered them,
but free of sadness for the first time, "And your not such a boy as when
I first met you."  She teased, her hands closing around his shoulders.
They were a good deal broader than the narrow frame he had carried as a teenager.

His smiled spread to a grin.  

He pulled her to her feet from where they had fallen to their knees together.  
Hands on her shoulders, he took a good look at her.  Her ivory skin in the shrouds
of the beautiful dress she wore.  Her long hair, her blue eyes and the gentle pout of
her lips.  He remembered it all anew.  

He was a good foot taller than her standing up and smiled down at her.  She smiled 
and fluttered up off the ground to meet him eye to eye, then she softly kissed him.
A faerie kiss.

He caught her up in his arms and held her their, savoring how precious this all was.
How complete he felt.  How it had all come together at last. How this
was his happy ending.

They talked then, of love and their life together.  The magic
of the place they were in.

Suddenly Rini flew in, with Helios circling around her.

"Mama!  Papa!"  She landed and ran into Darien's arms.

He clutched her tight.

"Helios told me you could stay!  I would have gone after
you Papa!  I promise!  But now it's all okay!"

Darien smiled, "I know love.  I know.  But..."
He leaned down to whisper, "...I think there's someone
else who needs a hug more than I do."

Rini smiled and turned, a little uncertainly to her
mother.  But one look in her kind eyes that held a half
hopeful expression convinced her.

She threw her arms about Serena and hugged her tight,
"I'm glad to finally find you Mama!"

Darien watched Serena's eyes cloud as she talked with
her daughter...for the first time.

He put his arms around them both, and thanked whatever God there
may be for blessing him with such beautiful love.  It was worth the 
wait.  

He would never wait again.  There was no time in this place.  Only love.
Endless, perfect, and magic.

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