A Land Far Away

A chill wind blew through the poppy grove, buffeting the three figures walking through the feeble light cast by the cloud-scudded moon. They wound their way between tree and stone to a small clearing. Hyacinthe cast her eyes about, looking for the tell-tale signs of trespassers.

"I will scout the area," she informed her companions. Vaya nodded.

"We will stay here." he replied and turned to speak with Shaebanaria, the third elf of the trio. Hyacinthe moved away quietly, examining the glade, her traps, and the surrounds for signs of recent activity. Satisfied they are secure, she returned to the pair.

Tathar was gone.

Grief struck her suddenly, and with greater force than she had expected though she had heard the news hours before. With tears threatening in her eyes she knelt beside Shae and Vaya.

Vaya raised his pan pipes to his lips and, with his considerable talent, played a haunting, mournful song. As the otherworldly notes filled the glade Hyacinthe sang.

With you a part of me hath passed away;
For in the peopled forest of my mind
A tree made leafless by this wintry wind
Shall never don again its green array.
Chapel and fireside, forest trail and glade,
Have something of their friendliness resigned;
Another, if I would, I could not find,
And I am grown much older in a day.
But yet I treasure in my memory
Your gift of laughter, and young hearts ease,
And the dear honor of your amity;
For these once mine, my life is rich with these.
And I scarce know which part may greater be,--
What I keep of you, or you rob from me.

Her throat closed of it's own accord and with tears falling to the flowers and earth, Hyacinthe spoke in her heart

Farewell Tathar, until next we meet.