He wanted to cry. He wanted to sing. He didn’t know what he wanted.
Darren slowly became aware that Lyruna was kneeling beside him.
“Are you alright? I’m sorry but I had to do that. You needed to know” she spoke quietly but her voice still resonated with the music humming in Darren’s veins. It threatened to overwhelm him again and Darren whimpered in confusion, curling into a ball.
Lyruna immediately put her arms around him and comforted him.
“Shhh....shhhh...” she whispered, rocking him gently “it’s alright. I think that was too much, you need some rest. Sleep now...sleep...”Darren felt Lyruna trace some symbol onto his forehead. His eyelids grew heavy and then he slid into the welcome, peaceful oblivion of sleep....
...Darren woke with the sun in his eyes. He groaned and turned over, trying to fall back asleep. But it was useless and eventually Darren sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“What a crazy dream I had.” he muttered, vaguely remembering something about Central Park , an Elven lady following him and a remarkable kiss...
Darren shook his head
“Yeah, that’s right, and I’m also part Elf.” he chuckled. Then he looked out the window and the chuckle died.
There was a large bird sitting on the rail of the hotel room balcony. A large, black bird. It looked like a crow except for one thing: it had blue eyes.
Eyes just like the lady in my dream. Lyruna. Darren shivered. The bird was looking right at him. And it had something in it’s beak. Just as Darren noticed this, it dropped whatever it had and suddenly took off in a flurry of black feathers.
After a moment, Darren got up and opened the balcony door. He picked up what the bird had dropped and looked at it.
It was a rose. The most beautiful rose Darren had ever seen. It had black petals hiding a deep magenta center. He gingerly smelled it; the scent of roses and mint met his nose. When he tilted it, he saw that the black petals glittered faintly in the sun.
Darren noticed there was a note of black paper attached to the rose. He turned it over and read the lovely silver script:
--fin--