In some ruined places, the old stones still hold memories.
Sometimes, in empty fields, old granite blocks, concrete chunks, and standing stones lie; remnants of a lost and forgotten past that still linger. Even if people have long forgotten those who built these places, who walked the ancient halls, who loved, fought, lived and died in these places that are now lost to time.
Sometimes there is an awareness, a lurking malice beneath the stones, or sometimes even a dark malevolence. Sometimes shadows still move through the empty stone walls and crumbling monoliths. Sometimes sad memories still permeate the grey stone walls, like a tape stuck on endless loops, dead, but yet still dreaming.
But some ruins are truly unconscious, just forgotten blocks amid the trees, hills and fields, remnants of a distant past that is long dead and forgotten.
A sudden cold wind blows amid the tumbled stones. Not much more than a faint shadow, but yet still bearing the memories of the distant and forgotten past...
"Aelfhelm and his men are coming!" they called. "Man your posts!"
He remembers the taste of fear, heart pounding. He remembers hammers and axes falling against the shield wall. It was hopeless, there were too many of them. Somehow, they had been betrayed. Someone...
Perhaps someone he knew and loved.
Because above all else, he remembers the first time he saw her, her clear blue eyes, and her long, curly black hair. Hedwig, daughter of Offrigeld, youngest niece of Aelfhelm. He remembers how those eyes had pierced him, and the way her smile had seemed to light up the day. And the way her golden bracelet had sparkled when he took her hand, with its pale blue gems that seemed to reflect the sparkle of her blue eyes.
She had come seeking refuge, she had said. To escape a forced marriage to a brutish and angry man. Would not the lord Lotharic and his son Eanwulf offer her shelter at Caer Wycleff?
Her tale had wrenched at young Eanwulf's heart. This beautiful, sweet girl deserved better than to be enslaved in marriage to such a horrid brute.
"Guard your heart," his father had warned. "Because sometimes it can betray you, and make you blind to deception. Sometimes it can make you see what you want to see and not what is really in front of you."
"Yes, I trust your wisdom, father, and I will be careful. But if we can protect her here, what difference will it make? I don't think the Mercians would risk war for one runaway bride?"
Lotharic replied, "Perhaps not. But I don't want to risk war either, or any more needless suffering and death. The longer we can remain on good terms with Aelfhelm, the less likely we will suffer the same fate as Aeltearbrycga and Gafolmaed."
"I understand. Perhaps, though, in the meantime, I can show her around the castle?"
And so, Eanwulf done just that, spending the day showing her around the castle and the fields. Then, the next few days they had spent sneaking off together to the woods, lying under the trees, dreaming of an undying happiness away from the dreary rumors of war and hardship. For it was not long before he had realized he was falling in love with her. She was not only beautiful and sweet, but intelligent, and seemed to have a deep inner strength that he found so delicious. And, what's more, she seemed to enjoy his companionship every bit as much as he did hers.
Lazy days drifted by. They took refuge in the archer's blinds his father had built on the wooded ridgetop above the castle as a line of defense, stealing longing glances in the concealed wooden bunkers as they held hands. They laughed together as they skipped rocks across the small lake in the narrow dell just beyond the ridge. They gathered rocks and branches and began to stack them, building a fort that they pretended could one day be a real house. And they climbed trees, stole apples, and stole kisses, away from the watchful suspicious eyes of his stern father. Eanwulf was by custom a man grown, and was it not time for him to find his own place in the world? He began to dream of a future with Hedwig of Mercia, daughter of Offrigeld, perhaps in the very stone house they had playfully begun to build.
One afternoon, as they lay next to the small lake in the woods, Eanwulf had told her, "You needn't worry about your father, or that man who wants to take you away. We won't let them! I won't let them! You can stay with us...stay with me, it won't need to be like that."
