The sun dips low on the horizon. I sit alone, as usual, and feel hypnotized by the vast array of colors illuminating the darkening sky. A true plethora of color, the sky shimmers with soft shades that change as the sun dips lower. Red to yellow. Pink to purple. Violet to blue. Finally disappearing with a glaring orange and settling into night. The coolness of the evening air invigorates me, I feel life pulsing through my veins.
A solitary being, I am accustomed to being alone, but there are still times I feel suffocated by the barren isolation that engulfs my soul. I am a warrior, though a young one. I am unattached to even myself and wander listlessly through this life. I came to reside in this magical world of Dereth, but a short while ago. My coming here is an unbelievable tale, but I will save it for another day.
My name is Iamproir an Bas, but most people I am familiar with call me Bodie. I am a Chieftan of the ancient and illustrious army known as “The Red Branch”. Though I am a Chieftan, I have no castle to call my own. I have no Derethian ties to bind me to any specific land in which to call home. I am a wandering warrior, a seeker of right. Honor is the prize I seek. My soul cries out in righteous indignation when I see a wrong and I vow a silent pledge to makes things right. I do not have great fame, yet. I do follow a path in which my visions have foretold great and majestic things. I have brief glimpses and gifts from the second sight, as we Celts call it. I know I will die a young death, but I also know it will be a grand one and this pleases me. I am a large man, imposing in size and aura. I stand 6 inches above 6 feet. I have red hair tied in a tail and wear a warrior’s mustache with goatee. My eyes are blazing green and carry an ominous, but veiled threat deep within.
As I sit and enjoy the remnants of the shimmering lights left behind by the sinking sun, I see a graceful creature climbing the hill to greet me. Her eyes sparkle with curiosity and she takes me in with a long inquisitive look, unabashedly staring at me from head to toe. I could feel her questioning mind probing mine. Not shy in the least, she demanded, rather than queried, whom I might be and why I was watching the sunset. Something about her frankness put me at ease. I posed the question as to whom she might be and was informed that she was known as the Icy Princess. Her eyes were gray and rimmed with a green tint, when I looked into them I learned much of her. A long and painful journey, was the path of life she followed. Under her cloak of abrasive armor, I could feel the beat of a wounded heart, but one that wished to heal. She was once of those tortured souls that erected a chimera of illusion around her. She was a fierce and noble warrior princess, yet all the while she hid the haunted heart of vulnerable and shattered soul. Plainly, she had healed herself to a great extent, but within their still lurked the shadows and scars left by life’s cruel jests.
I bade her to sit beside me and enjoy the last of the evening glow. She gracefully sank to the ground beside me and we talked in the language of old friends. I recognized her immediately, she was my anam cara. She was my soul friend and our destinies were intertwined from this life to past and future ones. Somehow, we would always find our way to each other, in one way or another. It is a comfortable feeling, to let down your guard and trust. It is a magnificent gesture, for someone to expose themselves to you and give you the gift of letting down their own guard and to trust you. Your anam cara will always come to you as destiny desires. Sometimes lovers, oft times friends. Perhaps siblings or relatives. But, they are drawn together. Sooner or later, stumbling blindly through life, if you are so blessed as to HAVE an anam cara, you will find them. Fate will bring you together.
This woman was clearly my anam cara and I truly feel that both of our tortured souls melted into one another, each absorbing a part of the other. We talked and chatted through the night. At times we sang songs of old and laughed at the oddity of our both knowing the same tunes. When the evening chill bit sharper into our flesh, we huddles closely together by a fire I quickly built in a shallow depression on the hillside. Lying back to enjoy the stars, I felt my heart leap as she moved beside me and laid her head upon my chest. I could tell she was listening to my heartbeat, learning more and more of whom I was and what our destinies held in store for us. I gently ran my fingers through her hair and caressed the silken tresses. A long sigh escaped me as I felt my soul blend with hers, it was a sigh of contentment from deep within the recess of a long tortured and empty soul.
