Wayfarer
by Shannon FayAugust 1, 2019
The elf's name was Sakorin and she had never met a human before. She asked if I would walk with her a little while, and I agreed. Together we traveled away from the rocky coast and through the marshlands, bridging our two worlds with stories of our childhoods. We became lovers at the foot of a mountain, sharing smiles the next day as we climbed its peaks.
We met other travelers along the way, some good, some bad, many of them much more attractive and interesting and daring than me. My heart would clench every time Sakorin met someone new. I was sure she would leave me once she realized that I wasn't anything special. She had only asked me to walk with her for a little while, after all.
And yet, the decades rolled by and she seemed content by my side. We traveled the world. I had not known there were so many kinds of forests, of desert. Though my sense of wonder never dimmed my other senses began to fail me. I moved slower, my joints ached.
Sakorin herself never aged. Elves, she told me, lived for centuries. And that's when it hit me: "a little while" for her was a lifetime for a human. Human lives are so short. But that's all right. Mine has been happy and full. I will die of old age before Sakorin ever tires of me, and knowing that lets me rest easy in her arms.
About Shannon Fay
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