Where have they gone? - Chapter 16

Taking the sweet brown fig from the tree, Porphyry looked around at the courtyard. Scion was once again running practice in the yard, while Lady Herodias was greeting new arrivals and taking care of getting them settled in. The water in the stream a few feet away was making a particulary musical sound as it flowed over the rocks.. and Porphyry decided to sit down on the bank and enjoy the fig with a drink of fresh spring water. Sitting down, he cupped his hand and dipped it into the water as it rushed by. Looking past his hand, he could see the bottom of the stream bed, covered with the black rocks worn smooth from the ages of being bounced around on the bottom. One rock in particular was bouncing around on the bottom seemingly more than the others.

The rock spun on it's edge, like a top that Por had played with in his youth. Then the rock turned over and over rapidly.. while staying in the same spot and churning up a dustcloud of black sand in the water. The sand seemed to swirl around like the mists, and time seemed to slow down as he watched each grain of sand spin in the water..The sands were forming pictures... faces in the water.. he saw a beautiful woman, Isabelle! He had not seen her in so long.. she smiled at him making him feel warm inside. Por wanted to speak to her again so badly.. Her and Ahron had been the best of friends for so long..

The water trickled past, and in the splashing over the rocks he could almost hear her voice.. it was telling him something.. telling him to be careful.. he listened closer to her voice, and could see the alarm on her face.. something was very wrong..he listened very intently to the water and could hear her voice just slightly over the splashing.. but could not make out what she was saying..

Por looked closely into the water.. and as he often did.. let his eyes focus off into the distance while he thought.. as his eyes focussed further out.. he saw his own reflection in the water.. It looked oddly familiar. It looked like something he had seen before..

He looked like.. Jin.. staring into the water..

Por ripped himself away from the streambed.. the voice of Isabelle still ringing in his ears.. falling backward. and rolling away further from the water.. he stopped there on the other side of the fig tree.. far enough for the water sounds to be dround out by the noise from the courtyard..he sat there with his head in his hands.. sobbing. "Isabelle.. I miss you..."

He sat there thinking for a very long time. He wasn't sure how long it was before he got up to his feet, but when he did he found that they were taking him somewhere, and it wasnt back towards his room at the temple.. He simply walked away.. and it felt right. He realized he was not leaving.. but there was something he had to attend to.. something that had waited too long. The story of Isabelle and Ahron was not quite over...


Gunter watched him stare into the water.. watched him throw himself away from the stream, and when he walked over to the empty space below the tree he could not say when Por had left.. just that he did not remember him leaving.. On the ground where he had saw him last.. was a dark brown fig.

And there not 20 feet away, Gunter could hear the water rippling over the black stone rocks..

I have been re-reading these today, great job