© 2009 Joshua J Masters - All rights Reserved
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Although he hadn’t resigned himself to it yet, Jeremiah knew his days in the field were short. It was a faded memory, but this was the sort of day he used to love. The new smell of spring was in the air and real color, not the muted colors of winter, had begun weaving themselves into the mountain’s landscape. The morning light crept up behind him like a child trying to surprise his father, and that’s when the Cloister caught his eye. The white stones used by Bardic Monks to build this ancient place reflected light as if it were water instead of stone, and on this morning Jeremiah found it somewhat blinding.
He was thin now and had begun to grow frail. Tending the field had seemed meaningless since losing Lila, but that was what Jeremiah knew and so he continued. It had been six years now, and most of the yield went to waste. He made only the rarest of trips into the Granger Market Fairs to sell, and he barely ate anything himself. Still, he continued to work. Continued, that is, until this morning when the Cloister seemed to tap him on the shoulder like a spouse who’s not being heard. He slowly opened his eyes from the squint of his initial reaction to the light and looked at the place for a long while. It’s strange, he thought, Is that the way it’s always looked?
Actually, it was exactly how it had looked for centuries. It was, in fact, Jeremiah who had changed. It had been a long time since he looked at it. The season after Lila died he had to purposefully avert his eyes from it, but after a while his mind seemed to erase the Cloister from the landscape. It was as if he’d trained himself to look beyond the building and only see the mountainside behind it. But he saw it now and he began to remember things he’d worked so hard to forget. What surprised him most was that these memories no longer seemed sad. They were something else… meaningful.
Jeremiah and Lila would spend a great deal of time at the Cloister when they first married. Truth be told, Jeremiah didn’t much care for it at first. The Cloister meant he’d never be able to buy the fields adjoining their property, but Lila loved it. She delighted in viewing every tapestry and would tell the story behind each one to Jeremiah again and again. She even knew a few of the Bardic songs and would sing them so her voice echoed through the stone halls when they visited. This always made Jeremiah smile and while they never discussed it, he knew she had a good voice. On rare occasions they’d see a pilgrim or two there, but most often they wandered through the gardens in the center of the Cloister alone. Lila enjoyed telling stories and often said she was a descendant of a Sword Wielder... [MORE]
He was thin now and had begun to grow frail. Tending the field had seemed meaningless since losing Lila, but that was what Jeremiah knew and so he continued. It had been six years now, and most of the yield went to waste. He made only the rarest of trips into the Granger Market Fairs to sell, and he barely ate anything himself. Still, he continued to work. Continued, that is, until this morning when the Cloister seemed to tap him on the shoulder like a spouse who’s not being heard. He slowly opened his eyes from the squint of his initial reaction to the light and looked at the place for a long while. It’s strange, he thought, Is that the way it’s always looked?
Actually, it was exactly how it had looked for centuries. It was, in fact, Jeremiah who had changed. It had been a long time since he looked at it. The season after Lila died he had to purposefully avert his eyes from it, but after a while his mind seemed to erase the Cloister from the landscape. It was as if he’d trained himself to look beyond the building and only see the mountainside behind it. But he saw it now and he began to remember things he’d worked so hard to forget. What surprised him most was that these memories no longer seemed sad. They were something else… meaningful.
Jeremiah and Lila would spend a great deal of time at the Cloister when they first married. Truth be told, Jeremiah didn’t much care for it at first. The Cloister meant he’d never be able to buy the fields adjoining their property, but Lila loved it. She delighted in viewing every tapestry and would tell the story behind each one to Jeremiah again and again. She even knew a few of the Bardic songs and would sing them so her voice echoed through the stone halls when they visited. This always made Jeremiah smile and while they never discussed it, he knew she had a good voice. On rare occasions they’d see a pilgrim or two there, but most often they wandered through the gardens in the center of the Cloister alone. Lila enjoyed telling stories and often said she was a descendant of a Sword Wielder... [MORE]
