Its Gone Love, Its Gone

The sun slants through the grass, brushed maroon from the wounded that had passed. It wavers as it sways like the sea cutting shadows into gold. He sits and watches the sky turn pink, and lilac. His armor has been stripped and a flag has been bundled up and pressed into his side. It's crusted with blood. His own and others.

"Aaron," he looks over his shoulder. Elzia is standing a few yards away. His dirty blond hair and exhausted features are painted sunset red. He's clasping the reins of two horses in his hand. The animals look just as tired as the man. "Come."

Aaron swallows, throat dry, and stares at the offered reins. He shouldn't take them. He should lay down here in this field by his fallen men, sword on his chest and die with the setting sun. Sighing he turns away, scratching at his dirty beard with a calloused hand. The horizon looks so close, the orb of the burning sun slipping away feels close enough to grab.

"You can't die here," Elzia is kneeling in front of him. Brown eyes wide as they stare up at him. Aaron hadn't heard him draw near, hadn't felt him grab his hand. "You can't die here." his voice has slipped into a desperate whisper.

"Everyone has," he says. Elzia winces, there's blood on the side of his face. Matted red into blond at the crown of his hair.

"I haven't," Elzia reaches fatigue shaken hands to cup Aaron's face. A trembling thumb presses over the cuts across his face. "You haven't. I-I thought you had."

Aaron presses his eyes closed against the gentle touch. "It is my place as commander to lay down with my men."

Elzia shakes his head, "No. I won't let you. There's a tomorrow for you. This is not your sunset. Please, get up."

If he could make the other man understand he would. If he could explain the call that pulls at him he would. His men lay scattered about, laid to rest by the fly of an arrow, or the arc of a sword. Yet here he sits, alive. Blood coursing through his veins, heart beating, guilt tripping his breath. He can not leave this field. This is his sunset.

"If I could make you understand," he murmurs, looking down into brown eyes. Brown eyes that he'd become so familiar with, that in a secret past of his heart he had come to love.

"Please," Elzia pleads, "Try. Let me understand why you are so willing to leave me here."

"Do you not feel it?" Aaron asks him. He's not looking down at him anymore. Instead he stares off into the horizon. Watching his troops march on to the sun. Horses kicking up their feet in joy and men laughing along. They'll disappear into the darkest part of dusk soon. Passed onto greener fields and richer orchards.

"Feel what?" Elzia asks, he's turned now as well to stare out into the horizon. He truly is handsome. Features cut gold and grey. Aaron lets himself admire him, lets his hands reach for his hair.

"The pull," he works his fingers through the gritty locks of hair. "They're," his breath hitches, his vision going white and his side flaring with pain, "Calling." he manages to gasp out. Elzia grabs him by the shoulders.

"Aaron, we have to go. If we don't, you'll die here." there's palpable fear in his voice. A panic growing in his hands and eyes. Aaron doesn't feel the same panic, or the same fear. Comfort washes over him with the same feeling of laying on furs by a crackling, pine scented fire.

It's selfish he thinks, to have such thoughts as this as the man who gave him his heart begs him to stand. To ride to safety in the walls of the kingdom they were charged with protecting. He finds comfort in the way Elzia is easing him lower onto the ground cradling him to his chest.

"If you wish to die here, then I shall not take you from it." Elzia says, his face is angled to the sky. "But do not send me away from your side."

"I would not send you away. I doubt you would go if I tried," Aaron says, eyes growing heavy. "Please, turn me towards the setting sun. Let it be my last."

Elzia does as he requests, turning to sit with his back to the rock and pulling Aaron to his chest. Aaron grabs Elzia's wrist where it's crossed over his chest resting on his heart. His pulse beats heavy and strong. It feels like he's the only living thing left. Aaron, who's still breathing, feels dead in his presence. It sparks joy in his chest. The other man will have so much left to do, so many people to love.

"Do not mourn me to the point where it destroys you," Aaron murmurs. Elzia's chest heaves against his back the only sign of silent tears that course down his cheeks.

"You ask of me the impossible. I have lost much this day. My home, my brothers, my heart. To not mourn would be to die." A tear drips onto Aaron's face. It streaks through the grime layering his skin and shines opalescent in the last rays of the sun that still cling to the day.

"You are full of life my love," Aaron whispers. He reaches up with fumbling fingers to wipe away the tears that track crystal paths down Elzia's face. "The battlefield is no  place for you. Do not let it claim you again. May your hair be grey and your eyes bad by the time the sun reclaims you."

"Is that a curse?" Elzia asks, his voice so quiet the wind nearly steals it. "To have to wait so long to see you again?"

"A blessing," Aaron says. His hands have grown too weak, his heart beating slowly along with the wave of the grass. His fingers slip from Elzia's cheek, falling only to be caught. Elzia doesn't let it fall, but lifts it to his mouth and presses a kiss to worn knuckles. "Where is the sun now?" he can't tell, the world feels dark, the sky opening up into a kaleidoscope of color and clouds unlike any he has seen before.

Elzia, who is slowly fading from his reach, skin becoming numb, sighs with the weight of a thousand worlds. "It's gone love. It's gone."