Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ The Glaciers' Widow ❯ vocis imaginem audite Amoris ( Chapter 4 )

~*Vocis imaginem audite Amoris*~

*Hear the echo of Love*

Ferio didn't listen: his friends talked and he didn't listen. For how much he tried -and he tried hard, he wasn't able to stop think to the mysterious girl: anything he does, her face was in his thoughts. Perhaps his was simple worry -she was wounded- or curiosity, and he knew little of her and he didn't know her name; but they could be both: if he knows her name, he could have searched information and his worry would have disappeared.

" Hey Ferio, art thou listening me?"

Eagle asked shaking his friend. Ferio started.

"Sorry, but in these days I have a fixed thought that not give me peace."

" We have understood: Thou art nervous for the engagement!"

Lantis smiled. Zazu laughed and winked:

" Knowing our Prince, it dealt with a girl: I bet a drink that I am right!"

" I accept the bet!" Geo exclaimed " Even, I add ten sausages each: for me, Ferio thinks about the engagement and his Arosa!"

Ferio sigh: they were having fun teasing him. It wasn't newness, but in that case it bothered him very much. Ascot told him happily to reveal the mystery, also to know whom, between Geo and Zazu, has won the bet. Ferio closed his eyes and said:

" It is a girl, but not in the way that you think: I am simply worried for her."

" Worried that anyone else could have her before thou. " Zazu added "After the engagement's announcement thou won't have fun: therefore I advise thou to hurry with this chick!"

Ferio punched his head and exclaimed:

" Thou think only to that! I'm worried because she had a wounded ankle: unfortunately I don't know her name and therefore I couldn't know how she is! Currently the engagement is the last of my thoughts."

The others he looked amazed, they then began to comment mischievously the question. Tired of their jokes, Ferio mounted his horse and went toward the forest where - he was sure- he would have found relief.

Ferio looked the forest's green ceiling of intertwined branches and leaves: at each blow of wind, the leafy branches danced creating a magic game of lights and shadows; the rustle was accompanied by the stream's flowing and the songs of the thousand birds that lived the wood. Closing his eyes, it seemed that something was calling him; it attracts him with an arcane spell. Letting cradle by the silent melody, Ferio followed the stream; a smile appeared on his lips seeing two butterflies play upon the water. Then the wind carried an echo: he couldn't recognize the words and the voice, but it was the song of a very young woman and it was strangely well known. Ferio let guide by the echo, which became more and more distinct and close.

Come to me in the silence of the night;

Come in the speaking silence of a dream;

Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright

As sunlight on a stream;

Come back in tears,

O memory, hope, love of finished years.

O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,

Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,

Where souls brimful of love abide and meet;

Where thirsting longing eyes

Watch the slow door

That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live

My very life again though cold in death:

Come back to me in dreams, that I may give

Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:

Speak low, lean low,

As long ago, my love, as long ago.

She was there, bent on a loop rubbing a piece of cloth in the water: her song had been like an unconscious call for him. Ferio smiled and said:

"I'm here, sweet maid: thou have called me and I come to thee."

Fuu started and tightened with more vigor the wet dress: he was the last person that she wanted to meet. She got up stiff and greeted him with a little nod.

" I... I wasn't calling thou, Sir."

" My lady, thy words were explicit: come back to me in dreams, that I may give pulse for pulse, breath for breath..."

" That was just a song, I have not ever wished thy return."

Fuu answered tense. Ferio dismounted and drew near her.

" A song... what is its name? I have not heard it ever."

" Echo is its name, and it is a song of my country. With permission."

Fuu bowed nervously and turned.

" I see with pleasure that thy ankle has gotten well: I was much worried. For thy health I mean."

Fuu watched him and blushed.

" Oh... ah... I'm flattered, Sir, but thou wouldn't have been obliged: my health is fragile and thou wouldn't worry for a stranger..."

" A beautiful stranger. Sincerely I don't want thou and me be strangers: we could be excellent friends... very close."

Ferio whispered caressing her cheek. Fuu stood back of some footstep.

" Nothing more indecent: I don't know in Sephiro, but in my country the kind of friendship that thou understand is considered indecorous!"

" I understand; but I want hope that thou would allow me the honor to be thy acquaintance. Or also this is indecorous?"

Fuu started and set a hand on her forehead. After have thought for a long time, she admitted:

" Thou have defeated me, Sir."

Ferio smiled and took her hand.

" Now could I know thy name, my lady?"

" Fuu Marguerite Gabrielle Houojii-Van de Graaff, Baroness of Acquaviva."

" Houojii? Thou therefore art... If I have known thy name before, I would visit thou during thy convalescence."

" Impossible: my nurse has barely allowed the royal physician to enter our tent."

" I hope to continue this pleasant conversation this evening. Will thou come to the dance?"

" I have promised it to Princess Emeraude."

Ferio smiled: he evidently had the gods' favors, if they had granted him a so dear sister. A new thought killed his joy: therefore Fuu was the stepsister of Arosa, the woman with whom he would be been engaged officially that evening and that the next spring would have become his wife! And Fuu would have become his sister-in-law: that wasn't a good thing. The only way to have her was... Shaking his head he pushed away that thought from his mind: Fuu was different from the woman that he had known, and she surely didn't deserve to have appreciated only physically. Ferio was sure: that white and delicate girl like an almond blossom was like a distant and mysterious land and she surely possessed all the qualities that a man searches in a woman. His father's words about Baroness Klelia went back in his mind: the woman that each king should have nearby.

" Art thou well, Sir? Thou art... pale."

Ferio smiled and kissed her hand.

" Thy beauty makes me feverish: a man for thou would be able to do something crazy."

" Dost not say nonsense! I... I couldn't dare to compare me to my dear mother or my sister Arosa: mother was an extraordinary woman and Arosa has an incredible charm. Quality of which I am deficient."

" /Thy/ art nonsense: I know Countess Arosa since childhood and I assure thou that the only interesting things that she has art the physical appearance and the receptiveness."

Fuu felt the scorn bear in her; she exclaimed frowning:

" How do thou dare to define my sister in these words? No, better: how do thou dare talk in these words about thy Prince's future bride?!"

Ferio giggled: Fuu idealized too her stepsister. Fuu was about to ask him his name, when a voice drew her attention.

" Hey! Fuu-chaan! Do thou have finished with that dress?"

" Sure, I'm coming!" Then she addressed to Ferio, turning her head slowly " Now could I know thy..."

Ferio had vanished without lets traces. Fuu looked around searching him, but she didn't see him.

" ... name?"

================================== TO BE CONTINUED =================================

" Echo " by Christina Rossetti, Poems, 1854