Eoin Falls for Catriona Like Snow

“What is she looking at now?” He muttered to himself. He stayed in position but freely looked up at her. Her gaze had left the page, and she was distracted by something unseen by him.

His poised demeanor was about to shift into frustration until she tilted the book even more so that he could see why she had paused in her reading. It was snowing. Eoin’s breath caught in his throat. He had never seen snow in the real world before.

As he looked back at Catriona, he wished she’d keep her gaze fixed on the snow just a bit longer—for more beautiful than the snow was her face appraising it. It was obvious that she loved the snow in her world, and he hoped, one day, that she’d look at him in the same way.

She looked back at the book, and he took a moment to look into her eyes, imagining she could see the way he was looking at her, but the spell was broken as he heard loud thumping coming from her side, “Catriona, love, are you awake?”

“Yes, I’ll be right down!” Catriona shouted back to an unseen woman. “Until next time, Eoin.” She smiled sweetly at him, with just a touch of melancholy, until her face finally faded and was replaced by darkness.

Eoin sunk to his knees and onto his back. She spoke to him. She said his name, addressing him as if they were dear friends. Perhaps she was sad to have to leave him behind—to deal with whoever was calling her away.

He almost couldn’t believe or dare trust the way she was making him feel. A subtle movement out of the corner of his eye interrupted his delightful ruminations. A tiny sapling had poked itself out from beneath the surface and was continuing to grow. It was so small, but its bright green pigment, in contrast to the dark dust of the mount, made him realize it was alive.

Nothing looked like this when the book was closed; descriptions of plants that inhabited his world didn’t even look like this when a reader’s light illuminated them. A shadow slowly cast itself over the plant.

“Valez, do you see what I see?” Eoin didn’t dare look up at him but kept his gaze firmly fixated on the plant in fear that if he looked away, even just for a moment, it would disappear.

“I do.” Valez breathed out. Eoin eventually tore his eyes away to look up and saw a single tear resting on Valez’s cheek.

“What does this mean?” Eoin felt tears pricking the edges of his eyes as well.

“I have no idea.” Valez bent down to touch it.

“No! We don’t know what this is or what it means. Until we do, we tell no one what we have seen and leave it be.”

“What about the giant ‘puppy’ in there? He’d squash this precious sapling the moment he saw it.” Valez rolled his eyes at the overwhelming contrast between their Gorgon and the reader’s Gorgon.

“Well, luckily, Gorgon doesn’t come out unless he’s cued by the reader. He’ll be no trouble to distract once we are acting our parts, ye ken.” Valez nodded in agreement and grew silent.

Both men just stood and stared at the plant, wondering if this had anything to do with their newest reader, or if it was one of the many changes that was happening within their book that could not be explained.

As for Eoin, this signaled hope for a brand-new future, one where maybe, just maybe he could decide his own fate—a fate unwritten.