Chapters: Two

Once I knew a lonely man; A sad lonely man; A lonely man living in a world that did not know him. A sad man who hid his pain and wore a smile. In the morningtime he looked out of the window with weary eyes hating the dawn of another day, but in the nighttime he sat in the tavern and made all the people laugh and all the maidens blush. And when they were drunken and merry as could be, he hid in the corner away from their eyes. And he remembered Her.

She was love and purity and goodness, his heart. This he knew from the first moment, and then he did not know. At first sight he plunged into love and drank like a man starved. He pursued Her with ardor, Her love was like an elixir running in his veins. At night he dreamed of Her, at noon he craved a sweet word or a gentle smile. She possessed him, She evaded him and flitted out of reach until he opened up his heart and lay it at Her feet, and then She loved him.

Suddenly afraid, he awakened as from a dream. He was afraid to be thought less than a man. And so while She waited by the lake for their evening song he took to the street and sought a loose maiden with no name to lay with. Night after night She waited, and night after night he took more maidens to his bed until their faces were one. Fearing for Her love, She sought him in the streets until She found him in the arms of the tavern wench. She vowed that he would be Her first and last love, the only one She would ever love or lose. She was never seen in the village again.

Now he is a shell of the man he used to be, living in a world that does not know him, remembering Her....

Chapters: One

Why Do I Love You? 

Do you know how much I love you?

I love you today, just enough, for Ever.

Why do I love you?

When I lay awake at night watching you sleep, I ask myself. When I look into your eyes in those rare moments that you are looking into my eyes, I wonder. When you love me with every bit of your body and soul, even then I wonder. And when you hurt me - when you break my heart and pierce my soul - I wonder what keeps me loving you and returning to you. I pray and I wonder.

I do not love you for your Beauty. You are fair, but not the fairest of them, or the most perfect. But you are perfect to me. And if I was blind and could not look upon your face, still I would love you.

I do not love you because of the gifta you bring. Even the world on a platter could not earn my love. But I cherish every moment you spend and every smile you give like drops of pure gold.

I do not love you for your great charm. If you spoke great lengths of verse and made magic happen with your words, I could not love you any more than I already do today, just enough, for Ever.

Now I know that loving you is because of nothing that you do or nothing that you give or nothing that you say or nothing that you are. I love you because you chose me and because I choose you. And until the day Fate wills us apart for good, still will I love you, no matter what you are or what you say or what you give or what you do.

I ask the stars that you love me too.

If only the gods would be so kind........