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The conflict between two families has torn the land apart, and two women fall in love.
The tree, lit by moonlight, listened carefully to the rustling of its branches. The scent of sweet oranges drifted down around its roots, pulling inquisitively at the shadows of the two figures standing there.
“Do you think this will work?”
“It has to,” the other answered firmly.
With a sigh, her companion reached up into the branches, gently plucked a blossom, and settled it in her hair. “I hope you’re right,” she said.
“I usually am,” she answered, settling a soft hand comfortingly on her wrist. “It’ll be alright, you’ll see.” The other sighed and gently leaned forward to rest her forehead against hers, for just a moment, before they each turned and went their separate ways to two different fires flickering on opposing horizons.
And the tree’s leaves swayed against the constellations on a windless night.
“The blood between your families will not be so easily calmed.
The battle is not going well.
Chaos reigns, men and women hacking at each other with whatever tools came to hand. Behind him, he can hear Mork’s angry diatribe turn into wheezes and then silence, June’s cackling laugh fade into nothing behind the clank of metal and the screams of the wounded. He doesn’t dare look behind him, and that is his undoing.
Pete sees a flicker of recognition in brown eyes just before the axe smashes into his eye socket. I forgive you, he thinks as the world fades around him, not sure who or what he is forgiving.
For thirteen lifetimes of bloodshed and violence, you must hold true to the covenant between your souls.
Kao rolls over on the narrow hotel bed and feels the arm around his shoulder slip off. He grins, and considers waking Pete up, knowing they need to leave soon, but the lines in his face are so soft.
“I love you,” he whispers to the soft hairs drifting across Pete’s forehead.
“I love you too,” Pete grunts, eyes still closed, and Kao raises his eyebrows at his lover—never mind that he can’t see it. “Listen, Kao, about tomorrow—”
But a flicker of a light diverts Kao’s attention, and as he pushes Pete off the bed whatever warning he was about to give shatters like the window glass in the hail of bullets.
If one of you wavers, for even a moment, you will be lost.”
As she lays the fire that will rip through the orchard, she hears a yowling overheard, and soon enough she finds herself halfway up a tree, with no reliable branches.
“Are you stuck?” calls a voice below her.
“Yes!” she answers. “There’s a kitten up here, do you have a rope or a basket?”
And when the basket her new friend finds is filled with kerosene and matches, she sees the understanding flash over her face, and it is no surprise that hers is the first tree to burn.
“Get out of here,” she says bitterly, and she does not take the time to argue, cat still clutched against her chest. The gunshot is from the wrong direction, and it’s a relief to know that at least this one death the other won’t be able to blame herself for.
They each nodded, and she handed them the sapling, roots carefully bundled in cloth. “Go, then, and—thank you.”
Pete wishes, as Kao screams and screams and screams and he can do nothing but watch, that this time he had just let Kao drink the poison after all. He sees the pleading in Kao’s eyes when they finally hand Pete the knife, and he does his best to make it clean. Arterial blood sprays like a pressure washer against white jeans and he wonders how much longer he can do this.
The two women walked into the sunset, a tree and a shovel and clasped hands, knowing there was no turning back after this.
Kao woke up to the gurgle of the coffee pot, and had his arms half-stuffed through a windbreaker before he was even together enough to know he was moving.
“Bye, Mae!” he shouted, just managing not to catch his dangling shoelaces in the door. By the time he made it to the bus stop the sweat was trickling down his forehead, and he waited as the wind turned cold, shirt stuck to his chest--only to find himself still miserable when the bus finally pulled up and its heater was pulling overtime.
Three stops and a frenzied dash across five lanes of traffic later, he saw her. A woman stood in the field, but his heart sunk when he realized she was alone, and he hesitated, considering whether he should leave.
“Wait!” A voice shouted, and Kao turned into the familiar face of a stranger. “I’m not too late, am I?”
“No,” said the woman softly, and somehow they both heard her perfectly despite still standing almost a football field away. “No, you’re right on time.”
Kao felt a hand brush his, and followed the stranger across the grass to the woman.
“You’ve done it,” she said, and when he felt the warmth flooding up from his toes he let it carry him forward and into Pete’s kiss, and they tumbled down into the grass underneath the tree.
And the scent of oranges gently wrapped around them as its branches swayed in the fresh morning breeze.
The conflict between two families has torn the land apart, and two women fall in love.
And that is all the foothold you need to start climbing a mountain.