Admitting that Leonidas, my painted warrior, may very well have been gone from my life for good was not an easy thing to do. To broach this entire topic was something I had been suppressing for months now. Part of me felt grateful to Natu for mentioning it, forcing me to face the facts. The pain of abandonment was not wholly unfamiliar to me – my mother’s absence through the majority of my youth was only accented with her sudden demise when she’d only just returned home to stay for good. But for the one whom you offered your heart to take it and then disappear without a word was a completely different level of rejection. My heart was bruised and battle scarred, but I was not incapable of love. Someday I would move on from his memory, open myself up to the possibility of finding another who might make my chest thrum in a way unique even to how Leo had.

She is respectful to my admission, her eyes turning away to allow me a moment to compose myself. Even so, I do not take advantage of this moment as a time to mask my emotions. To curate a true friendship and trust between us I remained honest in every way. Her words are a soothing balm to the ache that throbbed in my chest. Leonidas had been such an important part of my life, the stalking challenger in the shadows who tested me at every turn. He’d strengthened me in my youth, pushed me to become my best as I grew. But maybe I had given too much of myself to him. Perhaps it was hopeless to try to completely reclaim my heart from him, but step by step I could take it back – piece by piece salvaging it for myself. Then there was Meryl, who would always keep half my soul. It was something I would never wish to take from him, for in the place of my own soul his had stitched up the seam, knitting us together into one flawless subconscious being.

To think that it was possible to close this chapter of my life, to begin anew in the next, was a possibility I’d not truly considered before. The woe of losing him had pulled a shadow over my eyes, blinding me to the other routes to happiness that might be available to me. And now it was as if Natu gently helped me to pull back that blindfold, letting the sun illuminate the less trodden paths at the wayside. The course of my life that I had envisioned still begged my paws to trudge down it, but now those tributaries whispered softly to adventure down them – to see what might be in store for me.

When her eyes returned to mine, that maternal look in her eyes reminded me of how young I truly was. My youth had been robbed of me, and sometimes I forgot that there was much in life for me to learn. Understanding love and the like was perhaps among such subjects. Her words rung true, though. Every ending is just another beginning… The smallest of smiles hinted at my lips. “And perhaps by some grace, I may start again.”