“We are definitely lost Osi!”
Antigone’s voice echoed amongst the bare trees surrounding them.
Osiris was seated on the cold hard ground, eyes downcast, turning his club over and over in his huge hands.
He turned his gaze upward, hesitantly.
“Do not worry, once we have rested, we can continue, perhaps we will find a village soon.
“But it’s freezing, we will die if we rest here! We must go look for help!”
Antigone’s chin was trembling, she was fighting the tears back hard.
Osiris, produced an atlas, a farewell present from their Grecian friends.
“According to this,” he pointed to a dog-eared page, “we are in Bulgaria, not far from Sofiya, if we continue North, we can reach Sofiya, perhaps their airport is still operational and we can get to Prague much faster.”
“But what if it isn’t?!” Antigone shouted, her arms thrown wide open in defiance.
“Then we shall continue on any transport necessary, even if it is on foot, if you truly feel that this girl in your dream is truly in need, then surely you will not be having doubts?”
“I am not having doubts about her, Osiris, this is very important, but I do not want us to die out here, we have little food left, and we do not know exactly where we are, we could be hundreds of miles from a town!”
She paced around a tree, snaking a cold arm around it’s trunk.
Her face upturned to the night sky, she continued;
“And you just wander around, pretending everything is ok, you don’t seem to care at all about this, or about me.”
Her words choked her, and she walked behind the tree, out of his sight. She pressed her back to it, and pulled her long coat around her neck.
“You are colder to me than this night is!”
She couldn’t hold back any longer, the hot tears flowed down her face, and her face crumpled into the collar of the jacket.
She wept, while Osiris sat.
After what seemed like an age, Osiris stood up, and walked over to where Antigone sat, buried in folds of dark, coarse material.
He knelt in front of her, and lifted her delicate body into his lap.
He gently parted the cloth to reveal Antigone’s tear stained face glaring up at him. He touched a hand to her cheek, and all her anger & despair could not stop her from nuzzling into that strong, dark hand that even in the wintery chill felt warm & inviting.
“See Tig, I am not so cold now.”
He stooped to kiss her, and she welcomed him.
She curled herself towards him, burying herself in his clothing, finding the warm flesh beneath. His arms enveloped her, and she did not feel the chill that had crept into the woods around them.
For a while, nothing mattered, the cold, the dark, their uncertainty & fear, it was gone, for that small space in time.
They made love very gently that night, and as they kissed, Antigone’s salty tears ran into their mouths.
Later, they lay together, huddled under two thick overcoats, and of course, the blanket of stars above them, clinging to eachother protectively, still warm in eachother’s arms.
Osiris kissed Antigone’s forehead and held her tighter, as though the night might snatch her away. He brought his mouth to her ear, and as he spoke, his lips brushed against her.
“I’m sorry, for everything my love, goodnight sister.”
But she had already drifted off into a world of lucid dreaming.
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