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side of the room, she was able to stand on her own.
I stepped back and studied her while I waited.
Protected by the thorns, she, too, had grown in her own way.
She took a deep breath. Took another.
I pulled off the leather cap that covered my head from crown to neck. My hair tumbled down my back.
"I've missed you," I said quietly. "I've needed you."
She stared at me. "You're "
"More than a shadow and less than a soul."
Her eyes filled with tears, but she smiled. "I've dreamed of you."
"And I of you."
We studied each other for another minute before shyly opening our arms and stepping into an embrace.
The wind sighed. The hedge stirred.
When the sounds faded, there was one person hugging herself where there had been two.
We wore my leather jerkin and shirt over her skirt. We wore my boots instead of her slippers.
We made a neat bundle of the leftover clothes and left the tower.
Stopping just beyond the hedge, she broke off one of the thorns and slipped it into our skirt pocket. I
picked one of the flowers and tucked it into the jerkin's ties.
We wanted to jump and run. We wanted to cry healing tears.
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Instead, we sneaked into the kitchen, snitched a carry sack, and filled it with bread, cheese, and joints of
cooked meat. Finding a litter of newly weaned kittens in one of the storage rooms, we were tempted to
take one.
Nuzzling the small bundle of fur, I offered to find a quiet village where we could settle down.
Gently returning the kitten to its littermates, she said she wanted to see a bit of the world first.
We had to slip out of the kitchen quickly before our muffled laughter woke the servants.
Gathering up our traveling pack on the way, we stopped at the orchard, climbed a tree, and picked all
the apples we could carry.
Laughing quietly, we feasted on our stolen bounty. Alive and once more whole, we slept in the orchard
for a little while.
By the time the sun rose and the servants began to stir, the briar hedge was sinking back into the earth,
and the Gentle Heart and the Wild Heart were gone.
Anne Bishop
Anne Bishop lives in western New York and enjoys gardening, a variety of arts and crafts, storytelling,
and music, especially playing Celtic folk music on the hammered dulcimer. Her stories have been
published in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears and Black Swan, White Raven. She is also the author of two
dark fantasy novels, Daughter of the Moon and Heir to the Shadows .
"The Wild Heart" blends Bishop's interest in psychology, women's studies, and archetypes with her love
of fairy tales and fantasy.
Copyright © 1999, Anne Bishop. All rights reserved. Do not redistribute.
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Text last modified on 30 August 2001, v1.3. Text generated on 30 November 2002 by Foxbook
v0.84.20021120.
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