Epilogue:Endings
The Lady and the Oracle sat by the pool, watching as the friends returned to the keep and turned in to sleep for the night.
"A happy ending?" the Lady asked as she directed to pool to view the child who had been her sister.
"No, but a chance for a happy future," the Oracle replied.
The Lady passed one hand over the pool and the scene changed away from the Elven keep. "For all, but one," she said.
The pool now showed a single house. The view drew in until it showed a single human woman. She sat on a blue couch staring at a picture of her and a man standing together. A strand of her red hair hung in her face, wet with the tears she cried.
"His wife?" the Oracle asked.
"Yes," the Lady told him. "I spent a long time trying to find her. It's too bad that she'll never know what he did for all of us."
The pool rippled as a tear fell upon the water. The Lady and the Oracle looked up in surprise to see me standing across the small pool from them, my own tears flowing freely at the sight of my wife. Another tear fell and sent ripples across the pool.
"Dan?" the Lady asked, amazement on her face.
"I looked up. "Yeah, it's me. I don't really know how but one minute I was lying on the floor and the next, I was lost in the Mists. It took me a long time to find my way here."
The Lady stood and ran around the pool to hug me. "You're alive!"
"I guess so. I must be. It feels like you're crushing me."
"The Oracle laughed, "Let him breathe, love."
The Lady kissed my cheek and then released me.
"What happened?" I asked, as I followed the Lady back to where the Oracle waited.
The Oracle told me what had transpired since my friends had entered the Mists, ending with, "Now you can show them you're alive."
"Maybe one day, for now I have to go home. I've been away for far too long."
"I understand," the Lady said, looking at her Love.
"Dan, you should know," the Oracle said. "We are leaving the Mists."
"Why?"
"Our time here is over," the Lady said. "We have been stuck like this for far too long. It's time to move on."
"Time to find out what comes next," the Oracle finished.
"OK, I understand, but without you here, I can't return."
"Why not?" the Lady asked.
"Isn't the Sphere yours, don't you make it work?"
"Well, yes," the Lady replied, tilting her head. "But that doesn't matter. The Mists are part of you now. You can come back here anytime you want.
"Dan," she continued. "I want to leave you a gift."
"You don't have to," I objected.
"No, please, I insist. Let us leave first," she said, holding up a hand to forstall anymore objections. "I know you want to go home but if you stay here for even a moment after we leave, then this clearing will remain for you. I created it, oh so long ago, and if I'm the last to leave, it will disappear."
"All right, I accept."
"Goodbye, Dan," the Lady said. "Be well and be well loved."
"Goodbye," I told her.
The Oracle came and took my hand, then pulled me in for a hug. "Go to your wife, quickly, after we leave."
"Don't worry about that," I told him.
He walked over to the Lady and took her hand. "Come, love. Let's go."
Together they walked into the Mist and out of both of our worlds together, forever."
I watched them leave and then turned to finish my own journey.
Leaving the clearing I passed out of the Mists and into my own front yard. As I emerged from the fog, my clothing changed back to what I had been wearing on the day of the accident, although the clothes now seemed torn and dirty.
I looked down at myself and thought, "Was it all a delusion? Have I just been wandering, in a daze, all this time?"
A sound drifted to my ears. It was the soft sobs of my wife, alone in our house. Although, I stood well over a hundred yards away, I still heard her crying.
I walked up the driveway to the stairs of our house and to the door.
Before I could touch it, though, the door opened and I stood face to face with the woman I loved so much.
I could only stare at her, finally realizing how much I had missed her.
"It can't be. Dan?" she cried.
I only nodded as I saw in her eyes all the pain she had felt, all the hope she had held, all the love that had kept her going.
"Dan!" she cried, again, and threw her arms around me.
"God, Tammy," I whispered into her hair. "I missed you."
"Where have you been?" she asked, voicing the question that, only moments before, I had wondered.
"It doesn't matter," I said, catching the scent of a deer at the edge of our property. "I'm home now."
She pulled back slightly to look at me and I gently ran the back of my fingers over her cheek.
Pulling her back to me, I kissed her. She responded eagerly, letting go of the pain.
We stood there for a long time and then together walked into our house and closed the door behind us.