(Rose)
It went like a walking dream. In a quick daze.
The way back to the dam.
A quick thought for our departed friend, who only left seeds of grapes and empty bottles behind.
Crossing the dam, and following the shore south-east this time.
We have little food, but we're doing alright. Good clothes covering us do the most work.
A long path ahead, sometimes holding hands as we walk.
Lulled by Bleue's depressing tales, betraying her unusual worry that we might die.
But she always used her imagination to expel her worries about life.
I let her tease me ad nauseam, to relief her from this stress.
And at times we have sex. Quite freely, since the world is so empty around here.
Finally, we found the trail of golden flowers again.
The odd lifeforms are not sculptures but real plants, born and raised there.
It looks like footsteps of a giant bronze goddess of nature, heading east.
In each step, a drop of gold transformed into a sprout of a flower or another wild grass.
They now live and survive at their slow rhythm in the desert.
The thing is, if we follow that trail, we're heading into the immensity of a desert, an endless world of dry lands and complex sand. I'm not sure there's even any more a sea out there beyond. It doesn't feel like it from here.
B - Where did she go...
R - It is very odd... She must have known it would be harder for me to find her...
B - If we want to follow the abrahimic route, we'd better do so by boat.
R - I somehow doubt that Blume would head to Canaan but... Where would she try to go?
B - Think back. Carefully. Anything she mentioned being in the east?
As we sit there under a small tent, resting, I try to remember anything she could have mentioned.
There was something. I don't quite remember it.
Was it about a light, or another daiûa with the power of a god?
I think it was a raw power of a being-like-her she could detect in the distance, she mentioned being very far away in the east.
But I recall that it was north-east, closer to the white sea, not the red, black or yellow ones.
R - I think there was something, in the land of Isha...
B - Oh... Oh? In Russia? That's... Quite far from here!
She stated it with the happiest face and glint in her eyes.
R - yes, I guess it would be a long journey, led by no more but a hunch... A new chapter of adventures after the fruitless results in here.
B - Well, I wouldn't call it fruitless for a few reasons, but I can understand that you feel disappointed.
My face shows some sadness. She holds me.
R - I am a little sad... At this rate, it will take years before we see each other again. I miss my old lovingly and inhuman friend...
I sob a little. I miss Blume.
And against my hopes and expectations, it doesn't seem that I'll find her soon.
And in a corner of my mind, I understand what is the message that Blume left behind for me...
I asked Bleue to leave me alone for a while. She obviously got hurt by this request, but complied quietly.
I walked into the desert for a few hours, alone, following the silent flowers, until it was the only thing left to see in this land. Nightfall in the distance was beginning to reveal the stars.
I have no certainties that I will ever see Blume again. This saddens me.
I freed you. You freed me. We loved each other.
We resurrected each other. We brought each other back to life.
We still have a small piece of the other one stuck within ourselves, like a transplant of skin or marrow.
It still itches.
We've lived as if we were one, bound to be together by fate until the end of times.
The truth is I ended up missing Blue, Bleue, too much...
The other truth is... Blume never needed me to live on.
She only chose so because she loved me. It didn't have to be eternal.
As I left her for Bleue, it is a little egoistic from me to expect her to still love me as she did, and to wait for my return.
From what I recall about that thing far away in western Russia, it wasn't feeling like a place she wound to go visit.
I have no clue as to where Blume is gone. It's over.
The message to my attention hidden behind the nature of these flowers is really like her.
She's free. Free from me too I guess.
As I did from her, she probably found a new path to wander on, and to find another happiness along.
These metallic drops, they're her goodbye and godspeed.
I... feel sad. But I don't want to linger with that for too long.
R - Goodbye Blume...
I begin to walk back to my beloved, still making my goodbye.
R - It's been fun, hasn't it?
I brush tearing eyes. I have some idea of what you must have felt, and why you decided to leave on your own.
May you find happiness on your new path ahead old friend.
R - Tomorrow, the sun will rise again, and flowers will thrive.
Goodbye Blume. See you, dear little flower.
Yours from a distant world,
I wish you farewell.
~
I returned to Bleue and hugged her tight.
We smiled at each other as I held her face close.
I saw she understood what happened. There's no point following Blume further.
R - Where would you like to go next?
Bleue's face became more radiant than I ever saw.
The world is still ours to explore. And it is ever so wide...
Our journey together is far from being over.
~