Chapter 31

Their grief is immense and the silence lingers as they sit before the fire with only each other who can fully understand their loss.

They did not want to travel for a month in sadness so they had the dragons fly them home and the rest of the forces will return as soon as possible. Other than dragons the solitude feels right. Sorbo and Dakota never leave each other’s sides. If not for their love and the healing force of their touch, their spirit of light would not survive this unscathed.

As it is revenge is deep within their hearts and Dakota has now grown up by the blood of her loved ones and she is lethal. She may be only fourteen, but she is gearing up for war and Sorbo is proud. Soon the time will come and those who have perpetrated this upon them will know the meaning of horror.

A storm is raging outside and a storm is raging inside. The second day back Sorbo hears Dakota screaming from her bedroom. When he runs in there he finds her shredding the parchment on which the Prophecy of the White Sorceress is written. After she is done she looks up at Sorbo with eyes of suffering, and as the last of the pieces settle on the floor, her knees buckle and she begins to cry. Softly at first and then slowly anger creeps in and soon she is pounding her fists on the floor.

“Come on, babygirl.” says Sorbo, reaching down and picking up the fourteen-year-old petite princess.

He carries her over to her bed and sits her down upon it. He crawls in behind her and she snuggles into him harder than she ever has before. Even the warmth from their legs touching cannot mend their broken hearts, but at long last it does remind them they are not alone and sleep comes to them in fits. Unwanted dreams come to them like specters on the wind and they relive the same moment over and over again.

As life is known to do it looks for parallels and not only the day of Cathy dying comes back to them, but so does other horrors thought long put behind them. Dakota’s dreams take her back to the murder of her mother, father, older brother and younger sister. She is beginning to believe it is all because she is the White Sorceress. Sorbo’s dreams are of his failure to protect another princess. As the human mind is known to do it extrapolates and soon Dakota is dreaming of watching Sorbo die and Sorbo screams himself awake more than once when he is holding the bloody corpse of Dakota in his shaking arms.

Their love has already saved each other from many horrors and without thinking about it they know it will again, but the beauty that was Cathy will not be so easily forgotten.

The third night back and after they have finally forced themselves to eat an actual meal they are sitting in their chair and Sorbo notices Dakota is looking at the empty chair where Cathy should be. Her pretty pale face with veins showing through starts as an indifferent state of mind, but soon Sorbo can tell she is replacing her sadness with anger. One of his loves has already died, if he has to watch the beautiful spirit of Dakota die too that is something he will not survive.

As Sorbo is now looking at the empty chair he also begins to understand. He knows he is not going to be able to sit here in their favorite place with this stark reminder that the one person they let into their epic love is now gone. Sorbo bends over and kisses Dakota on the cheek and she looks at him curiously. He stands up with her in his arms and then sits her back down in the chair. He walks into his room, a place he has not gone since they returned home, except to get some clothes, and comes out with an axe. He looks at Dakota with the axe raised and then he looks at the chair. Dakota understands and nods her head with tears in her eyes. All the pain, all the frustration and sadness get expressed in the next twenty seconds as Sorbo smashes the chair to pieces. Dakota walks over and piece-by-piece starts throwing them into the fire. As they sit there taking comfort in each other and as they watch the last piece burn they begin to silently cry.

A gust of wind from the raging storm rocks the cabin and the flames in the fire dance a little more for them, but they do not move. At this moment if they were to break contact their minds would shatter into a million pieces to match their hearts.

Slowly, slowly the pain and horror of that day starts to fade. A week turns into a month and so on. From Dakota’s bed even the nightmares begin to lesson their attacks upon them. Sorbo will not return to the bed that he so joyously shared with Cathy. Dakota, always the smart girl, understands they are once and again all each other have. Every time they try and spend a few moments apart anger enters their hearts. Only their love can save them now.

They spend their time training in the arts of war. After that first month all the other warriors have returned to the compound and only Braylard thinks enough to ask how they are doing since Cathy’s death, but upon the looks in their eyes he lets it drop.

At long last, just when they think they can face another day, the end of July comes and on the day of Cathy’s birthday they realize something. As they are lying there in each other’s arms, Dakota in her royal blue nightshirt and Sorbo in his shorts and dark green short sleeve shirt, Sorbo says to Dakota, “Oh shit!”

“What?” Replies Dakota, startled because her head is resting on his chest listening to his heart that is hers too and when he spoke it reverberated between them both.

“We have not informed Cathy’s family about her death.”

“Shouldn’t we wait until a little bit after her birthday? At least we can give them that.” Sorbo kisses her hair and moves his left arm that is wrapped around her up and down on her back.

“Good thinking, my beautiful, beautiful girl.”

“Sorbo?”

“Yeah, baby.”

“Make love to me.”

“You mean make love with you?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, baby, I know you are hurting, especially on this day just like me. You just need to feel alive like we did with Cathy.” Dakota nods her head into his chest with tears in her eyes. “Or maybe you think it will make me feel better. Either way, if our love takes us that way someday then okay, gladly, but not to just hide from the pain of our loss, to hide from this day.”

“For a while now I’ve been so angry and I just want to feel loved.”

“You don’t feel loved?” Sorbo asks, concerned.

“No, of course I do. I just mean ... I don’t know what I mean. I know I love you and I never want you to leave me too.”

“As long as breath is in my body I will never leave you, and even then I will not be far. Being in love with somebody is not about sex, even though making love is an expression of that love. I love you so much and there is not one aspect to your heart, body and mind that does not make me feel loved in return. I am here always. There is nothing you can do or anything you can’t talk about with me that would make me love you any less.”

“Sorbo?”

“Yeah, baby.”

“In and amongst my nightmares I’ve been having other dreams as well.” Just then Dakota’s legs twitch.

“Okay.”

“They are sex dreams and they are with you.”

“That’s normal, sweetheart.”

“It is?”

“One hundred percent it is. You are fourteen-years-old and I am the only man that has been around you. Also we have shared everything openly with each other. I’ve always answered any questions your beautiful mind thought to ask. I’ve talked openly about everything including sex and your body. We’ve seen each other naked ten thousand times and we have touched each other incidentally a million times. So, yes, absolutely it is normal. Thanks to both of us we are both sensual loving people.”