Post by Lantlas on Oct 19, 2006 5:01:44 GMT -5
The grass was damp with the dew of the early morning. The fog covered the ground like a blanket on a small child, and it seemed as if the mild autumn air enveloped us. Concealed completely from the outside world, the only thing on which I was focusing was my hand in hers. Walking at the exact same pace, despite our height difference, our feet lightly touched the ground as if we were walking in the air. My eyes occasionally glanced over, and always caught with hers at the exact same time. That feeling in my chest never went away, and it never got old. It was one I’d experienced so few times in my life, and one I’d repressed from the pain that had been attached to it for so very long. Now, as I stared into the eyes of an angel, pain was absolved. A dark and decadent past no longer loomed over me like the fog of this midnight stroll.
The trees were damp from the rain earlier in the evening. A small cold drop fell from one of the branches and caught my neck with a minimal shock. She looked over and laughed at my reaction, revealing the smile that could light a thousand skies and heal a million wounds. “Who would’ve thought the secret for defeating the Elven Warrior was cold water? Better not let the word spread too far!”
I smiled and looked in the other direction, realizing I hadn’t yet told her specifically of my plans. Since all the paranoia had drifted away, I was left with only what I was feeling now; the same as what I felt the first time I laid eyes on this magnificent beauty. Words couldn’t describe it, but I knew it was there. Rummaging through the pit of my stomach all the way up through the valves in my heart and instilling itself in the core of my soul, I’d never felt a presence like that before. A sense of joy overwhelmed me in that very moment, when I finally realized everything Ace and Katelyn had been trying to tell me. The pieces were finally coming together in my eyes, and I wasn’t as sad as I expected I would be.
“You’ve been awfully quiet this evening, Mister,” she giggled. “Something on your mind?”
“The walk through this gorgeous terrain not enough for you, eh?”
“Lantlas, I know you better than that. You wouldn’t bring me along for one of your midnight walks unless you wanted to talk to me about something.”
Damn, the girl knew me better than I thought. I didn’t expect her to catch on that quickly, and I became a bit frantic, trying to figure out exactly how I was going to explain everything. She had a rather tough week ahead of her, facing off with one of my rivals for Deadly Intentions in Grimm, and I knew she was scared to death. Somehow, I imagined an escape from something she surely feared would not suffice as an excuse. She was determined it was something big, and it was. Several things, none of them of minimal importance, needed to be said. It was just the method of delivery that was holding me back. This was always the location I’d wanted for this type of situation though. Optimal indeed, for what more could I ask?
“I’ve come to a few decisions in the last couple nights,” I opened.
“Have you now? Are you going to keep me in suspense, or tell me what they are.”
“It’s hard for me to say, considering how important they are, and how much they’re going to affect our lives.”
“Lantlas,” she placed her hand on my shoulder, and we stopped walking. Ironically enough, it was a small clearing. I could hear the small tides of a lake nearby, and wondered just how far we’d come out into the woods. We hadn’t heard a car or another human voice for nearly two hours, so I trusted we were as far from civilization as I wanted to be. Left the cell phones, left all forms of contact to the outside world far behind in the locker room. This had to be perfect, without even the slightest bit of distraction. “You know that no matter what you decide to do, I will always support you. I love you.”
I softly stroked her right arm and nuzzled it a bit with my cheek. Her skin was so soft; despite the abuse from the ring it took every single week. How she managed that was beyond my knowledge. Her hand clasped a little tighter into my shoulder, and as I ran my nails up and down her arm, I looked into her eyes. The same eyes into which I’d stared when I was dressed as Lane Darin, the same eyes I’d admired from afar long before our paths had ever crossed… The ones that made me forget about everything that ever happened, and everything that didn’t matter. The ones that kept me from distraction, the ones that eased the stress of everyday life… The eyes I wanted to see everyday for the rest of my life.
“I’ve decided that I’m going to leave wrestling,” I stated.
Her eyes grew a bit wide, but her breathing and clutch on my shoulder didn’t change at all. “I had a feeling that had been on your mind recently. Why have you come to this conclusion?”
I softly placed my hands on her hips, pulling her closer to me. Her beautiful face was inches from mine, and as she looked up at me, I lightly kissed her lips. “Wrestling is no longer a big priority for me anymore. So many things have become important to me that while entering the ring with the championship belt hasn’t lost its edge, so many things have taken precedence in the last few months.”
“Like what?”
“I’ve realized how much I’ve missed while spending a majority of my time wrestling, training, and dealing with all the publicity. The time with my daughter that I missed out on; so many little things that I don’t know that I should because of not being around her very often… Emerald’s eleven-years-old, and now is the time she wants to spend around me a lot. If I keep this up, by the time I’m not wrestling so much anymore and have the time, she won’t want to be around me anymore. I need this time with Emerald to watch her blossom into the delicate rose she’s becoming, and I want to be more of a part of that than I have.”
“Emerald loves you very much,” Jade replied, “and I know she’ll be thrilled that she’s going to spend more time with her Vati. Though she’d never ask for it, I think that’s what she’s wanted for a long time. It’s one thing to watch Vati on television and cheer for him, but it’s another to have him there, tucking her in every single night, reading her a story, and kissing her on the forehead. When you wrestle those late nights, you can’t be there to wish her sweet dreams. You’re also always so tired that you can’t be there to see her wake up with the sun. There’s something about that little girl’s spirit that always just motivates me to forget about life’s little things and just smile. That’s powerful, and it’s such a special thing, Lantlas.”
“Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve wanted to have ‘daddy’s little girl’. When I found Emerald, all the instincts and emotions I knew I’d have came rushing forth like a raging river. I didn’t know what to do with all of them, and when I thought she was taken away from me, they all turned inwards and would’ve been the death of me had I not had an outlet. That’s really all wrestling was for the longest time; a way to take out my frustration and emotion without getting in trouble for it. It became so much more than that, but that time has passed. The spot I’ve held for so long should no longer be mine, and it’s time to let someone else shine.”
“That’s incredibly unselfish of you,” Jade smiled. “So many people in this business want to hang on to the glory they find until they physically can’t anymore. They get addicted to the spotlight and can’t let it go to give others the chances they were once given.”
“I’ve had my time in the spotlight, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Winning that championship was a great accomplishment, and I’ll never forget it. But competing in that ring can’t measure up to the feeling I get every time I look into Emerald’s eyes. That unconditional love is so powerful that having your arm raised in victory in front of screaming fans just can’t match up to it, no matter how hard you try. That’s how I know it’s my time. Well, one of the reasons anyway.”
“Really? There’s more than one reason?” Jade inquired curiously.
“Of course there is, Emily.”
Jade looked a bit surprised. “You haven’t called me Emily since we first met. What’s with the change?”
“I love the name of Jade, but that’s who you are when you’re in the ring. The girl I see taking my Emerald for walks, sharing an experience with her, and basically being the mother she’s never had, that’s Emily DuPrae.”
“And how do you feel about Emily DuPrae?”
“From the first minute I spent around you, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that you were like no other person I’d ever met. As I got to know you more, I found myself falling in love with you quickly. Everything I’ve ever dreamed about in a girl is what I was seeing in you. When I was young, the girl of my dreams was you; I just didn’t know it till now.”
“Was it really?”
“Yes, down to the physical characteristics, the personality, and the little things you do that mean so very much to me. It took convincing myself that I was not living in a fantasy world to know that you really existed and were not just a figment of my overactive imagination. The first time I kissed you though, I realized that I never wanted to kiss another pair of lips ever again. You’re the one I wanted to wake up with, fall asleep with, and love for the rest of eternity… And I didn’t question that feeling, not a single time.”
Emily was blushing heavily, and not doing a very good job of trying to hide it. “And is this another reason you’re leaving wrestling?”
“It is,” I affirmed. “You see, if you’re going to plan the rest of your life with someone, you can’t very well have such a big amount of your schedule taken up fighting with people. I know you’re fulfilling your dream by doing so, and that’s absolutely fine with me. I don’t need to be with you every single second, because I know you’ve got things you need to do for yourself. That’s how I know the difference between love and obsession; I don’t live on it. I do, however, know that I want to be there every time you come home from a match. I want to hold you in my arms, hearing all the details of the events that happened that night. I want to fall asleep in your embrace, drifting off to slumber in a way that I could never recreate myself.”
“What are you saying, Lantlas?”
“Emily DuPrae,” I replied, dropping down to one knee, “will you marry me?”
The moon smiled upon us as it reflected on the lake to our left. As I slid the ring on her finger, I felt her arms embrace me tighter than ever before. “Yes, Lantlas. Yes I will.”
“Really? You really want to become Mrs. Anduril?”
“I’m already looking forward to being Mrs. Anduril, Lantlas. I love you so very much.”
“I love you mucher.”
“Mucher’s not a word,” she laughed.
“It is now, because there was not a word in this entire language or any other that could accurately describe the degree to which I truly love you, so I had to create one.”
“I love you,” she repeated as her embrace tightened just a little more.
The feeling that night was all the convincing I needed that I had yet again made the right decision. Everything that was important to me in life was now in my grasp, and it was an unusual feeling. I’d spent most of my life pining for the things I’d never thought I’d have, fighting for just a gasp of air above the waters of inadequacy. For the longest time, I’d felt doomed to failure and solitude. Then, two lights by the names of Emerald and Emily graced my life like two guardian angels sent from whatever heavens exist in the skies. Everything I’ve ever truly wanted, everything I’ve ever truly needed was finally set in place, and competition and championships no longer meant anything. Feeling that way, it wasn’t fair to those who still had to learn this life lesson to stay around. This week, one week before Deadly Intentions, I would meet Kaden Keene, one of the brightest upcoming stars in Pure Class Wrestling. I didn’t doubt my ability to defeat him, just as I had successfully defeated the third opponent for Deadly Intentions the previous week. However, the attention he would get for holding the world champion to a helluva match, since after all they didn’t know I was retiring, would do him so much good that his name would be known. Perhaps it wouldn’t be long till he got his chance at the gold I now held. Despite my personal distaste for him, it would do wonders for his career.
Then again, maybe I was wrong about him as well. I’d been proven wrong about the decency in people before, so it would really make me smile if this were true. Kaden had the potential to be the next big thing in Pure Class Wrestling, and even if he managed to defeat me in my second-to-last professional wrestling match, I don’t think I could ever hold any harsh feelings towards him for it. I didn’t need it anymore, and I would be happy to see someone else progressing towards the pinnacle that once meant so much to me. I’d continue to watch from my television, seeing countless brave souls putting everything on the line in the spirit of competition, just one day hoping to get their crack at the biggest belt of them all, and I’d smile then too. Perhaps on occasion I would miss the thrill of performing in front of all those people, but then I’d look at my daughter sleeping in her room and my wife sitting next to me, and there would be no doubts in my mind that I’d made the right decision.
This chapter of my life was coming to a close. Kaden Keene would be this Trauma, and then my final title defense would come at Deadly Intentions. Win or lose, I’d make my exit from the business with no regrets, and I’d change from a world champion professional wrestler to a full-time loving father, and soon enough I’d be a husband as well. What more could I ask for?
Emily finally pulled away from her embrace enough that I could see her eyes again. Our foreheads touched, and as our eyes closed, our lips grazed each other. I hugged her once again, and picked her up in the air. Catching her legs under my arm, I spun around several times and kissed her as I held her. One day soon I’d call this woman my wife, committing mine to her for the rest of my days…
And I couldn’t be happier about it.