Costas Komborozos

The Lion's Wall Costas Komborozos

The dream becomes more than a dream. It becomes the moment itself, untouched and pure. Near-otherworldly voices waver and fade in a crimson-bathed abyss. The shadow previously readied itself for the netherworld, but now it clings stubbornly to life. The shadow gives way to something fully tangible. Leonidas stands before Gorgo. He looks over her shoulder and sees a sea glittering into infinity. "My love?" She smiles faintly. "Yes, it is me." "I will be leaving soon." "I know." He remembers how the light shifted in her eyes. "The tide, it merely makes us believe that night instantly turns into day and the other way around, does it not? The tide is only making us see this," she said. "I feel as though I was training as a child only moments ago. But you are right. The tide moves ahead of time and makes us feel that a boy becomes a man in only seconds." "And what about our love? Has it grown over time or did it happen in a moment?" He remains silent for a moment but then says, "It does not matter. Our love has survived." "But will it go where the tide is reaching. The tide is moving to a place that is far beyond us and our feelings for each other." "Perhaps our love has already made it there." He feels tears in his eyes. He knows he is living this moment as if for the first time. The tide has allowed him to do that. Now it moves again, and he watches his beloved's serene countenance dissolve like stars drowning in daylight. For a moment, her mouth and eyes linger as if to reverse the look of longing in his eyes. But he sees only his beloved's face in its entirety. The moment of her beauty's self-completion lasts for a few seconds. Then her faces fades in a single unspoken breath of longing. His heart bleeds with the light of a new dawn.