Once Upon A Time
Once upon a time, many years ago, there lived a boy. Now this boy was very happy; he was loved by his family and had lots of friends. He loved to ride horses, and would sometimes spend the whole day away from the house, riding through the fields, looking at the Mountains in the distance and wondering what lay on the other side of them. He had been told never to go near the Mountains, for strange people lived there, and they would take him away and keep him so that he would never see his family or his friends again. He didn't want that to happen, and so he did as he was told. But that didn't stop him looking.
This boy sometimes had very dark moods, and when he got into one of his moods, his family used to look at each other in despair, not knowing what to do with him. Sometimes he would shout and stamp, and other times he would just sit quietly, looking through his family, not at them. And then he would leave the house, and picking the most spirited horse in the stables, he would gallop away towards the Mountains. He was never cruel to the horses, oh never that, but they would pick up on his mood and become skittish and hard to control, but the boy didn't mind because he liked the challenge of mastering them.
Sometimes the people in the village would see him gallop through, his face like thunder, and they would sigh and look at each other.
"One day," they said, "he'll go to the Mountains, and his family will never see him again. It's only a matter of time. He's doing as he's told now, but he has too much spirit in him to ever be truly happy here."
If he ever heard them say that, the boy would stop his horse and laugh at them, because he knew he never wanted anything more than he had right here.
And then one day....
He had been riding a long time in the hot sun, and both horse and rider wanted to rest. The boy pulled the horse to a halt by a clear running stream, surprised to see how close the Mountains were now; he was almost in the foothills.
'But that's still not actually in the Mountains,' he said to himself. 'I would never go into the Mountains.'
Sliding off the horse, he loosened the girths and tethered it, watching it dip its head so that it could drink, then dropping to his knees and splashing some of the cold clear water onto his face, letting it drip inside his clothes and cool him down.
When he raised his head, he thought for a moment that his eyes were deceiving him. There, on the other side of the stream was a boy; blond and slender, standing silently, watching him with eyes as blue as his own were dark.
"You look tired," the blond boy said. "Are you hungry? Do you want some of my food?" He held out his hands, full of bread and fruit. "What's your name?"
"I'm not allowed to say," stuttered the boy, slowly standing up.
"All right, Mr I'mnotallowedtosay. My name's Hal."
"Do you come from the Mountains?" asked the boy.
"From over the Mountains and far away," answered Hal, ducking his head and smiling. "I'm travelling, searching."
"Searching for what?"
"I'll know when I find it." He raised his strong shoulders in a shrug. "I want something to fill the empty place inside me."
And deep inside the boy, something struck a familiar chord. The empty place. Something he had never acknowledged or understood. He put his hands against his chest.
"Are you all right?" asked Hal, taking a step forward, seemingly not noticing that it took him directly into the stream.
"Yes," the boy whispered, his heart beating hard in his chest. "Where will you go now?"
Hal nodded his head. "That way, I think. What about you?"
"That's the way back to my village," said the boy. "Would you like to come with me?"
"Yes," said Hal, smiling his mysterious smile. "Yes, I would."
"David," the boy finally whispered, looking into clear blue eyes. "My name's David."
"Hello," said Hal, brushing past him so closely that the boy could smell him; sweat and new mown hay.
"Come on, then," said Hal, already beginning to walk down the path.
*
They became the talk of the village. Hal was light to David's dark, sunshine to his rain, and together they made a rainbow. Hal stayed in the village, doing odd jobs if he needed money, but mainly he could be found with David, walking in the fields, sitting beneath the trees, talking about everything and nothing, or surrounding themselves with silence, listening to the trees whispering overhead or the water giggling in the river.
"Are the Mountains as dangerous as I've been told?" David asked one day while they sat together under a huge tree, its branches spreading over them, keeping them safe.
"No, they're beautiful," laughed Hal. He laughed a lot, David thought. He could find something amusing in almost every situation. There seemed to be no darkness to Hal, his soul was light and good.
"I've always been told they were dangerous," said David. "Told never to go near them because I would never see my home again."
"You'll always find your way home, no matter how far you go. The world's a circle, so you can only go so far before you start coming home again." said Hal. "I'll take you into the Mountains one day, even beyond them if you want. Anyway, home isn't a place, David; you carry the important bits inside you, here..." and Hal rested his hand against David's heart. "No matter where you are in the world, your home is always with you."
*
David had a secret. A secret he hadn't told anyone, not even - especially not - Hal. He kept his secret close against him, nurturing it, preparing it for the time he could tell the world about it. He held the secret in his hands, keeping it safe. Hal knew he had a secret, but he could never make David tell him what it was.
"When it's ready, I'll tell you," David had said as they sat on the parapet of the stone bridge, throwing stones into the river.
"What would make you tell me sooner?" asked Hal. "Would a kiss make you tell me?"
The secret under David's hands gave a great leap, and he put his hands on his chest to calm it. He looked up at Hal and half smiled, but didn't answer, and so Hal leaned forward and kissed him, soft and kind, like a first kiss should be.
"Well?" Hal asked, pulling back. "Will you tell me now?"
"No," David laughed and shook his head, and Hal leaned forward and kissed him again, his lips rough and smooth at the same time, his taste so familiar that David felt as if he had come home. He moved one of his hands away from his chest and clenched his fingers in long blond hair, bereft when Hal pulled away, smiling softly.
"I've found the thing that fills the empty place in me," Hal said quietly. "That's my secret." He gestured around them. "It's here, this place. And it's you. You fill the empty space inside me and make me feel as if there is magic in the world."
"There's magic everywhere around us," said David, his hand still in Hal's hair, unwilling to let go. "Magic in the earth and the air, and the trees and the water."
"Tell me your secret," said Hal, and David smiled, shaking his head.
*
That night, lying in his bed, David stroked his fingers over his lips, remembering the kiss, how it made him feel. He added it to the growing store of treasures he had, all of which seemed to involve Hal somehow, and turned over so that he could face the window, watching the moon as it travelled across the sky. He put his hands against his chest, holding his secret safe.
*
As the year began to wane, Hal began to get a different look in his eyes, one that David didn't recognise. He would find him standing by the river looking at the far horizon, his eyes squinting against the low sun. Hal still smiled at him, still kissed him, called him 'beloved', but he was distant.
"What is it you want?" David asked one day as they huddled under 'their' tree, colder now as the year turned towards winter. He reached up and cupped Hal's face. "Why do you look so sad?"
"Not sad, David, never sad, not with you," replied Hal. "But it's time... time for me to move on. I want to follow the sun back across the Mountains and into the country beyond." He paused, turning his head to kiss David's palm where it rested. "Would you come with me? I want to show you so much that I've seen, wonders you wouldn't believe, and there's so much more for us to find, and we could find it together..." he tailed off.
David was silent for a long time, then pulled himself onto his knees in front of Hal.
"Time to tell you my secret," he said, smiling gently. "It's a gift," he continued. "A gift that I've been saving for you." He put his hands against his chest and then moved them until they were resting over Hal's heart. "My heart," he said. "I wanted to wait until it was strong enough, sure enough before I gave it to you. It beats for you, Hal, only for you. You told me that you carry your home with you; well I give you this. I make you my home and ask only that you take care of the gifts I bring you."
Hal reached up, placing his hands over David's, holding them against his heart, letting David feel the slow, reassuring beat.
"And will you travel with me? Let me show you that home is wherever you want it to be, that home is always with you? My gift to you, David; the whole world."
*
And so they travelled, and Hal showed David the world. They met princes and princesses, fought dragons and scaled mountains. And Hal carried David's heart, bruising it sometimes, but never hurting it so that it couldn't be fixed, and David learned that you do carry your home with you; distance makes no difference in the end because no matter where you go, home is just over the next hill.
The End
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