In a Heartbeat part 2

For the longest time I felt as though my heart had stopped beating, even though I could still breathe. Yet even breathing became difficult and I struggled to catch a breath so many times during the long, long days that echoed your departure. You had been my world, the spark that lit up my life. Now, everything felt flat, dull, permeated with a rot that seeped into the very bones of me, making them brittle, rendering me unable to move. I don't know how long I stayed that way, days, weeks, months, maybe even years. My tiger never left my side. She lay beside me as I mourned and moaned, licked the tears from my face and fingers when I wept, sang to me in a deep, melodious purr, a lullaby for the lonely.

After some time, time that blurred into a mechanical routine of eating but not tasting, bathing but not indulging, walking but not seeing, I was re-born. I had to live my life without you in it, or die. I wasn't ready for the latter option. What if he let you go, if you returned to me and I was just a pile of bones, who would bury or burn me? No, I couldn't allow that to happen.

Tiger and I roamed the island mindfully and I began to see things I had never noticed before when I was consumed with raising you. Plants that needed to be researched and catalogued for their magical properties. Beautiful creatures that added colour and personality to the land. I fell in love with my home, it became my obsession. So the years passed.

We had grown old together, Tiger and I and on a bright spring morning, we sat at the top of our favourite hill overlooking the vast expanse of the azure ocean. We spotted sails on the horizon and watched, transfixed as a boat came into view. Not many were brave enough to attempt the crossing from the mainland, guarded as it was by the monster your father put there so, so long ago.

We hunkered down and watched as the boat came to shore, Tiger growling softly. As the boat was anchored, we rose and I clambered down to the beach, Tiger padding beside me. You had your back to me and your hair was long and tangled, just like mine. You turned and my heart missed a beat. You had changed, filled out, grown into a man, but your smile was the same. You walked slowly towards me as I stood, tears glistening on my cheeks. You had come home. Embraced in your warm bear hug, I cried tears of unadulterated joy. You had come home. I reached out to reassure Tiger all was well but she wasn't there. I never saw her again.