221The Rose in May
Epilogue: December Peace
'And she is as fair as the rose in May.' – Geoffrey Chaucer
"You can't catch me!" My mate teased, running off into the forest ahead of me.
I smiled, darting off after her. "I bet I can!"
I was right; within moments I had her cornered, and I leaped on her and brought her into my arms, twisting so that I landed on the ground on my back with her on top of me, curled into my chest. She was giggling, so I knew she wasn't hurt in anyway, and I proceeded to keep that beautiful sound from rising from her mouth by tickling her.
She didn't like that idea as much as my chasing her, it seemed. "Ed-ward!" She laughed, breathless. "S-stop!" I laughed with her, taking my hands away from her ribs and curling them around her, pulling her into my lap as I sat up, looking around us.
We'd ran all the way to the meadow, and at my love's bright smile, I knew that had been her intention. We hadn't been here since 'the incident', and I hadn't honestly ever been planning to come back, wanting to keep her safe from the dangers of the outside world. But, already being back here, I realized that I had missed being in our private place – here, there were no worries and no problems, and it was just me, Bella, and the serenity of the forest. It was great to be back.
Bella ended up having to regenerate after her master, James, had injured her. I'd managed to kill James, following Bella's instructions and burning his seed afterwards as he tried to regenerate. I'd been very sadistic as I did so, practically laughing with joy as I watched the tiny seed burning in the fire. The vampires that had been a part of his group – Victoria and Laurent – were destroyed in much the same way, except their vampiric bodies had been burned and not a seed, and when Bella had shifted again for the first time after her regeneration, she had approved of the choice, although she was sad that her master had been so cruel towards her and her choices.
She had promptly sent a message out to the main royals of her species, the Faeaps – she said that they were the only four fairies in history that could turn into apple trees – that explained to them that she had met her match and that she had no intention of reproducing any seedlings anytime soon. She was promoted to a third generation – which, she'd explained, basically meant that she was powerful enough to be a root-guard, but not enough to produce seeds; she also said that she'd never be promoted, not after finding her match, anyway. The Faeaps had basically just wished her the best after that, and had apologized for the trouble that James had caused her, and said that they felt for the terrible loss of her master. She hadn't replied, but had looked rather sad as she read it. They also let her know that her brothers had returned to their ancestral home, most likely after James had ditched them to find the two vampires. Nobody quite knew the entire story behind their camaraderie.
Even after her regeneration, it had taken awhile for Bella to feel fully comfortable with walking and running again – something she'd so loved to do. Her arms and legs had been, she said, 'like jelly', and she'd fallen over a lot – well, almost fallen over; I always caught her, of course.
Soon, though, she'd returned to the bright-eyed flower child I loved with everything I had. And being back at the meadow – at the place where it had all began – I remembered how odd those first few days had been; those days that felt like years ago now, but were really only three months ago. Yes, they'd been odd, though; my family had thought I'd gone insane, and I'd half-agreed. But it had turned out perfect in the end, no matter how strange of an imprint it was. I would never love another as much as I love my Bella, and that was nature's intent. In her words, she's my perfect match in every way.
Short, sweet, and to the point. Interesting fact; I had this epilogue written before I'd even begun to type up the fifth chapter. Much like with Before the Imprint: Old Foxes, I planned ahead a lot. ;) Hopefully when I type up the missing seven chapters in between the fourth and this one, they match up in the end, and everything ties up better. This will be a little weird to read when the stories finished, won't it?
(By the way, sorry if you were expecting an epilogue that was more than seven hundred words long in actual story length – you didn't really get that, did you? Also, I'd like to apologize once again too all of those that were looking for a bit more drama.)
So, in all honesty, what did you think of this story? Was it a hit or a miss, in other words? I'm still thinking about writing a Before the Imprint story for it, and all you need to do is tell me if you'd be interested in a prequel from Bella's point of view, because we all basically know Edward's story, especially since it's the same as Stephenie's story for him. Also, I'm thinking of writing another story, but from James' point of view; I'm sure you're all as interested as I am to find out what was going on behind the scenes from when he left Bella and he found her again.
Also, the next post on this story will be a little dictionary type thing, which will have little definitions for any words that were in this story which are strictly fairy terms. Bella isn't very good at explaining things when she rambles. ;)
Thanks a lot to everybody who reviewed and followed this story – I really appreciate it!
Another story done: over and out.
Review, please, and remember me.
'If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.' – Orson Welles