The land before me was broad, sprawling, and wide. Regardless, my gaze was narrowed to a glint on the horizon. It flashed and shimmered between the scrub and trees and drew me ever nearer off the path that I had followed for ages prior. This sparkling star was not bright like a bulb, but flashed and waned as it turned through the brown trunks before it.

The shimmer had an owner, and as I drew closer, I could tell, certainly, that it was surrounded on all sides by brown streaming locks of hair on a shapely head. As a twig snapped beneath my feet, the woman’s face I then did meet. Eyes like pearls they gleamed at me, ever the brighter than the pin of her hair, and they dazzled at the sight of a man like me - like none she had seen before.

For though I did not inspire the chiseled form of statues of old, my eyes were soft, my jaw was hard, my hands were rough from traveling far. A kindness I did carry with me that in ages past drew the gaze of those special few who were of like kind, but now of late I had given up those fabled dreams of sharing my drive and dreams with a loving mate.

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But with a soft smile from her lush lips the dream rekindled, and the fire grew inside my heart. My chest rose up, my back was straight, and I approached her with a subtle charm. She bowed her head - I returned it so - and we walked in stride together through the crisp clear wood humming with the birds and rivers as they flowed. All thoughts of glory and of gain fled from my mind in that simple time when in her presence I did return to that state of nature both wild and hard, yet simple and pure as we can only assume our fathers of old enjoyed so well. Yet in this age simple times last only a moment few as the mind dreams of what one can do. I looked at her and she looked at me – our fingers touched at the end of the land we had walked. We bade our farewells with a blink and a nod to pursue our young desires of the heart.

But maybe so if I walk that wood again, I may yet find and tame my glory and gain to live in that simple and pure state with the girl with the eyes of gleaming pearls.