As soon as he felt the ship lurch, Ennis Kane somehow knew that this was going to be the last time he saw this crew again. The last time he would see this ship again. And so, it came as no surprise to him when he heard the frantic shouts that echoed their way around the boat.

But instead of making amends to an ethereal entity,  or scrambling for a rowboat, Ennis did none of those things. Rather, he sat down and mulled over his life.

Sure, there were things he regretted, and it could have been a whole lot better, he nodded to himself.

But it wasn't all that bad.

*        *        *

Lana Reagan was many things.  The daughter of a wealthy landowner (as wealthy as one could be in a small village like Weston), an overseer at her family’s sawmill, or a dreamer to those who knew her closely.

For those who knew little of her, which was many- even in her small town- she was simply that one-armed girl. But Lana tried never to let her lack of an appendage stop her.  And perhaps if she had lived anywhere other than the small town in the west of Solum, she might have been able to turn her life around.

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But unfortunately, life was tough for those who lived on the small island,  and opportunities were scarce, especially for a girl with one arm.

And thus it came as little surprise to her family when she requested to live by herself for the foreseeable future, in a little cabin in the woods.

What would have come as a surprise, however, was the real reason she had asked to live alone.

And possibly also the need for two beds rather than one, in her little forest home.

*        *        *

When finally it became time that Lana could no longer keep her secret from her family, her stomach had swelled to a considerable size.

The stranger she had long ago found washed up on their shores was no longer the unspeaking, stony cold individual he had once been, but instead, a mirthful young man who delighted in teasing and joking around with Lana.

However, although Ennis now loved to toe the line, he was very careful about never taking a step over it. He had seen the fire within her when he had refused to accept food or water for the nth time after he had been ‘found’. And he had no wish to see that roaring flame again.

So as he stood at the front of his lover’s family home, Ennis reached into his pocket and fingered his Tal, as he had done many times before.

Hand in hand with his partner he knocked on the door.

Hopefully, Lana’s inner fire wasn’t a family inheritance.