Whitney Writes…

Shura smiled at Mazar, their hands linked as they walked along. It had been sometime since they had taken time for themselves, away from their children. He was telling her of the latest tale of Gorbak’s haunting in the kitchen. The ghost had helped make the tomato soup the other night that everyone had loved so much. Shura couldn’t help but let her laugh out; she had always hated the sound of her laugh and tried to stifle it, but Mazar loved it.

“What are you going to do while he is away and you don’t have that ghost to help you lot in the kitchen?” she chuckled.

Mazar shrugged. “This one thinks he has not thought of that, that Gorbak thinks the ghost will remain in the palace while he goes to Orsinium.” The Khajiit smiled wickedly, “This one wishes it could see the look on Murdan’s face when the spirit turns up in the middle of the night in their camp.”

“MAZAR!!” Shura exclaimed, swatting her husband’s arm playfully.

They fell into a companionable silence, the kind that only comes when a couple has been in love for more than a decade. They always loved to share their days with one another, but most often, no words needed to be said between the two. And those moments were Shura’s favorite and always said more to her than any loud profession of love.

At the crest of the hill, they paused their hike, and sat down upon a warm, smooth boulder. They sat quietly, both enjoying the view overlooking the palace.

Shura blinked rapidly. Either she was hallucinating, or the palace was changing color. The beautifully creamy white of the limestone was beginning to take on a greenish hue. “Mazar…” she murmured, “…are you seeing this?”

“This one does not think the palace was always green,” Mazar agreed. “Or… was it?”

“No,” Shura said with confidence, “it definitely was not.” She turned to look behind them. Her heart stilled in her chest and her breath froze in throat. “Mazar,” she said again, terror creeping into her voice, “where has the sun gone?”

When Mazar turned to regard what had struck such fear into his beloved, his whiskers twitched. The sun had been completely eclipsed by Masser, the larger of Nirn’s twin moons.

Inktober 2024, Prompt #8: HIKE🧡🖤👻🎃