Words Left Unsaid

While we had 500 words to show a scene involving a hand written letter from Write On Edge this week, I found I didn't need it.  The scene I had pictured in my head once again comes from a significantly longer piece I'm working on.  but I found it didn't need that generous of a word count.  Other pieces can be found here, here and here.  Here it is - let me know what you think!

Tyrhan pulled out a folded piece of parchment from his belt pouch.  It was dirtier than when he’d first gotten it.  A bit more tattered around the edges too.

He caressed it for a while before opening it once more.  He didn’t really need to read it anymore to know what it said.  The words were etched not only into his memory but into his heart.  They’d become scars there.  Burning, aching with every beat.  Regrets washed through him hard on the heels of those piercing heartbeats.  There were so many things he should have said.

Drawing a deep breath, Tyrhan looked at the even, elegant script on the page.  Even now he could picture her sitting there in the dim campfire light penning each word with care.  The others had each gotten short notes from her, but his was by far the longest.

Her words tried to explain to him why things ended up the way they did.  Tyrhan found he didn’t care.  She was gone and that was what mattered.  That hurt the most.  Saylen’s belief Tyrhan had done all he could wasn’t something Tyrhan could share.  Afterall, what was the use of being a Guardian if he couldn’t keep the one thing he’d dedicated his entire life to safe?

He studied those words, just as he had a hundred times or more in the week since he’d gotten the letter.  Each time he hoped he could find some peace, some answer he’d missed before.  Tyrhan never did.

All he ever found was the same anguish and loss.  Those three words at the end were the most brutal of all.  They were a knife buried so deep in his heart it’d never come out.  That one sentence reminded him of everything that could have been.  Everything he’d wanted but was too afraid to go after.  And now it was too late.  She was gone.

And all he had left was a tear smudged letter and a crystallized rose pendant.


I am hoping (eventually) to have the entire finished work published on Smashwords.com.  I'll let ya'll know when it is.

Also, don't forget - you have until the end of the day today to link up with the Don't Panic Picture Prompt #3.