Beyond Journey's End
Inspired by Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.
She was always half a step ahead,
As if the dusk had already called her name.
Her every breath would scarcely flee
Before the next would rush in.
I observed the swiftness in her eyes,
Yet never learned what urged her on.
I thought there'd always be more skies—
Until I turned...
and she was gone.
She left before she could see
The myth she truly became.
And all she left behind with me
Were whispered spells and a twisted tale.
I brewed flowers with my wand
For those who walked her fleeting kin.
If only to catch a glimpse of the light
That carried the spark she bore within.
I had drifted, lost in years,
As time stood still and seasons blurred.
A master forged through countless years,
Yet empty of the reason stirred.
I thought the road had reached its end,
That dreams were things I'd left behind.
I walked because I always had,
Not for what I had set out to find.
Then you arrived with a notion soft and true
That breathed forgotten life anew.
It wasn't magic that you loved so dear,
Nor fate's design that you always held near.
It was neither the centuries I had walked alone
That made me open my eyes to the world beyond.
Do you remember the incessant sighs
For the corrupt priest who'd drink every night?
Or foolish detours you'd proudly tread
Through fatal labyrinths with lifted head.
Those silly moments carried us
Through mundane days until the final mile.
And then we faced the abomination before us—
The demon king with an empty smile.
The four of us fought, side by side
And gave all we had in the blink of an eye.
The victory was ours, just barely scraped
A future of peace and humankind.
And thus our journey came to a halt,
An inglorious end in a mere ten years.
What I thought was a passing while,
Was, for you, a lifetime's spring.
I resumed my aimless wander,
Collecting spells for ordinary things.
And watched the rest of you wither away
Leaving behind memories.
You were the first, a fleeting human,
And only then did I understand—
I knew the hero history praised,
But never the man who held my hand.
I thought you'd leave behind no trace,
Just a victory for history's page.
A name the wind would soon erase
As newer stories would take the stage.
Yet every road I returned to
Whispered old stories I already knew.
Not for the peace we helped restore
Nor for the glory won through war.
It was for the smiles you chose to share,
For every old banter that filled the air.
A weathered statue, standing still—
The little things you left with me.
In every word they spoke with care
And every page your ink had worn,
I found a new shade of the hero they knew
And the man I never really saw.
I thought your passing ended my chances
Of ever getting to know you.
But they always lurked in corners we had walked,
And in detours that still remember you.
My travels beyond our journey's end
Aren't aimless as you'd likely expect.
I seek the land of eternal rest
Where fleeting souls are said to dwell.
Not to awaken faded days,
Nor ask the years to turn anew,
But for a single, borrowed moment,
To voice the words I carry along.
To thank you for every needless path you chose,
For every flower you had me bloom,
For teaching me who lived too long
The feelings I never knew.
Perhaps you'll only laugh again
With that familiar, gentle grin,
And tell me all I learned at last
Was what you hoped I'd see within.