Winterborn

[Blighter]

[font=Palatino Linotype][color=#999999]O[color=#99AA99]f course love doesn't always conquer all as easily as those words are spoken, but I can safely say today that everything worked out well for my parents.

A whole three months passed and the prolonged vacation of my father ended with him requesting - and being granted - an honorable discharge from the Naval Forces, and when time came for my mother to head back to Rheinland both ventured there hand in hand, without question nor a second of hesitation on my father's end.

Infected by her own adventurous spirit he was also eager to discover her world, the place she called home, which to his surprise was not much unlike Honshu itself. That little and just as watery world in the Frankfurt system going by the name of Holstein was where my dear mother resided, in peacetime at least - but I'll get to that later.

Fascinated by the similarities between his and her world my father turned into a mirror image of my mother as they were there, and my mother into a mirror image of his as he was back on Honshu, the roles seemingly reversed. If there had ever been a better display of two people forming a perfect match, they and I have not heard of it, and even if we did, we wouldn't believe it.

Everything was so great for them, each day wonderful from start to finish, and the first happy week together on Holstein culminated during a quiet Spring evening when they both once more ended up fishing.

My mother, creative and devious as she was and remembering every single second from the time they first met, took the initiative that day, true to her spirit. She had cast the fishing rod and when a really mighty Rosefish took the bait she let my father pull it out of the sea.

As he took it off the hook he couldn't help but start laughing, remembering in an instant the first time they had encountered one another on Itoigawa's shores as his gaze met its reflection on the sparkling surface of the golden ring she had used as bait.