The sun dappled through the trees as the Master walked slowly through the forrest. Listening to the sounds of the woods, his axe slung over his back, his knife swinging on his hip. Stopping and looking up towards the sun through the forrests canopy, he looked back down the mountains path from whence he came, and smiled softly to himself nodding, and returned again to the path that lay ahead of him, rather then that which lay behind.
Slowly he walked along, never in a rush, but moving upwards, and onwards each step taking him further from his past and closer to his future.
He could hear a dull rush of water, which must mean there was a ravine ahead that echo'd the river of life. Stepping from the brush onto a rocky plateau he looked into the ravine and saw the white frothing waters 100's of feet below him. Lost in thought, he barely heard the gentle voice.
"It's very deep..."
He jumped back and unslung his battle axe with a deftness learned from years of use and combat. Falling into a defensive stance, he looked about with a flurry of head movements that ended in his staring at a beautiful young maiden on the far side of the ravine...she was just 20 feet away from him but the sounds of the water rushing nearly drowned out her voice.
"And who might you be young lady..." He watched across the ravine to see if there were any hidden archers lurking about, waiting in ambush.
"You have no need of my name Sir..." She puffed up her chest in defiance at him...but took a step back slowly eyeing the axe he wielded.
He chuckled softly but kept his axe at the ready..."I don't you say? Hmmm well when someone speaks out in surprise at me, I'd like to know the name of the person i've nearly killed...."
Her eyes grew wide and she stammered softly..."kymberly..."
"Speak up! Damn waters so loud it's drowning your voice out!"
"MY NAME IS KYMBERLY !" She yelled at him as her back finally came in contact with the mountains face.
"NO NEED TO YELL!" he laughed as she smiled and sat down hesitantly on a rock across the ravine from him.
"And what's your name Sir?" she asked curiously.
"Sir will do just fine..." He looked to the right and left of where she sat wondering when the evil demons would leap out to attack...
She cocked her head slowly and said "If you put down your axe Sir, it might be easier to come to know you better wouldn't you think?"
He huffed at the young girls brazen request for him to disarm himself. "I've never let my axe down before child, for a woman, a man, for anyone. Why should I let my axe down for YOU of all people might I ask?"
"You don't have to but I'd truly like it if you did. It's so much nicer talking to someone who's not on the defense...I'm alone here Sir..and I'm stuck across this ravine where I can do you no harm..."
He laughed boldly. "Child...there is no axe, sword or arrow, that can do as great a harm as a womans words..." With that he slung his axe again across his back and looked about...finding a short log he dragged it over across from the girl and sat down. Reaching into his pack he pulled out an apple and tossed it across the ravine to the girl, and removed another for himself.
"Thank you!" She bit into the apple ravenously, juices running down her chin ...and watched the man curiously as he took a bite...the juice running into his goatee which he wiped off with the back of his hand, chewing while staring at the girl.
Taking a few more bites he tossed the core into the ravine and swallowed, taking the time to wipe his goatee clean again...he asked. "What is a young lady like yourself doing out here on the mountain on your own? And just how did you come to be over there..."
"I'm not THAT young!" she snapped..he laughed at that quietly to himself and nodded. "Yes..your a woman..of that theres no mistake..."
"And I came to be stuck on this side of the ravine when a bridge collapsed...a bridge built by my ex-love. He built the bridge so that we could come to this side of the ravine and explore..but then the bridge collapsed and he fell into the ravine...and I quickly found out there was no other way to go from here..i'm stuck...and can not get back"
"My lord child...how long ago was this?! I'm sorry to hear of your loss..."
"Thank you...and it's been many weeks i've been here...but i've come to like this side of the ravine...very much so to be honest..."
He shook his head lightly and looked down into the ravine at the vast depth of it...the rush of the deadly waters...looking up he realised the sun would be setting soon. He stood.
"Please don't leave! Stay! Talk to me!" He nodded. "I'll be right back." And began to head off into the woods.
"My love said he'd be right back...he went to cross the bridge to get our packs and it collapsed...people who say they'll be back..never come back..." She sighed softly.
Stopping the Master walked back to the edge of the ravine. "On my word child, I'll return shortly. Night is falling and I'll be needing a fire...I'll cut you some firewood and throw it across the ravine and teach you to start a fire. So that you can be kept warm this night by it's heat."
She nodded quietly...and watched him disappear into the woods, knowing and feeling in her heart his words were true, that he'd return...yet in the back of her mind she fretted that he'd never return.
Making quick work of a few dried trees the Master returned and dumped an arm load of wood onto the plateau and said "I told you I'd return. I keep my word child." And he disappeared into the woods and made a few trips with the rest of the pre-cut wood.
Securing 3 nice sized logs together with some twine from his pack, the Master bound a bundle of kindling to the pile of logs and with a strong heave and a deep gutteral growl he tossed the entire pile across the ravine easily.
Over the next hour the Master taught the girl by example of his own how to set the kindling and the logs and how to ignite them with his spare flint and stone he had tossed to her as well. As both fires came to life...the Master threw across 3 more bundles of good sized logs for the girl.
"That should do for the night" He settled onto his log seat again and warmed his hands by the fire just as the sun slipped behind the peak of the mountain.
"Thank you so much for staying here with me Sir...I haven't had anyone to talk to in ages!" She warmed her hands and smiled softly to the man across the ravine who had proven good to his word.
The two talked into the wee hours of the night before finally slipping off to sleep together...each watching the other...the hours of conversation had brought them closer together and he'd revealed his name..his age..where he hailed from...how long he'd been a Master of the wood, and his hopes for the future in life.
In the morning they awoke and again began to chat, as the Master tossed her over some bread and more logs for her fire...he threw her a pot and the means to fashion coffee for herself and a tin cup, and they sat drinking their morning coffees together.
"So will you leave me today Sir?" She asked hesitantly.
"Leave you? No. I won't be leaving you anytime soon girl."
"What will you do today then?" She asked.
"Today I'll build a bridge. And retrieve you from that side of the ravine"
"OH! No! You can't! I don't TRUST bridges anymore! I couldn't cross a bridge in life right now, no no no no no!" she got in a tizzy and paced back and forth quickly on her side of the ravine.
"It will be a strong bridge child. I'll build it and come over and retrieve you and we can get you back down to the village"
"NO! NO! NO!" She stomped her feet! "I will not trust any bridge a man builds ever again i swear! At least not yet! Please no!"
"Would you rot and miss your entire life on that side of the ravine child?"
"If you attempt to build a bridge I swear i'll throw myself into the ravine!"
"ok ok ok, calm yourself down...we'll talk of it again later...let us relax now.."He calmed her down and slowly she settled back onto her rock seat and tried to catch her breath....
And so it came to be. The Master and the maiden talked all day, and all through the nights, and the weeks to come. Sitting across the ravine from one another and sharing more of their lives and thoughts and laughter with one another. Growing closer and closer and slowly but surely falling in love.
The Master knew he had to retrive his new found love from her side of the ravine and he stressed about it day and night...wondering how he could help this child come to trust him and his workmanship and intergrity.
And yet anytime the topic arose they would end up pacing and talking to one another across the ravine trying to make sense of one another.
Finally one night...it came to him...
"You don't trust me...or my work....that's it isn't it?" He asked her quietly
"I'm sorry my love! I can't trust..it's so hard to trust...I just don't know how to even begin to trust! I trusted my ex-love and look what has happened to me! How could I ever come to trust another man so soon!"
"Pet...how could you not trust me..." He sighed softly realising exactly why it was she couldn't trust him..she hadn't walked with him...lived with him...held his hand...touched his lips with her own....felt his head against her breast as she breathed softly in her sleep...this girl hadn't felt any of that and wouldn't begin to feel that if she didn't make a leap of faith in trusting him this once to get them together finally. The true trusting couldn't even begin to happen till they'd begun walking side by side and being there for one another time and time again...
"Kymberly....you can't trust me because you won't spend the time with me in life to learn to trust me. You've gotten yourself onto a rock ledge that you can't get off of with out putting your trust into me, and yet you can't trust me because of where you are...it's a vicious circle that can't begin to heal till we begin to live our lives together...instead of apart.."
At that they decided to think on things and sleep the night...and in the morning they'd discuss it again tomorrow.
When morning came, the Master slipped into the woods, and felled a huge thick tree...cutting off the branches and the excess limbs he notched the log on both ends with a V and dragged the log to the plateau. Kymberly hadn't awoken yet and he took his knife from his sheath and slowly carved a word into each end of the the log.
he carved "Master" into one end of the log, and at the other end he carved "slave"
When kymberly awoke she stretched and begun making her morning coffee and chit chatting idely with her love across the ravine.
"Kymberly. I want to show you 5 words that mean a great deal to me in life..would you allow me to do that?" He asked her skeptically hoping beyond all hope.
"yes of course my love! I would let you show me any words that you wished."
He stood the log up on the Master end...and working it slowly towards the ravine, he pushed it and let it fall to her side...rolling the log on his side till the word Master was face up as slave would be face up on her side.
"This word means alot in my history and my life and in my future kymberly.."
Through out the day they talked of the words and what they meant to one another. Kymberly grew to gently rubbing the edge of the log and tracing her fingers over the engraved word "slave" smoothing the edges of it's lettering.
As night fell they talked more of the word "Master" and what it meant to one another...
In the morning the Master repeated the felling process and dragged a log to the plateau before kymberly awoke and slowly carved the word "Protect" into his end of the log, and the word "submit" into her end of the log. Once she awoke he let the log fall into place on her side and positions it just right.
"Todays words pet, submit, and protect" And they spoke into the night again of the words and the meanings each imparting to the other their beliefs and thoughts.
The third morning he felled another tree and dragged the large log into the clearning on the plateau. Engraving into it the word "Discpline" on his side of the log and "endure" into her side of the log...when she awoke he set the log into place easily having grown to figure out the best way to do so. And they spent their day and night talking of the two words, how theya ffected their lives and what they believed them to mean to one another..and they drifted off to sleep with the visions in their heads of all they had come to share so far.
The fourth morning brought about anothe tree felling, the large log dragged into the clearing on the plateau again, he engraved into it the word "Guide" on his end of the log, and the word "trust" onto her side of the log.
She awoke and as had become the daily ritual made her coffee and chit chatted before they sat down to their serious discussion of the words and their meanings to one another. Into the dark hours of the night they chatted and fell asleep softly across from one another trying to stay awake and keep the other in their sight..but slowly losing to exhaustion they slipped into a slumber.
On the fifth day...the Master again worked his way into the woods and searched for just the right tree...finding it finally he felled it quickly and stripped it...working with all his might to drag it to the clearing as he had the 4 days prior...he engraved two words into the log. Identical on each side...and positioned it once she'd had her coffee.
"Todays word pet...."love"" And with that they set to talking about love, what it meant to one another, what it meant to others, what it was in their lives apart and together, and realised over the course of the day they it meant the exact same things to one another...that it was the binding thing that had kept them together all this time..and that love would always keep them together...
"Kymberly...do you realise what these words mean"
"Yes love we've talked about them extensively and I know exactly what these words mean...."
"These words are our bridge kymberly"
She nodded softly, having known this day would come...
The Master stepped onto the bridge and slowly crossed it carefully yes with an obvious assurance of the quality of the bridge they had built together.
Reaching down he scooped the young girl into his arms and kissed her softly his eyes never leaving her own....and stood there..with his love in his arms finally feeling her warmth...the heat of her body...her bossom raising and lowering her hair falling softly on his arm...feeling her...for the first time in life...feeling the one love that he'd been searching his entire life for....
The kiss broke softly and they both beamed at one another as she clung tightly to her Master...as he crossed the bridge they'd built together...
Reaching the far side of the bridge again the Master set the girl to her feet, and she quickly dropped to her knees and clasped his hand. "I am sorry that we had to go through this Master, but it was something that needed to be worked out in life, for me, and your being there with me every step of the way is the only thing that made it possible. I love you. And I will trust you freely always in life"
With that she kissed the Masters hand lightly to her lips.
Squatting down on his heels he lifted her chin to look into his eyes evenly and surely.
"No. You will not. You will allow me to prove myself trustworthy over time, and we will do that together pet, what we've done here today is only the first step in that trust...we have many more steps to take towards the complete trust we both know we want in life with one another, but we'll take those steps hand in hand and side by side.
I will not ask you to trust blindly. I will expect you to trust with your eyes wide open, and the knowledge that I've earned the trust, respect, endurance, submission, and love that you give to me in life. Having earned it with the Mastering, of the Guidance, the Discipline, the Protection and the love that i give to you in life child. Don't trust blindly in life kymberly.
But once you've seen that i have earned the trust you give...give it freely and always. I love you." With that he kissed her softly and helped her to her feet...clasping her tiny hand in his he shouldered his pack...and they disappeared in to the forrest...walking the path of life together...hand in hand...side by side...for life
