Thor smiled, holding his hands out in front of him.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“I want you to see something,” she said. “But wait until we reach the top of the hill. Just a few more steps. Don’t open your eyes until I tell you. Promise?”
Thor smiled wide. He loved Gwen’s playfulness; he always had.
“I promise,” he said.
Slowly, Gwen removed her hands. Thor waited, until finally she said: “Okay.”
Thor opened his eyes and was breathless at the site: stretched before him as far as the eye could see were rolling meadows, filled with the most beautiful and exotic night flowers he had ever seen. He had never even known that flowers like these existed. Under the moonlight, these flowers were alive, blooming, and even more so, they were actually glowing, lighting up the night. There were entire fields of glowing yellows and violets and whites, swaying in the nighttime breeze, making the fields look alive, as if they were holding thousands of swaying candles. It was the most breathtaking thing he had ever seen.
“Glow flowers,” she said, coming up beside. “Aren’t they beautiful?”
She took his hand, as they looked out at the fields and he learned in and kissed her.
They held the kiss for a long time, and finally they clasped hands, and continued on the trail, through the glowing field of flowers, side by side, Krohn leaping into the flowers beside them.
They had been walking for what felt like forever when Thor asked, with a smile: “Where are we going?”
She smiled back.
“Some place very special to me,” she replied. “It is a place I hold dear to my heart, a place that few people know about.”
They walked for a while in silence, with no sound but the whistling of the wind, and the occasional night bird’s song, along with Krohn’s breathing beside them as they went. Every now and again Krohn would bound into the flowers, pouncing on some animal they could not see, then come victoriously back to the trail, trotting along beside them.
“I prayed for you,” Gwen said, softly. “I thank god that you were delivered back safe to me. The thought of you being gone was too much for me to bear.”
“I’m sorry to have left you,” Thor said. “I wish I did not have to.”
“It’s funny,” Gwen said, “but ever since I met you, I’m finding it hard to think of anything else. You have a way of getting into my veins. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re gone. But it’s hard to concentrate when you’re near me.”
Thor’s squeezed her hand harder, overcome with love for her, amazed to hear that she felt the same way about him as he did her. He was burning with a desire to ask her to marry him. He was starting to wonder if now was the right time and place. He was about to, and cleared his throat, but then felt himself getting nervous, afraid she might say no.
He steeled himself. He opened his mouth to speak, and was about to ask her.
But suddenly they rounded a bend, and they stopped as there came into view a small but magnificent structure, built in the shape of a miniature castle, intimate and quaint. It was nestled in the hills, high up, with a commanding view of the meadows, surrounded by thousands of glowing night flowers.
“My mother’s house,” Gwen said.
“Your mother’s?” Thor asked.
“She and my father found it harder to take each other as they grew older. She had this place built for herself, mainly, to get away from him. From all of us. She liked to be alone. Not anymore. Now, ironically, she’s confined to the castle—at least until she is better. So this place sits empty. Few people know of it. I would come here, sometimes, when I was young, to get away from it all, when she was not here. I wanted to share it with you,” she said, squeezing his hand.
Thor was amazed this place existed. The site of it took his breath away, so quaint, the ancient stone nestled into the hills, its façade covered with clinging, glowing flowers. It looked magical.
Gwendolyn led him across the meadow, up to the structure and in through its small, arched door. She lit a torch as they entered, and used that to light others, lighting up room after room as they went. It was cozy in here, the stone rooms not too large. Gwen lit a fire in the fireplace,