The Wait in the Rain

"Alright behave Shae, I am leaving for work." 11am the following day, finally, her dad is leaving. An hour later than what Shae told Summer.

"Yes dad. Have a good day at work." She tries to hide her nervousness and anxiousness.

As soon as the door closes, Shae rushes towards her dad's room and turns on the computer. She does it in such a rush that she almost fell on the recently re-waxed solid wood floor.

"Breathe..." She tries to calm down and stabilize her breathing as she opens the World Of Warcraft client server.

"Focus...come on..." Wrong password twice, Shae wants to speed up and log on but ends up being slower.

"Oh god finally." Correct password entered, the classic blue bar is loading. 11:05am.

Suddenly Shae's heart starts beating faster. She feels like her heart is taken out of her chest and hung by a string mid air.

"Will I see you...Summer.." Since Shae has been an hour late, she doesn't expect anyone to wait for an entire hour. But the same time, she prays, to see him again.

It is raining in Azeroth, the sky is dark yet the grass reflect an extreme fresh green. Shae looks around, nobody. Only the sound of rain falling on the leaves of an ancient tree.

Her heart sinks. "Maybe I didn't see him..." Shae searches again....Only the cloudy sky, and the lonely stone cold castle. The company Shae had yesterday feels like a flaring match, it blazes and brings the light, however the short lived flare quickly turns to ashes and oblivion, as if nothing ever happened.

"Why did I even expect..." Shae can't describe how she feels. There is something more than disappointment. Feels like the string on her heart just tightened into the flesh.

"Hey sheep!, here!" Suddenly, a familiar deep voice breaks the silence, echoing back and forth the castle and the wood. Under an old canvas that looks overly washed up by the rain, there goes Summer, who Shae has been thinking of. He peaks out his tiny blue head and calls for Shae.

"Summer..." Shae was overtaken by emotions and she stares at his face at a distance in the rain, his figure becomes hazy, and for a sudden, Summer seems unreal, like a summer emerald dream.

"Don't get a cold Sheep! Come under the canvas." Summer yells across the distance since Shae has been standing in the rain gazing at him like a statue.

Shae can't really feel the cold nor the rain crushing down on her. All she could see is Summer's vague figure from afar. "He waited for me..." A gesture that is too kind to be true to Shae.

Shae picks herself up from the thoughts and runs to Summer. As she gets closer, Summer's shape gets bigger, and clearer. Summer is all she could see, not the castle, not the tree, not the rain...Only Summer. Like a dark tunnel, Summer, standing at the end, lights up way. The noise of rainfall slowly fades away and it is only Summer's voice, guiding Shae at a lost sea.

"I am sorry I am late. My dad left late..." Shae explains, hoping Summer wouldn't get mad at her. She is so nervous that Summer would be upset and leave. The string wraps around her heart again and is ready to tighten.

"All good, I am just hanging out in the rain with my tiger." Summer looks down, the red tiger lies on his side, big furry head down on the ground. His eyes are clear and vivid, deep like black abysses. Pretty tail wiggles and taps the ground, looks lazy and bored having waited for so long.

"Ready?" Summer smirks at Shae. Due to nervousness, a light pink color submerges from her cheeks. She still can't believe someone will actually wait for her that long, and frankly doesn't understand the reason why someone would do that.

"Yes...." Shae hesitates, then slowly said to Summer: "Thank you..." The words are so soft that they quickly blended into the rain. To this day, Shae still doesn't know if Summer heard it. Unlike others, to Shae, "thank you" does not simply signify gratitude. The weight it carries is so heavy, almost like owning a debt. In her later years of adulthood, she uses these words even less. She rather bear all the loneliness, than to be in debt of other's company, after she'd learned the hard way.

To a degree, she is right. Nothing comes free. Even the long wait in the rain by Summer. The happiness of company will be repaid by a pain that will be 10 times greater when the time comes.

Of course, for now Shae would never know, she is too young and native to think about the consequences of reliance on someone would bring her. She is just thrilled to have found someone who can take the lead, in a otherwise lonely and dangerous place called Azeroth.

Same as before, Summer leads, Shae follows, closely.

"When you are near, I feel safe. I will follow you into the deepest woods of the Elwynn Forest; I will have no fear climbing the steepest ice mountains behind Iron Forge; And I will dive into the bottom of the cold Barrier Sea, as long as I am with you." Shae writes in her diary.