It had been a week since the last reaping of the wheat. Everyone, especially Una, believed that the winter was far too harsh to survive until the harvest. Mainly after they used the lands of Mercia to grow crops on their hills, their soil was rich, but their waters were bitter.

After the Pendragons were defeated, their name faded into oblivion. No one knows if there are any left, and they had hoped there weren't. However, two remain from that lineage, Una and her son Emyr.

They've kept quiet from most of Bryttania since the defeat, staying in the mountains in Gwynedd. King Gareth had come by to see Emyr a few months after his birth. He told Una that one of Laurel's distant cousins had ascended the throne of Cornwealas, and all seemed well. Other than the few Viking attacks they occasionally get, all of Britannia was relatively as it was before the war started.

Now the earth was still warming, but the season of rebirth had long passed since. Now was the time for apples and pears. Una was quite fond of apples, but Emyr had taken a liking to pears. He refused to eat them the year before, but now that's all he talks about.

"Emyr," Una called for him.

He was running barefoot in the tall grass. Una feared that a snake or perhaps an unkind insect would bite him.

"Emyr, come here!" Una beckoned for him again.

He was running to the forest again, evading his mother.

"Humph, well, if he steps on something, I told him so!" Una sighed to herself and turned back to the apple tree.

She had been in the orchard all afternoon, picking through ripe apples.

"Don't wander too far!" Una shouted to him.

She could spot him very far away with his white-blond hair flowing in the wind of the dark forest.

"But alas, you should," Una said, remembering her own restless spirit.

Una twisted an apple and pulled it from its stem off the tree, placing it into a thick woven basket. As she pulled more off of the tree, she looked back at Emyr, making sure he would not stray from her sight. Whenever Una looked at him like this, it overwhelmed her because she knew one day, he would be old enough to leave her company and perhaps would never come back.

"Mam, look at this pear!" Emyr laughed and pointed up in a tree as he walked back to Una.

"A very large one indeed! I will pick it when I make my way over there soon." Una said, scanning the tree.

"Aww." Emyr pouted and sat down on the soft grass, gazing up at his prized pear.

Una looked over at him and laughed.

"You must wait, Emyr, for patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." Una smiled and turned to the next tree.

Emyr sighed again and stared back up at his pear. Suddenly a bird came and sat atop one of the branches near the fruit.

"Mam, a bird! He'll eat it!" He stood and cried out to Una.

"It's alright, Emyr. The bird must eat too. There is plenty for you and the birds alike." Una said without turning around.

"But that's my pear!" Emyr said, disappointed as he looked at the bird.

"Emyr, please, the fruit at the top if for the birds, the fruit below is for us, the fruit on the ground is for the rest of the animals. You'd be stealing his pear." Una grinned.

Emyr watched as the bird began to peck at the tender flesh of the ripe pear. He had enough watching this bird eat his prize he had gazed upon only moments before. He walked up to the tree and jumped with his arms high in the air. He hung on the lowest branch and brought the rest of his body up. He sat on the branch and stood again, climbing slowly but silently up the tree.

Una looked over momentarily and did not see him. She assumed he had run off again toward the forest.

"Emyr, it's getting dark. Come back!" Una shouted.

"But I'm right here, mama!" Emyr laughed.

Una looked up and fear-filled her heart as she watched her son sitting at the top of a huge tree.

"Emyr!" Una cried out to him.

"It's okay, Mam, I got my pear! See?" Emyr said as he tried to pluck his pear away from the branch.

"Get down!" Una shouted up at him.

"I have to get my pear! I want to show Aaron!" Emyr insisted as he tugged on his pear more.

It would not release from the branch, so he tried to twist it.

"Get down, for heaven's sake!" Una began to panic.

She took off her boots and jumped on the branch.

"I'm coming up!" Una said, trying to keep calm.

"It won't break!" Emyr said, getting more and more frustrated.

"I will get it for you! Just come down, please!" Una begged as she scaled the tree up.

"I almost got it!" Emyr said as he lifted his arms and tried to twist it with both of his hands.

"Emyr!" Una shrieked.

It was already too late. He was falling and on the opposite side of Una.

"Emyr!" Una cried, leaping down.

On her way, she saw a figure below the tree.

"Ahh!" Una shrieked as she fell to the ground.

She landed on the balls of her feet luckily, absorbing most of the blow, but she fell back and twisted her ankle. She didn't say a word as she laid there as immense pain radiated out from her ankle. She was transfixed by Emyr, who had been saved from his fall. Una could feel her heart nearly burst out of her chest in both happiness and grief. It had been almost five years.

"Alaric?" Una mumbled, feeling her eyes swell with tears.

He couldn't hear her; he was too busy examining Emyr's face closely. Una knew it was Alaric the instant she laid eyes on him. His hair was much longer and darker at the roots. He seemed almost taller and more muscled than she remembered. After all, he was once weaker than Una at one time. It was only when he had gathered up the armies to lead in the battle against the pendragons; that is when he finally was stronger than Una.

"Where's your mother?" Alaric asked.

Emyr gulped and pointed up in the tree. When he realized she was not there, he felt terror being held by a stranger.

"Mama!" He began to cry.

"It's okay. It's okay!" Alaric assured him as he gently put him down.

Una sat there, with her twisted ankle, staring at them both. Emyr will grow up to look just like Alaric.

"I'm right here." Una gasped as she felt Alaric's eyes locate her far from the tree.

"Una!" He cried out to her, running to her side.

He stopped just short of her, seeing a face so strange and yet so familiar.

"He's always getting into trouble." Una laughed.

"Did you fall?" Alaric asked.

"No, I popped up out of the ground. What do you think!?" Una laughed and winced.

"Your leg is all twisted." Alaric kneeled.

"Yes, but it was a worthy cause," Una mumbled, looking at Emyr peeking to the side of the tree trunk.

"I thought we were supposed to live long enough for him to become a man." Alaric laughed as he walked over to Una.

"This feels so strange." Una sighed.

She stared at Emyr, who Alaric had never met.

"Can you walk?" Alaric asked.

"Help me up?" Una grinned, looking up at him.

It was as if time had finally caught up where they had left off. It felt like there was no time between all the years of writing to one another, and yet here, the reality of time had set in. Una was still powerful, but not as much as she used to be. There were no wars to be waged, only an occasional Viking raid, which was usually solved by negotiations or trade. Many were starved and just needed food and water, and Una allowed them to stay so long as they could contribute somehow. Because of this, many of the best farriers, smiths, millers, and farmers were found within the walls of Snowdonia.

"I've never known you to be so reckless," Alaric said, bending down.

He placed his arms around Una to help her up.

"Just kidding!" Una laughed as she embraced him in her arms tightly.

Alaric paused for a moment and then lifted his arms and wrapped them around her.

"I am strong enough to be here by myself, but I am weak because I have lamented every day since our departure," Una said softly.

Alaric closed his eyes and held Una even closer.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner," Alaric admitted.

"No, I am sorry. I haven't found an excuse to leave quite yet, for our son is terrified of horses. He doesn't want to ride at all. I couldn't leave him here, alone. I know what that's like." Una said, feeling his soft golden hair in her hands.

Alaric broke away and held Una's face gently in his hands.

"There hasn't been a day that I haven't thought of this moment. I know we write to each other a lot, but words are meaningless if not spoken." Alaric said, staring intensely into Una's emerald eyes.

He said nothing but smiled at Una.

"You've truly touched my heart, with so much grace and admiration," Una said, placing her hands around his face too.

They knelt their foreheads together and closed their eyes, not having a moment like this in so long. This feeling feels different now. There was no pressure of war and damnation, or evil sorceresses and damaged pasts. It was love that carried through their distance and strengthened through time. Were as Una fell out of Love with Gareth, with each passing day she saw Emyr, she wanted him so badly to be by Alaric. Alaric's kingdom was twice Gareth's size and was the mediator between the north and south countries. It was virtually impossible to leave his post. Una almost gave up on him, thinking he might never get to meet his son.

"And yet still, I grow more in love with you each passing day," Una said softly.

Alaric and Una found each other's lips and passionately embraced themselves in a kiss. It, too, felt so surreal, as if all of this was an elaborate dream brought on by the extreme longing for one another, manifested into a reality. Una quickly broke away.

"You're not Arawn, are you?" Una asked to make sure.

"No." Alaric laughed.

Una returned the smile and looked at Emyr.

"You'd be pleased to know he has been baptized," Una said softly.

"You're raising him as a Christian?" Alaric laughed.

"Like mother, like son, I guess." Una shrugged.

"You converted?" Alaric exclaimed and grabbed her shoulders.

"I couldn't teach him the old ways. That would be too painful for me to dig up old bones. My mother forced me to worship and sacrifice. He needs structure in his life and love without conditions. After many years of being surrounded by a God, I didn't quite understand the context behind it until I understood forgiveness. I had to forgive myself and others. A priest came to me and asked that I be converting from my pagan ways when I spoke of forgiveness. I said 'yes,' and soon after, I found myself being baptized." Una said, looking off in the distance.

"Mam!" Emyr said, startled at this strange man touching his mother.

"Oh, Emyr. Come here, please. It's alright!" Una said, outstretching an arm for him.

Emyr slowly walked over, careful not to look at the man.

"It's okay, Emyr!" Una said, pulling him to her lap.

Alaric gazed down at him and smiled.

"You are going to have to beat the women off of him with a stick one day," Alaric said, gazing into his light teal eyes.

"If he remains as intelligent as he is, he shouldn't have a problem." Una laughed, pulling his white hair behind his shoulders.

Emyr rested his head over Una's chest and looked up at Alaric, saying nothing.

"Is your name, Emyr?" Alaric asked.

Emyr slowly shook his head.

"Just as I thought from earlier, you taught him English." Alaric laughed.

"Not only my language and that language, but Norse as well." Una smiled at him.

Alaric looked at Una and then back at Emyr.

"You know my language now?" Alaric asked.

"No, unfortunately, but he does very well. His teacher says he is a natural. Of course, his father is a Dane, so that makes complete sense." Una laughed.

"You never told me of this before?" Alaric said, shocked with delight.

"I wanted it to be a surprise, so when he finally was old and strong enough to ride to Northumbria, he wouldn't have to run into the troubles I did." Una smiled, remembering their journeys across the north.

"So, how is Henrik fairing with his little brother?" Una smiled.

Alaric bit his lip and bent his head down.

"He loves Neil," Alaric said softly.

"What's wrong?" Una asked him.

Alaric sighed.

"I feel like I have betrayed you," Alaric said.

"How so? I already know you married Brita, and you now have a son a year younger than ours." Una said emotionless.

"I don't love her, Una," Alaric said bluntly.

"Oh." Una softly said.

"I'll never love her the way I love you," Alaric said emotionally.

"Oh, hush your tongue. You've already had my approval of your union with her. She needs you, Alaric." Una smiled.

"So, you don't need me?" Alaric asked.

"Oh, Alaric. Have you been stewing over this for some time? If I may be honest, when I said I was with Aaron, that did not mean what you think it is. Aaron is my best friend, nothing more. He is not my King, nor is he the people's King. I am the ruler here. I need no man. I have remained chaste since our last encounter." Una said, looking away.

"Are you serious?" Alaric gasped.

"I'm still not as strong as you are mental." Alaric laughed, looking up at the pale blue sky, growing darker with the amber dusk.

Una shook her head and sighed.

"Besides, it takes a village to raise a child. Emyr has many strong father figures in his life. He doesn't need to define one as his father." Una said.

"So, he doesn't know about me then," Alaric said, disappointed as he looked down at him.

"I never wrote you that I tell him about you all the time. Every night, I fill his dreams of his father defeating dragons and assuming vast armies. He loves you, Alaric. But right now, he is confused between what I have told him and reality. He knows he has a real, living father. He is frightened right now because I believe he knows that's who you are. He is very perceptive and keen on people. If he didn't like you, he would have let you know by now." Una smiled.

Alaric looked back at Emyr and stuck out his hand for him.

"Do you know who I am?" Alaric asked.

Una smiled and leaned in.

"He's the dragon slayer. You can hug him if you want!" Una whispered in Emyr's ear.

Emyr's mouth flew open, and his eyes got wide.

"You!? Emyr smiled brightly.

"He's even got the dimples," Alaric said with a tear running down his cheek as he laughed.

Emyr crawled off of Una and jumped on Alaric, wrapping his arms tightly around his neck.

"Did I mention he is very personable?" Una laughed.

"He's everything good from his mother." Alaric smiled, remembering Una, the beautiful times they shared and never the bad.

"You're a sorcerer?" Emyr broke away and looked deeply into his father's eyes.

"Perhaps a bit too much imagination." Una laughed.

"Never too much." Alaric laughed.

"But to answer your question, Emyr, yes. There was one time that my sister came back to life after she had tragically passed away..." Alaric trailed on with his story.

Una sat there, feeling pain in her ankle, but it was nothing compared to her love for these two. They were her own child and the man she had loved for many years. It all made sense now. She had a family all along and didn't need the voids filled with war and grief. No distance or time could break their bonds apart, for love was the only thing that ever really mattered. It was love that creates as well as destroys and can be transcended and reform. It has taken many shapes and filled many hearts. For love is constant and never wavering. That is why it lies in the spirits of those who know real darkness like Una. If one has love, darkness cannot blacken hearts, for if one truly has love, they have everything.