Sky and Earth

I stared out the window, listening to the soft, pattering murmur of the rain as it streaked from the sky, softening sharp edges, smudging everything with misty grey. Far below I could see the forest, a bruised grey mass in the drizzle. Clouds swirled above in strange shapes. Almost, I could see ghostly warriors fighting and fanciful cities spun from silver silk. There was a king with a hound, there a battered ship tossed on misty waves. The whisper of the rain filled my ears.

“What are you looking at, Miss Liadan?” A high, child’s voice asked behind me. I blinked and turned to look at little Elly. She gazed up at me curiously with wide blue eyes, wisps of her pale, strawberry blond hair curling around her face.

“The rain,” I told her.

“Oh,” She pondered this. “Why?”

I smiled a little and looked back out the window. “Did you know, Elly, that the sky and the earth love each other?” There was silence behind me as she mulled over this new piece of information.

“They do?”

“Very much. But they can never be together, so the sky sends the rain to tell the earth of his love for her. If you listen very carefully, you can hear it murmuring. And the sound is never exactly the same.”

“Really?” Elly squeezed in beside me, resting her chin on the sill.

“Mm-hm. Each raindrop has its own voice, creating a new song each time it rains.”

She was quiet for a few moments as we both watched the rain. “Miss Liadan?”

“Yes?”

“How does the earth tell the sky she loves him?” I smiled. This is why I loved Elly. She never asked the questions I expected.

“The mountains,” I said, “She gave the sky the mountains, monuments of her love.”