Setting: The next morning. Misty sunrise. Eiran find her at the pond, barefoot, staring at the water.
The morning air was cool and damp with fog. The vineyard glistened faintly, dew clinging to the leaves like quiet memories not yet spoken.
Eiran walked the path he always did before the sanctuary woke—down past the café, past the olive trees, to the pond. Normally, it was empty. Just birds, dragonflies, and silence.
But today, she was there.
Aira stood barefoot at the edge, arms wrapped around herself, wearing a long cream sweater that almost reached her knees. Her toes curled against the earth as if she needed to feel grounded.
Eiran didn't say anything, not yet. He didn't want to disturb whatever moment she was having.
But she sensed him. She didn't turn around—just said softly, "Do you ever feel like you're holding too much… and if you stop moving, it'll all crash out of you?"
He walked closer, his footsteps soft. "Sometimes I think I built this place so I'd have somewhere to let it all fall."
That made her smile, just barely.
She looked down at the water, then finally turned to him. Her eyes were glassy—not with tears, but with weight.
"My mother passed away three months ago," she said. "We weren't always close, but… she was the last thread connecting me to a version of myself I'm not sure I'll ever get back."
He stayed still, letting her speak.
"I didn't cry at the funeral," she continued. "I just sat there. I couldn't feel anything. I started wondering if maybe something inside me had gone… silent."
She kneeled by the pond, touching the water's edge.
"I found your sanctuary by accident. I was scrolling endlessly one night, not even knowing what I was looking for. And then—there it was. The way it looked, the way it felt… I don't know. Something in me just whispered: go."
She finally looked up at him. "And when I saw you in the garden yesterday… I knew I had come to the right place."
Eiran knelt beside her, shoulder to shoulder. The pond mirrored the soft pink sky, the reeds swaying gently in the breeze.
"You don't have to be anything here," Eiran said. "Not strong. Not okay. Just… you."
Aira closed her eyes. "I think I forgot who that was."
He didn't reach for her hand. He didn't need to.But he stayed. Quietly. With her. Until the mist lifted.
🌸 That Day Changed Everything
They spent the rest of the day together—not in any planned way.
She helped him water the vegetable beds. He taught her how to harvest mint without bruising the leaves. She showed him a photo of her mother—laughing in the sunlight, wind in her hair—and he didn't say sorry. He just smiled and said, she looks free.
By dusk, she was laughing again. A real, unscripted laugh that came from somewhere deeper than before.
That night, when he walked her back to the cottage, she paused at the door again.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"For letting me feel like I can begin again."