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He stared at the heart-shaped silver locket in his sweaty palm, and then at the blurry photograph where all the colours and the details had melted into one another. But he could make out the person in the picture. She looked youthful and cheery, with a big grin on her face as her ruddy complexion radiated, her hazel eyes sparkles and her bubblegum pink hair reflected the light from the beaming sun. An energetic and lively contrast, he thought, to her end, where in a sorrowful state of insecurity and depression, she vanished off the continent, whereabouts unknown, leaving her beloved sisters and her then newly-wed behind.
"Why wasn't I a better husband?", was the question he asked himself every day for 3 years and counting. It was a hard pill for him to swallow, but he knew that deep down in his heart, that along with her sisters, his -and their- lack of awareness and reassurance was to blame. Everyday, he berated himself for this, and everyday, he always ventured out a little further in this foreign land, in the slim but possible chance that his wife was residing there, and that even if only for a minute, he could tell her how sorry he was and how much he loved her.
"However", he pondered to himself, "Worrying won't get me anywhere if I don't do anything to find her", and so the former knight, a long way from his peak and former glory, gathered his horse, saddle, and sack, and went to from the forest inn, travelling to the city, to find temporary work to find his still ongoing search, and ultimately, reach his beloved.
The city of Port Safur, capital of the coastal kingdom of Cãnes, was a bustling centre of market and trade, where merchants would sell exotic goods, quacks would advertise unverified "medicinal cures", young dancers would gather on the path and entertain for payment, and gladiators were rounded up in the arena to fight to the death, in exchange for gold and a living. No doubt was it a lively, flourishing place indeed.
It didn't seem like a place his wife would live in, but after years of travelling continent to continent, he was desperate yet struggling, and had exhausted all his options. And so, Port Safur was his last hope for the foreseeable future, he thought, as he gave the last of his current gold to the tavern-keeper, when suddenly he noticed something that made his heart turn.
He looked at the silver locket, then looked up again. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. A young lady in the dining room, with short, pink hair, taking orders. And her voices her now cheery, childlike voice! For a moment, the man forgot about everything and everyone, and yelled in a manner that was otherwise beneath him, "EST!"
The waitress instantly recognised the voice, and with a puzzled look on her face, softly replied, "Abel? What are you doing here?"
But as she said that, her lips curved into a small smile, which gave him hope and light for now, and the greater future. And so, the two lovers were reunited, atleast for now. What happened to them next? Only Naga knows.