A Lantern for Troubled Times (See Description for Full Story)

A man and his wife lived on a quiet hill. One dusk a strange glow touched the sky. It was not dawn and not a fading sun. The light flickered like a distant storm. He felt a small worry rise in his chest. He thought of a friend beyond the haze. She lived in a city of gardens and poems. Her home lay beneath that faraway sky. He knew he could not judge her distant homeland. Some paths belong only to those who walk them. Yet the glow on the horizon troubled him. He knew the light came from violent hands. He feared she lived under its reach. Great kingdoms stirred winds far away. They claimed the right to shape the weather. The man did not share their belief. On his hill storms were met with patience. He heard soft voices in his own land. They murmured the storm was not their wish. Their words rose like lanterns in the dark. Small lights drifting steadily in the night. The man wished for a lantern of his own. A warm light to cross the long distance. Only to say he was thinking of her.