Welcome to Gaia! ::

While she might not have heard the question Sammy was asking herself, Riley could tell that she had said something, and she could tell the woman was also alone. That was enough to convince her to move by the waterside, pushing her skirt flat before sitting down on it beside her.

"You look like you have a lot on your mind," She murmured quietly. "Not that I can blame you. The question is, would you like to talk about it? It could help."

There was that hope again, believing in the impossible. She knew there was little that talking would do, but as long as there was a chance..

"Our future weighs heavy on you." She guessed, with an understanding tone.

"Can you truly think that?" She sounded politely shocked, as if she couldn't believe it was true. "To have no hope that there is a brighter end coming is to give up on life altogether. What makes you stand in the morning? What gives you the strength to get up and move again? To eat?"

Riley reached out to the edge of the lake, and let her fingers dip under the cold water. "The road behind us is paved with pain, there is no doubt. Things look grim, and in truth, there may be nothing but death waiting for us. But there may also be victory, and perhaps even peace. We will never know if we don't even bother to try."

By the look on Riley's face, she did not like that answer.

"I choose to believe that we are only given the burdens we can bear before we crumble under the weight of it. These are hard times, but that is only because we are hard people." She giggled under her breath, and amended her statement. "Well, some of us are. But I want to believe there is a reason for all of this. It keeps me smiling, at the end of the day." Her cheeks bloomed with color, and she rested her head on her knees. "It keeps me from despair, and if I had despaired, my heart would have been closed. I never would have felt something stir inside me when I looked at another person. I never would have lived."

She grinned, a little more foolishly than she ever had before, and stared out at the glistening lake with a distant gaze.

"If you focus on how bad things are, or can be, you miss out on every little thing that makes this life worth it. All of the beauty still there to see and feel."

A gentle giggle left her when Sammy mentioned the dress, and she looked down to see the tattered remains of her gown. "Well I'm still in a dress.. technically." And that was a big technicality considering how the dress was town to the knee and the sleeves were all but shredded and gone. She looked like she was wearing rags, but at least they were clean now.

The second question should have been expected, but Riley was never quick about matters of the heart, and so the dark flush deepening made her duck her head in embarrassment. "Why Sammy, that's.." Inappropriate? But was it, really? She wasn't embarrassed to admit her feelings, and the knights had no room to judge if she had feelings for someone. Why, then, should she not just answer?

After a moment or two of silence, she finally did just that. Her voice was a quiet whisper, but it was audible how good it felt to admit it.

"I do." She breathed out, flooding with content. "I never thought it to be possible, but I am smitten. Quite effectively so, in fact."

Comfortable as she was to admit it, she still turned red as a beet and grinned like she was a child again. Speaking of such things was so difficult to do with a straight face. It was as if she was sharing a deep, private secret.

Loving one another.

Riley stopped to ponder the meaning of the word, and wondered if it was truly that simple. She had no experience with affairs of the heart, and could not pull from any past information. She turned her gaze up to Sammy, the innocence practically glowing from her eyes. But as soon as Sammy asked, Riley knew the answer. She heard it as clear as a bell ringing, and her heart sang with the sound.

Her expression lit up in a proud, almost jubilant smile. "Hope." She whispered, finally standing to reach out and place her hands affectionately on Sammy's shoulders. She was touching the woman, and she didn't flinch, or pull away. Her hands were shaking, so it was still obvious that this was difficult for her - but she overcame it because of the strength one simple word gave her. "He believes in our future. He gives me hope. He is hope. And where we are, right now, with what we stand against - yes. I consider that truly miraculous. It's all I've ever wanted, it simply came in a different form than I was expecting. Instead of meditation, or enlightenment, or spiritual distance, it came in the form of - love."

She almost hesitated to admit it. But it was fairly obvious.