I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I rubbed my eyes to make sure, but even as I removed my hands, there it was – the woman, wrapped in a cloak of golden light, standing in the ankle-deep water.
‘My Lady,’ I gasped, falling to my knees at her angelic beauty, unable to gaze up at her any longer.
‘You may rise,’ she whispered, her voice clear in my ear even from so far away. ‘Rise, child.’
I struggled back to my feet, wincing as my heavy armour clanged with every movement.
‘Good sir,’ she began, tilting her head slightly. ‘Why do you hold your gaze so?’
‘I–I,’ I stammered, unable to lift my eyes any further. ‘I apologise, my Lady. Your beauty is too much for my feeble, mortal vision.’
‘Have you enquired as to a doctor?’
‘A doctor?’ I frowned slightly. ‘My Lady?’
‘Yes,’ she laughed, a most glorious sound. ‘An eye doctor, near the Bayside area.’
‘I’m afraid I don’t understand,’ I said, almost beginning to cry at the shame.
‘Ah,’ she sighed. ‘Perhaps I am too early for such things. I often find time to be… hazy. Difficult to peer through. Is this also the case with you, gentle sir?’
I frowned again, filled with awful chagrin that such an expression should present itself in her presence.
She laughed again.
‘Never mind, sir, never mind. I see that I have vexed you.’
‘I cannot apologise enough,’ I gasped, dropping my knees back into the dirty sand.
‘Nor should you at all,’ she said. ‘Do make me one promise, noble knight?’
‘Anything,’ I gasped, the oath already building on my tongue.
‘If you should be so lucky as to be blessed with a child… do take them to a children’s optometrist near me.’
‘My Lady?’ I faltered again.
‘Nobody ever looks at me,’ she sighed, putting her hands on her hips. ‘I have to assume it’s a genetic eye thing, you know? So if you could just make sure your kid gets some sort of eye care, I’d love that, please. I miss eye contact.’
I blinked up at her, utterly lost.