"Are you sure?"

Without hesitation. "Very."

"This will cost you the one thing you hold the dearest. Once lost, I fear you will never regain it."

"I can't leave him there alone. We started this journey together; I will always feel incomplete if we don't end it together."

"As you wish."

~.~

The snow fell in heavy, fat flakes. Swirling in the chilled winds and dancing over the frosted tops of the pine trees. All was silent in the winter woods, aside from the occasional crack when a lighter bough gave in to the weight of the never ending snow fall and came crashing in to forest floor.

Sharp green eyes rose to consider the sky line in the distance. Over several miles away, the trees gradually gave way, on one side to undemanding foothills and on the other, the beginnings of famous Sparkling Peaks. Mountains so high their tops could only be seen from above the clouds.

And over it all, in the peace of snowfall and nature, Gikk couldn't shake the feeling of dread. Not to be mistaken for the feeling of Emptiness. That feeling was forever and didn't fade or lessen. It came to live with him on that day he said goodbye to his dearest friend, in the field of flowers. Howl tried to reassure him that all Nameless felt that ache if divided from the one that named them. But Gikk knew. He really did. It didn't take the thirty years of training in magic he had completed to know the difference between the sting of magic and the empty longings of a broken heart.

It had been for the best, he reminded himself, again. All he had to do was look out over the Winter Woods he now stood in, the very woods that were faced with the real danger of warfare, to know she was far better off in her home world.

Of course she was.

From the snow filled skies, an overweight and black flake danced its way towards him. As it drew closer to his outstretched hand, Gikk could see it was indeed his soot sprite, the oversized black eyes watching him with a decidedly nervous air.

"Nameless Master!" The small one squeaked as it settled in to his palm. "It is as you feared, from the East they come, with their machines and Sky Burners. Howl hinders them but he has had no luck altering their course."

Gikk nodded, sighing. "I thought as much. This is the most direct route through to the Autumn City. And Sophie? How goes her talks with the assembly?"

The Sprite gave a huff, sending its small form shaking. "Ambassador Sophie is not heard. They care little for the Treatises of the Wizards. They see only a forest that stands between them and their rival; they care nothing for the magic that flows here."

"Also as I thought." Gikk gently placed the sprite on his shoulder, freeing his hands as he dropped to his knees and began shoving aside mounds of snow and forest mulch to get to the hard, frozen ground below.

"Nameless Master, the Kodama are restless and the tree spirits are getting angered. They do not wish to be involved in the battles of Man."

"I know. That's why the wizards are fighting to keep all magical places out of it, little one."

"Yes Master, but they grow inpatient. They trust you, more so than most as you are a Nameless but if you cannot stem this tide, they will see it as their duty to rise up and fight."

Gikk stopped in his labors, seriously considering the words of his messenger. "That cannot happen. It would be foolish to come between two warring nations. Let the Men fight as they always have and tell the forest folk to trust in the wizards, as they always have."

"I will tell them, Nameless Master." The sprite answered dejectedly. He had seen his Master do incredible things in the past but he didn't like the odds if his beloved Master had to stand between the tree spirits and the machines of Man.

Beneath his hands, Gikk had cleared out a space of rough frozen ground about the size of a doorway. With a hurried percussion, he traced his slender fingers over the land, leaving sparks of magic in his wake, magic that was orange, orange as the sunset or his unruly hair - that lovely trail of magical flame licked and sparked, eager to be unleashed in to a doorway for a destination far from here.

The sprite recognized the spell and squeaked with urgency. "Wait! Master wait I have more to tell you!"

"Then travel with me, I must get this to Markl." He gestured vaguely to the tiny pouch that rested on his belt. "I cannot cast the Mist without his help."

"But Master! This is very, very important." The tiny sprite jumped up on his head, bouncing up and down with each word. "The Kodama found something! Last night, in the woods, it fell from the Sky. They thought it was a Star Child – it looks very much like a Star Child, but it feels different. They do not know what to do with it."

Gikk paused, lifting his hand away from his incomplete work. It was his duty, as a sworn wizard to help all magical creatures. Star Children were rare, precious beings that often did not visit the worlds below and if this one had been somehow injured in the fall and Gikk did nothing, or even worse, left the Child in the middle of what could be a battle field of Men…

Having made up his mind, he finished the teleport spell. In the same daft movement, grabbed the sprite and shoved him in the bag that was to be delivered. "Take this to Markl. Don't fail me." With a casual toss, he lobbed the bag, sprite and all in to the waiting vortex. With a 'pop!' and shower of orange that smelled like a Christmas promise, the door was gone.

It wasn't hard to find the Star Child.

Gikk had hardly stepped three feet in to the forest proper before tiny white, ethereal hands took hold of his. All around him the musical 'clicks' of the Kodama filled the air as the children of the forest ran next to him, heads clicking back and forth. Vanishing and reappearing further down the trail, they raced on and on through the silent winter trees.

Up ahead he could see a break in the thick foliage, an unnatural clearing in the center of all the trees. From the distance, he could hear the Kodama clicking urgently, filling the air with a canopy of clacking.

As he moved closer, Gikk's boots began to stick with mud and it took only a glance to see that all the snow in the clearing had been melted in to slush. The trees closest to the center of the landing had been bowed back by the force of impact.

A Star Child couldn't have picked a worse time to come visit the Earth. They were innocent by nature, kind and compassionate and ruled by a pack mentality that made them extremely trusting. That alone wouldn't have been a problem but it was well known that the heart of a Star Child was the secret to unlocking immortality, which made them targets for the shorter lived races like Men and Animal-kin.

He had to get the Child back to the castle quickly and find a way to get them home.

Gikk clambered down towards the crater and the still form lying in its center. The clothing caught his eye right away. Star Children didn't wear… was that jeans?

"Miss!" He called, trying to awaken her from her slumber as he laid a careful hand on her back. Her head was turned just so as to have a curtain of the whitest hair covering her features. That astonishing hair color and the way she had fallen from the sky must have been what led the forest folk to think she was a Star Child. But Gikk, with his heightened senses could tell this was not an ordinary fallen star. Hair that color could also be the after effects of very powerful magic. She smelled like the dew at dawn and something so very familiar it made his heart catch. Something very and safe and warm and…

"Miss?" Gikk tried again, with a gentle urgency. He was now convinced this was person had once in fact been human – a victim of very powerful magic and possibly someone he had known before his name had been taken from him. Something about her was so very familiar.

As he pushed her hair away from her face and drew her closer to him, chocolate brown eyes flickered open. They took him in with a look that was just shy of recognition and a light smile tugged at her tired lips.

He knew. He knew the second their eyes met. This was that person, that spectacular person that had come in to his life like a firestorm and left him aching every day since. Somehow, that fantastic woman had battled all the odds and found a way back to him.

A pale hand reached up, pushing up to lock her fingers in to his hair. Shivers shot down his spine as the part of him that had been missing for the last ten years finally clicked in to place.

"You found me." He said softly.

A look of confusion crossed the woman's face, a crease of worry picking up between her eyes. "You found me." She corrected. "In the forest and you seem so very familiar. Do I know you?"

"Oh love." He admonished, dragging her closer and burying his face in that starlit hair. "What have you done?"

To his surprise, the woman wrapped her arms around him, deepening the embrace. She answered gently, "I honestly don't know. I'm not too sure about anything but I do know you feel right."

Holding her, Gikk scrambled over his memories through the last few years, remembering every moment he spent with the wonderful woman he now held. Like a bite of foil, it spiked through his mind. How long ago exactly was it when the beautiful face of the person that held his heart stopped having a name attached to it? When was the last time Howl carefully mentioned she was safer now, if not happier? And hadn't Gikk assumed they stopped saying her name because it hurt to hear? Had it really been so long? Surely several years.

"You gave up your name to get back here." He whispered, heart sinking. "And oh, you've been falling for such a very long time." With tender hands, he drew her far enough back look at her face as he drew a few of the silver strands in to his hands. "Long enough that you caught the starlight in your hair and you smell of forever."

The woman smiled. "Does that sound like something I would do? I don't quite remember anymore but when I see you – I feel like you are all I need to know."

And despite the loss Gikk felt knowing she had given her true name for him, he couldn't help but return the smile. "You were always impossible, you know that? My remarkable trouble magnet. This is exactly what you would do if you had your mind set on getting back to me." He paused to consider, "Actually this is a milder route. You could have ripped the two worlds in to nothing or possibly just blown yourself up. Maybe me." He tilted his head, doing a brief span of mental math. "Likely yourself - me in the backlash and finally a moon. Maybe two."

Her laugh was as rich as he remembered, joy made sound tumbling from lips that were fuller and far better than his memory could paint.

"We'll get you a name, a temporary one and I promise Howl and I will get your memories back. I'll never stop until I've found it. Even if I have to do some drastic things of my own."

Smiling, the woman lunged at him, wrapping her arms tightly around him. "Together, right? We'll find it together?"

"Of course! I don't want to blow up. Some people might miss the moon. I'm not letting you out of my sight. I had it all backwards before, but not anymore. I thought by sending you away, I was keeping you safe from trouble. All I was really doing was making you run from it alone."

At those words, Gikk started, pulling up his beloved. "We have to get out of here. I have Mikhal working on a spell to cover this place in Mist but he can't do it alone and any second now, a very aggressive army is going to come tearing through here."

"Run?" She asked, a very familiar smile playing over her face.

"Oh yes." He answered with a return smile, gripping her hand tightly.

~.~

The Wizard's War as it came to be called lasted several human lifetimes, long enough to entangle every race and continent before it had finally ran its course. For wizard's, who measure their lifespan as stars do, it was but a hiccup on the way to a better, more united new world.

In the thick of every battle was the most famous wizard Howl and in every political debate and raging reformation, would stand his beloved wife, Sophie, ever the loudest ambassador for peace, who one day became the most beloved of the four Queens.

From the many battles rose many legends and a great majority of them focused on a Nameless Wizard and his much-loved Star Child.

No one knew their names, or where they had come from but it was assured that they only had to appear at a battle and both sides would quickly surrender.

That probably had a lot to do with his odd, outlandish way of doing battle. The kind of way that made everyone think he had won by accident and everyone involved should be very thankful he hadn't blown up the four realms in the process.

His spells always backfired, spectacularly but with outcomes that labeled him as either the luckiest man who ever lived, or the most brilliant – a point of debate that still rages on. The pair always seemed to be running from something (either from the enemy or his own conjuring) and yet in the end of it all, when things seemed the most dire or impossible, it was assured he and his silver haired lady would be standing at the thickest point, hand in hand, smiling.

~.~

I tried to end this like I thought a Ghilbli film would end – with admittedly more fluff but I felt it was important not to have every bit wrap up as expected. I love the idea of Gikk and his silver lady crossing the stars and worlds forever, seeking but not really caring if they ever found their true names. Just seemed to kind of fit.

So there it is - the story that was originally four pages long and should have only taken me a day to write. Feels good to finish it. Thank you for all the awesome reviews and sticking with me for so long. It's been a real treat.