Hey everyone! It's been, what, 3 years? That's a looooooooong time. As Eskel's Flower has now passed 20,000 hits (which is a HUGE number, thank you all so much!), I figured that you all deserve a little more Danlandish fun to brighten your day.

It's not too long, but I hope you'll like it.

This takes place 5 years after the events in Princess Academy, so Miri is about 20 and Peder is about 21.

It's called "An Ending".

~The bells ring slowly

The steps start to fade

Spring is lost to Summer

And the sun to shade

But Endings aren't bad;

They're Beginnings too.

And sometimes an Ending

Means dreams come true.~

Peder twirled a stray lock of Miri's hair. "Any thoughts?" he asked her.

She rolled over onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. "I like it," Miri confessed.

Peder's eyes lit up with their familiar twinkle. "Then it's settled. We will be married next Saturday at sunset."

Miri giggled, burying her face in his tunic-covered chest. "Have you even asked Pa's permission yet? What happens when he decides he wants me to stay his little girl forever?

The lanky mountain man looked down at her with love. "Well, then, he will"—he started tickling her—"just have to"—she squirmed and laughed, trying to wriggle out of his tight embrace—"live with our choice."

She twisted to look up at him. "I. Love. You," she said in between kisses. "So much. You silly, adorable, beautiful boy."

"And I love you, my Miri flower," he replied, rolling her toward the fire before she could even start shivering. "What's with this cold spell?"

"I'll assume you're talking about the weather and not about me," Miri joked. "Your Ma always said that one awful winter is worth five mild ones. I guess it was just time for another bad one."

"At least no one will be hiking in this storm," said Peder, raising his voice to be heard above the howling wind that viciously attacked the wooden shutters and door.

Miri was quiet. Peder tipped her face up toward his. "Hey, it's going to be okay."

"What if Pa is out there? What if he doesn't know where I am and he tries to look for me? He's not as strong as he used to be, he could get hurt or freeze or walk off the path. Peder, he could fall into the quarry!" Miri started to shiver violently despite her closeness to the fireplace.

Peder wrapped his long arms around her. "He knows I would never let anything bad happen to you. He's probably either at your house or Marda's, waiting out the storm."

Miri gasped. "What about Marda and Myic? What about Saba? She's only a baby, she could freeze!" Miri jumped up, but Peder gently pulled her back down on his lap.

"They'll be fine, silly. Marda loves that girl more than life itself; I'm sure Saba's so bundled up that she doesn't even know there's a storm going on. And," he said as Miri opened her mouth again, "Esa and Almond will be fine too, as will my mother, as will Prine Steffan and Britta. And their 4 dogs. And Rasha and Drynie. And the baby-to-come. Did I cover everyone?"

"I guess," Miri said with a sigh.

She felt Peder quarry-speak of all the times that she had worried for naught, and her fears slowly subsided as he rocked her wordlessly. She quarry-spoke back to him all of her love and gratitude for him, and for the fact that her was in her life.

And so they stayed for quite a while, until some unconscious quarry-speaking was detected (though neither knew who started it.)

"So…" Peder trailed off.

"So," Miri answered with a smirk.

"So, we've got this lovely home all to ourselves, and it would be such a shame to waste a great opportunity like this. There are no interfering fathers, mothers, sisters, babies, goats…"

"You forgot nosy princesses and their equally nosy toddlers and consorts!" piped Miri. The two dissolved into laughter.

Peder hugged Miri so that she could feel the warmth from his body. "I love you, Flower." He kissed her forehead.

"I love you too, my mountain man."

Peder gazed into Miri's eyes. "Are you sure?"

She bit her lip and smiled. "Yes," she nodded. "After all, we are getting married next Saturday. What's the worst that could happen?"

Then, their firelight shadows danced on the walls, passing by a certain linder goat with a crooked smile and a delicately carved miri flower.

Eskel's flower was home to stay.

I want to, again, express my gratitude for all the support I've received for this fic in particular. You guys are so amazing. It is mind-blowing that people still have EF on their alert lists 3 years after I said "Yep, it's done for good!" and gave it an epilogue and everything.

I love spending time in the worlds of my fics, particularly in those which have adorable couples (such as Miri and Peder, and Steph and Jason from How to Be Popular, which I also wrote a fic for.) There's so much that can be done, and their stories can never be fully written. Because these are the characters that live on in our hearts long after the book is closed and the curtain falls. There is a song from a musical called Twisted, "One Thousand and One Nights", and the ending lyrics are: "A thousand and one nights with you/Is not enough to spend/So let's make ours a story with no end."

I may add more to EF in the future; however, I currently have no plans to. I like to think that, even if this is the end, it won't really be. Because they'll go on with their lives in the pages of Princess Academy, and they will always have each other.

You are such amazing people. Thank you for the privilege of writing for you.

~IceCreamGurl6455

A thousand and one nights with them is not enough to spend. So let's make theirs a story with no end.