Julius turned his gaze to the scene below, where the white wave tops struck the shore. Rocks glistened in the sun, as gulls wheeled and cried above his head. All around there were only the sounds of nature, no chatter or music or other manmade sound. It was as though he was alone on the planet with only the birds and sea for company.

His eyes roamed dispassionately over the view in front of him, uncaring of the beauty or wildness of the scenery. He thought of past times, when she was beside him. When they had shared this lonely spot without the need for other companionship. That was long ago now, the stars had all moved on and she had left him, standing still on this very spot. He could not imagine now another to take her place, nor could he see why it was that he was still here when she was gone. We were supposed to share eternity together, he mourned silently. Moisture ran down his face from the crease at the corner of his eye, pooling at the corner of his lip before rolling down.

Suddenly a sound disturbs his reverie. What? What was that? He could not see, could not tell what the cause had been. There! There it was again. Now he knows what it is, get scrabbling for purchase on rocks. And they were coming his way. He did not want to be disturbed. He had stood here for so long now that he almost enjoyed the loneliness and the misery of being without her.

Gradually a person came into view, a young woman, with hair of blackest night falling in loose waves around her shoulders. His heart stuttered, was it she? Had she returned to him? The girl turned and peered up at him with sky blue eyes, reaching out a soft hand to touch his face. She spoke but he could not understand her words, so alien had the sound of speech become to him. No one ever came here, it was his place and now this young female was intruding on his sorrow and she was not her, his green eyed Cleo. There was the slightest movement of his limbs and the girl screams and throws herself away from him, forgetting the drop behind her. She tumbles over the edge, trying desperately and failing to find purchase on the slippery rocks. He watches as she falls to the water below, impaling herself on the rocks.

Now she too is gone and he is once more alone with his thoughts and memories. Memories of when the two of them stood and gazed out from this cliff b towards her homeland. A thousand, a hundred thousand, memories of happier times with just each other for company.

As sunset approaches, light bounces off the cliff face and the temple at the top – a small, forgotten relic of times long past. But even this has not escaped the ravages of time. The temple now stands at the cliffs edge where erosion had removed the gardens that once led to it. A pedestal stands empty, half broken in two, where one half head fallen to the sea. The remains of a few drapes are all that are left of the statue that once graced it. But the pedestal beside it, now that is a different story. A snake drops from its sunning spot in the crook of the seem of a magnificent statue of the most famous man of his time. Even now the penetrating power of his eyes above the patrician nose are a wonder to behold!

Julius Caesar stands alone looking out towards the lands of his lover, towards the red land of Egypt. Where magician priests had ordered the creation of the statues for the temple in this other land, standing sarcophagi in the form of the living that contained the mortal remains of their visages, so that two lovers, separated in life, could stand together forever in death. But now Julius is alone and all their preparations are undone. He is alone, without his love, gazing over the ocean that stole her away.

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