Aisling's Story

Summer.
Her favorite.
Aisling ran through the water, splashing it all over Daniel. Nothing could change her world, her forest. She'd stay there for centuries to come.
"Aisling!"
A delicate figure with the same white hair as all of Aisling's family ran up.
"Keeva," Aisling said, and was so distracted that Daniel pushed her over into the waves and they laughed.
Keeva smiled at Daniel. "Daniel, I would like to show Aisling something. Alone."
Aisling's smile faded to a frown. "What's going on?"
Keeva grabbed her hand. "It's urgent."
Aisling took off in a run.

Keeva and Aisling, in their deer forms, sprinted to a cave. Keeva looked up at it.
"It's the Cave of Crom Cruach."
" What? " Aisling yelled.
"Shush!" Keeva whispered. "There's something inside. Retrieve it."
" What? " Aisling asked.
"The eye."
Aisling gulped. She slipped in, Keeva behind her. She looked up at the statues, that grinned menacingly at her.
"This is a bad idea!" Aisling yelped, backing away.
"No, it's not."
" Crom Cruach! " Aisling hissed. "Bad idea!"
" Good idea. "
Keeva shoved Aisling through the entrance. She swallowed her fears, and stormed in.
Up in one of the statues lay a crystal, light blue and grey. Aisling climbed up the hard stone, reaching out but never coming close to the gem. Finally, she felt it.
Keeva silently whooped, and went for the exit, but the rocks crumpled. They blocked the entrance, and Keeva went stiff with fear.
"Aisling! Come on!"
Aisling backflipped off the statue, grabbing Keeva's cold hand. They hopped over the falling stones.
"I'll hold the entrance! Go!" Keeva screamed, ripping away from Aisling's grip. Rocks started to crash toward her, and Keeva tried to hold them up. Aisling skidded to a stop.
"Keeva," she whispered.
Keeva looked back at her, skeletal lines appearing across her face. Her white skin became covered in black tendrils of darkness, her green eyes wide.
"Turn the dark to light. For me." Keeva's voice was raspy as she said her final words. The darkness finally became too hard for her to withstand, and she crumpled to dust as Aisling fled.

"Crom! Crom Cruach!"
Aisling ran into the forest, still clutching the Eye. The others yelped.
"Get to the tree! Where's Keeva?" yelled Aisling's mother, Bedelia.
" She sacrificed herself for my escape, " Aisling explained. "I awakened him. I took the Eye."
She showed the eye to Bedelia. She gasped, and grabbed her daughter's hand. They fled to a tree, one that would guard them. Aisling was thrown about, and tried her best to get back.
"Aisling," Bedelia said, as the village ran in. " Aisling! "
Bedelia hurried out, grabbing her daughter. Aisling sobbed, looking around. Crom Cruach's darkness covered her home. She had been stupid to believe her forest would guard her forever, that nothing would happen. She'd gone and ruined it.
One by one, the darkness grabbed her family and friends like a cyclone, and ashen dust was the only remain. Even Daniel, her brother, couldn't escape.
Bedelia threw Aisling into a hole inside the tree.
"When you hear nothing, or someone tells you to, come out."
Covered in dirt, leaves and mud, Aisling closed her eyes.

She knew they were all gone.
Aisling finally crept out, years later. She knew Crom would come for her, trying to hunt down the last of her race. Aisling yelped as she came face-to-face with a large black wolf with red eyes, one of Crom's hunters. A dozen others surrounded her, teeth bared.
Aisling thought of a song she'd heard her mother sing once, and recited it. The wolves sat down, looking at her happily.
Aisling shifted to her wolf form, and ran through her barren world.

It wouldn't be for 20 years until she'd come out. She faced the same fate as her family, except she somehow lived.
Aisling watched as Ireland changed. She came out to try and find the boy who she had helped, sneaking onto a bus.
"This is different," she said. A boy was playing on a small thing, which she picked up and inspected.
"What's this for?" Aisling asked him, throwing it back.
She searched, but Aisling couldn't find him.

One day later, Aisling rested under a tree. The moon glittering, night rich and velvety, Aisling picked something up.
It was a necklace, with a grey and blue gem in the middle. Aisling felt her hand burn.
"His eye," she whispered. Aisling felt anger burn inside her. Crom cost her her family and her friends.
Aisling threw the gem to the ground, and resentfully smashed it beneath her feet. Dust caked the rest of it, and Aisling gasped.
A group of spirits appeared. In the lead was Bedelia, and Keeva was next to her.
"Aisling, my dear, you have a choice. Stay here, immortal, in this...place...or sacrifice yourself to come with us."
Aisling thought. She held out her hand but Bedelia's form shimmered and flickered away.
"Mom..." She whispered.
The dark night coated Aisling like a blanket, and she finally decided.

Alternative endings!
If you want her to stay, read this.
Aisling thought, and gulped. "I would like to stay, to learn the customs of this century."
" Aisling... " Bedelia said, but those pleading green eyes stared at her and she nodded, and the spirits faded.
The next day, Aisling stood by a bus stop with a boy in a mask.
"Hitching a ride?" He grinned under it.
Aisling shrugged, tucking back her white hair.
"Nice costume."
"This? It is not a costume."
She climbed into the bus and grinned. Maybe she'd like it here. Maybe she'd fit in here.
A boy and girl walked by, to the end of the bus. Aisling swerved around to see them. "Why, hello there."
The girl waved, her short black hair shining. The boy sighed.
Aisling knew she would like it here.

Read this if she should follow her family.
Aisling looked at them all, and nodded. Keeva grinned at her. "Thank you, sister. You were correct, it was a bad idea," she confessed. " But we can leave it in the past. "
With that Aisling faded into the night sky. Her thoughts were set on that boy...Brendan, who has withstood Crom and destroyed him. Maybe, just maybe, she'd see him again.