Rise of The Guardians 2: Just Like Fire

Chapter 20: Aria

The first time I had died, I didn't think that there was an afterlife. That death was an eternal sleep, and you were just gone. But then I woke up. And I was told I had been given another chance, and that most people don't get that chance.

I knew I could die, and that I wouldn't age. But I never expected to wake up again after I died for a second time. I mean, sure, the Sand Man did. Then again, he is the literal embodiment of dreams. I'm just a girl with fire.

But sometimes death is strange.

So that's how I found myself lying on a small patch of stone in a dark cave, very similar to the cave containing the heart of the Mother. All around me, the ground dropped away to black nothingness, except for a small raised walkway to the only light source, a small jagged doorway.

Slowly I stood up, realising the ice shards in my veins were gone.

The faint glimmer of sunlight from the doorway increased slightly as I made my way over to it.

It led to a cool passageway, softly glowing lichen covering the walls in an intricate pattern of green-white glow.

A few more steps, and I emerged into a large perfectly circular space filled with green, almost like a courtyard. Rock walls rose all around me to a ridiculous height, the clear blue sky a small circle above me. Several arches were cut at different heights in the rock face above me, and I guessed they were balconies, and I thought I saw movement in the shadows of one, but then it was gone, and I couldn't be sure.

The courtyard was overgrown, tangled trees and vines spreading their roots over the uneven floor, and reaching old, gnarled fingers towards the cotton wool clouds above me. Vines crept up the rock walls, entwining with protrusions and each other to create a vibrant, colourful screen to the rock. As I stepped forward, hundreds of butterflies rose from a bush, taking to the air with a natural grace. Several chose to land on my hair and shoulders, their green and black wings tickling my skin.

"They like you." Came a soft voice, tinkling with sweet, bell like laughter.

"Mother?" I gasped, looking up.

On a bench, almost hidden from view under the shade of an ancient tree, a woman, both young and old simultaneously, sat watching me. Mother Nature smiled at me. Sometimes it was hard to tell what the Mother looked like. Wrinkles seemed to be embedded in her skin, deep and dark to mirror her true age, yet other times, their shadow was barely there, and she looked even younger than me. And not just that, her personality seemed to follow her appearance as well, sometimes a little, giggly girl, and other times a world weary grandmother.

"Yes dear one." She patted the bench beside her, and I joined her.

"Why am I here?" I asked.

"Your job isn't finished." She replied, calm as ever.

"Kronos is still alive. I know what I have to do."

"Do you? You're still dead. And you have a choice. You can go back to your body in the corporeal world to finish what you started, possibly risking pain. Or you can choose to leave this world on the next Great Adventure."

I sat back in shock, her announcement like a bucket of ice water poured all over me.

I could leave? Forget about Kronos and the pain. I wouldn't have to kill anyone. There would be no more expectations. Forget about inexplicable feelings that couldn't go anywhere.

But then I thought about the Guardians. Jack. They would die without me.

I straightened my spine. "No. I made you a promise, and I'm going to keep it. Kronos must die."

She smiled serenely, as if she'd always known what I was going to say. Silently, she stood, walking gracefully across tangled roots sticking up out of the ground.

Confused, I followed her as she wove through the trees, stopping between the stone wall and a tree.

She gestured at the bark, and I realised that it was a fire tree, and the upper branches were crowded with flickering orange flowers. "Draw your strength and be revived." She commanded.

"What?" I asked, mystified, even as the soft flickering leaves burst into a bold bonfire.

Impatiently, she took my hand and placed it on the sharp, dark trunk. "Take its strength and let it heal your wounds."

"I have no wounds." I replied, but even as I said the words, I began to feel an ache in my chest and head; a slow, cold cramp that radiated outwards, already gaining in intensity.

And then I don't know what I did. I just... pushed, or maybe pulled... it's hard to know. But the tree let me, and a different kind of warmth melted into my fingers, like the feeling of stepping from a dark room into the sun. The warmth spread through fingers that hadn't realised they were stiff with cold, and cells that didn't know they weren't working correctly.

The pain in my chest and the coldness of my body were warring with the relieving sunlight, making me weak, and I sagged to the ground. The bark keeping my hands glued to the tree like magnets cut the skin of my fingers, but my brain barely registered as my blood dripped down the wood.

Then the warmth reached my spine, and it felt like Christmas had arrived early, soothing my body.

Finally, when I had taken all I needed, by hands dropped from the wood and I stood up, feeling completely energised as the fire coursed through my system.

Then I looked up. The beautiful plant in front of me had withered and died, the limp orange blossoms extinguished, charred and lying in untidy heaps all around the base. I gasped in horror.

"What have I done?"

I raised my bloody hands to my mouth, but saw the ugly red stains forming from the cuts and dropped them again.

"Do not worry." The Mother said. "It isn't dead. It will regenerate. And anyway, its entire purpose was to heal you."

"Oh gee, so reassuring, thanks so much for that." I replied, sarcasm dripping from my unamused voice. It didn't matter what its purpose was. I had killed it.

"Don't be childish Aria." She scolded, immediately making me feel guilty. I began shuffling my feet like a toddler.

"Sorry." I muttered.

She smiled, somewhat sadly. "It is time for you to return to your body now. But before you go, I have one more gift." She held out her hand. Coiled in her palm were two bracelets, a thin silver chain made of intricate filigree links, and a larger golden one that looked slightly simpler.

"Jewellery?" I asked, slightly perplexed. I had been hoping for a weapon or something that I could use to kill Kronos.

"Yes." She said simply.

"Um, why?"

"You don't need to know why now. But when it is time, you'll know what to do."

I rolled my eyes at her cryptic answer, but took the bracelets. The metal coiled sinuously into my palm, and it almost felt like the links were moving to settle into the lines of my skin as they pulsed with simultaneous heat and chill, once, twice.

She giggled like a little girl, and I looked up at her. "They like you." She clapped her hands together once, and smiled sadly. "I cannot keep you here any longer. A few more moments and your soul will be separated from your body permanently. Good luck."

The grove slowly faded, becoming blurry and dark as my eyes slid closed.