Brightening White Flowers

6. Making a Choice

I find myself, once again, sitting by Mother's grave as I wait for Togin to come to some kind of decision about the messenger. I lean against her blue stone as I pour water onto her blue cerebi, the rose-like flowers glisten from the newly formed water droplets. Sighing I carefully place the blue water jug down right next to me. As I stare at the flowers of the dead, I find my hand reaching out to cup one blue budding blossom against any thought of my own. The longer my hand remains on the blossom the more the world fades away as tiredness seeps into my very bones.

"Karri Wrighte!" A small, higher pitched voice seems to echo in the fading noise of the graveyard. I barely hear as a body settles in the grass and stones next to me. The voice that follows seconds later is more clear though, "What are you doing?!" Delicate pale hands try to pull me from my mother's grave as the budding cerebi starts to gain a silver tint at the edges of each petal. As fear creeps into the high-pitched voice it is no longer small, "Stop it now!"

It is the fear that finally breaks through the trance I found myself in and I jerk my hand away from the changed flower. Surprisingly, it does not break. I stare at it with dazed eyes for a few seconds before lifting my gaze to innocent burnished gold ones. Her lips are trembling before she shakes me a little, "What were you thinking?!" At my continual dazed gaze she grasps my hands and lowers her volume, "Karri?"

I slowly shake my head which dissipates some of the fog surrounding my mind, but it causes the colors of the graveyard to blend together in splotches of greens, grays, and browns with sparks of bright rainbow colors as my vision blurs. Vaguely, I hear the high pitched voice make sounds of distress as I start to fall forward but my pounding heart causes my elemental power to kick into overdrive and in seconds the blurred vision is gone. Now, when I look up I can clearly make out unbound golden brown hair to go with those innocent eyes and the sweetest cherubic face I have ever seen. I grasp my young cousin's hand in mine now, "Tesaria. Why do you look so sad?"

At first she is completely silent then she sniffles once, "Were you... were you trying to kill yourself?"

In the back of mind I can vaguely feel alarm but even my extraordinary ability to heal is still working to undo the damages so I am too muddy to think about it. I frown, "No. Why would you think that?"

Her eyes look from me down to the cerebi right next to us very slowly. Her voice is extremely quiet as she responds, "I saw you just sitting here and giving your mother's cerebi your life force."

As more of the fog muddling my mind dissipates I look between the flowers and her once again and my mouth opens in an 'o' shape as it finally occurs to me what I had been doing. Cerebi can only get their nutrients provided by decay... so they will suck the life force from the living to get those nutrients. "Tesa..." I let her hand go and cup her cheek, "I was not trying to kill myself. I just fell under its draw."

She still looks concerned and bites her bottom lip hard before looking around. Finally, she exhales one shuddering breath and nods slowly. I am better enough to tell that she does not really accept my answer but with nobody else around she is willing to drop it. In the next moment though she lets my other hand goes and places it on my chest.

"I will be fine." My voice sounds stronger to my ears and I am pleased that I am feeling better so quickly. However, she frowns disbelieving and I do not move away from her internal inspection of my body.

As it completes she withdraws her hand and moves her waist length hair over her right shoulder. My whole body stiffens as she tilts her head just so to offer me the left side of her neck. "You need blood. Your body is repairing the damage but it will be quicker and safer if you have fresh blood."