Phoenix

The New World

The birds sung in chorus as she touched down in the new world. The sky was a clean azure, the air crisp and misty tendrils of water left fine, downy droplets on her naked body.

She was standing, ankle deep in the shallows of a clear, deep aquamarine plunge basin with a magnificent waterfall falling in three tear duct cascades down a sheer slate rock face before her. On either side, her friends stood awestruck too. Fresh water fish ducked and wove around their feet, scales flashing as they jumped to catch luminescent insects hovering just above the rippling surface. Butterflies carved playful patterns in the mist, their iridescent wings glinting in the light.

Overcome by thirst, she knelt to scoop large handfuls of the heavy mineralised water into her mouth, gasping when her hands graced something hard and irregularly shaped beneath the surface.

Grasping the object, she drew it out of the water, only to find it was Gunner's knife. The hilt glistened a dark wet sheen. More objects floated to the surface, the matchbox Eli gave her, Miki's shell necklace and Herald's feather quill. Around her, her friends gasped as they gathered objects of significance from their own lives. Gus caught her eye and winked—the warmth of his smile extending far beyond his face.

Three figures to emerged from the forest behind her. The first belonged to Gigi. Gone were her sunken cheeks and the deathly pallor of her skin. This was her grandmother in a world without hardship and sacrifice.

A man with golden-skin followed close behind, smelling of pine trees and sap. His eyes glistened the colour of treacle-stained redwood, like the hilt of Gunner's knife. "You have my eyes... and my skin," he said in the timbre of a tenor. "But you've got your mother's lips."

Ash gasped as a woman with feline grace stepped forward, long raven hair just like her own and almond eyes that seemed to see right into her. "My Ashalia," the woman said. "We're so proud. You've come so far." Her hands were warm, knobbly around the knuckles, just like Gigi's.

Ash's throat constricted as though Freia was choking her with the pocket watch again and all the questions she'd collected over the years, the things she'd fantasised about saying to her parents should she ever meet them, were gone.

Her mother smiled, lips parting like spring blossoms in bloom. "Your questions will be answered in due time," she said. "But for now, you must go back."

"No," Ash croaked, finding her voice in sheer panic. "I want to stay here with you."

Her mother shook her head and her smile dropped at the edges. "I'm sorry, darling. You must go back and continue what you started. There is still hope for your world and your city yet."

"What has my world ever done for me?" Ash said, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. "I don't want to go back."

"You mustn't give up," Her father touched her shoulder and squeezed. "Your people will need you to guide them on. You will need to remain for the people you love."

Ash's eyes overflowed with tears. They dropped from her cheeks into the plunge basin at her feet. "But, I just found you. I can't lose you again."

"You'll never lose us, Ashalia," Her mother said. "We'll be here, waiting for your return."

"And besides, we'll always be in here." Her father touched her temple. "And in here." He touched her chest.

She was sobbing now, hot, heavy teardrops alternating between elation and anguish. Her parents were standing so close, telling her everything she'd ever wanted to know—that they were happy, proud, and that they loved her. But at the same time, she knew she couldn't stay. They were tight. There were things she needed to do in her world, things she needed to change, people who needed her. Her friends, Ollie, Apple, Miki, Gunner, needed to know their friends were safe, that she'd delivered them to the new world unharmed. And Eli. His heart of renewed hope wouldn't survive another loss.

She gave a heaving sob.

"Shhh..." Her mother grasped her chin and tilted her face to the light. "There's no place for tears in this world." Catching a salty droplet before it could streak down her face, she lifted it into the air and blew it gently towards the sky. Up it floated, mingling with the misty spray from the falls and forming dazzling rainbow.

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