Fate and the Defiant Angel (COMPLETED)

Chapter 52- The final goodbye

Zara awoke and found herself staring at the sky. Of course, that a surprise for she had never expected to wake up again.

Slowly, and utterly confused, Zara pulled herself up and found herself on a hillside. She immediately knew that she wasn't on earth. The air was too silent, the sounds non-existent and the sun too bright. She looked around confused before she found Ariel sitting down a few feet away, her knees pulled up to her chest.

Ariel gazed at her with a soft look in her ancient eyes. "Come sit with me, won't you?" She softly patted the green grass next to her.

Zara slowly made her way over, not understanding a single thing. She slowly sat down, and Ariel flicked her hand. Instead of grass stretching before them it changed into another world.

"What are we looking at?" Zara asked as she took a seat next to Ariel.

Ariel didn't look at Zara, staring intensely ahead but her features softer than Zara had ever seen. She looked calm. "I watched life grow from a single spec, into so many amazing things. I was aware of humans; I knew they were coming. The time simply blended together for eons. I was focused on ensuring the angel realm was functioning and barely glanced upon the earth. For so long it was an ocean, then a fiery pit but then life occurred. That interested me, the little blobs weren't even fish, but they were something. I seemed to turn away for only a second, and then all of a sudden there was so much life. Billions of years had passed, and it did not even seem like a day to me. I was so uninvolved."

"And then, there was a celebration. I remember them all chattering around the creatures that would one day, millions of years down the track, become humans. They had actually started to not be animals, to be something different. Magic was still brewing yet, so there were only these brutish creatures with large hands and small heads that showed what would be the future. You could say I was interested in them; I read the reports and offered my congratulations. But then I saw them."

Zara gaze was distracted as she saw the vision in front emerge and portray two figures, a distorted version of humans. They were hairier, with odd proportions and long arms, but they were almost human.

"They called themselves Mar and Pash, the smaller one is the female Mar and the larger one is the male Pash. They were when love was introduced upon the world."

Zara watched as the pair staggered along together, every so often stopping to rummage in bushes and pull forth fruit. Then she watched the larger of the two stop and pick something up. He let out a noise of what almost sounded like glee.

"What does he have?" Zara found herself asking before she could stop herself.

Ariel offered her a small smile. "Just watch."

Pash turned and held out his large hand, inside was a peculiar shaped rock. It had some jagged edges that made it appear almost star shaped. The female, Mar, looked at him and grabbed it before letting out her own noise. Mar immediately turned and began to scour the ground, before she too found a rock she liked and presented it to Par.

Ariel glanced at Zara. "Do you see what they did."

Zara stared at the pair, who were long since dead, and smiled softly. "They found the rocks beautiful. They wanted to give each other something beautiful."

"It wasn't about survival or mating; it was about seeing something beautiful in the world and wanting to give it someone. There was no greed. There was love. It was just such an odd thing for me to see. I looked down at them and it just, it changed how I looked at the world."

"They had a good life together," Ariel told Zara softly. "But that's the thing about humans, it always has to end. I used to care so much about this. I used to want to watch this and smile. I watched them for their whole life, and I cried at their death. Now, I feel nothing. Time changes so many things, and it changed me and not in a good way. I have made so many mistakes. I did so many things that were inexcusable, and I just refused to admit it."