ELO

  Elo shivered, "It's never been so good to see home." Bree agreed, and Tharin was first to greet Bakura.

  He bowed, kissing her hand, "M’lady, it is good to see you again."

  Bakura smiled gently, "Tharin, as always a pleasure. How are your birds?"

  Tharin smiled softly. "Many, and well feed." They interacted like old friends chatting and walked off to the side, leaving the group. Elo slid off of Faelorn’s back, then she turned helping Bree. Cael hopped into Bree’s outstretched arms. Faelorn handed Bree the purple elven book. He said, "I suppose I'm going to be scolded for having been gone so long." Faelorn shook his velvety fur, transforming. He said, "I will vouch for us. It was only supposed to be a short visit; we couldn't have known about witches in that area. That part of the forest hasn't seen a witch for many years. Since winter, I've seen signs, but this was the first encounter in that area, I doubt it is the last." Elo frowned, "What does it mean for you, Faelorn?"

  Faelorn crossed his arms, and grimly said, "I have work to do."

  As they approached the camp, Bree saw the Joltrun was sleeping lying by the fire. He startled awake upon hearing their footsteps. "Faelorn! Elo" He sat up, coughing. He growled, "where were you two?" Elo shuffled over, sitting beside him. "We went to visit the woodlings, and we stayed with Faelorn. Then we went to visit Tharin." Joltrun made a face glaring at Faelorn. He looked from Bree to Faelorn. He said, "Why on earth would you take her to see Tharin?" Faelorn crossed his arms over his chest. He said, "I was only visiting; it was harmless." Joltrun scolded, " My ass, it was harmless. A mortal should not be near the realm of the elves, especially Tharin." Faelorn growled. "It was for tea, that's it. It's not like I showed Bree the secrets of the universe." Bree, annoyed, took out her journal and wrote. "I apologize for causing trouble. Faelorn and Elo took care of me… "

  Joltrun read the note and patted her on the shoulder. He said, "you are not in trouble; these two know better than to take a new soul into the woods so close to night time. There are countless dangers. Evil is on the move." Faelorn's eyes were black with rage. He said, "I don't want to fight here, old man. I told you everything. No harm was done; I took care of the witch just fine on my own." Joltrun growled, "you and I both know that you are in no condition to be fighting witches."

  Faelorn hissed, " that's not true. Bree can attest to that. I protected us and had no problems whatsoever." Joltrun threw his hands up in frustration. "I'm too old for this Faelorn."

  Faelorn growled, "Then let me do my job. I thought you didn't believe me when I told you I was attacked by a coven weeks ago." Joltrun looked away. "I'm sorry. I was in denial," Faelorn tensed. "Then you know I wasn't lying, I didn't instigate a fight with slavers or bandits."

  Joltrun sighed, "Yes, boy. I now know you were telling the truth."

  Faelorn and Joltrun stood awkwardly together. Joltrun mumbled, "I am sorry." Faelorn was shaking, blinking away tears. Elo pulled Bree away. "We should leave them alone and go to sleep. I'm sure Bakura will give us an earful in the morning." Bree held the elven sign language book, in the light of the fire, she stayed up reading it quietly. She glanced up to see Joltrun and Faelorn talking animatedly. Cael, annoyed at the noise, hopped away from Faelorn. The fairy settled on her bed, covering himself with furs. Joltrun and Faelorn seemed to be in a heated argument. Bree looked to see Bakura in her deer form sitting with Tharin; they were also talking quietly. Calming herself and taking a deep breath, she felt left out. Not being able to speak freely made Bree feel trapped. She focused on the book, reading it repeatedly, and practicing the hand movements until her hands ached. Bree was determined to learn how to speak and find her voice again, even if it meant speaking with her hands. Just because her voice was cursed didn't mean she had to stay silent. Elo settled beside her, falling asleep.

  Chapter 11

  After falling asleep late into the night, Bree woke with a puddle of drool on her shirt. One of her new book's precious pages was bent from were her head had lain on it. She quickly straightened it and slipped it in her bag. The morning light made her eyes water. She was glad that her camp was hidden in a neat little cave. The waterfall cheerfully babbled, and she washed her face and groomed her morning hair. Elo sat beside the spring, she was transformed into her deer form. "Good morning, love..." she announced loudly. Bree nodded and signed, good morning. Elo's long white ears flicked back and forth in curiosity. "wot's that you doing with your hands." Bree pulled out her sign language book and showed Elo. "Oh, dear, I can't read." Bree took a deep breath, annoyed, and with a whisper. "It says good morning..." Elo said, "oh..." she transformed into a woman and tried making the same hand motions. "It's like a dance with little hands.." Elo flipped through the purple's book pages. After admiring the golden inlay and cursive handwriting, she pushed the book into Bree's hand.

  Elo said, "it's beautiful, but I can't read. How about I'll point to stuff, and you show me the sign for it. That way, I can still learn how to talk to you." Bree and Elo spent the morning learning the signs for each symbol. "Fish, bird, teapot, cup" Elo was fascinated, and together they went through the standard alphabet and the elfish. It wasn't until Bakura checked on them that Elo scurried up and started cooking breakfast over the fire. Bakura arched her eyebrow's, and Elo politely bobbed her head.

  "Morning, marm." Bakura settled next to Bree, her yellow robes piling around her. She said, "Did you enjoy your visit with the fae?"

  Bree nodded, and Bakura said, "You can speak freely. Don't forget, I can hear thoughts if they are directed at me." Bree took a deep breath and said in her mind. "This place, it's wonderful but dangerous. I was enjoying myself until Faelorn was attacked". Bakura asked, "why didn't you return? Why did you visit Tharin?" Bree bit her lip guilty, "I wanted to see the ruins and meet an elf." Bakura relaxed, " Please exercise caution, I don't want you or Faelorn getting attacked again."

  Bree showed Bakura her sign language book. Bree said, directing her thoughts to Bakura, "I'll be more careful; Faelorn said that if we had stayed the night with Tharin, we would not have been attacked." Bakura shook her head and said "that boy is too reckless, and I disapprove of his aggression. However, you are an adult and can make your own decisions on where you travel. Just remember, even in the day, there can be dangers lurking, and at night you are guaranteed to encounter something." Bree nodded, feeling bad about the attack. She handed Bakura the sign language book. "Tharin gave Faelorn this book to help me. I am very grateful for it. I want to learn to speak with my hands." Bakura flipped through the pages, Bree asked." When the elf visited, he seemed very familiar with you. Do you know each other well?" Bakura smiled, "Tharin is my good friend; we have known each other for hundreds of years. He visits me occasionally and has helped the herd on many an occasion." Bakura stood looking down at Bree. "Enough of that, child, would you like to walk with me. I have much to show you." Bree nodded, asking, "where are we going?" Bakura answered, accepting tea the Elo served her. "I want you to show you something. Bree, I want you to find your place here. This is a place for those who are lost. You will be happiest here." Bree glanced at the entrance of the cave. She looked longingly at the herd that was grazing and resting by the spring. She listened to the spray of the waterfall that was filling the spring gently. Bree thought, sending her thoughts to Bakura. With her mind, she said, "I'm having a hard time accepting that I died and that I'm in a different realm."

  Bakura nodded, 'it can be difficult to accept the truth. Life is hard. You are unique; you are neither dead nor alive, Bree." Bree continued, "I don't feel dead, but how do I know that it happened? how do I know that I'm alive too? What if it's all magic. What if I'm insane, and none of this is real?"

  Bakura smiled softly, "Magic... isn't life magic. The birds, the way insects move, tea in the morning? Often its what we perceive that magic becomes." Bree listened carefully, watching the deer graze.

  "There is good and evil child. Magic flows between both. You were dead killed by monsters. Thanks to the King's spiritual ble
ssing, here you are drinking tea with a 1000-year-old woman. Tell me, do you still feel dead?" Bree sipped her tea, savoring its minty taste. " I'm halfway between life and death, yet I feel more alive now than I ever did in my world." Bakura nodded, placing her teacup down, she stood and walked a few feet away. "That's how it should be when you pass on. You should be more alive than when you were living in your world. In a way, there is no real death, just passing into a veil into the next land. Despite the dangers that this realm poses, you are supposed to be safer here than where you came from." Bree nervously asked, following Bakura, "What happens if I don't want to stay but keep on living with this body, not following your King into the elves land?"

  Bakura answered, "Well, I suppose the woods would take you back home, to your time, and where you were last. After all, people go missing, and sometimes they return, do they not?"

  Bree hated the idea of returning home, she said: "Life seems so boring compared to this magical place." Bree looked at Bakura apprehensively. "Why can't I stay here without changing into a white deer? I want to meet all of the faes, I want to know everything. I want my past to die where I left it. I have nothing, but here there is magic, here I spent a day with a fae and his friends." Bakura looked sympathetically at her, she said, "child, that is the business of the woods and the fae. They are governed by different laws. In this world, it is the will of the king and the lost souls from many worlds. This place affects human souls who have not passed differently than it affects someone who has gone through the change." Bree intervened, "yes, but Elo and your herd, they were all human."

  Bakura sipped her tea and replied smoothly, "they are no longer human now; the King's spirit transformed them. For most, this is their second chance to change and go to where all good souls go." Bree stubbornly asked, "Do you think the King would let me stay here?" Bakura shrugged, "it is not my place to say if he would or would not. Though those who stay too long between life and death risk becoming the bereaved. It is almost a guarantee I have never seen different. If anyone in my herd should have regrets and emotions that fuel anger and hatred, they too risk becoming bereaved."

  Bree sagged with disappointment. Bakura patted her head sympathetically. "There is no need to be upset; you will find your way, everyone does." Bree followed Bakura, who moved away from the forest and into a grassy meadow that Bree had seen the deer romping in. Insects buzzed, the grass seemed to part as she and Bakura stepped forward. "A long time ago, I was not unlike you child. I was a slave, to be transported to a new world—one were I would be sold, and God knows what would have happened. I killed the man who captured me and crashed his ship. I let myself be taken by the sea. Before I drowned, I could hear it, magic in the ocean. Creatures from a world once gone. I went with them… and I woke up here."

  Just below the hill, Bree saw an ocean, and yet it was not an ocean. As they came closer, Bree saw that the sea was in the sky. She looked back and realized that she had stepped into another realm. Bakura calmed her, "Don't panic, this is just a reality between realities. You are still standing in the King's meadow, but you see a new reality surrounding you." Mysterious water creatures called in bellowing cries; they were brilliant colors, it was indescribable. It was magic of a different kind. Bakura turned, "Reality, my child, the truth is strange. I came here and found my purpose, to help the souls that wander from their worlds pass on into the next. Faelorn's guards those who dwell in the forest. Together we ensure that humans are saved from themselves, and from the evil that infects them." Bakura waved her staff, and a tentacle of water drifted from the sky ocean. She lead Bree to the water, she summoned it closer with a wave, and it hardened as a mirror. "I speak the truth, for, in our realm, there is the only truth. Step closer, child, I want to show you what is a possibility."

  Bree swallowed nervously. "In life, you were lonely; in death, you were desperate. It was the stories your grandmother told you that kept you alive. You were born different, with a destiny that was not like that of your sisters or brothers. Your soul forsook God and the afterlife. As you lay dying, darkness threatened to swallow you, so the forest opened and lead you here." Bree felt tears flow down her face; the mirror showed her life moments and revealed her true feelings. She wiped her face. "You must face the darkness within Bree. For we are all full of sin and the things that feed evil." Bakura's face was stoic. "You will find your path one way or another. Those who stew in hate, in anger and unforgiveness, become the bereaved. Just like in your world, miserable people often make more misery for others. In this realm of the spirit and magic, misery finds it's true form and seeks to create more than it is." Bree closed her eyes. She saw herself in the mirror a thousand times. She was changing her skin, rotting turning green as the forest floor. Her eyes were orange and feral. She was hunting in the forest, no sense of herself, an animal.

  "No..." Bree thought as she stared in the mirror. "She was not an animal, she had become a monster. Bree saw herself stalking in the wood, wandering into another realm. Her eyes were locked on something small in the distance. A child was playing at the edge of the forest, Bree started at her other self in the mirror. To her horror, she was stalking the child.

  Bakura spoke solemnly. "The bereaved are hungry, vicious beasts, and they slip between worlds. Into reality's that are not theirs. They hunt, and they consume."

  Bree saw the bereaved version of herself attack the child. The child, a little boy, screamed in terror as he was pulled into the shadows by the monster. Bree shattered the mirror, trying to stop her other self from murdering. She covered her face as the mirror reformed. Bakura said, "If you refuse to find your path, my child. You will become the bereaved" Bakura's voice was gentle. "I know that this is hard. In the world you come from, magic is controlled. Machines and wizards rule with fear. Your society serves mammon over goodness. Evil over kindness, selfishness over courage." Bree wiped her face. She was in shock from what she had witnessed in the mirror. Bakura said, "Bree, you can become powerful and good. You must be wary of the forest, and yes, even of the fae. For there is darkness, even in their hearts." Bree nodded and sat before the mirror that was an ocean. As Bakura turned and the mirror fell back into the sea of colors and mist. Bree blinked, and she realized that the sea was gone. She was in a grassland that was endless. She turned back the forest, and the waterfall's rocky cliffs greeted her.

  "Was it all an illusion?" she asked. Bakura shook her head and answered. "It was reality, my reality that exists between the ethereal and the physical." A voice behind them said. "She gave you a glimpse of the possible future, and that ocean of color is what you can't see but is always there. It is a place that only witches and those who serve the king can see. Mortal souls keep their sanity better when they only perceive one reality instead of several." Bree turned around to see that the voice had been Tharin's.

  "Bakura, my darling, It has been a pleasure, but I have business to attend to. Good luck with your new project." He glared down at Bree. "I hope to be seeing you around, Bree." Bree touched her throat self consciously. He bowed to both of them, and Bakura watched him leave fondly. "Bree, you have until next fall to make your decision. In this place, that is nearly a year away. Time flows differently here. The seasons fluctuate abnormally, a measurement of time can move as slow as honey or as fast as water in the desert." Bree took a deep breath. "If I joined the herd, wouldn't I have eternity to think over my problems." Bakura nodded, "If you joined the herd, you would be put upon the path that would give you time to grieve, let go and move on the next kingdom. It is uncommon for one from the herd to become a bereaved but not impossible." Bree wrung her hands; none of it felt right, and not making a choice felt worse. Bakura said softly "You have much time to think about this. No one is forcing you. "

  Bree asked, "...but you said I would become a bereaved" Bakura answered, "that would not be of my doing or choosing; it is simply what happens when one's grief and darkness are given form. Just as the witches seek out grieving souls so that they can twist them into horrors, I
seek to help those find their peace and become something more." Bree, flustered, asked, "but why, why would you do something like that?" Bakura mussed, looking into the distance. "I remember what it was like to be just like you—a young woman lost in a strange world. I was alone full of anger, full of sadness. It was the kindness of one before me that helped find my path." She smiled " I realized that I wanted to stay, I wanted to help those forever lost. I wanted to lead the meek and the sick to the path of goodness. So that they could move on to heaven and start over. I wanted to help people find everlasting life."

  Bree felt crestfallen; it was all too much. In her life, she wondered if there was an afterlife if her creator was really just as the church preached. None of her questions had been answered. Even the thought of returning to life, of leaving the forest made her heartache and sting. She had nothing, and she knew that she could never return home, to a world where slavers ruled the people in fear. She hadn't even known much about magic in her world. It was rumored but rarely ever seen. No, she thought surely her path lay here with the fae, magic elves, and Faelorn.

  Bakura stared in the distance, her eyes reflecting something that Bree could not see, she turned and said, "come, child, you must eat breakfast. Joltrun has decided to take you under his wing and teach you about the forest and its use. I've assigned Elo to help as well. Together I'm sure your destines will be clear. Also..." she looked Bree in the eyes, bending down to move a strand of hair from Bree's face. "You may come to me anytime, child, for anything you need. You are my guest, I want you to be comfortable." Bree nodded, mouthing a soft thank you before following Bakura back to camp. Bree sat, watching the sunset. She had spent her day quietly, reading, and contemplating what she had learned. Elo sat perched on a stump by the firepit; she had given Bree space to herself. The woman busied herself sewing Bree's torn shirt. Bree wore her thin undershirt, fanning herself by the fire. They sat in silence, and Bree watched the sunset. The sun painted the skies bright red and orange.