Heart of Life

Prince of Soul

You thought you were a nymph from backwoods Vermont since day one. You thought you were nobody special, just a typical guardian, unworthy of guarding the Tree. You always thought and were told that you, Timber, were nothing important. As it turns out, you are Tiambre, guardian of the Tree of Life, and the Heart of Life beats in your chest. You are literally the only reason that anything on this earth remains alive, because so long as your heart beats, so then does the Tree of Life stand tall and guard the life on earth. You're really fucking confused about it too. All this nonsense--in no time at all. You're so confused, because your head is bursting with two personalities--the one that was built on lies, Timber, and the amnesiac who was lost in time, Tiambre. Her memories flit through your head, giving you no chance to even think.

Loren is standing nearby, transfixed with the River. You, with the Tree restored to you, can see that he is, indeed, the patriarch. He's the Prince of Soul, guardian of the River of Immortality and supposedly king of the sirens. You wonder how he's so miserably suffered for so long, but then you remember--he can't sing, firstly, and sirens would have never known the importance of a useless guppy. You start to see more clearly, despite the tempest raging in your mind, and fall to your knees with hardly enough strength to sit up even that much. You watch as Loren approaches the water, and then kneels down, and silver crawls from the water to wrap around his fingers and bond with him. He goes rigid, and you know--just like with Tiambre, the past guardian of the River's memories are a part of him.

But he takes it better than you do. He straightens, and he walks over to you with eyes sparkling with flecks of silver in the muddy brown, to hold out a hand to you. You're a little bit confused, but you're in too much pain to do anything but comply, and the second he grasps your hand, everything goes black. You feel the entire environment change, your eyes squeeze shut, and you hardly even notice that now you're standing up, and you can open your eyes. As soon as you do, you see something you thought was only a legend told to assure the dying: the Realm of Combat. It's less of a gladiator type deal and more like battling your inner demons and honing your skills before passing on to the next realm, which is the Realm of Trials, which will determine who you are in the next life.

It's completely constructed of gold, for you, because that's how you always pictured it. It's an arena as well, with weapons all around, but no faces but two in the stands: Loren, and the face of the last guardian. He strongly resembles Loren, with the same hair and eyes and such, but older and stronger. More rugged. Then you see her--your technical predecessor, who is really just a piece of you--standing there in front of you. "You've grown well, but you cannot survive if you let our memories mingle," she says to you, but you're too dumbstruck to speak. "You are Timber. My memories will always be at your disposal, as is the legacy of the guardians of the Tree, but you must not let them rule you. You must stay your own man, Timber."

"Why? You're so much stronger and more knowledgable than me," you reply, and you find that you mean those words. Just from the bit you've seen, you know that she's so much....more. She's just more than you, more than you think you ever could be.

But she shakes her head and corrects, "I was. But I am too long the guardian without a successor, and the knowledge overwhelmed me. I will forever be immortalized in the Realm of Heroes, as all guardians are, but I cannot come back to walk earth. All I can do is guide you--but you have to separate me from you first." You look up and you see that Loren is still watching you, and the form of the guardian that came before him disappears in a wisp of silver. You realize that he's not truly with you--but he's undergoing his own trials. "Timber, you know what to do, don't you? It will not be easy, but you have to force me to move on in the only way we know how."

You look in your hands, and there manifests a staff. It is gold, but you can feel the strength of the Tree behind it. You don't really want to fight a past image of yourself, but you know you have to, or the Tree will die. You use your own personal knowledge to augment that which you take from Tiambre; if you only use the techniques you know of her, then it will be a stalemate for all eternity. You look to see if Loren is there one last time, and he's gone. You're alone with your own mind. You dart forward, staff like a feather in your arms, and attack.