Always and Forever (Sequel to 'If Only You Knew')

Chapter Fifteen - A Warm Hug

"M-Master Ur!" Gray cried as he dropped to his knees in the snow before her.

Ur smiled and placed her hand on his shoulder as he bowed his head.

"I-I'm so sorry!" he said to her as he sobbed, his warm tears melting the snow at their feet. "I didn't mean for any of it to happen. Deliora...Ur, I'm so sorry! I-I failed you...as your student...and I missed you so much..."

"Gray, I chose to save you, so that you could grow up to become the man you are now. All I ever wanted out of my life was for you to become who you are. You have not failed me, Gray, you have granted me my greatest wish--to see how you've grown..." she consoled him.

Gray finally stopped crying enough to ask her how she was there, in the real world, when he had watched her give her life all those years ago, performing 'Iced-Shell'. He had watched her body become the ice that encased and trapped Deliora, and he had seen her magic flow through the ice, strengthening it and making it unmeltable, or so they had thought. Ur had told him that she would live on in the ice, so when Lyon had melted it using Moondrip, he had been devastated as he watched the melted ice flow into the sea, thinking he had finally lost Ur for good. And yet here she was, in front of him, talking to him.

"Gray, I don't have much time, but the same force that sent you on your quest brought me back to this place so I could lead you. The crystal told you to find the place that made you who you are. This is not that place, but it is one of the stops along the way. This place did help make you who you are, but it is not the source. You must dig deeper and find what made you come here. Your heart will tell you where to go. Give Lyon my love, Gray. I love you, and I'm happy to have seen you again."

"Ur! Ur, no! Don't leave me! I can't lose you, not again..." Gray began to cry again.

"Gray," she spoke softly, her voice comforting him like a warm hug on a cold winter night.

He thought of all the pain of the years he had spent alone, blaming himself for her death, and for all that had happened because of him. He thought of all the pain he had caused others, causing them to worry for him when he slipped into his dark moods. He thought of all that Ur had meant to him, and still did.

He realized that she had her arms around him, and that she was real, and that it was, in fact, a warm hug on a cold winter night.

"Goodbye, Gray..." she whispered, and she was gone, leaving him alone in the night with nothing left of the warmth she had provided, save that which now resided in his heart.