A fair maiden lies on a bed of amethyst Statice flowers in one of Amara's mystical forests. The strong beams of sunlight hitting her face cause her to awaken from a deep sleep. She slowly opens her eyes and looks up to the light filtering through the top of branches of a tree. "Jewel..." she hears a voice whisper, the maiden furrows her brows in confusion to the somewhat familiar word she has heard.
"Could that be my name perhaps?" Her songlike voice questioned to the dead silent atmosphere.
The girl takes in her surroundings as she slowly rises from her kneeled down position. Her mouth drops in awe at the outstanding beauty of the forest; there were trees that bared golden fruit, specks of floating star-like lights that dazzled in her eyes, a satisfying scent of sweet honey indulged her sense of smell, and a gentle cool breeze whispered in her ear. Still captivated by the magic of the forest, her feet unconsciously wandered about. Snapped of her trance, something painfully snagged a chunk of her hair.
"Ouch!" she cried out, while hastily turning in the opposite direction trying to pull her hair away.
Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her, a butterfly-like creature that was smaller than the girls palm shyly waved at her. Stumbling backwards, the girl nearly tripped over her own feet but was able to gain her balance back.
"What are you?" the maiden cries out.
"I should be the one asking who YOU are. I'm a fairy, silly! Don't you recognize me from reading old folk stories?" The so-called fairy replied with a squeaky voice.
"A fairy you say? Nonsense, they're not real!" the maiden said in disbelief.
"Ah, you must be a new comer! My apologies for not realizing that sooner, to put it simply, you're dead." The fairy casually remarked.
"Wait a minute. I'm not dead!" she exclaimed.
"What's the one word you hear echo in your mind?" the fairy calmly replies, ignoring the maiden's outburst.
"J-Jewel" the young maiden stuttered
"That's your name! It's very beautiful I must say. Now think about it, why is that the only thing you remember? That's what happened to me when I woke up here too! I didn't remember a single thing about myself except for my name. Now, it m-"
"Ofelia! You're dead meat if I find you!" an unknown male voice joins in.
"Quick, hide me!" the fairy hurriedly shoves herself into Jewel's dress pocket.
Jewel's whole body began to stiffen as the masculine voice grew louder and louder as the name "Ofelia" is yelled out continuously. Out of the corner of her eye Jewel saw something move. Before she could even do anything, in a flash the moving figure was right in front of her. She gasped in astonishment, a man with delicate feminine features, long silver hair, emerald green eyes, pure white skin, and pointed ears appeared in front of her.
Jewel began to speak, "W-who might you be?"
The mysterious man ignored her and reached into Jewel's pocket which contained the small delicate creature.
"Stop!" Jewel forcefully pushed him away.
"Ofelia! It is I Tossarion, have no fear." the man called out once again the name "Ofelia."
Jewel felt the tiny creature wiggling from inside her pocket. Feeling that the fairy had been hurt, she quickly took the fairy in her hand and brought it out, slowly releasing her grasped hand. Starting from a loud cry down to a quiet mumble the fairy looked up at the beautiful man with tearful eyes,
"Tossarion! I'm sorry. I got lost, and well you see, I found a new girl! Please don't be angry."
The man who was called Tossarion by the fairy let out a huge sigh of relief then turned to Jewel and eyed her appearance suspiciously.
"Ofelia, I don't think she's dead quite yet." He spoke with a sharp tone to the fairy.
"Ah, so the name of the fairy is Ofelia." Jewel mentally noted.
"What do you mean? How did a LIVING person end up here? That doesn't make any sense! You're crazy Tossarion." Ofelia screeched.
"Sorry Jewel, he always comes up with the weirdest ideas" Ofelia rolled her eyes.
"I haven't formally introduced myself, my name is Ofelia, and I've been dead for quite a while. I'm a fairy made of glass you see," she says as she taps her wing making a very brief ringing sound.
Ofelia looks to the man, "This elf looking man is my dear friend Tossarion, he-"
"Why should she know about us? I do not intend on being an acquaintance of hers." The elvish boy named Tossarion snapped.
"Tossarion! She's new here! That's very rude of you to say." Ofelia growled angrily.
Jewel still looking blank as ever finally spoke, "I don't understand. Why do you keep on insisting that I'm dead? I'm clearly alive!"
"I told you that she wasn't dead! Can't you see Ofelia? Every dead soul here has been reincarnated into some sort of mythical creature, yet why is she the only 'normal' being here? We're leaving. Her business has nothing to do with us." Tossarion spat with an icy tone.
"We can't just leave her here. There must be a reason why she's like this. Let's find out where Azula is living now! Azula always knows what to do." Ofelia begged.
Jewel gazed curiously at the two beings, were they really dead? What sort of world was she in? How did she get here? The endless stream of questions that entered her mind was abruptly interrupted by strong arms sweeping her off her feet. Stunned, Jewel bit her lip and looked into a pair of emerald eyes that quickly turned away as it briefly met hers.
"Fine. We'll take her to Azula but that is all I am doing to help her." Tossarion grumbled.
Jewel's head started to pound as if a hammer was hitting her skull, the pain was too much to bear. She closed her eyes for what seemed like only a second and fell asleep tightly wrapped in Tossarion's arms.
Beep. Beep. Beep. The irritable high pitched beeping sound would not stop ringing in Jewel's ear. Beep. BAM! Jewel let out a strangled scream and jolted awake with cool sweat beads slowly running down her face. She breathed heavily while franticly looking around for her two companions. The sound of feet crunching against dried up leaves could be heard in a short distance away from her, it was Tossarion. He rushed to her side, delicately touching her dirtied hands, and spoke,
"Your scream is so loud you could wake up an entire town," he smirked, "What's the matter?"
"Didn't you hear that beeping sound?"
"No, I certainly did not." He replied.
"I couldn't have been imagining it. It was so loud and clear."
Tossarion shrugs it off.
"As long as you aren't hurt, all should be good should it not?"
"That is true I suppose. I'm terribly sorry for worrying you. Where's Ofelia?" Jewel spoke groggily
"She's sleeping up in that tree." Tossarion pointed upwards right above from Jewel's resting place. Ofelia's cute short legs and arms could be seen dangling from a fairly thick branch. Strangely enough she was still peacefully sleeping away without any indications of being interrupted.
"Go back to sleep. You fell asleep in my arms only just 3 hours ago. When all of us are ready, we'll continue on to Azula 's cabin" Tossarion continued.
Four hours later, Jewel had been woken up by Ofelia who was complaining about hunger. Tossarion told them to be patient as he had just caught a rabbit that needed to be prepared thoroughly before it could be eaten. The trio really had nothing except for what was inside Tossarion's deer skin bag: a dagger sharp enough to slice a thin piece of paper in half, a makeshift slingshot made out of string, a couple of light weight but warm fur blankets and an empty water pouch made out of animal skin.
"There's a running river nearby," he points eastward, "If you want to wash your faces bring this too." throwing the animal skin pouch at Jewel.
"Let's go Jewel! There's nothing to do anyway, Tossarion is sooo boring." Ofelia giggled.
Jewel picks up the canteen that was thrown at her and follows Ofelia into the direction Tossarion pointed at. They find a slow moving, peaceful, downhill river with clear sapphire blue water. Taking light steps towards the flowing water a large grin grew on Jewel's face, she never realized how free she felt until now. She closed her eyes and felt the suns warmth envelop her and her feet twirled around gracefully. After having her own moment of happiness she joined Ofelia in washing her face in the water. She found a small puddle of still water and stared at her reflection, her blue-grey eyes stared back intensely in return. She ran her now clean but dry hands through her light ash brown hair to untangle little knotted hairs. My child, my poor child a woman's voice cried out desperately. Jewel shut her eyes tightly and shook her head, First a beeping sound and now this? Maybe I'll ask Ofelia if she heard it this time to know if I'm really just hearing things. Ofelia flew onto Jewel's shoulder,
"Do you need help untangling your hair?" Ofelia asked
"No thank you. Did you hear that woman's voice?"
"What voice? Maybe it was mine! I was humming a song I heard on a trip while traveling with Tossarion a long time ago."
"Ah, I see. It sounded very beautiful." Jewel said with a smile, but behind that smile Jewel knew the voice wasn't Ofelia's singing.
With Ofelia on her shoulders, Jewel filled up the water pouch and shoulder walked back to the site where Tossarion was cooking. Giving thanks to Tossarion for creating a tasty meal they cleaned up and continued on their search for Azula.
"Why does she have to make her cabin so hard to find?" Tossarion said bitterly.
"It's not my fault her magic is so strong. She's a witch after all." Ofelia replied to Tossarion in a matter-of-factly tone.
"A witch?" Jewel was getting even more overwhelmed with the news of another mythical creature she thought didn't exist.
"Yes! She's very generous and kind. She always gives us a full-hearted welcome when we visit her. The only thing that makes it hard to look for her is that she camouflages her cabin very well within the woods. We aren't too sure why she does this but I feel as if she's hiding something," the fairy pauses for a minute contemplating whether or not to tell Jewel about the dark secret the kind witch has been living with for the past century,
"I think it has to do with her working with the grim reaper," Jewel's blood ran cold at hearing the name of a psychopomp, a guide whose job is to escort souls to the afterlife, the Grim Reaper. It sent shivers down her spine and the realization hit her, she was really dead. There wasn't any other explanation for why this was happening to her.
"I know it may sound crazy," Ofelia says, "but I was created by her. I don't exactly know how, but she took my soul, combined it with glass and made me into a glass fairy. I'm not anything special except for the fact that I can fly, I'm made of glass, and that I'm really tiny. Tossarion has never told me how he came to be an elf, but I assume his soul was used in the same manner as mine." Ofelia continued to murmur into Jewel's ear but Jewel had already stopped listening to the fairy's faint voice.
After a few minutes of processing the new information Ofelia had told her, she felt tears forming up in her eyes threatening to fall. Jewel looked down so her two companions would not see that she was on the brink of crying. Tossarion failed to notice Jewel stopping and continued to walk onward, Ofelia on the other hand looked back and saw that Jewel was not behind her. Pulling on Tossarion's ear to get him to follow her, she glided back down the pathway to see if Jewel was okay.
"Jewel are you okay?" Ofelia lightly tucked back a strand of Jewel's hair behind her ear.
Jewel's knees buckled underneath her causing her nearly to crash onto the ground if it were not for Tossarion who had caught her in the nick of time. Clenching her head, she let out an uncontrollable sob that continued on until her voice became hoarse.
"How did I die? Why can't I remember anything? I have so many questions that yet to be answered!"
Tossarion glared at Ofelia, "What did you tell her this time?"
"I just told her about how Azula created me and that she worked with Death," The fairy's eyes were wide open in shock; she was also on the edge of crying.
"Jewel I'm really sorry if I said something wrong! Please don't cry." Ofelia yelled out with a hoarse voice and hugged the nape of Jewel's neck.
Jewel's body was supported by Tossarion's hands wrapped behind her arms. The muscly built elf hoisted her up back to her feet. Jewel's little sobs died out and so did Ofelia's.
"You gals are such cry baby's I might as well call both of y-"
"Well, well...What might we have here?" a raspy old voice interrupted.
A fairly tall woman wore a black macabre robe and her face had faded facial features, gray straw-like hair, thin cracked lips, and cunning feline eyes that were yellow appeared in front of Jewel, Ofelia, and Tossarion.
"I've been expecting you." The lady in black says in a secretive tone.
"Azula!" Both Tossarion and Ofelia say in unison.
"It has been a long time since I have seen you two." Azula smiles affectionately at the sight of her two dear friends.
Her eyes flashed in fascination and stared at Jewel. Jewel was aware that the witch was looking at her so she cleared her throat and wiped her tear stained face.
"Hello, my name is Jewel. I've heard a lot about you from Ofelia. It is a pleasure to meet you." Jewel politely informed. Although, it was clear that she was anxious by the fiddling of her fingers.
The female magician paid no mind to Jewel's mannerism of being nervous and silently turned her attention to Ofelia and Tossarion,
"Thank you, you have done the right thing to bring this girl to me. Now that you are here," the witch looks back at Jewel and takes her hand, "I must show you something of great importance that will explain why you are present in this world."
"Does that mean I'm not really dead?" Jewel said hopefully
The witch's inscrutable demeanor twisted into a pitiful facial expression and turned away. Still holding Jewel's hand, Azula lead the perplexed girl along a dirt path lined by glowing stones with unknown symbols engraved onto its outer surface. Ofelia and Tossarion closely followed behind them remaining dead silent.
"These rune stones can only be seen by those who accompany me. The path the runes make lead to a place where it only allows the chosen ones to look through it, and the reason why I am bringing you there is because you have been destined to look at it, Jewel." Azula stated carefully, attempting to shift Jewel's interest to another topic.
Jewel only nodded in return and looked ahead of the path. Upon closer inspection she noticed the path had ended abruptly towards the end. The woods gradually faded away and made room for a large clearing of much newer, beautiful plants of all sorts that radiated bright colors and were swarming with life. A marble fountain could be seen in the centre of the clearing. Jewel let go of Azula's hand and felt the aura of the fountain pull her in, with each small step towards the fountain, Jewel could feel the lush green grass tickle at her toes. She didn't know how she felt, she wasn't happy or sad. As she reached the fountain, it was molded into perfection, not a crack could be seen and its pristine water naturally flowed down like mini waterfalls. Looking over her shoulder, she could see her two guides in the distance, on the right, standing tall with hands clasped behind his back was Tossarion, and on the left, was Ofelia floating beside him. Azula placed her hand on Jewel's shoulder from behind, and softly told her,
"Look into the water. Tossarion, Ofelia, and I do not know of your ending. Only you can see your own fate."
Jewel gazed into the crystal blue liquid, not knowing what to expect. Her eyes were enveloped into a new world, Jewel saw herself, lying on a bed with countless tubes sticking out of her face, the Electrocardiograph Machine continues to beep a loud ringing noise and a couple is seen standing near Jewel's bed. The lady slowly breathes in and out,
"I only wish the best for you. You will no longer be in pain." She cries out.
The man holding the woman tightly beside him closes his eyes and with a rough tone says,
"Pull the plug."
The lady's hands shake uncontrollably, she reaches for the plug to the machine that pumps the life into Jewel. No. Jewel's eyes widen at the scene and even though she tries to look away, she can't. This is the reality that she needs to accept. The plug is pulled, Jewel's heart beat dies away, from normal spikes to a flat line. Beep. Beep. Beee- the new image Jewel had just witnessed disappeared in front of her eyes and she was only staring at the fountain water once again.
Thump. Thump. The heavy beat of her heart felt as if it were to rip out of her chest. Everything seemed to have been slowed down as she turns around and sees Azula standing side by side with Tossarion and Ofelia, sadly smiling at her. A lonely figure is seen just a few meters away from her companions, the figure is wearing a dark cloak with a hood just about covering his whole face, and a scythe longer than his body was held at his side. Thump. Thump. The sound of her heart compared to that of African drum beats, filled her ears as she slowly inched her way towards the creature known as the Grim Reaper. His skeletal feet that touched the ground were surrounded by withered grass, with boney arms out stretched he awaited to embrace Jewel.
She was no longer scared, she knew her time was up and that the Grim Reaper was only here to do his job, not to hurt her. Her body became lighter and it felt as if she was floating, she used her last bit of life to run towards him. His arms wrapped around her, her skin became paler, her eyes that used to be full of happiness turned black and the grim reaper sliced through her already faded out body with his tattered scythe to receive her soul. She closed her eyes, she no longer felt pain and breathed her last breathe as her soul was taken away. The sun shone on a bed of Statice flowers, a new flower had blossomed.
Note: Static flowers symbolize "remembrance"