■Ren■
When I opened my eyes, I was in a dark place. There was no sun or light, but I could see clearly despite that.
'Where am I?' I stood up and took a few tentative steps forward. A fog seemed to be surrounding me, and although I could still see clearly it was still difficult to see far enough ahead to tell where in the world I was.
I don't even know how much time I spent walking down the seemingly endless pathway, but I met someone crouched on the floor as I was going. I was getting mentally tired of... well- whatever this was, plus they were the first person I'd seen, so I stopped behind them and tapped lightly on their shoulder.
"Hello, ehm- could you please tell me where I am?"
They didn't reply. 'Can't she hear me?' Left with no other choice, I decided to try again.
"Hel-"
They turned around instantly and I jumped when I saw their face.
Their skin shone like stars of all shapes and sizes had been embedded in it. Some stars swirled around each other like loops and were colored in so many ways I could get lost in them. They had long hair that looked like wisps of purple smoke and I realized that 'they' was actually a girl.
What caught me off guard were her eyes; they were glowing white like my hair, and her pupils were darker than night, I thought they would suck me in.
She was looking at me expectantly, and I remembered the question I asked her earlier.
"Where am I?" I asked
She didn't say anything but cocked her head slightly as if I was asking a stupid question.
"I can't stay here," I told her. "I have to go back. I have to save Eir-."
My memories resurfaced at that moment and I recalled what had happened to me. Images of the burning houses, the slaughtering and sneaking back into our house to find our house burning and our mother nowhere to be seen. I cried as I remembered how I and Eirlys were chased by men on horses and had run into the forest. How, when we were cornered at the cliff and Eirlys was shot in the stomach by an arrow and fell off the cliff.
I remembered the sickening smile on the men's faces as I jumped over to catch her, how we both narrowly missed the rocks below. The final memory of us being dragged deeper down by the waves before I passed out refused to leave my head.
I sat down on the floor and cried my eyes out, vaguely aware of the fact that the girl had gotten off the floor and wrapped her arm around me in an attempt to comfort me.
"I need to go back!" I crawled up and was about to go out the way I came from when the girl grabbed me by the sleeves.
"Let me go! I need to go back home, s-she might still be alive!" My voice broke.
She shook her head as if disagreeing with me.
"She's still alive!! I refuse to believe she's dead!" Teardrops gathered at the corner of my eyes.
The girl raised her right hand and closed her fist. Light glowed from it before she opened it again. Inside was a transparent orb that glowed dimly, and inside the orb; was a small Eirlys.
She was curled up. Arms wrapped around her legs and her forehead on her knees like a newborn baby. The orb was as small as a pebble, but it was the single most important thing to me at that moment.
"E-Eirlys" I whispered. I picked the orb out of the girl's hand and looked closely at it, tears threatening to fall again.
"This means... She's dead isn't she?" I said in a hoarse voice.
The girl shook her head at me and stood up from her crossed sitting position. When she stood up, I realized that she was easily almost a foot taller than me and she looked more like a mother figure and had a striking resemblance to Camri. An ache flashed through my mind as I remembered what my mother had gone through and how she died.
The girl, -mother, - whatever she was picked Eirlys out of my hands and turned away from me, heading down the dark corridor that brightened with every step she took seemed to brighten the dark walkway we were on.
Unsure of what to do, I debated following her or staying where I was. She had Eirlys in her hands and I didn't know where I was, so I decided to follow her. I don't know how long we walked for. I remained lost in my own thoughts, and the girl didn't seem to like a conversation, so we walked. Eventually, we walked into a brightly illuminated room.
No, the room wasn't the word for it. I don't think I could find a word for it. Sometimes Eirlys and I used to sneak out at night to look at the stars. Whenever we'd come home and go to sleep I'd always have this dream about what it would be like if I was a star at night, and how everything would look from my point of view.
This was what I'd always dream about. It stretched in all directions as far as the eye could see. The fog had also cleared up so I could see everywhere the stars and swirls that I'd also seen on the woman's skin.
'Wow,' I thought. 'This place is amazing'
"Do you live here by yourself?" I pondered out loud.
She turned to face me and smiled jokingly as I'd just asked another stupid question. Then she held up Eirlys' orb, admired it in her hand, and let go of it.
"What are you doing?!" I yelled at her. Instead of saying anything, the woman pointed at the orb as if signaling for me to pay attention to what it was doing. I looked at the orb in confusion and realized that instead of breaking against the ground. It had passed through and was headed towards what was underneath, something that I hadn't noticed was there, and was too stunned when I saw it.
"What is that?" I asked unsure of what I was seeing.
"It's your home," a female voice replied. Stunned, I looked at the woman and saw that her lips hadn't moved, but she was now staring intently at me. It took me a few seconds to realize that she had spoken to me in my head.
"You can talk," I stated.
"I can talk," She replied matter-of-factly. "I just didn't feel like it."
"Oh-okay..." I said as if this was a natural conversation. "What did you mean by 'it's my home ?"
"It's your home. The planet you were born on, or, where I sent you to live."
"What do you mean by 'the planet I sent you to live'? And how did I get here? And who are you?! And-"
"You ask a lot of questions," she smiled thinly at me before turning around and waving her hand over the space in front of her. A black throne appeared in front of her and she floated up to sit in it. She was unexpectedly nonchalant about it as well.
"I'll answer all of your questions now." She said. "First of all, I don't live here by myself because I am 'here'."
"Secondly, What you are looking at is the planet you've spent the last 14 years of your life on."
"And lastly," She took a quick breath. "You're here because- well, you're dead"