Chapter Sixteen

"Kristy? Kristy, wake up," A woman said in a soft voice.

My eyes barely opened to see my mother standing over me, she looked sideways, almost like she was standing on the wall. Moving my legs and head, I looked around, I was laying on my side; Why was I laying on my side? Rolling onto my back I looked up at the ceiling with a blank expression on my face. It had a unique shape that absorbed my tired mind. It was spiraling up into a smooth-edged triangle with skylights embedded at the four corners and a sparkling green chandelier hanging from the middle. I placed my hand on the floor beneath me, wiggling my fingers and rubbing them off the surface. It wasn't smooth, soft, or hard, it was more of a mix of smooth and rough. Mother held out her hands waiting for me to reach out, but I couldn't move, I could barely keep my eyes open.

"The pain is only a memory here, my dear, you can move, your injuries don't exist when you are here," She said.

I took a deep breath and slowly lifted my arms, reaching out for her, only my hands didn't have very much grip strength left. She grabbed my hands and pulled me up, at first, I couldn't stand up straight, I wasn't even sure how I was able to stand at all. I looked around the room keeping my blank expression on my face. The room was large with metal shields and spears hanging on the walls. All of which were placed between two pillars with the spears crossing into an X above each shield. I stared at my face in the reflection of one shield directly to my left, it was the closest and I could see some of the little details I wasn't able to see before. Walking up to it slowly to get a closer look, I've never seen a pattern like this one before. The metal was a shiny sliver, curved and hammered into a gemstone shape. The outer rim was wavy and covered in a green-silvery substance. The middle however held the most beautiful green gemstone I've ever seen in my life, an emerald that had been polished, cut, and handled with great care. Even the spears above it had little emeralds embedded into them. Looking back around the room with its great size and incredible structure, it was a reception room. Where the members of royalty would host balls or weddings.

"Daughter, I know you don't want to hear this, but," She said.

"This place isn't just a palace or an in-between place for the dead is it?... this is the Emerald kingdom before it was destroyed," I said, interrupting her.

She walked up to me, placing her hands on my shoulders and keeping a tight grip as she looked me in the eyes with an intense stare.

"Child, I know you have a lot of questions, but I can not answer any of them that are about me or a past that you have not lived," She said.

"What? Why?" I said.

"Because it is against the rules, I have to be very careful about what I tell you, or we might never get to see each other again," She said.

"I don't understand," I said calmly.

"You are still alive; the dead can not share secrets of the afterlife or the past that the living has not lived," She said.

I bowed my head and started to cry; salty water dripped from my eyes as my mother pulled me into her arms. I wrapped my arms around her as I pressed my face into her shoulder.

"I'm trying... to be strong, to be brave, to fight for you but I don't know how to carry on... It hurts, my body is dying and I don't know how to reverse that, no one is looking for me and I'm too far away from the village." I said, unable to control tears.

"You have done some incredible things that not even you knew you were capable of, without your father, the king, and without me, do you remember the time when the hospital was short-handed and the king sent you to help out even though you had other important things you had to do that day," She said.

"Yeah, they needed help, but the gathers needed help collecting those plants for the herbal medicine, I had to help the doctors instead," I said.

"And only a few moments ago you threw yourself into harm's way so that a little boy could go home to his mother," she said.

"What are you getting at?" I asked.

"You are a fighter, a helper, you go where you are needed most and do what you need to do, you know what to do, so do it," She asked.

"I don't know how," I said.

"yes, you do, you know how to fight because you would secretly train with your brother and the other guards, you know how to read because you snuck into the library to teach yourself every night, you know how to farm because you would hang out with the farmers, you know how to heal," She said.

"Because I worked on injuries with the doctors and helped them make their medicines," I said.

"We are running out of time, so listen close, I don't ever want to hear you say you don't know what you are doing, because you do and if not, then you will learn, this world isn't done with you yet, it needs you out there changing the way the people think and they need you to never stop fighter of what you believe," She said.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the overly sized back doors, swinging them open to reveal a small waterfall. Glowing with all sorts of blues, greens, and whites, the sun made it shine and glimmer as it bounced off.

"Wait, I can't go yet, I need to ask you about the beast," I said.

"The beast wasn't viewing you as prey but as competition, something like that creature was made by the gods for one reason and one reason only. It was guarding something, that you got too close to," She said.

"There's so much I need to tell you, that I need to ask you," I said getting frantic

"Find what the creature was guarding and all your questions will be answered, Simon will know what to do, you must leave now while you still have a chance," She said.

"What if I said, that I didn't want to leave, to go back... that I wanted to stay here with you," I said.

"Sweetheart I love you too, more than you will ever know but today is not your day to die, go now, please," She said.

"I won't stop trying to find you, to find what happened to you and your home," I said.

I stepped up to the edge of the waterfall, sticking my hand in first, it was very cold. Taking in as much air into my lungs as I could get, I held it in as I threw the rest of my body under the water. Slowly release the air from my lungs as the water poured down my back and bounced off my head and face, drenching my hair and clothes. I spun around trying to see mother, to wave goodbye, she wasn't there and neither was I. Flashes of light turned to complete darkness as my mind and body went numb before the pain flashed back into my thoughts.