Memoria

In a distant land where everything was possible. The one we called dreams. A boy was watching himself in his dreams. Since dreams were what we dreamed of, he got what he wanted.

His memories.

This place was pitch black, devoid of the sunlight. It reminded him of The Mine. Similarly, something shines in his surroundings. They were the precious ores. They were embedded in this cave-like structure's walls. All of the embedded ones were shrouded with black mist.

Their insides were not tainted but it obscured the boy from looking deep into it. Floating in the middle of the cave was a pure untainted one. It shone with a beautiful hazel just like a certain pair of eyes he had seen.

As if mesmerized by the ores shine, the boy had no control over his body as he walked towards it. The echoes of his steady steps, the thumping of his excited heart, the stillness of the cave. It is devoid of any interference.

In a sense, pure in the purest form.

But… as he looked into the ores, the sight shook the boy to his very core. He could not make head of it, but he still got the gist of it.

What he saw in the hazel ores was the exact same vision he got in the dining hall. Two cries asking for his help. The boy felt something was missing. Like there was a hole in his heart and he was searching for something to fill it back. Unfortunately he could not find it.

He had a reaction towards those voices. He just could not remember whose voices they belonged to. But one thing was certain, he cared for the crying voices a lot. That was for sure.

He tried to calm down but his body was not in his control. His body refused to listen to him. In the end, he just stared into the ores for as long as he could remember.

The first minute was okay. But the longer he stared, the more he was made aware of that empty hole in his heart. It was eating his conscience. He felt guilty for the things he did not know, for the things he could not understand.

Still, he could not avert his eyes from the hazel ore.

He felt like he was in a loop. In an infinite time where he was tortured by guilt and anxiety. Fear overwhelmed him. Humans were most afraid of things they did not know. The fear of the unknown got the better of him.

The boy thought he would be trapped here for eternity. Forever atoning for the sins that he did not know he did. At some point he thought, "What did I do wrong?"

Maybe he was looking at it. Maybe he was the cause for the two crying voices. Either he caused their cries directly or indirectly by abandoning their plea for help. Whatever it was, the questions kept on piling, suffocating the boy of his own memories.

At his breaking point, a pair of cold soothing hands covered his eyes, "That's enough for now."

As soon as he broke eye contact with the ores, the boy took a deep gulp of breath. It was like he was holding his breath the entire time.

"That's it. Breath in… breath out" the voice instructed.

Aero took a deep breath in and exhaled just as deeply in rhythm to the instructing voice.

"There we go. Feeling better?"

Aero could not answer the voice's question and struggled to nod his head in reply. He could feel a breezy wind hitting his face. It smelled of fresh rain pour and meadow of green grass.

"Grass?" the boy thought out loud.

There wasn't any grass in the dark cave earlier. So it could only mean one thing.

The hand covering his eyes slowly pried open. Reflectively, the boy closed his eyes, afraid of making eye contact with the hazel ores.

The voice chuckled seeing Aero's tightly shut eyes. "It's okay now. You are safe here."

Although the voice had helped him earlier, he still had some doubt in his heart. In other words he was traumatized by his earlier experience.

He meekly peeked an eye open and what he saw shocked him silly.

"What the…!" exclaimed a wide eyed Aero.

Just as he had smelled, it was an open grass field as far as his eye could see. The grass swayed with the wind as it breezed through the meadow.

"That's more like it! Kids should just be cheerful and let the adults deal with the complicated things," the voice commented from the side.

Aero broke out of his surprise and looked to his side. There, he saw an elegant looking lady in white. It was the complete opposite of Master's all black attire. Her long robes swayed with the winds.

Aero knew that maybe he was still in a dream because something was blocking him from seeing the lady's face. Then, the next question should be…

"You all want to know who I am, right?"

Aero felt weirded out by the lady's question so he answered the lady with a perplexed "Yes…" and a tilted head.

"Ah, just ignored that remark. You would not understand even if I explained it to you," the lady brushed off Aero's weird look.

"Ahem!" she cleared her throat. "My name is of no importance. People call me by my title, the Tree Lady, Memoria."

Aero could not look into the lady's eyes because of that 'something' censoring her face. He then noticed something from the corner of his eyes.

Behind him, were a colossal tree. The tree was so big, Aero had to tilt his head up to see its peak. The peak was not in sight though as clouds were covering them. Aero wondered how tall the tree was.

Not only the tree was tall but also big. Roots of the tree were jutting out of the ground and they scattered everywhere in a radius of some kilometres.

In short, they were standing quite a distance away from the three but it still looked big in Aero's eyes.

As he stared at the trees, marveled by its majesticity, he could feel something from the tree. Something he was familiar with.

"Emotions? And a happy one at that… just what is this tree?"

"Marvelous isn't it?" the lady commented. "That's my tree and I'm quite proud of it. It is called the Memoria Tree after my name since I'm the one who 'planted' it."

"Memoria Tree… where have I heard it before?"

"Well of course you know! You must have heard of it from a book somewhere. It is quite famous after all," the lady gave Aero a smug smile.

She walked towards Aero and crouched down, and looked at Aero in the eyes.

"That's some beautiful ruby eyes you got there! You must be really proud of it?" Lady Memoria pointed out.

Hearing this question, something triggered inside Aero. Something that made him uneasy.

"I… I don't know… I just hope my eyes didn't have this curse…" Aero mumbled.

Lady Memoria caught what Aero was trying to say.

"Oh! You mean your Gift! Well it is quite troublesome to handle but I can promise you that it would be worth it if you can master it. Let me tell you one thing, a truth that won't change even in a thousand years."

Aero listen with rapt attention. Though he could not see the lady in the eyes and read her emotions, her very being poured out this aura of honesty and protection.

"There are only two things fair in this world. Gifts and Unfairness. Those who were gifted with great Gift would naturally be followed with the appropriate Unfairness. Powers did not come as easily as the book of the legends that you read. Each of those heroes overcame countless endeavors to become the legends that they are today. This Gift that you called curse, that you deemed unfair because of the miseries that it brings you, that just tells how powerful your Gift is."

The lady once again covered Aero's eyes with her hands and said, "That's why I can promise you that when you master it, it will become your pillar of strength."

Aero felt something warm pouring over his eyes.

'This must be the Lady's doing,' Aero thought.

"Remember that these beautiful red eyes also connect you to the one you love. Don't you ever curse it…" the lady said as her voice echoed into the distance.

The feeling of her hands on his eyes lessened. As Aero opened his eyes, what greeted him was the morning sunshine.

He blinked a few times.

'Is this still a dream?," he doubted.

But his doubt was not for long when a voice greeted.

"Good morning Master Aero."

Aero slowly sat himself and stretched like a lazy cat.

"Is that you Alfie?" he yawned.

"Yes, Master Aero. Your breakfast is ready to be served at your convenience."

Aero still felt a little bit sleepy. He was sleepy but not tired. He expected himself to be dead tired because of last night's dreams. Looks like his sleep was a productive one albeit the weird dreams he had.

"Does this place have a mini library, Alfie?"

"Yes, of course we do. I would say that it would not lose to the Academy's own library. Why did you ask?"

"Well, there is a name I would like to search for. Can you show me the way to the Library after breakfast?"

"As you wish, Master Aero," Alfie bowed.

'Memoria. One a Lady and another a Tree. Memoria… memory… What a coincidence. Hearthia was also called The Town of Memories.'