Birds fled through the whispering trees, with only the rustle of leaves heard in the silence that came afterward. "Who... are you? " asked the pale lady. "You can call me Amara. Well, that's not exactly true at this moment," he said with a frightening calm about him.
Amara lifted his leg to move when suddenly the pale lady dashed backward, creating an echoed bellow of her siren war song. She charged her trident, creating a water vortex from the lake, and threw it towards Amara. "During the confusion, I will make my escape," the pale lady thought to herself and began to dash across the lake while sending additional water-based trident clones towards her enemies to cover her escape. she had reached the edge of the lake well out of reach of any potential pursuit. "This is not over. I will make you pay for..." the pale lady yelled.
Amaranthine was right beside her in that instant, not at the edge of the lake where the pale lady thought she was. But instead, at the very moment in time, she began contemplating escape; her timeline had already ended, her body aged to its limits, broken down as the echoes of her soul played out a beautiful mirage of escape for all to see.
**** She charged her trident, creating a water vortex from the lake, and threw it towards Amara. "During the confusion, I will make my escape," the pale lady thought to herself and began to dash across the lake while sending additional water-based trident clones towards her enemies to cover her escape. she had reached the edge of the lake well out of reach of any potential pursuit. "This is not over. I will make you pay for..." the pale lady yelled. ****
"Time is but a child's plaything for one such as me, for I am Amaranthine, the second God of time," said Amaranthine with a monstrous smirk on his face. A sudden beat from his heart stopped time. "How have I been reduced to this? cursed to watch this child from...." Amaranthine uttered to himself as his consciousness faded away and his body rewinding. Time began once more with the child called Amara unconscious on the floor.
Sebal walked towards Amara and thought to himself, "Is it possible that creature that stood inches before me a moment ago is the same as the Amara I met in the valley of winters or this boy who lays before me now nearly helpless? ". Sebal could not shake the bad feeling that there was something else happening here that he had no way of understanding. Picking up the young Amara holding him in his arms, he utters, "How could I abandon you now? I still see the same child who looked at the world with awe and wonder".
The turbulence and crinkling sounds of wood clashing with rocks woke Amara up alone. "Where are we," he asked with a small voice that almost screeched. "On route to paradise, kid," Sebal said out loud. Surprisingly, Amara could not muster the curiosity he had but mere hours ago, another new feeling, but he did not like this as much as the others. Sebal peaked his head through the ragged linen to check up on Amara. To which Amara quickly changed his expression, putting on a smile. "I'm sorry," Amara mumbled softly to himself with thoughts of the pale lady. Sebal looked at him with sorrow-covered eyes and said enthusiastically, "You have been asleep for nearly half the day now. We are almost at the center of the forgotten woods. Remember this kid, the whispers of this forest will test your heart's resolve. Face them head-on if you want to survive the night." Amara looked at Sebal and nodded his head with a smile that could rival the performing arts.
Upon reaching the campsite, Amara took to the warmth of Elu's fluff. Sebal spoke out loud, seemingly to the moon from Amara's perspective, and said: "Sometimes this world is beautiful beyond measure; other times it is frightening beyond belief, but we can choose to smile all the time. " The night had begun to sing the songs of the forest the whispers from the trees started to enter Amara's dreams.
Amara's little body tossed and turned with ache and pain, "You did this," multiple soft ghostly childlike voices ringing in his head. "YOU DID THIS," followed by a burst of reverberating laughter, "We know, we know who you are," repeated the voice. Amara again found himself in the halls of time, watching the sands fall with indifference. ***"Amaranthine, you wield my power, yet you insist on rebelling against our ways," said a deep male voice from the silhouette that engulfed the endless halls of time. "Father, I simply wish to....." said Amaranthine.
With a jolt through his body, Amara woke up in a cold sweat. The voices reverberating with laughter. "We know who you are," they said ominously. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD," shouted Amara, forcefully expelling the voices from his mind. "I may not know who I am. Honestly, I am not sure I want to know, but what I know is my desire to feel more new things. I will become strong without that power and become who I want to become. Call me Amara, what is your name?." he shouted with eyes wet as rivers and a face that glowed with a glee akin to the brightness of light magic.
A warmth spread across the nearby whispering trees washing away the anguish they had experienced; tiny winged spirits came out of the trees glowing in an aura that made the flowers bloom in the areas their aura touched. "What happened?" a blue spirit asked. Amara looked at his hands covered in a similar aura that poured out of these tiny spirits. with a smile bigger than life, he said with a charming calm, "I'm Amara; what is your name?" "I don't have a name," said the spirit, still confused at what had just happened with a surge of memories coming back to her.
Having had one eye open and without getting up, Sebal asked the spirits what happened to them "I had heard rumors that the whispering trees were born from the souls of the spirits in this woods. It seems that rumor is true". Amara shouted, "Blue, I will call you Blue," speaking to the nameless blue spirit of the woods. The blue spirit glowed with excitement and said, "Blue, I will take any name given by the one who saved us from a forgotten existence." Blue prepared to tell Sebal and Amara the little she could remember about how the spirits ended up in such a state.
All the spirits from the trees gathered around Amara, the night flame shooting out fiery sparks and the area around them slowly regaining life. They all prepared to listen attentively, "Uhm... why is everyone looking at me?" Blue said nervously.