She stepped close to the shore, bringing her feet close to the water.
I can do this ....
The voice was still silent, filling her body with dread.
It's so simple,just step in the water.
Something so simple felt so daunting. Images of being drowned in the water flashed through her head and immediately she ran back.
Her heart was beating quickly and the warm liquid running down her leg was definitely not water.
Take another step.
Her mind knew what to do,her brain knew what to do,but her body refused to cooperate.
It will not drown you,it is no longer cursed. Just take a step.
She willed her leg to take a step forward, it took one backwards.
TAKE A STEP FORWARD!
She yelled in her mind,it took another step backwards.
JUST TAKE ONE STEP FORWARD!!!
She sank to her knees, her body shaking in fear.
"I I cannot do it." She whispered to no one but herself. "I am afraid. I cannot."
She sat there for a while, wondering why something so easy to think about was so hard to do.
She touched her cheek, feeling the tears that had run down her cheek.
She turned her head to stare at the ocean, a stubborn determination in her heart.
The Ocean was calm,and so she willed herself to stand,and approach it. Her feet immediately stopped her once she was close enough.
She clenched her fists and resorted to staring at the water with a wronged expression.
Then the waves rose a bit higher.
She did not think. Her heart beat so quickly as it dropped to her belly and her previously weak feet immediately carried her away so fast,she did not remember reaching the clearing.
She panted heavily and collapsed to the ground. Her heart was beating erratically and this time it was in her throat.
"Why can I not do it?" She asked again, expecting the voice... There was nothing.
"You can't overcome fear in a day..." Someone spoke beside her. She opened her eyes to see the young boy, Fjammi, laying beside her on the open ground.
"I saw." He stated, speaking in a manner that a child ought not to. "You are afraid of the water. You remember the drowning. You cannot get rid of your fear that easily. It is a scar that can never heal as quickly as you want. The more you poke at it,the more it hurts."
Wara sat up,amazed at how he spoke.
"How many years have you seen?" The wisdom and mannerisms of the boy was too mature for his appearance.
"I do not know exactly. I was found as an infant thirteen years ago." The boy did not look bothered,but Wara was.
"Such a young thing. You are not much older than..." She stopped, puzzled by why she would say that.
Not much older than who?
While trying to understand why she had said that, she missed the smile on the boy's face,and a smile in his shadow.
Soon, Wara forgot exactly what she was puzzled about and remembered what exactly appalled her.
"You are so young and yet you talk about fear with maturity. Have you experienced it? That is the only conclusion I can come to."
The boy looked at her,his amber lit eye sparking for one reason or the other.
" It was a few years ago. I was traveling with Nak. We stopped at a village to rest but we were not welcome but it was because of me. They somehow knew what I could do before I even knew about it but because I was a child,they kept cursing Nak. Eventually,they decided to attack me since Nak would not give in. They tied me to a pole in the centre of their village,and set me on fire on the first day of the Dies Lucis."
Wara watched his demeanor, his blank expression as he continued his story.
"Unfortunately for them,I had never controlled flames before and with the pain of being burnt alive, I called on the flames for the first time,and burnt down every single person there. No one who was at the pyre survived.
In the whole village,only three people survived. I, Nak and the woman who had kept us in her home.
But I kept burning, I could not control the flames because they had entered me. I became afraid of myself. My flames forever haunted me. The woman died because she had hugged me when she saw I was not dead. I was always afraid of burning anyone else who ever touched me."
Wara remembered quite clearly,the terrified expression on his face when she had touched him the first time. The fear...
"I am still afraid but as long as I have her, my fear is irrelevant."
The smile in the boy's shadow slowly morphed from cynical to warm... It was clear it was touched by his words. Unfortunately,Wara had caught none of that.
She was ridiculing herself.
A child. A child is giving me advice. I have to overcome this ridiculous fear of the water!
She stood up and marched back to the shore.
I will overcome this fear!.