It's been 1,200 years now since Ara has preceded as the mountain spirit of the Paricutin mountain.
Living those years with humans was simple and uneventful since the villagers would often give him offerings without fail. Because of this, he guarded the mountain and the small village situated in it.
Although Ara lived a regular life, this night was different. Just as he would often do every night, Ara took his position in the night sky mimicking the moon and watching over the mountain, until he noticed the disturbance in the atmosphere.
Ara would naturally pick up scents of preconceived evil before they are manifested because he was the guardian of the mountain, just so that evil can be ended even before it's begun.
But this one was different. Someone not only harboured evil in their heart but they entered the core of the mountain, his abode, with such filth.
The villagers knew not to come before him with clouded hearts, so what was wrong?
As normal, he scanned through the mountain core, and just like he thought, it was them. The tourists.
As the world evolved and transportation developed, foreigners began to surge to Paricutin to see the wonder of the mountain and were often held in awe. Soon, the villagers began to accept these people as tourists.
These tourists would do anything they liked and go anywhere they wanted without understanding. They would defile his mountain, pooping wherever, some even captured his animals and left with them.
In those days, Ara would become very angry and would often plague these tourists with hemorrhoids, or plague the villagers with various sicknesses to alert them of their sin of nonchalance.
Soon, the villagers realized their faults and warned the tourists against such acts and even erected different signposts to ward off tourists from the core of the mountain.
But here they were again, angering him.
This time, it was a young man who was filled with abnormal thoughts staining the pure energy of his core. He already knew beforehand the obsessive passion of this man's heart regarding the woman he was with.
Because of this, Ara made sure to expose him by unnaturally heightening his desires for the woman. He was sure that when he was through with them, they'd never set foot on the mountain again.
With a wave of his hand, a light was cast upon the woman which made her face shine. This made her more desirable. But as Ara made her face shine, he stopped abruptly.
"Lara?"
Ara could not believe his eyes. Maybe he was mistaken. What was Lara doing here?
Shocked, he came closer to the mountain from the sky to get a better view of this strangely familiar woman.
He sensed as the man's desire for the woman began to increase until it was unbearable for his intellect. Soon, the man raged like a wild animal, desiring to rape the woman.
Ara followed the woman when she ran away from the man, deeper into the core of the mountain, into his abode. He saw her as she screamed for help and ran without direction until she fell exhaustedly on the ground.
Now that she had fallen, Ara took a good look at her. He came closer to her, and although she was drenched in sweat, dirt all over her face and without a shirt, Ara recognized her.
Was this Lara, his only love, or her lookalike?
He could sense that the woman was too tired to continue and she had already given up even though the man was already reaching her. Ara couldn't hold himself.
"He's getting close."
***
It was as if Dina was struck. Her mouth was left open as she stared at this man, unable to speak.
She saw as the man floated downwards until he was right in front of her. His face was just above hers and his brown eyes pierced into hers. What is this man?
"He's here." The man said.
Just by her side, Dina heard Carl's growl as he appeared and proceeded to jump on her. While he jumped, mysteriously, he was suspended in the air, like he was paused.
Seeing this, Dina was even more shocked as she lay there. The strange man was now standing on the ground with his bare pale feet, looking up at Carl's suspended body in the air.
With gathered strength, Dina sat up, trying to convince herself against the sights she saw.
"W-what are you?" Dina thought she must've been dreaming.
Ara's eyebrows furrowed. "Can you see me?"
Confusion stopped Dina from talking. What did he mean by that? He was standing right in front of her.
She saw as this strange man walked closer and crouched beside her.
"Can you see me?"
"Uh…" Dina was still confused.
As if he realized he was visible to her, the man stood in surprise and stretched his hand toward her.
Reluctantly, Dina held his hand and he helped her up to her feet. Her legs wobbled and she began to fall to the ground again, but the man held her before she fell completely.
Holding her tighter, the man flew in the air, his eyes laser-focused forward. Dina was caught unawares by the sudden flight, but she wasn't alarmed.
In his arms, her hand held him firm as the night's cold breeze blew on her face, her eyes tracing his features wondering what on earth this man was.
Finally, the man began to descend. Reaching the ground, he dropped her calmly on a soft bedding.
Dina noticed that she'd been dropped. Although dull white light emitted from the pale bronze man in front of her, she still couldn't see properly because it was nighttime.
As she squinted her eyes to try and see her surroundings, suddenly, different lights began to turn up one after the other in the place, shining in different warm colours.
Dina's eyes widened as she noticed this. A smile of amazement crept up her lips as orange, red and yellow lights began to light up in different directions.
"Wow."
The man watched as she turned around amazed as each light turned on.
"It's beautiful," she said.
Dina looked around, admiring the beautiful lights which exposed the cave-like room she was in, not realizing that in a matter of seconds, a piece of cotton cloth was magically sewn, thread by thread, covering her bare chest.
Her attention was on the abnormalities of the room she was in. It was as if creeping plants were pasted on the walls like a decoration. Underneath her, was a broad white soft bedding that looked like it was made from raw cotton and wool.
As she looked forward, she was shocked by the sudden appearance of the strange man squatting on the bedding, in front of her.
Noticing his calm features, all her fears faded away and her hand stretched toward him to palm his face.
Upon reaching his face, she noticed that the man wasn't apprehensive or sceptical about her. His eyes were only fixated on hers as her palm reached his cold cheek.
"Lara." His eyes softened even more as a gold tear escaped his eye. "You've returned to me."
***
Ara could now see the woman's face more clearly and he couldn't hold on to the fact that she was a spitting image of Lara.
"You've returned to me."
As he said this, the woman only looked at him with pity.
"What's your name?" She asked as she wiped Ara's face.
"Ara."
"Ara…what a beautiful name."
He could only smile.
Ara saw as this woman stood and casually walked to the floating lights in his abode.
"Your place is beautiful, Ara."
Ara sat as he watched her enjoy the sights. All he could think of was 'She acts just like her too'. He watched as she pranced around, touching the leaves on the wall and unintentionally waking the fairies that rested in them.
"Woah! Easy tiger." She said as she noticed the tiny figures standing in protest as they rubbed their eyes in their sleep. "What are these?"
This woman could see the spiritual creatures, just like her too.
Ara walked up to her. "Fairies," he said as he stretched his finger out to tickle one of them.
"What is your name?"
The woman stopped smiling at the fairies and looked at him.
"Dina."
Hearing her name, Ara's face fell flat in disappointment.
All spirits were aware of the tricky nature of fate and its laws. If a chosen one is to be reincarnated, their names are never blotted out of space and time.
Ara knew that if this was truly the reincarnated Lara, his love, she would not only look like her and see the spiritual but also would bear the name, Lara.
Ara knew that it was natural for fate to play dirty tricks on him, but this was by far the worst of its tricks. Why would fate stir him up in this manner with the face of his lover? But there was nothing that he could do about it, he was merely a spirit being.
He was a mere tool for harmony and order on earth. Nothing more.
Turning his face, he said, "You need to leave."