She liked looking at the trees. That was our special place. She watched the cherry blossoms bloom and the trees would whisper. She would lean back with a look of contentment on her face, and close her eyes and stay silent and listen to the trees and the river. Even that day, her last day.
"The flowers are falling too early."
"What do you mean?"
"They just blossomed, and now they fall…" She looked over at me, beautiful eyes imploring me to think.
"I'm not sure…"
"Don't you understand? They are brand new. They are finally blossoming, the best point of life. And what do they do?"
"They fall." I answered.
"They fall. It's far too early this year." She sighed, in disappointment and regret. She was like the flowers. Beautiful. Doomed.
And there we sat, our town forgotten, the light of the golden, setting sun on our faces, watching the cherry blossoms fall, then sinking into the river.
Now, our town was peaceful and safe, secluded, and quiet. We were safe, most of all; and isn't that what everybody wanted? Safety, peace, and quiet? War didn't ever come to town. We stayed out of it. The war that engulfed the rest of the land didn't pertain to us.
I think that was the downfall.
Nobody saw them coming.
When the first of shrill screams rose from the town, her eyes snapped open. She hopped up, summoning a Keyblade. Why did she need to summon a Keyblade? Keyblades were for heartless attacks.
"C'mon, Terra!"
"But…"
"No buts, we have to go fight!"
"What do you mean?" She grabbed my arm, pointing away from the cherry blossoms to the town. A most horrible sight greeted my eyes- fire, people, screaming, bloodshed. Then she ran. I was stupid, shock paralyzing me. It took me minutes, that felt like hours, to realize what was happening, then I raced down the hill after her.
"Wait! Wait, Aqua!" I summon my own Keyblade, unknowingly, stumbling down the path after my long-legged younger friend. If she heard, she pretended to not to.
Upon reaching the village, I lose sight of her. She ducks, blocks, spins, everything to survive. I can't catch up with her. I'm just not agile and graceful. I block, and fight off the raiders. Everything is smoke and sweat and bodies and clothing and the horrid sound of Keyblades scraping along each other. I try to follow the path that has been left behind. It has disappeared, and my friend with it. I stumble through, trying to find the strength to keep going. We were so peaceful... we kept to ourselves. Why was this happening? Where was she? Finally I put the thought of her behind me and fight. And almost as quickly as it started, it is over. they are gone, retreated. The fires are put out. The smoke is just beginning to clear. The chief speaks first, trying to stop our confusion.
"Please, stay calm. I need a headcount. If there's anyone missing, come and tell me!" My father calls. No one comes forward. We've survived. The thought hits me again. If she was lost, it'd be easy to figure out. She was the only one with blue hair. I must find her! She can't be dead!
I scan the top of the crowd. She's not here. Where is she?
Everyone reports the same thing: none missing. Yes, injuries, but none missing. No one even whispers her name.
"What about Aqua?" I call. No one answers.
Her brother comes forward. "I haven't found her, either!"
I race through the crowd. No... No... No... this isn't happening, she's not this dumb, there's no way... I leave the crowd, and sprint up to where our town's boundary begins. I find her, lying on the ground. She is alone and bleeding. I'm not sure if she's even alive.
I shake her. Her eyelids flutter and a gasp escapes her lips.
"Stop." I do as she says, almost sighing in relief.
"You're okay. C-C'mon, we're going to get you to the doctor's..." I move to try and pick her up.
"No." She says, placing a hand on my arm.
"What?"
"I'm not long for this world. One of them slashed at me. My stomach..." She hisses as she brings her arm to her stomach. It comes away sticky with blood.
"We'll stop the bleeding or something..." She shakes her head.
"But..." I am silent. We sit there for minutes. It feels like hours. Her eyes never open, but at least she breathes. I brush her hair from her face.
"You always were my best friend, Terra." I nod. She is silent again. And I sit with her. No one comes to us.
I shake her arm. She breathed the last time... I don't want to lose her. She isn't supposed to stop breathing! She's not supposed to die! She's going to wake up! I know she is! I shake her, willing that she'll begin breathing. I place a hand on her face, which is already losing its warmth. No... no, no, no, no, no! She'd going to wake up! She can't be dead... She can't be dead...
But her chest never rises, her eyes never open. Her skin loses it's color, her lips turn white.
"Aqua!" I yell. Then again, up into the sky: "Aqua!"
When the village climbs up the hill, I am screaming to the hazy night. Why'd you have to take her! Why did she have to die? She was an innocent! She did nothing to you! She wasn't a threat in any way! We were peaceful!
The last time I saw her, they were dragging me away, still screaming, from her body.
SEVEN YEARS LATER
It's quiet, the village. Women are doing the washing, laughing at each other. The younger women, the ones newly married, barely out of childhood, are splashing each other. A few have babies, in slings or laying on the ground, messing with their hands, reaching for the sky. There's one, heavily pregnant, sitting on the ground and folding everything, sorting it into neat piles; whenever she is splashed, the perpetrator admits guilt and sits back sadly, apologizing. The men are talking, talking about the river, how it's so calm this year, so tranquil. No one stays there long. They consider it disrespectful. The children play, rambunctious and yet very cautious of their words. They play swords, but they don't pretend to kill each other. They don't play war, and no one ever dies. The girls play with dolls and hop about dirt pictures, chanting to each other. I smile, remembering my own childhood. We were much like them.
I walk now through my town. My town. My town that my father had left to me when he died. The town that I was the protector of. The town that I ruled alone, unlike any chief before me. Maybe if Aqua had lived, I would have married her. I would have held her close and we would have talked late into the night and maybe she'd sit there, folding laundry and being treated like the porcelain doll. But Aqua wasn't here, and she is the reason that the woman try not to play with the water, why no one sits at the river, why no little boys kill each other. Because no one died in our town from war or murder. None except Aqua. My generation knew all to well, and the children had picked up on it.
Don't disrespect the water, or the cherry blossoms, or the river. Don't sit on the top of the hill at the spring. Don't pretend to kill each other. Because once, not long ago at all, there was a person who was very special to our chief. And all those things, the water and the cherry blossoms and the river, they are that person, and she is never ever to be disrespected. Children nodded, and the adults sat back.
If she could see me now, I wonder what she'd be thinking. What would she think of me, living alone? What would she think of me, simply living without her? There was not a day she didn't cross my mind. There was not a day where anyone could do something that didn't remind me of her, be it twirl around to fast of the tips of their toes, hair spinning in the wind behind them, be it smile and speak softly to a loved one, be it simply blue eyes upturned, asking me a question. There was Aqua.
Children trailed behind me. I was their chief. They knew me. They looked up to me. I walked to the women, smiled, picking up the shirts in my pile. I nodded at Lina, who smiled and stated that with all the water the baby would come out blue. I laughed and agreed, wishing her luck in the days and weeks to come. I talked to the men, admitting that I think that a heavy monsoons are in high chance for this year, and the river wouldn't be so tranquil. They nodded, and we talked about this and the fact that the cherry blossoms were falling. I nodded and left. Children followed me still as I placed my thing in my dwelling, then walked back down our main street. A baby cried, and as his mother picked him up, he gurgled happily. I smiled. The baby would grow up happy in a safe place. THe children fell off one by one as we ascended the hill, to Aqua's death place, the single way into our village.
I look to the sky, sighing.
"Why are you looking at the sky, Terra?" asked a little boy named Ventus, who was a bit of my shadow. He was eight, one of the elder kids of his generation, and he looked up to me more then I can understand.
"Blue." I said quietly.
"I don't understand." He said. I chuckled.
"Blue was the color of her hair."
"Who's her?" He paused thinking, then clapped his tiny hands over his mouth. "Oh. Is it the person very special to you?"
"Yes. Her name was Aqua." I say and Ventus trailed along, not asking anymore questions. He saw a butterfly, chasing it for a while before skipping up beside me. He was so carefree. "Ventus, do you know why visitors and people are only allowed in if the chief invites them in?"
"No."
"Would you like to know why?"
"Yes!" He said.
"Okay. Most people don't know, and you can't just tell anybody. Do you promise?" I turn to him. He looks me in the eye.
"Yes. I promise. I won't tell no one." I nod, not bothering to tell him his grammar is incorrect. we reach the top of the hill, looking out to the forest a few lines of tree, a plain visible on the far horizon. I cross my arms.
"Well... back when I was younger... seven years ago, I was fourteen. You were still a baby." I sigh. "My best friend was a girl named Aqua. I... uh... we were best friends from birth. We did everything together. I'll never forget Aqua's blue hair..."
"Blue?" I nod and sigh, taking the interruption in stride.
"Blue. Just like yours grows blonde or mine grows brown, Aqua's grew out blue. It matched her eyes. And she was... well, she was really pretty. You know the prettiest girl you've ever seen?" Ven nodded, eyes wide at me, I could see the gears turning as he thought. "Yeah, well Aqua was just as pretty and a little more. And we would probably be married now."
"But what happened? Where is Aqua?"
"A little after her fourteenth birthday, our town was attacked for the first and last time. Aqua died right here, at the top of this hill. She had injured someone important, because they just retreated. But when I found her, she was close to dead. But since I, sat with her until then, I had unleashed a great power." I paused. "Aqua had died protecting us, and she would continue after death. Since her death, no one outside of our boundaries is allowed in. No one else can be hurt like she was. That is why we respect the water and the cherry blossoms and the river. Because she protects us, always."
I looked down at Ven. He was looking a me seriously. "I think I would like Aqua." I nod. Everyone of them would have liked Aqua. There wasn't a person who didn't like Aqua. I turn and gesture for Ven to follow me. He nods and walks along, silent, solemn. I knew he was thinking. His small footsteps followed lightly after mine, all the way into town.
"Terra?" Ven inquired at my backside. I turned around.
"Yes, Ven?"
"One day... could we maybe go to your's and Aqua's special place?" His eyes are big, a lovely blue, very much like Aqua's. "Or not, cause I don't have to go cause that might not be respectful cause only the chief is allowed there and I don't want to be..."
"How about I take you tonight? After supper?" I answer, and his eyes grow wide as he stammers intelligibly about not knowing if it right and his parents might not agree and maybe Aqua would be angry. "It'll be fine. I can convince your parents. And Aqua wouldn't be mad. I'm actually sure... She'd be happy."
It took a while for Ven to take my offer. It took even longer to make it all the way through dinner. I sat at the head of a set up of cushions next to a long wood board; 239 people sat before me. We're a tiny and close knit community, and this was what happened most summer nights. It's loud because everybody talks. Eventually some matter of 'importance' is brought to me. I answer tonight's question, which is whether or not I think that we should repaint the bungalows. One argument is that they are faded, and paint is easy to make, and there are some pretty great ideas about patterns. However, the other side says that it's not a good time to paint; we painted, after all, seven years ago, and it'd be nice to maybe wait until the big rains pass, and the heavy rainfall of summer quickly approaching, we should wait until after winter. This made the others argue that then it would just become winter, and they'd continue putting it off. I told them that if we made the paint right and quickly enough, we could paint before the rain, and we would be okay. I get up, and walk to Ventus, who is sitting next to his parents.
"Ven?"
"Mum, Dad. Terra wants to show me the spring and the cherry blossoms. Tonight." Ven explains. Both pass glances to me and back to Ven.
His mother turns to me. "Terra, you don't have to take him. I'm sure it's..."
"Fine, ma'am. It's fine. I want to. It's time he knew about Aqua." I look down, blinking rapidly. My voice drops to a whisper. "They all should know about Aqua..."
"Are you sure?" His mother asks.
"Terra..." Ven says.
"Chief Terra, Ventus. Show respect!"
"It's okay. He's fine. I want to take him. I promised him." Hi parents nod. Ven sits at the tale.
"Well, Ven. He's waiting." His mother gestures to me. He nods, rapidly replying with 'thank you's and 'bye's and 'see you later's. He jumps up and begins walking.
"I'll keep him safe." I turn and walk away. A promise is a promise, and I will keep my promises.
Ven is silent all the way up the hillside. He remains quiet after we stop at the river. He watches the blossoms fall and doesn't make a peep. This place still has an air of calm about it. Tranquility. I've forgot how much I missed this place.
This was the place where me and Aqua played as children.
This was the spot where she made me question things that I took for granted.
This was the place that I had first thought she was beautiful.
This was the spot where she remained. This was her river and those were her trees, and the grass beneath my feet was hers. The whispers between the trees were hers and the wind was hers. The sunset was hers, and so was the moon; this place was hers.
"Terra?" He says, softly.
"Yes, Ven?" I answer in the same quiet tone.
"Did you love Aqua?"
"Yes." He waits a minute, watching the river flow.
"Will you ever love anyone like that again?"
"No."
"Will I ever love someone like you loved Aqua?"
"I can't say for sure, Ven. But I'm sure you've heard what my father used to say?"
"No, what did he say?"
"That everybody finds love in the end."
"I'm afraid. I'm afraid of love."
"Don't ever fear love, Ven." I felt the words tumble out of my mouth before I could stop them. "Because the greatest mistakes made in love are those that are stopped by fear."
He nodded, and turned back to the river. The sun was going down, golden-orange with hints of pink in the sky. I still looked at him- this boy, who knew about Aqua, who was somehow older then his years, and yet younger at the same time. Just a little blonde boy, who asked questions when they needed to be asked. Who knew when to not say anything. Who knew that this past that no one knew of was important to everyone.
The cherry blossoms fell and the sun was finishing it's descent. Ven sat with me the whole time, silently. But I knew soon his parents would begin to worry.
"Ven I want you to go back to the village." He begins to protest but I hold up a hand and he is immediately quiet. "I don't want your parents to worry. If anyone asks after me, I'm up here at the river, and I'll be back soon."
"Okay. Thanks, Terra." I hear his footstep begin their trek back to our village. I barely breathe before I move closer to the river.
The wind rustles, and the cherry blossoms fall. The trees are helpless to losing them. They can only stand against the wind and let them sink. Because, if you love something, sometimes you have to let them go.
God, Aqua, why'd you have to leave? I haven't told you anything yet. There was so much I still had to say. How I loved you. How I was too afraid to ever say it. I still can't believe it... I'm never going to see you again. And it scares me...
But like the tree, I stand against the wind.
No matter how great the challenges I face, I will not look away.
If at the end, of life- any life, yours, mine, Ven's- there is love.
Based off of Sakura Nagashi by Utada Hikaru. Read and Review, please and thank you.