Aaah it's been some time since I did a multi-chapter story! I hope this turns out alright.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dust: An Elysian Tail but I do recommend it!

...

Something felt vaguely familiar.

Darkness, all he saw currently was darkness. He was surprised he could more or less tell that, surprised he still seemed to have a consciousness that could tell him that.

It was like being plunged to the very bottom of a deep, inky lake. He couldn't feel, couldn't move, and everything felt heavy. Though at the same time, it was like he was very slowly floating up, up to the surface. Gradually things became a bit lighter, a bit less heavy. Slowly, thoughts and memories came seeping back.

A single memory came into focus. A bright light turned into a flame, the flame was surrounded by stone. The stone was hot and smoking. Flames turned into a river of fire under a red sky, and people were running amid the heat and smoke. A blurry figure fell into the fire rivers below, and rock and stone were crumbling everywhere.

Voices, sad voices were calling out his name.

And then the fire river swallowed him too.

It had abruptly become so vivid, he almost felt the heat from the vision.

Dust blinked his eyes open.

No fire, no smoke, no heat. Shade was dappling the ground around him, cast from emerald canopies that wove themselves together from above. Sunlight poked its way through the gaps between branches and greenery, casting a gentle warmth on his body as it gradually inched overhead. Grass registered next, the blades cradling his body and tickling his hands, and the fox involuntarily closed his fist, plucking the blades from the ground.

He blinked again.

It can't be.

Dust's right arm raised, fist still closed around the clumps of grass he had ripped out, and he slowly opened it, letting the blades come twirling down onto his chest. They were real.

Dust let out the breath he didn't know he was holding, and slowly shifted both feet, as if testing to make sure they still worked. They moved on command, much to his surprise. In his last foggy memory, he hadn't been able to feel his legs for some reason, among every other pang and burn he had been feeling.

He braced both hands on the ground on either side of his body, and gently pushed himself into a sitting position. His head spun briefly, forcing him to shut his eyes for a moment to regain his composure. Once the vertigo settled down, he allowed himself to see once again.

The Glade.

He wasn't sure why he was so certain about that, but he was. The flowers, the shaded clearing, the distant sound of water and small creatures moving about in the undergrowth. He spotted his satgat lying off to his side, and he quickly regained it and set it back on his head, feeling at ease with the sense of familiarity it brought.

Wasn't this where…?

"Ah...good, you have finally awakened, Master."

Dust startled and jerked his gaze to his left. A rather extravagant sword was there, levitating just a few inches off the ground in a cloud of bluish aura. His words stumbled in his mouth, but he managed to recollect the name of the sword among all his fuzzy and mixed up thoughts, "A-Ahrah…"

"Good, you still retain your memories." The sword hummed, the scriptures along its blade blinking noticeably as it spoke, "I was worried you would not."

"M-my memories…?" Dust murmured, rubbing his head tenderly as he let the world finish sinking in around him. Speaking was odd, his voice sounded hoarse and strained, as if he had not spoken for a long time, "Was...wait...is this...The Glade?"

"Indeed it is, Dust. If you can recall this, this was the very place you accepted me as your weapon." Ahrah said, still silently drifting above the grass.

"...This very spot…?" Dust asked, allowing himself to look around at his surroundings. The dizziness he had experienced upon waking up seemed to be subsiding finally, allowing him to make more movements.

"Not quite. We are in another part of The Glade from when we first met, I believe, but still in the area." Ahrah paused, "do remember anything else at all?"

"Y-yeah…" Dust murmured, letting his eyes drift down and wander about his person. He stared emptily at his vest, lingered for a moment on the brass fastener on his cape, his boots, "I was...somewhere very hot...last time…?"

"Yes, you were." Ahrah confirmed, but did not add on. It seemed like he wanted Dust to try and decipher his own cloudy memories rather than tell him everything that had happened.

Dust frowned, "The...the...volcano. Everdawn...The Everdawn Basin?" he asked, blinking as the memory of the name of the place brought an onslaught of new memories. Soldiers running, cannons blasting, airships cutting through the air and shrapnel whistling through the wind as they crashed in firey explosions. Yes, a battle had taken place there.

"Yes Dust, and do you remember what you did there?"

Dust blinked, remembering the blurry figure. The figure was associated with anger, hatred, exhaustion, and strangely enough, mercy. General Gaius's name came to mind, and with it, all the stories and names of those associated. They came on so strongly, Dust's head ached sharply, and he lowered it into his hands, groaning.

Ahrah drifted a bit closer, "Do not strain yourself, Dust. What has happened in these recent events was something of a phenomenon. Even I did not foresee such events to unfold."

"Events...you mean...when I fought and defeated Gaius…?" Dust asked, raising his head slowly as the memories slowed their aching stream in his head.

"No," Ahrah continued, "not that. Do you...remember what happened, after you won the battle…?" Its voice had softened a bit, its words tentative as it spoke that sentence.

Dust blinked his eyes shut, remembering how at the end, the very end, the crater he had beaten Gaius in suddenly exploded and had sent him flying. The rock and stone around them had crumbled, magma had begun pouring in from cracks in the sides, erupting from the ground, filling the area with a pool of orange. He had watched Gaius plummet into the pool. He had let himself be devoured by an onslaught of magma streams. He had been so tired, too weak to regain his feet, and had let the magma river swallow him and the Life Thread lead him someplace beyond the darkness.

And yet, he was here?

"Yes...I do…" Dust murmured, "But...how? Ahrah I...I died, didn't I? In the lava…"

"Yes...you did." Ahrah spoke slowly, "You were taken by the Life Thread, and yet...something I couldn't explain happened." The sword paused, as if it were trying to form its words properly, "I had landed on a high ledge after the explosion, out of the magma's reach. And when I sensed your life force fade, I too, began to fade. And yet, even when I thought I would be gone, due to my master's death, I found myself rising again. You had taken some ethereal form, and ascended from the crater…and I followed you as you drifted away from the Everdawn Basin."

"And...I stopped here?"

"You did."

"My body is...I have a physical body again…"

"You do."

"No burns or any of the injuries I had before...my clothes are even still intact…"

"That they are."

Questions bombarded Dust's mind, and he longed to let them out to make any sense of why he would just suddenly return from the dead like he did. And with his body and clothing still completely intact, which seemed something beyond his understanding, considering his death had been literally being burnt up by magma. If anything should be left of his body, it should be ashes.

Before Dust could ask how this was all even possible, a shriek erupted from above. The fox tensed and tightened his right fist instinctively, forgetting for a moment he wasn't holding Ahrah at the moment. A small shape shot down from seemingly nowhere, slamming him squarely in the chest with enough force to knock his breath out momentarily.

"DUUUUST!"

The orange nimbat was crying, gripping the front of his top in both paws and burying her face in the fabric.

Fidget! How could he possibly let her slip from his mind? She had been such a big part of the last few events as well…

"F-Fidget!" Dust cried, not sure what to do or say in response just yet. He could hear her muffled sobs through his shirt, her tiny body trembling.

Finally, she raised her head, blinking large tears out of her dark eyes and rubbing her nose roughly with one paw, "I-I-I thought you were dead! D-Dust…! You were…" she gasped loudly, shaking her head, "Oh no...you're not a ghost, are you? Dust please don't be a scary evil g-ghost now! I don't think I can take it if you-"

"Fidget! I'm not a ghost!" Dust huffed, shaking his head, though he was inwardly touched at Fidget's rather emotional reaction to his return was. His memories of Fidget came slipping back, their first meeting, the first time they learned how to use her projectiles in battle, her snarky way of talking and the way she would cry out in terror at nearly everything at first. Yes, despite how talkative she had been, Dust admitted he felt much more at ease and grounded with her presence.

"Y-y-you…? Oh, Dust...I thought I'd never see you again…" the little nimbat whimpered, "I...I didn't want to leave you like you said b-but…" she sniffled loudly, trying to paw the tears away from her face, "A-and I saw that glowy thing fly out of the ground a-and Ahrah following it and I flew after it as fast as I could! But it was too fast and I was so scared I really wasn't gonna see either of you again…" Fidget paused to catch her breath, shaky with sobs, and tried to regain her composure.

"F-Fidget...It's good to see you again too…" Dust murmured, giving her a small, albeit somewhat awkward pat on the head. Fidget sniffled, lifting back into flight and hovering over him,

"D-Dust you don't understand...I've been trying to track you for days! Maybe almost a week! I tried to ask if anyone saw flying blue ghosty stuff and they weren't much help…"

Dust stiffened, "A week?"

"I was about to give up too! It was gonna hurt me to but still…" Fidget kept going, "but on a whim I guess...I decided to come look here…and there you were!"

"Fidget...wait a minute…" Dust murmured, "A week? Exactly how long was I...er...gone…?"

Fidget blinked, looking off into the distance as she thought, "Umm...not super long...I don't think...I saw that ghosty stuff fly out of the Everdawn Basin the same evening you...died...and I've been trying to follow it ever since…" she frowned, "I think it's been a week anyways. It felt like forever though...I just wish I'd come here sooner…"

"Well, you're here now, and that's what matters, right?" The fox smiled at her, trying to regain his feet, "I guess...it's a relief I haven't been gone all that long, then."

"I'll say!" Fidget cried, "Like, imagine if you'd been gone for months or even years! I don't think I could deal with that at all, you know? Especially since that ghosty stuff made me think...maybe you weren't gone after all?"

"It is a very strange turn of events, isn't it?" Ahrah said, drifting over to the two of them where it had been silently hovering during their reunion, "not even I can guess as to why you have been returned from the Life Thread, Dust, or how it was possible for something like this to occur. Perhaps one day the answer will be revealed to us."

"Yeah...perhaps…" Dust replied, finally managing to stand without too much effort. His legs felt a bit shaky and a bit heavy, as if he hadn't been walking for some time. Nevertheless, feeling returned to them as he allowed himself a moment to stand upright, "well...now do we head back to…" He paused, briefly searching for the name, "...right...Aurora Village now?"

"Oh my, we should, shouldn't we?" Fidget murmured, wringing her paws anxiously, "I-I mean, the last anyone heard of you was that you had sacrificed yourself to defeat the general guy! Everyone thinks you're dead!"

"Right then...but...where do we go from here? I've never been in this part of The Glade before." Dust asked, looking expectantly at the Blade of Ahrah for an answer. After all, it had known which direction to go the first time he had woken up here.

The sword was puzzlingly silent for a moment, as if it were contemplating something, "I...apologies, master...I can't seem to sense where the village is at the moment…"

Dust blinked, "You can't? But aren't we nearby?"

"I cannot explain exactly what this feeling is, but something...there is an interference I cannot explain, and it is hindering me in some way. I cannot place where we are in relation to anywhere at the moment, except that we are in The Glade somewhere."

"Oh, great...:" Fidget huffed, hanging her head in resignation, "Dust comes back to life via some miracle and now we're all gonna get jumped by monsters because we're lost."

"Don't worry Fidget, I can still fight, remember?" Dust reassured, taking Ahrah into his grip. He sighed as familiarity sunk in again, and he turned to examine their surroundings, "So, you can't sense anything at all, Ahrah? Not even someplace closer like, the place where we first met? If we could at least get to there, I can remember the rest by myself."

"I am sorry Dust, I cannot see anything. We will have to search for some familiar landmarks until this interference ceases." the sword said regretfully, emitting a low hiss of a sighing sound.

"Ugh...what luck." Fidget groaned, "I just hope we find something familiar soon, I'm starting to get hungry and it's gonna be dusk soon."

"Hold on," Dust said, glancing at Fidget, "You can fly, Fidget. Can you maybe get an overhead view of the area? Maybe you'll see that clearing we first met at."

"Umm…" Fidget mumbled apprehensively, "You see...if I knew where that was, I would have checked for you there at first...and I couldn't find it right away so that's why I was searching the whole place…"

Dust sighed, "You don't have much of a navigational sense, do you?"

Fidget sucked in a breath, shooting him a nervous grin, "Unfortunately…" Dust resisted the urge to smack his forehead in exasperation,

"Alright, alright. We'll just walk around and look for a landmark or a trail or something." Dust huffed, beginning his stride forward, "I guess it's not the worst monster-ridden place to be lost anyways. I've killed off so many of these things, fighting them should hardly be a struggle."

"Yeah, lucky for us." Fidget muttered, fluttering after him into the woods.