Epilogue
"So you have made your choice." said Kaisa. "Your ignorance makes you brave."
George decided not to take the offence personally.
"Can you tell us where to go?" he asked.
Serafina Pekkala was the one who answered, her goose daemon seemed disappointed with their decision.
"You shall go north. When you leave our forest you should walk for another fifteen minutes before you find a small waterfall. This is the far Carol can go."
Freezing, I am freezing.
It's cold. The water is so cold.
Where is he? Where is George? Why he left me?
Cold...
He said he would never leave me.
"After that, you are in the Land Where Nothing Lives. You must find your way out. I cannot say where it is."
He said he would come back for me.
I should wait.
I am his daemon. He loves me.
"But be careful George: when you find your way out you no longer will be at the entrance."
Maybe he don't.
He lied to me. He don't want me. He just wanted to get rid of me. I was just trouble for him ever since I settled in this ridiculous dolphin form.
I want to get away from here.
"Our daemons can fly, so they can find us when we leave the Land. But Carol will be imprisioned by the water. You will have to find her."
But I can't. I'm stuck in this creepy waterfall lake!
Oh... It's so cold.
His body was warm, even from a distance.
"We will give you food for a week. Eat it cautiously and it may last longer. Also, as the trip until the waterfall takes some time, more than she can bare out of the water. We will do a spell to protect her from dihidration and another one to protect her from cold during a week. That's all we can do."
"Is already more than I can ask. Thank you."
I am lost.
All I can see is white. And gray.
White ice.
Grey snow.
They have reached the waterfall.
"So here I stay." Said Carol bravely.
"Yes." He looked her with love. "I will come back for you, never doubt that."
White sky.
Grey water.
Where is he? Why he left me?
I always have felt him. I always knew where he was.
Now I don't.
White snow flakes.
"Don't take long."
"I can't promise that. I'll try."
He turned his back and then it came.
Pain.
Worse than everything she ever felt.
"No! No, George! Came back!"
He had collapsed in the floor, 5 meters away from the waterfall.
"Please." He shouted. "Please, be strong! It hurts for me too."
Carol was able to contain a scream. He was right, they have decided this together.
Together.
Will we ever be together again?
Grey body.
Body? Whose body?
His body?
No... it's just me.
I'm alone.
He left me.
Pain.
Water. Water will ease the pain. I have to dive.
"Carol! I promise! I will never leave you! I will come back!"
I have to...
Is black under the water.
Cold. Cold!
Pain again.
"Carol!"
I have to emerge.
White sky.
How long am I here?
What if his dead?
No! Don't be stupid! You would be dead as well!
Am I? Dead?
White. Gray. Black. White again.
Cold.
"Carol!"
Silence.
Not even the waterfall makes a noise.
Where are we?
I.
Where am I.
He is not here.
Is just me.
"Carol!"
And his voice.
His voice in my head.
"Carol! Carol I've found you! Carol!"
I don't want to see him anymore.
It still hurts, what he have done to me.
To us.
Us?
"Carol! Carol, let me touch you! You must be freezing! Come here."
No!
I swim away. I am angry with him.
But he is here.
The pain... is gone.
Relief.
"Carol? Are you all right? Come. Let's go back to Lake Enara. It's too cold for you there."
It is.
He can feel it?
"Isn't it? The spell must be gone by now. I took so long to find you, I am so sorry".
No. He can't. He just know it's cold because the spell has been gone.
Our bond is gone.
So why do I still feel his concern towards me?
"Carol, please, come here. We have to go."
I am not going with him. Not now.
He will feel a little of what I have been through.
But I want to leave this horible place.
So I go.
He takes me and run to Lake Enara.
The air rushes against my face. My body is wraped in something wet.
And cold.
But his coat is protecting me.
Green.
No. Not just green. Trees.
And I can see the sun already.
Caves. Bonfires. The Lake.
"Stay there. I'll look for Serafina Pekkala."
He leaves me at the Lake.
I dive. I go to the bottom. Fishes swim around me.
There is no pain in my heart. I am free. I don't need to stay near him anymore.
The Lake is large and I want all the distance from him that I can get. I go to the other extremity, but don't emerge.
I'll stay here.
"Carol? Could you please come to surface for a while? Your human is not here."
It was Kaisa. He was talking inside my mind. I attend to his request and find the goose sitting on the border.
"Thank you."
I just nod.
"If you don't want to go back South with George right now you are free to stay. What you are feeling I once felt, and I know how it is. One day you will forgive him, just as I did with Serafina. And when this day came, we will take you to the sea and you can go look for your human."
Will I find him? Yes. I know I will, I always will know where he is. We are still one being, our bond still exists, but is magnified.
Kaisa open his wings and fly away, in the direction of a cove.
He is right, I know he is. I still love George and I always will. We just need a distance for now.
I will go back for him someday. And when this day comes, it would be like it was when we were children.
No. It will be better, because, this time, we will have a hole life together.