And that's exactly what it left her with.
Loneliness.
Her body, frail and foreign once again, shook at fact that that time has thrown her back, even if it was just for a moment. That foreign sun setting, the water rising amongst the cobblestone steps, it all seemed so distant. Yet, there she was, her feet planted in the exact spot her body once was fourteen years ago.
What did she do to deserve this? She had stopped letting time consume her. It would no longer be a host within her, it would be exiled to the far reaches of her thoughts to never resurface as a concept. Yet, right now, it resurfaced with a smoldering wave. Her lungs began to feel heavy as her breathing became ragged and her vision began to blur.
This is what pain and heartache felt like?
She tried to stand tall, but her hands slowly made their way to her chest. Her eyelids cringed closed and her eyelashes were soon coated with salty water droplets. Her hands gripped her shirt, trying to reach for her heart that was painfully stabbed at repeatedly by the sight before her.
She didn't deserve this.
Why must she relieve this moment over and over again? The moment that was the glorious start and painful end to her existence?
The sun continued to set in the portrait painted by the horizon. Water started to creep up around the soles of her shoes, soaking them just like her shirt had been soaked by the tears that crept down her face. However, her hands then started to sink into her chest, fading at a pace of familiarity. Her fingertips became transparent and she raised them to her face. The aesthetic landscape before her showed right on through and a small smile crept on to her face.
Maybe.
Just maybe?
She raised her swollen eyes to the landscape before her and shook her head for a moment. The back of her petite ten-year old body raised itself and stood tall. If time wished to throw her back, after all these years, what did she have to lose? She had given so much to it that didn't time owe her something at the very least?
"If this is your repayment for all of my tears and calls, then I will accept this painful encounter, despite all the risks. You owe me, you and Haku owe me, for all that I have wasted on you two."
Time owed her.
But did it?
Or did she rather owe time? Owe it for the moments it had given her during her childhood? It was an equation of give and take after all.
With that, she planted her first step forward and entered the foreign memory that once was. She would take the reign on her own time and encounter what she wished to encounter here. She was not a slave to dreams, memories and hopes anymore. Time wouldn't weave its fingertips into her life anymore, for she was the one who dictated how her own time was used.