Chapter 11

Kita rose from the fire and turned to go up to the tree house to sleep. As she turned, however, she thought she felt someone standing behind her, and froze when she heard a voice.

"My dear," it said, "What are you doing out here this late at night?"

Kita froze, but it wasn't in fear. Everything she had done up to that point had been in fear, fear of something that might hurt her, or something that she didn't know. Now, she stood frozen to the spot, but it wasn't in fear, it was in hope. Kita dropped the sleeping bag as she turned, and frowned when she saw Elda standing in front of her. The witch wore a long dark cloak, clasped at her neck. It billowed around her like a large dark shadow, and the front was slightly open, revealing a black frilled dress, similar to the pink one she wore a couple of days prior.

"What are you doing here, Elda?" Kita asked.

The witch smiled and shook her head. "I told you I would be seeing you very soon, and now here I am. I have come to speak with you, face to face." The woman gracefully sat next to the fire and beckoned Kita to join her.

"You're not Elda, are you?" Kita asked.

The closer Kita got to the woman, the more she realized that it was not Elda without the woman even answering. However, she did have the exact same hair, and the exact same physical features. Her eyes were the exact same color except one aspect. They were filled with dark power. They seemed to glow with all of her knowledge and all of her predictions. When she spoke, her voice was dark as well, and filled with the same power her eyes reflected.

"No, I am not Elda. In a short amount of time, Elda will not exist. There will only be me, and you may call me Freya."

"Freya," Kita's lips formed the name and it felt natural, like she had used the name so many times in the past.

"Everything seems to be coming back to you, slowly but surely. Tell me, Miss Kinomoto, would you find it strange, or be offended if I called you Sakura?"

Kita sat for a moment. "You know, a couple of days ago I was told that Sakura would make a good name for me. Miss Li told me that she had suggested that my mother name me that."

Freya smiled. "Well, Miss Kinomoto, that is because I told Funaho Sakura would suit you well."

Kita stared into the flames some more. Here I go again, she thought sarcastically. "Freya, I have been seeing things in my sleep recently, and I don't know how to explain them. They seem like memories, but I know they're not mine."

Freya's eyes sparkled, Kita had brought them to the topic of interest in a round about way, but in a way nonetheless. "Are you sure they're not yours?"

Kita frowned. "I've lived in the city my entire life, and I have been having dreams about running through the woods searching for someone, and then again, I had a dream about that ruined village. I had never been there until that day, I am sure it's just an overactive imagination."

"Do you really believe that?" Freya urged Kita to think about it harder. She knew the truth, she knew who Kita was, and the purpose for her parents dying, for Funaho taking her in. In truth, there had been no promise between the women, and it was sheer luck that Kita's relatives did not want to take care of her and jumped at the chance to send her away.

"Should I believe that?"

Freya smiled at Kita as softly as she could. "What you have felt these past few days, you know they are real, because how could your heart feel something fake? And your 'dreams' or so you call them, did they feel real? Then how can you say they were fake if they didn't feel that way?" Freya watched the confusion and the thoughts twist themselves out on Kita's face. "Don't you think that perhaps anything is possible?"

"Are you telling me that my dreams are real, that they're memories? My memories?"

"Do you think that they could be your memories?"

"I don't know for sure, can you help me?"

Freya smiled and waved her hands over the fire. The fire flared to life and danced green then back to orange. The forest grew quiet, even the trickling creek seemed to stop flowing.

Kita was uneasy, but not afraid. She stood, looking at Freya, who stared back at her, watching her, as if waiting for something.

Suddenly, Kita became aware of a presence behind her. She went to turn around, but her feet were frozen to the spot, and he head was frozen facing Freya. Her heart raced as the person or thing moved closer to her. She wasn't sure if it was fear that made her heart race, or something else.

"Sakura, my dear," the voice was kinda and gentle. It was the voice she heard before, but it was in her ear, and it was so real she could feel his breath on her ear.

She felt his arms draped themselves over her shoulders, she saw the dark green sleeves, and the smooth pale hands clasp together.

"Where have you been, Sakura? I have been looking for you all over, but I couldn't find you. I kept looking and looking and calling you name, but you were nowhere to be found. I'm happy I found you, I missed you."

Tears welled up in Kita's eyes, and her heart raced faster, but it pained her as well. She wanted to turn around and hold him in her arms, even though she couldn't remember his name at the moment, even though she couldn't remember what he looked like, or how long she had known him. She remembered how much she loved him, and she remembered how much she wanted to be by his side always."

"Freya, can he hear me?" The tears fell freely from Kita's eyes, all she wanted to do was be able to lift her hands and touch his, and she couldn't even do that.

"No, Miss Kinomoto, he cannot hear you. We are in a different time, not his time, not your time."

"I want to hold him," Kita cried, if she had any movement in her legs, she was sure she would fall to her knees at that moment.

"Kita cannot hold him, she does not belong to his time. Sakura can hold him, but not forever, they cannot escape fate, but it can be altered slightly."

"I cannot hold him forever, but can I be by his side?" Kita felt her heart wrench as the green sleeves disappeared from around her neck. She felt herself falling to her knees and buried her face in her hands and wept as soon as she had movement.

"You can be by his side, but Kita cannot."

Kita slowly realized the play on words that Freya was using. She was acting like Kita was another person. And perhaps she was, but perhaps they were both the same person in the end. "I am Kita, aren't I?"

"If that is what you feel, think, and believe, then you are. But remember, Kita cannot hold him, she does not belong to that time, she does not know him or love him. He is nothing to her, is he something to you?"

Freya smiled as Kita wiped her tears. The young woman still stayed on her knees, but stared intently into the fire now. She was thinking, and Freya decided to let her think. There was a lot for her to take in, there was a lot for her to decide. However, the toughest decision still lay ahead of her.

What is he to me, Kita asked herself. She hugged her arms close to her. Her heart had felt so awful when he disappeared, and yet she still could not remember his name. Her dream from the night before seemed so foggy and so far away. She couldn't remember anything in particular from it except that it happened and I confused her.

"Freya, I have a question for you, and I want you to answer me straightly. No tricks, no twists, no mind games. Who am I?"

Kita stared at the woman clad in black intently. There was a fire burning in her eyes, she wanted to know, no, she needed to know. Was she herself, or was she some reincarnation of someone who died a long time ago.

Freya sighed. "Are you sure you want the truth?" Kita nodded and the woman sighed again. "Your purpose in life is to give Sakura another chance at happiness. In short, you are Sakura's reincarnation, Kita is only the name your parents stubbornly chose to give you, hoping it would change the person you are. You see, your parents vaguely knew, I spoke with your mother once, a long time ago, when she and Funaho had been close friends. Your mother chose to ignore my words, and pretended that if she didn't acknowledge that you were anyone but her daughter, then you wouldn't be."

"If I am the reincarnation of Sakura, then where is he? And why can I not remember his name for the life of me?"

"He will not be here in this time, you need to go to him, and go you will. As for his name, stop thinking about it. You know his name, you should not need to try and remember. In the morning, you will see him, and none of this will have happened yet. Meilin will go with you on your journey, she will go to help you make your decision, and she will be there to witness it for herself. When you wake, perhaps this meeting may seem as a fleeting dream, but that is all it will be. Go to sleep now, Sakura, and wake up tomorrow in your own time."

Freya kissed Kita on the forehead and vanished back into the shadows of the forest.