A/N:

Dearest readers,

Words do not do justice for how happy I am to continue this story.

Love and loyally,

-Kai


Part II

Reborn

She was weightless.

Drifting in an endless nothing.

The ends of her hair curl and snake about her in a lazy dance.

She is the wind.

She is the clouds.

She is the air.

Below her is the world.

But where is the great shore?

Where is the old woman?

Where is her mother and father?

Now she is the stars above; not belonging. Separate. Alone, yet quiet in peaceful watch of what she once called home.

The stars become an ethereal blur as she passes through them.

Light too pure to call white seeps into her skin, piercing through her veins and into the very depths of her soul.

She allows the light to fill all that was once cold and empty.

No longer is she a shell carved out by a lifetime of fear and loss.

She closes her eyes one last time, forsaking the world below as she falls up.

-X-

A lone figure rests at the end of an outcrop near the shoreline, watching as the sun begins its descent into the horizon. The sea was calm that day, the calmest it had ever been. As the sun touches the water, the waves cease and all grows quiet.

It was as if the world stood still.

A soundless white light bursts from the meeting of the sun and the sea, emanating outwards and illuminating all in its wake. The figure shields its eyes and rises. Descending from the sky directly above the bay was a small form. Long, dark tendrils of hair dance idly about it, masking a face oblivious to the outside world. As the form nears the surface of the sea, the figure begins running.

A young girl floats peacefully in the still waters; her arms limp at her sides. Her white gown fans about her body, undisturbed and perfect. The ice of oblivion slowly fades and her senses begin to return. She feels cool water soak her skin before she is resting in another's grasp. She fights the oblivion, but its grip is stronger on her mind than her body.

As she is pulled to shore a lone whisper penetrates the wall surrounding her mind.

Guide them home.