I gasped, coughing and choking, as he set us down on the cold stone floor.
"It seems I came just in time, I'm glad you choose to take my advice. Don't worry, the shadows can't come in here, her magic forbids it. I will wait at the cave entrance; just call me with your mind when you are ready to leave my friend. Her magic permits me as well from coming any closer or I would help you." Telnu's silky voice spoke into the silent cave.
I nodded thanking him profusely and turned quickly to Chihiro.
I knew that Haku could breathe in the water, being a water spirit but poor Chihiro was only human with very tiny lungs.
Pushing her on her back I began trying to necessitate her, pumping on her chest with my hands.
Nothing seemed to happen and my mind already believed the worst.
Tears began to block my vision as I furiously wiped them away.
Suddenly Chihiro's form lurched forward as she began coughing up water.
I smiled, unable to hold back the tears anymore.
Her breathing was normal and she opened her eyes slightly, before falling back into an unconscious state.
I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing she would be okay and turned my attention to Haku on my other side, feeling my smile suddenly fall.
He was bleeding so much; pools of crimson were behind him and moving out around him.
He was breathing but hardly and it was labored.
Frantically, I began tearing long patches from my shirt, which thankfully was quite long.
He had a large gash on his shoulder, his arm, and his leg while other parts of him bore scratches.
Oh how I wish I had some medicine from a spirit, I thought, remembering what Chihiro had used last time this sort of thing happened.
I moved closer to him and began rhythmically tying up his wounds to stop the bleeding.
The cave we were in wasn't dark but quite light, blue and white crystal jutted from the ceiling and the floor around us, glowing softly where they sat.
I finished quickly, my tears coming harder now when I noticed that he still bled through the clothes I had wrapped around him.
My shirt was now a little ways above my belly button with some more cloth to spare but it seemed useless.
"Please Haku, please don't give up I will find a way to heal you, I will." I said tears now falling freely down my cheeks and dropping to the ground.
"Isletta! Where are you?" I yelled, my hope was leaving so quickly I wasn't sure if I had it at all.
"Please I need your help." I whispered bowing my head in defeat.
I remembered my father's tales he would tell me before bed, his favorite being water sprites.
He had said they were known to have healing powers; maybe just maybe, my grandmother could help.
A soft voice echoed across the cave, it's origin unknown as I looked about with confusion.
"Let your tears fall on his wounds my child, let your love heal him."
The voice belonged to a woman and hoping it was my grandmother, I pulled back one of the cloths I had tied and bowed forward, letting one of the many tears I was shedding to fall on the wound on his arm.
Another tear dropped into the wound, and another and to my amazement his skin began pulling itself back together.
I gasped, willing myself to keep crying, thinking of the most depressing and then happiest things as I pulled off the other cloths.
Letting my tears fall into each, more for the larger wounds and less for the others, I sat back smiling profusely.
Each wound was closing itself up, new skin forming where it was lost.
Haku didn't wake up, but his wounds were gone, his skin flawless again.
I moved him out of the pool of blood, to a clean spot for him to rest and checked on Chihiro once more, who was still unconscious but fine.
"What did I just do?" I asked standing up and looking around for the source of the voice.
"You are part water spirit, didn't your father tell you that we have healing powers. You may only have part of my blood but it is more than enough to boast healing abilities."
The voice said a chuckle rumbling throughout the cave.
An old woman stepped from the shadows in front of me; even in her old age she was breathtaking.
She wore a long blue dress that rustled across the ground behind her.
Her hair was pure white and fine, it reached the ground in a long delicate braid down her back.
The eyes that stared at me where just like my fathers and mine, a deep chocolate brown.
She glided forward coming to stand in front of me, a soft smile on her withering face.
"I have been waiting a very long time to meet you Lena, my dear."
She said reaching out her arms to me for a hug.
I smiled shyly and stepped into her embrace. It was slightly odd but still nice and comforting.
She moved back looking at me from head to toe.
"I am sorry for the pain you have gone through, both physical and mental, we are ashamed and deeply sorry that you had to go through all of that." Isletta said her eyes showing sympathy as she hugged me again.
I nodded, wondering if she meant "we" as in her and my father.
I decided to wait until after this whole thing before asking questions.
"I have come here because my father said you would know how to destroy the relic." I said pulling out the gold and silver sun shape from underneath my shirt.
She nodded seriously, as she beckoned for me to hand it to her.
Pulling it from around my neck, she took it by the chain and examined it.
"Destroying something so powerful calls for a lot of energy, usually more than one person possesses. It was sort of a back up defense mechanism, so that if people did figure out how to destroy it, there would be the question of pulling that much energy together. The first spirits thought it would help us, yet didn't realize what affect it would have on us after so long of a time.
I can destroy it but I cannot do it alone. I must pull on your energy in order to gain enough force to break it. You will be severely weakened for a while after this until your body can replenish your energy.
Do you agree to help me granddaughter?" She finished her eyes boring into mine as she waited.
I nodded, looking back at Chihiro and Haku's unconscious forms before following my grandmother into the center of the cave.
A smooth black rock was the only thing present, and Isletta set the relic on it beckoning me to come forward.
She placed me on one side of the stone and herself across from me.
"Now there is an incantation that focuses our energy to destroy it, I will speak it first and then we will join hands and speak it together, okay?" She said giving me a reassuring smile.
I nodded and she began, her voice changing to a deeper tone as she recited the incantation.
"What once was made, we now unmake. In the name of our bodies and the land around us, undo what they made." She said speaking slowly so I could hear every word.
It was simply but seemed precise and to the point.
She reached out her hands and I set mine into hers.
We parted them just enough so that it formed an oval around the relic below us.
She nodded at me and I nodded back.
Her bead leaned back and she took a deep breath, not sure what to do I followed suit trying to calm my body as it seemed she was also doing.
We breathed again, not really noticing that we were synchronized in our breathing. Some part of me felt connected on a different level to the woman opposite me and when she began speaking I felt that connection take over as it helped me speak in complete synchronism to her.
"What once was made, we now unmake. In the name of our bodies and the land around us, undo what they made."
As we spoke my eyelids burned as a bright white light shot through them. A pulling sensation was suddenly apparent deep in my stomach as we finished speaking the words.
A soft crack emanated from below us and as quickly as the light was there it suddenly disappeared.
My grandmother let go of my arms and I opened my eyes to look down at the rock.
The relic was split into two large pieces, and as I watched it slowly melted the life inside it dying as it spread across the black rock.
Angry, horrendous shrieks echoed from the water at the mouth of the cave from the shadows as they felt the disappearance of the relic.
I tried to walk toward my friends, but felt my legs seem to fall out from under me.
My body felt spent and tired, as if I had been up for a week straight.
I moaned slightly as I came to a crash against the ground.
I noticed that my grandmother as well looked tired, but had gracefully landed on a rock that she was now sitting on.
Pushing myself up I crawled over to my friends; each movement felt like a 40-pound weight was attached to my limbs.