Chapter 30 - Cheers
I had not returned in weeks. Why bother? Kara and Lila were happy with Tarne. I was the third wheel, fourth now. I was back for a specific reason, but had a feeling I would not be able to complete my goal. For the sake of remembering Lila, I wanted to draw her.
I had been drawing things, since I did not know anyone who could help me illustrate things in my writing. I would have to be able to put my ideas on paper myself, in more than just description. I still sucked at describing things. My mind sourced my words on things I have seen, which differed person to person. To appeal to mass populace, writers often used long-winded descriptions based on common life objects that anyone with an ounce of imagination could picture. I just could not patchwork it all to make sense, but drawing would help me with that.
When I arrived at the space created from the remnant of Rebecca’s domain, I found the library empty. The upstairs and the attic were equally still. I even knocked at the door to the bathroom rather than just float through, but got no response. The door was open, and the small space was empty as well. I wanted to open up my creationism to looking through all objects, but remembered Rebecca’s qualms with it. A rather sad thought struck my mind. What if Kara actually left with Lila now that I was no longer connected to Tarne?
For a moment in thinking that, I felt my vision darken, as I curled up in the air to a fetal position. She was no longer the monster she was put into the untethered space as. Lila was now a mother, and Kara was older. The thought kept spiraling into possibilities of Lila getting out early so she could care for Tarne in some world Kara knew from her work in the order. They probably lived there together, leaving me alone in the darkness again. I felt tears well in my eyes, while tightening my embrace. I wanted to compact myself out of this space, but remembered something similar happened before, and decided to let go.
When I came undone, the library stood silent in front of me. It was a library from my past, changed to a library home for Tiarto, and then into the floating library for Rebecca. The room had seen a lot of different modes, but the thing that always remained was the desk, still supported by an old leather-bound journal to keep the desk level. Seeing as this was a direct pull from Tiarto’s story, the journal had to have something about Foradim Averco, the old man with a mysterious past in that strange world. The journal was nigh invisible to most, but I floated down to it and pulled it from underneath.
I wondered what it said inside, but did not want to spoil it for myself. Tiarto’s story was due for a rewrite, a repositioning of the story to better seek an audience. It would be a different timeline of the reality that I knew Tiarto to exist in. As much as I wanted to give the world the story as it was, I did not have the confidence in it. It was the same for all my stories. I watched them grow in front of me as I wrote them, but my descriptiveness was lax, and I often omitted vital pieces of the story. I needed to make him known to the world, because I used him as a comfort spot for my own story.
I closed my eyes for a moment standing in the middle of the library, the silent still life of Tiarto’s world, only broken by a giggle of increasing volume that ceased as something impacted into me with running speed. On instinct, I put both of us into a bubble to alleviate the fall, and popped it once I regained balance. How? I was still incorporeal. I looked at the girl in front of me and could have sworn I was looking at Lila in a child form again.
“Sorry,” she said politely, then nodded to run off again toward the garden doors. THE GARDEN! I felt stupid. Lila made the garden from Tiarto’s story. I completely forgot to check there. I had to wonder if that was Lila back in time, or did Tarne really grow up that fast. I followed her through the swinging green double doors into the lush green I imagined like a jungle from Foradim’s adventures. The plants were from the Mosonian jungles after all, but a garden could never really capture the essence of a jungle.
I followed the laughing child down the path to a bench beside the most dangerous of the plants there, the Reaper Flare Garderium. Before I had a chance to intervene, the giant flower scooped the child from the path into the sickle maw. I was stunned for a moment, but the laughter continued.
“Stop it, Flary,” the girl exclaimed. “It tickles! Hahahah!” The razor sharp sickles were no longer so. Instead the plant had black feathers with bushy red tips inside the multitude of petals spiraling to the center. When the girl pulled a few of the feathers out, the bulb spat her out into the air. I was ready to catch her before the fall, but another got it before me.
“Careful, Tarne,” Lila said, sitting on the bench facing the big scary blossom. Her hand levitated Tarne a meter off the ground and placed her gently down on her feet.
“Ok, mommy,” she replied, then ran off again, this time tugging on a vine I knew to belong to Garroton Bloom. This version of Garr was mobile, a white flower bulb on green vine tendrils walking along the path. The green vines he was wriggling scooped Tarne up and dropped her from on high, only to open up into a slide that took her around the inside and out from another petal near the base. Lila had been changing things here, but for the better.
“Hey, Lila,” I said, hesitantly walking up to the bench. Kara sat there beside her, looking off into the thicket of green. Before I could shift my eyes back to Lila, her arms were around me in a hug. I missed her warmth, something I felt a lot when I was connected to Tarne. My arms wrapped around her too, holding tightly for fear of being apart. “Sorry I’ve been away.”
“It’s ok,” she said. “Everyone takes their time with changes. I didn’t expect you to get used to being yourself again right away. I’m so glad you’re back.”
“I’m glad that Tarne is happy,” I said, then felt stupid immediately. “I mean, not that she wasn’t happy before. I’m just glad to SEE her happy.”
“I’m glad you’re back to your old self,” Kara said, without looking in our direction. “But that doesn’t change the fact that the library and your creationism vines still pose a threat to everything else.”
“Kara!” Lila exclaimed. “I thought you said you’d let him be for a while.”
“It’s not time sensitive,” Kara said, turning to look at me. “I just need you to understand that things can’t stay the way they are. At this point, I know you too well, far more than I know the other people in my life, and that’s pretty stupid. You eat up my life with the things you do, and you need to know that will come to an end.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry to have been a burden to you, Kara. I’m sorry that you had to bring Fyntn into this again. I’m the most sorry that your life keeps interacting with my mind, but aren’t you glad that it does for this moment in time?” I looked at her, but she still looked away.
“It is a calmer part of my life, that’s for sure,” she said. “I find myself contemplating many things.” When she turned, her gaze was not focused on me. Kara stood up, and walked over to Lila. They stood together for a moment, eyes intently locked. “I think I’m not afraid of it anymore. I love you, Lila. What little life I have left, I want to spend by your side.”
“Is that- Are you…?” Lila asked. She looked toward me for a moment, and all I could do was nod once in agreement. I was happy for them, but felt a hole in my own heart. It was Valentine’s Day in my reality. Having spent my so far life single, I was both happy and sad when witnessing love expressed. I would mention something to the both of them, but there was no point spoiling the mood.
Instead, I floated off into the air of the garden up to the Brancher Delflora tree that grew in wonderful patterns not often found in nature. One branch had the smaller branches weave like Celtic knots, while another had swirls upon swirls reminiscent of Druidic notions. I found Tarne running along a path deeper in the garden and flew down to scoop her into the air. With the power of creationism, I gave her control of her own flying as we sailed among the green above Kara and Lila.
“Wooooo!” Tarne shouted, while zooming past me, hands in front of her like a supergirl. I waved a hand over the space to create light rings for her to fly through and she altered her flying to make it through them. Each ring exploded with non-flammable fireworks when she flew through, creating a celebratory atmosphere that the couple down below deserved. I would come back to ask to draw Lila another time. I was ever more certain my wants were not as important as their happiness. There was something calming about that fact.
I latched onto Tarne in flight and flew us both down to the path in the green before removing the ability to fly around. With a wave goodbye to Tarne, I flew alone into the air to make a giant red heart to celebrate their love that read: “Happy Valentine’s Day”, not that they would know what that meant. And with that, I was back to my reality, a day just like any other for a single person, ending, witnessing the happiness of love in others. Cheers.
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