Don't get me wrong, I always loved a good fairytale, a good adventure story. Therese had always been able to get me to do whatever chores she wanted with the lure of one.

Living one was completely different.

Roughing it- not as easy as it sounds. It doesn't even sound easy, so you get my drift.

Being hungry and on edge all the time, really did not help Eira and I maintain a close relationship, and silence couldn't last without us going insane, but we needed to not be at each other's throats, and it was impossible.

Finding out my grandmother wasn't dead made me so happy, but I honestly wasn't sure if I would get to see any of them again, even if I could save the tree.

Eira and I had figured out that there must be at least three other people working to save it- but I doubted any of us really could know what it took.

The world tree obviously had a lot of power, but would we have to work together to save it, or would our leaders' and our own greed get the best of us?

The human race, the werekind, the Angels, the Fae, the Archons, the Demons, and the vampires had all been divided for so long. Wars over magic had been fought. The humans had the ingenuity to try to make up for their lack of magic, however, magic was hard to beat.

And we were going up against some powereful creatures that defended this place.

The fact that they scared Eira scared me- a lot more than I cared to admit.

If one of the groups healed the tree, they would definitely have more power over it- and even those races with the best intentions eventually had their corrupt leaders, and that sort of responsibility made it hard to try to give it to my father.

What if there was a way to.... make it all fair for everyone, even those that fought in the groups. Obviously the demons wanted chaos, but there could be chaos for them while still having peace and safety for others, right? The world was a big place, and why couldn't we coexist without ruining our homes?

Apparently there was a reason people went on excursions in the wild, I certainly felt like a deeper Golawere. Although I was also older and hardened.

I had killed multiple creatures.

But I swore to myself I would never be like my father, never play with others' lives like those on a chess board- but here I was, part of the largest power play known.

We were close to the entrance of the tunnel.

It was told on our maps that the tunnel led to a maze- different for every person entering.

I wondered how it would react to Eira and I entering at the same time.

Then the mirror creatures would be there, some to act as Sphinxes with riddles to continue through the maze, some to kill or harm us.

I felt as though I could hardly remember what I looked like.

~~~~~

I remember...

Eira glances at me, I swallow nervously.

"If we are separated..."

"Good luck." She says gravely.

"There's only one flower." I heard the tremble in my voice.

"I will do my best to stay with you- my Lady did not specify how the tree should be healed." Eira gives me a wolfish grin.

I hug her, heavy packs and all. She breathes in quickly and wraps her little girl arms around me.

"Should we take these with us?" I say, we break apart awkwardly.

"Yes, but we can take out the pan and other heavier materials" I touch the map and the flower wrapped within it carefully.

I tie some knots around the bag, and Eira enchants them so that only her or my fingers can untie them.

I wonder if it will work if our fingers are dead.

I shake my head.

"We must remain positive." I say, and she nods at me. We grasp each other's wrists as we descend into the darkness of the tunnel. Our eyes adjusting quickly. Then there were the voices.

"HELP! ANYONE?"

"MOTHER?"

"ANNA?"

"GERARD?"

"IT HURTS!"

"RUN"

"GET OUT OF HERE!" These are only the voices I make out before they layer themselves so thickly over one another I cannot understand them, and they echo off the stone floors.

Then there is eery silence. Eira's palm is sweaty, or perhaps mine is.

And then I remember a rainforest.

The vines and monkey howls fill my vision and hearing and I breathe in the thick scents of lotus blossoms.

"What do you see?" Eira grunts through gritted teeth.

"A jungle... what do you see?"

"A zoo of iron cages. Filled with screaming, bleeding fae and animals." She drops her eyes and I follow her, holding aside branches she can't see. There are so many roots, and I wonder if the world tree is making up this whole forest.

Eira stops and turns, about to run into a tree, but I blink and the tree has moved several feet over for her.

My head is already beginning to ache. I think everything is murky, and there are blotchy parts that my memory struggles to conjure up. I am forgetting.

I kept up with Eira, sometimes taking her past something that makes her look haunted, and I try to pretend the bugs and mud and foreign animals don't freak me out. I have to remember not to trust anything here.

Not my own senses. When I touch the trees and leaves, they feel so real, but then some of them appear to melt away in front of my own eyes, keeping me confused as I push through the thick growth and kick through the decaying materials.

~~~

We come across the first creature when Eira falls down. I thought it was an apparition of a creek, but apparently not, and I am confused, darting my eyes between the two Eiras. They both struggled to get up- hurt.

They both pull their daggers at the same time, but one falls into the water. I rush to go help, but then realize it might not be her, and the other grabs my arm, warm and real and tries to convince me of her realness, but the other Eira stabs her before she is close enough to cut my own neck.

"How do I know." I growl at her. She breathes into my ear about my nightmares, the avalanche, and I do know.

It's her, and we're safe again for a moment within a moment.

~~~~~~~~~

I remember how the sweat trickled down my back, and my breath rattled in panic as we dodged and killed little animals that turned into smoke at our blade's touch.

The worst part turns out to be at the center of the maze. We are so far in that I dread getting out again.

It is me.

But in my changed form.

"You had better change." Eira hisses as my mirror opens her mouth in a strange howl- it almost looks painful, and I touch my own jaw in response.

IS this what I look like? I remember thinking.

"Change, Greta!"

"I- I can't! There's no moon at all!" It was the night of the new moon, and I couldn't feel any pull towards changing. This was the worst possible timing. How could the mirror me change, but I couldn't?

"NO!" The other me howled in delight. Laughing in an ugly semblance of my own delighted laugh.

It grated against my ears.

"What little child, is there blood on your hands?" And there was, on hers, and on mine. Dripping, hot, disgusting and rich with the metallic scent.

The mirror-me drew one of her claws across her own stomach, and a line of serrated flesh grew on my own skin.

I watched in sick fascination.

I felt something slam into me, and I fell onto the ground.

The wind was knocked out of me, and I gaped at Eira.

"Stop watching it, you nitwit!" I looked at my dirt-smudged hands, and saw that my stomach had nothing on it.

The mirror creature crouched on the ground and sprang at us.

Eira tossed me a short knife, and I slashed upward. If I hit her, would it affect me?

Eira didn't have the same qualms and slashed into the beast's right arm. She roared in response.

I did the same on her other arm, but she just gave me a creepy smile, and then I felt the burning sensation in my arm.

If I hurt her, it didn't hurt me, but where Eira had cut her, was only now showing up on me. I back away, grappling with Eira, who was in full on fight mode.

"You can't! Don't cut her!" I shout, the pain blaring, making it hard to speak rationally. I press the edges of my cut together firmly, and the mirror me licks at her wounds in the corner.

"Only you can?" Eira puts her blade away, and looks around feverishly. I remember worrying what would come at us while we made such loud noises.

I remember that I had lost count of how long we had been there, and I was exhausted to the point of delirium.

"It's like some twisted metaphor of controlling the monster inside of you." She gave a ragged sounding laugh.

The vines were growing in around my feet, starting up our legs. I break out of them with some effort.

Lines of beetles stream towards us, but Eira doesn't react.

It must not be real.

My blood drips onto the floor with a sizzle and the mirror me jumps up. Her pupils are dilated so large I can see it from across the clearing. I remember that Eira suddenly puts her hands up to her head and blows out a stream of air, and we are enclosed in a circle of fire.

Nothing else can get to us around the crackling flames.

I wipe some of my own blood on my blade, and hold it up so it gleams.

An old Golawere ritual, my grandmother used to tell me of the glories of war from ancient times.

Mirror creatures were ancient, maybe now this thing would know that I meant business, I remember thinking fiercely.

An unearthly screech of glass and metal came from the thing as we raced towards one another.

My unchanged body was not likely to be strong enough, however, Eira could always gut me and it would kill the creature if it came to it.

Which was not a very good consolation.

We fought like beasts, aiming at throats and the raw, soft places.

We were beasts, a little bit.

I was tiring too quickly, and the mirror creature was almost feeding off of me.

The sounds I made were sickening, but apparently not frightening.

Eira kept the creature off my back, so careful not to cut it, but even against two of us, it was a challenge.

What aggravated me most was that I was trying to fix the thing they were guarding, but I'm sure many an ill-wisher had tried that line, so there was no way to make this creature see reason.

Then there was a lull, as if the mirror creature listened for something, and I realized it was fading as well. Eira was using her magic to distract it, making it see things.

I needed to appreciate her more, that was for sure.

With a final grunt of effort, I felt the wet squelch of my blade going into the side of its neck. Spurts of blood covered me, an odd red that turned to silver as the illusion wore off.

It was always a wretched feeling, that sense of relief warring with the knowledge that I had taken another life.

But self defense made it necessary, especially lately.

We move onward, but there are signs that others have made it this far.

Then I remember getting to a trunk, and it seems as though we are at the center, and there is light glowing from the top, faded from the leaves, which are turning a sad yellowy-brown.

I pull out the lotus flower, leaving bloody fingerprints on it, the consciousness pulsing within.

It almost wants to heal me, but I push it against the trunk instead.

Tears flow freely down my face, and Eira holds her aching side and back, but we stand there, and I feel the flower's magic pulsing.

Is one enough? Have others already done this? I remember worrying, and dreaming.

What we need is some organization, I think to myself. Distracting myself from the pain, I imagine a world where all the races coexist, independent in cultures, but sharing leaders and wealth and knowledge.

Where all are welcome anywhere, so long as they cause no harm to others.

Where there are choices to be made, a place for our leaders to represent their species, and a way to make sure the best leaders are chosen for the job.

I notice that there are more cuts on my body, my face and hands are bloodied and bruised from the short blade and scuffling with the mirror creature.

It is nice to dream of a land where that could exist, where bias doesn't allow for bloodshed.

I slump to the ground, Eira helping me hold the flower to the tree, and we sit in the ground, where the dirt is starting to absorb my blood.

I wonder if the tree needed some too, if it was thirsty for blood, or if it hated the taste.

Then I thought, how silly, and my vision was turning spotty and black at the edges, and then there was only a darkness.

I wondered if the tree could be healed after all, or if anyone could fix my brother, or if maybe Eira would go back and help my family.

I wondered if that fantastic world of equality and hope could exist.

I wondered if I was dying.

But I felt the tree breathe, and I thought, this is okay. This is fine. I am a very lucky girl.

I remember that much."

I tell this to a scribe as we sit within a circle of the elected leaders of all the races- magical and nonmagical.

I am still battered, and Eira will now tell her side of the story.

She is much more charming than me.

But I hope to heal my brother, and help my family once they have determined we have done what we claim to have done.

They owe their power to us, and who knows, perhaps someday I can learn to be a good leader, just as my grandmother is for us Golawere now.

I can now tell this as a story, when it was an awful reality not so long ago.

Perhaps someday someone's grandmother will talk about us all, and what lengths we went to to save the World Tree.