Aura - Where Time Remains: To Reach Tomorrow
Jan 26 22:01:59 2005

Aura pushed the final low-hanging branch out of the way, stepping
out into the unshadowed sunlight within a small clearing, just on
the northern edge of the Rabite Forest. With a weary sort of sigh,
she cast a violet-eyed gaze around, elusive memories held where she
could not reach them.

It had been almost three years since she left this little glade,
an equal distance from both the home of the kind Matango who had
revived and raised her for a year after she had awakened, and the
burned-out facility building where the former said he could remember
hearing an explosion from, just minutes before he'd come upon her
lifeless form nearby. While she felt glad enough that she was
close to one point she once called 'home', it wasn't the reason she
was here. The other, however, was.

Crunching a few dead pieces of twigs and leaves beneath her boots,
she trudged thoughtfully on towards the foreboding-looking building
just a short ways further north. A few choice portions of the
outside were missing or chipped away, a significant factor in how
long it had been abandoned by any form of life since whatever
happened within it some years ago. Upon reaching the outer main
entrance (or so she assumed), a familiar little tree-woman popped
into existence in the air in front of her, peering up at the
building with a frightened expression in her enormous green eyes.
Seeing this, Aura couldn't help but feel slightly more apprehensive,
herself.

"Do you know what's in there, little one?"

The dryad cocked her leafy head slightly, glancing back with still-
wide eyes. Aura flinched.

"You do? Have you known all this time, then? Or just recently?"

The little spirit seemed to think it over for a moment, turning
fully around and offering a minute shrug, looking a bit embarassed.

"What? Why didn't you ever tell me, then? I would've liked to
have known, too..."

Aura frowned slightly, to which the tiny dryad responded by rising
up towards her face and patting her gently on the cheek, before
disappearing in a flash of green and a burst of grass blades. She
watched the grass clippings flutter to the ground before refocusing
her attention on the task at hand, reaching out to gingerly touch
one of the double-doors, semi-rusted from disuse and the weather
following it.

I'd have to see for myself? What does that mean..?

She paused, withdrawing her hand quickly, as though what she were
doing was suddenly a bad idea. Once more, she looked up and around
the gloomy exterior of the facility, her expression that of one
that she bore all-too-usually, the one of a little girl who was
lost and all alone in the world. Aura scowled, stepping forward
and unthinkingly ramming her shoulder against one of the doors,
which did nothing more than simply collapse indoors from the
force of the blow, a loud ring of metal against metal as it hit the
floor inside. She blinked, her scowl diminishing.

I made a promise to myself... I have to find out. I -need- to
know!

Steeling what little nerve she still had, she kicked the now-fallen
door aside and stepped into the facility, a single thought echoing
through her mind as she made her way down the dark hallway that
followed.

The sooner I get this over with... the sooner I can go back to
Seikou, anyway. I hope...