00 ~ 3rd of April 1921 ~ Yugdrasshilm, Prologue

It was a warm Sunday. It felt like summer already in this country side.

The heat from this bright blue sky was slowing them down in their walk.

They should have used a train to speed and ease most of their journey. However the younger one was not ready to even look at a train yet. She would not be able to climb aboard one before years, if she would ever again set foot inside one.

They were both tired to walk so much. They were frail. They had some courage to head on a journey home like that, sharing some good will and courage. Their calm pace could also hint to the fact that nothing was especially waiting kindly for their return at their destination.

Their family home had burnt a little more than a month ago, along with a part of the neighbour town. Their other family members died there that night; so they were not really in an eager rush to end quickly their homecoming.

Yet it was not the whole reason either. What they had lived during that month left them in a strange state of mind. As if they were experiencing their first time of freedom in life, even the slightest breeze brought them on the verge of tears. Their emotions were permanently on edge lately.

They were living. They could sum the thing up like that. They were overwhelmed by a feeling of relief, almost beyond comprehension. Every breath was a sigh of relief, always close to bring tears along. It had been like that for more than a week already, and they could not guess when that sensation would end.

They could at least feel their physical strength gradually fading along the day however as they walked from town to town. It was the middle of the afternoon now, and they needed to rest for a while.

The forest path was clear, the air slightly fresh. The weather was truly kind to them.

The heavy traveling bags were left between large tree roots, and the two women sat soon after on a log to rest for a moment. They were carrying a little too much for their frail bodies. Any average factory workman could have easily lifted both of them at the same time over his shoulders.

They were not of sickly nature, but they had become both too slender for their own health.

The trees were keeping the air a little fresh, but the warmth of afternoon could still be discerned.

The elder one was a little stronger than what she looked but still was exhausted. Her slim arm rose slowly toward her younger sister to hand her a flask filled with cold tea. A memento from their regretted father she had repurposed.

Under her large hat, the younger and weaker one didn’t notice it right away. She silently accepted it and took a few sips, catching her breath. She briefly saw a soft smile on her sister’s tired face.

The smile of someone who went through hell for her; to bring her back where she belonged...

After that painful journey, ending thankfully in a success, but still after such suffering, she felt bad for her.

And she was still kind enough to lend a shoulder for crying and a hand to help her walk.

Rose was purely smiling in relief at that moment, as if there were no wounds in her soul anymore.

She was still wounded and frail in many ways, but that soft hearted person had her relief rising first in complete candour. The purest soul the younger one could dream of was already at her side. She looked very tired, but loving her heartily.

That simple sight, that faint smile under the shade of the trees that day made her shiver, and tears started to roll along her cheeks again. Blue had to put the flask down to hide her face between her hands and knees hastily.

She felt some guilt, but mostly sorrow... They both came back alive from a journey in a sea of sorrow, and she was not entirely dried from it yet.

She was not entirely free from it yet, and her psychological wounds were still utterly sensitive.

The elder sister had completed most of her mourning as well and was more at peace now; but it had been too much emotions in too little time for the younger and weaker heart.

While she was sobbing, almost quietly, feeling shameful; she felt the gentle embrace of her sister coming closer to her.

Her head was pulled slowly to a shoulder. There was truly no resentment whatsoever toward the crying one. Far from it.

Blue was still feeling very sorry. She could only repeat that she was sorry, for a long while. She stuck her face between the open arms as if to protect herself and cried even longer. The voice came out unsteady.

B - I am so sorry...

Rose didn’t answer immediately, giving her sister some time. Blue ended up pulling her face away from the clothes now drenched in tears. Rose didn’t mind that.

Blue sat more properly again, shivering and clumsily picking up the flask again.

B - I... I still feel... Shattered. As if a part of me was still down there... In that train... With her. I keep remembering her face, my terrified face... I feel like I abandoned her to an awful end...

Blue tried to drink a little more but mostly coughed. She put it down on the ground again. Rose looked at her and thought about it, then spoke slowly.

R - It will come back.

Blue was surprised.

B - What do you mean? What will come back?

Rose still looked as serene and kind as a dream could be.

R - I think you truly broke yourself in pieces with what happened to you then. And with all the dramas you went through, and your memory losses, you almost had three different lives in a little under two months... So now that you are recovering, I think the split and lost parts of your memories and mind will slowly come back to you...

She was still convalescent, that was all she thought.

Blue looked mesmerized. She could remember she always had been cautious in listening her sister’s words now, eve years prior.

R - It will take some patience; but you will heal... From what happened in that nightmarish train too.

Hearing the word train, Blue heard again its constant rumble, and saw again these endless crimson flower patterns everywhere... And the ghosts in the corners of her sight...

Rose noticed that Blue was pulled back deeper in that dream again.

R - I’m sorry. You thought about it again.

Blue released her grasp on the wrist of her sister she had unknowingly tightened. She came back to her senses, realising she was in a forest, not the train.

B - There are so much things I still don’t understand... When everything seemed to have a hidden logic... I got out without getting the point of nearly a thing...

R - You can recall the most important I believe. Esther came to save you...

The frightened face of Esther in the end spring to her mind, shocking her again.

B - I feel guilty... I’m so sorry for her... Do you think...

Blue didn’t finish her question as Rose already had started to answer.

R - Of course silly. I know you kept loving her. Her promise soon is over, so life and soul will be what she gains from helping you. She will end up living somewhere and somewhen, any day now thanks to you... You will be able to thank her someday.

Blue paused, repeating the words in her mind, inscribing them into memories to remember. Although she was afraid her sister might not be sincere.

B - Do you... Truly believe her story?

Rose seemed surprised but answered honestly.

R - Well, of course I do. I don’t expect for her to suddenly appear before you with a human body, but I do believe she gains a form of life meaningful to you yes, in one way or another.

B - I... Understand, it’s like faith... But...

R - I’m sorry.

Blue expected more. She wished for the fantasy of a true human life in her sadness, as one would wish for resurrection after a lover’s death... Blue needed to mourn somehow, for her as well...

R - Blue... So you know, I never stopped believing in her as a blue rose. I never imagined she could participate and save your soul from somewhere I could not go, but that is what she did for you. She brought you back to me. I am forever grateful to Esther for that. That is true.

Blue wiped some other tears from her face. She was greatly thankful too.

B - What should we do... What can we do?

R - To help her... Keep loving her first of all. Like we will miss our sisters and parents. Then we can write everything we know and what you experienced, and maybe wish for her... We will pray for her, and in time maybe, we will find something new...

B - Memories... When someone dies, all that is left are memories.

R - True. But in a way she isn’t dead yet. And wherever she is, she probably needs you to keep remembering her for now. To remember all of them.

B - Alright... I will do my best.

Rose stood up and opened her pale hand to Blue.

R - Shall we go again?

Blue lifted a blank face with opened mouth. Her face then lit, and a small smile managed to draw itself below the flushed skin still wet from tears. The common green eyes Rose had suddenly seemed able to swallow everything around in Blue’s gaze.

Their walk to their hometown was going to last for another handful of days.

They packed up and left the place to continue their journey.

The sisters walked for a few more hours along that path, ending on open fields in the countryside.

Above them, that endless blue sky was always pulling them slightly forward. That colour was dear to their hearts. The colour of their home sky.

They were planning to rebuild their familial home. They could afford it according to Rose.

Their life was beginning again, hopefully for the better mostly.

~