Auremaru

After the wave of emotions she’d been through, Ui started thinking about the consequences. “What’s going to happen to me, Adari?”

“The elders are unsure.”

Ui clenched her fists, frustrated by the usual vagueness surrounding the elders and their decisions. Part of her was full of anger at them, and another part of her understood the burden of their roles.

“You did a lot of damage to our home, Uisempuli. They let me heal you, but they won’t let you go that easily.”

Ui, who’d remained in bed, healing from her fight, hadn’t attempted to leave Adari’s house. She looked at her hands, so small for something that could destroy so much. “Why did the mountain bless me with such strong powers, if I can’t even use them for good?”

“You’ve done plenty of good.” Adari tried to be encouraging, but Ui noticed that Adari hadn’t said all of it was good. “Over time, people might understand you more. Or they might understand you less… But you did what your heart told you, and for that I admire you.” Adari smiled at Ui before she kept cooking their dinner.

Ui tried getting off the bed, and felt pain in multiple parts of her body. “Y… Yula is very strong.”

Adari, who’d been alarmed when she first saw her get up in pain, couldn’t help but laugh. “She might’ve held back, too. She’s younger than you Ui, and she’s trained so hard…”

“I can see… that.” Ui examined her body for all the bruises that Yula had inflicted on her. During their fight, she didn’t notice exactly how many hits Yula had landed. They were painful, but easy to hide, and they could all heal with time. “Adari I… need to go outside.”

“I know. They left someone to watch our door but I already told them you’d want to take a walk.”

The fact that Adari had already predicted her actions was embarrassing to Ui, but at the same time, it helped Ui feel like she could heal.

Ui limped her way through a cavern leading outside. She felt the cold yet welcoming wind and knew she was near an exit. Her exit. She slowly walked through the caves while surprised Udari stared at her. After a lifetime of hiding in plain sight, Ui couldn’t understand if their confused expressions were those of fear or admiration. Maybe their faces meant both.

The stars were visible long before she exited the caverns. She struggled trying to walk uphill. The stars guided her way up as she smiled despite the pain. Aure was a beautiful place that she often wished to visit, but most of all, she just wanted to go outside, to that cliff. The stars slowly took over the whole sky once she exited the cavern.

Breathing heavily, exhausted, Ui leaned onto the rocky side of the mountain trying to make her way uphill with the little strength she had. The rocks were rough on her arms, but it was the kind of pain that made her happy. She was home after all.

Ui limped her way upwards, walking over paths of soil that would be the home of flowers once the winter was over. Adari had brought the soil and planted those patches of flowers just so Ui would have company every time she walked up that mountain. Ui smiled despite the pain, motivated by the memories of those currently lifeless patches of flowers, giving her energy to keep going. Her feet got dirtier as she dragged herself up that mountain.

The merciless winter wind blew onto the sides of the mountain and descended straight onto her, but she could now see her goal. That cliff. She always ended up there whenever she went to that mountain.

With a huge sense of relief that her destination was close, Ui’s legs betrayed her. She was no longer able to resist the wind. Her legs gave in as she fell, and her hands dipped into the dirt.

But she didn’t give up. With her arms still intact, she dragged herself through that soil, and when the soil ran out, she dragged herself over the final path of the rocky mountain, ripping parts of her clothes that were quickly blown into the wind.

She crawled to the cliff’s edge with the last of her remaining strength, and briefly looked down into those familiar waves, crashing ceaselessly into the side of the mountain. She watched the movement of the sea undulating without purpose all around her, slowly chipping away at the rocks of the mountain over generations, just like the Udari had.

She almost let a tear escape and merge into that distant ocean, but then shook her head, and tilted her head towards the stars instead.

Having spent all the strength from her arms, her first attempt at lifting herself off the ground failed. And the second and third failed too. But, after losing count of her tries, she finally got enough strength to lift herself up, and sat down on the edge of that cliff, next to the fishing lines her people had set there, long ago.

She sat down with a wobble that would frighten others, but not her, not that day. Instead, she stared the ocean down.

“You won’t claim me.” Her voice dissolved into the wind as she looked down the cliff defiantly. “You gave me all this power, and now you have to deal with it too, do you understand?” She tried screaming, but it came out only slightly louder than her normal voice.

The ocean and the mountain ignored her. The mountain still blew its winds onto her, testing her warmth and resolve, and the waves still crashed without end, luring her in with their sights and sounds.

“No!” She screamed with all her might. It was her corner of Auremaru, and she wasn’t going to let the mountain and the sea take it away from her. She crawled away from the cliff, and tried to lift herself up. The pain on her scraped feet and hands made her fail, and she tumbled repeatedly while trying to stand up. Every attempt was harder and more painful than the last. She dragged herself to the other side of the mountain, and managed to get up by dragging her whole body upward.

Ui, breathing heavily, closed her eyes. “Ul maes… nouirs… lus etregs.” Ui pushed herself away from the mountain, and managed to stand on her own two feet, staring at the sea below while the moon shared its light with her.

“Ul musure mai nu

Amurenu sai lun

Nul sasesa no

Mael reru mo!”

Her singing ignored the wind and the waves as the stars spectated. She looked down towards the sea, which had completely stopped moving, listening to her. The winds became a pleasant breeze as everything around her came to a stop for a few seconds. She grinned as she collapsed onto the ground once more.