Flowers in a stick Finished

Free like a bird, unchained. Birds gave the illusion of being free, but deep down they were shackled to their own life. Trying to constantly find food, find water. Avoid death. They barely survived. Most of them ended up dead by means other than aging. Time would drag them down, in time.
But the idea of a bird, of a creature that never needed to do anything it didn't want to do. A free creature, not weighed down by anything. Not even time, not even death. That was something to aspire to, find a way to obtain.
"Ghosts from the past drive off those from the future. Do you think it's possible to be unchained?"
If you had some chains binding you, it was harder to put on more. Harder to shackle you more than you already were. Carrying around the chains made you stronger. It made you ready to take on any other challenge that life threw at you. But at the same time, it was hard. Hard to keep moving and get stronger. And it was tiring. Before long, you would be too tired to continue. And then you would have to get rid of those shackles. But if you waited that long, would you even be able to?

"Ghosts from the past drive off those from the future. Do you think it's possible to be unchained?" He asked, and Alina chewed on her lip, thinking over the question carefully. It was a big question, a tough one for her eleven-year-old mind to process. Freedom, unchained, ghosts. "Well..." She started, words trailing off her tongue. "I think that it may be possible. But it would be hard, right? Chains come in all sorts of forms, and sometimes, the only chains you have are the ones you put there yourself?" She answered hesitantly, before taking a few steps closer to the lake.

Her mind swam with thoughts on the subject. In her mind she visualized physical shackles chained down on her. On them, written her problems. 'Dead brother, distant mother, loneliness, sadness, faking it.' It caused her stomach to tighten up in horror. She shook her head hard, before turning back to Kaegen and smiling brightly.

Kaegen tuned out the girl's response. Body language said a lot. And even though it was harder with people, sometimes he picked up on it. Only rarely. With animals, he could tell if they were happy, sad angry etc by the way they held themselves, by the muscles they unconsciously twitched. Or by the ones they consciously didn't. And this girl was giving off strong signals that she was doing nothing interesting or noticeable, just thinking things through, and answering his question. But as she answered his question, she suddenly clenched a little, her eyes seemed different, putting on a new face or taking off a mask, he could only guess. But that little clench, and then the shake of her head was enough to make him realize that something was very wrong. She was upset, but for a reason he couldn't fathom. She hadn't hinted to being sad at all, she was just talking about her family, how her mother was controlling and her brother died. That little bit about her mother not talking to her and then about flowers. Why would flowers make her upset? Was she sad that she didn't have a favorite flower? Well, it didn't really matter. Fact of the matter was, she was upset. And he could try to help, even if he didn't know how.
"You're not ok."
Well, that wasn't helping. That was like seeing someone drowning and saying 'hey, you're drowning' but it was the only thing that came to mind. Kaegen stopped walking forward and sat down. He had to think about this, find out why she was upset, and how he could help her.

"You're not ok."

Those words broke through to her inner self, shedding lights on parts of her that she had kept hidden and dark for years. It made her feel uncomfortable. She never liked coming face to face with these types of feelings. Negative feelings weren't her, which is why she tried to hard to be the complete opposite. Bright, bubbly, full of love and sunshine and laughter. Not the dark recesses in the crevaces of her heart. She always had that darkness, but ever since her brother died, it seemed to grow wider and darker and almost felt like it would consume her if she looked at it too long.

Alina laughed, shaking her head. "No, I'm not. But I'm trying to be, and that's all I can do right now. I don't know how to fix myself and what I've been doing has been working." She shrugged. "Everyone's got problems. Someone out there probably has it worse than me, so I can't complain. I have a home, food to eat and new friends. I still have a good life." She smiled at Kaegen. "But thank you for being concerned. That's really sweet of you. You're a good friend, Kaegen."

That didn't seem right. Trying to be? Trying amounted to nothing, nothing at all. In the end, what did attempting something matter if you didn't achieve anything? You had to achieve at least something, didn't you? It didn't make any sense. But he could help, couldn't he? How? What could he do to shed light on this girl? He didn't have any light, just the unknown. And the unknown had never helped anyone but him before. It was odd that way, having chosen this boy to be their champion. The mist had always been there. Always protected him. It was the unknown, and there was nothing that could touch it. But here it didn't seem to exist. It didn't shroud his movements and it made him exposed to the world. Why couldn't the mist help this girl, as it did him? Why was she subject to darkness, with no way out? No way except for futile attempts that amounted to nothing at all. Unless there was a way. Kaegen reached into a pouch that was strapped to his chest, under his robe. He pulled out a sharp piece of flint. It had a sharp tip, and a sharp edge. There was a little place to hold on to it by the top. He passed it to the girl.
"Kill the darkness with this?"

The silence between them seemed to stretch on forever and ever. Alina took that time to gaze out at the fields and lake and just watch as people walked by. She closed her eyes to the soft wind that blew through her hair, brushing across the blushed skin of her face. If she concentrated, she could imagine herself back in Cyprus, lazing on that warm white-sand beach with nothing but the sun and water to be her friends. When her life was so much more simple and easier than it was now. When Alina opened her eyes, her pretty little fantasy disappated quickly like a puff of smoke. She didn't know if she was ever going to get that back again.

"Kill the darkness with this?" Alina cocked her head to the side, accepting the weirdly shaped object from Kaegen. She turned it over in her hand, the near black object shimmering in the sun. It had a sharp edge to it, and when she ran her thumb over it, a thin red line appeared on her skin.

Sticking the offending finger in her mouth, she mumbled. "Kill it with a knife?" She asked, looking back down at the object. "How do I use this?" She turned the object over again in her hand, feeling how smooth and hard it was. She was pretty sure you weren't allowed to have dangerous objects like this on campus, and that only raised even more questions for her. Why did this boy have something like this? How come he seemed to know how to use it? What was it's purpose?

"I don't know, but you can kill a lot of things. Why not the darkness?"
It was a sad amount of logic, but it was all the logic Kaegen had. What else could she do? What else could be help her do? He felt useless, unable to kill the darkness in the girl, unable to find it. He managed a little smile though, she would at least have someone to hold on to if she fell into the abyss. It was small now, Kaegen couldn't even see it. But if it grew bigger, and the girl started falling in, he would have rope. He always had rope.
"If you start to fall in, I can catch you. If you can't kill it, anyway."
How much rope would he need? Not very much, if she could tie a good knot. And what if she missed the rope when he threw it down at her? He could probably jump down after her, but then how would he get back up? Maybe if he tied the string to a tree, then jumped and streamlined himself, he would be able to catch up, grab her, and then climb out of the abyss? Fearing that which he could not kill, Kaegen's mind struggled to take the analogy farther than it was meant to be taken.

"I don't know, but you can kill a lot of things. Why not the darkness?" Kaegen said, and Alina twirled the knife around in her hand. She grinned, loving the way it felt in her hands. She swished it around in the air before tucking the piece into the insides of her uniform, against the inside of her bra, cold against her skin.

“I could. I could kill a lot of things with this little thing. I think I’ll call her Lady.” She started, giggling and pressed her hand against her chest where the knife lay.

"If you start to fall in, I can catch you. If you can't kill it, anyway." His soft voice called out and a part of Alina’s heart broke. He sounded so sincere and pure that she wanted to cry. Instead, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. And held him close to her. She blinked back tears

“Thank you, you’re so sweet. I know we just met but it means a lot to me. Honestly. Thank you Kaegen.” She whispered. Afraid that if she spoke too loud, her voice would break. She felt touched and loved that someone was finally on her side. Willing to fight with her instead of against her. When she pulled back, she pressed a hand against her chest, feeling Lady against her chest. “Thank you, Kaegen.”

People around here sure did like giving hugs. That was his second one. Usually he got one a year from his mother for his birthday, and that always made his year. The other one he got this year was some girl who had hugged him for helping her get a piece of plastic out of her eye. It was a good feeling, like receiving your favorite gift for your birthday, even though it wasn't your birthday.
And then the girl started to cry. He didn't know what he had done, or if it had even been his fault, but he should be doing something about it, right? As she pulled away, the ravenclaw's hand whipped into his robe, and came back out with a small square of soft, spongy moss. Taking a step towards the girl, he touched the corner of the square to the edge of her eye, using his swift, nimble fingers to avoid poking her. Wiping away tears is what they did in all the books, he could only hope they meant it literally. And then she thanked him, twice in fact. Called him sweet, which he assumed was a good thing, considering how good candy tasted.
He really had nothing to say, so he just went with his automatic response to people saying thank you.
"You are welcome. If you need any help, just let me know."
He wasn't entirely positive why he had added that last bit. It was not the idle words of a well wisher, but a promise. One that he would uphold, sooner or later. He gave girl a little smile, feeling pretty good about the hug. She was extremely nice, if a bit hard to help. But he would find a way around that last hurdle, find a way around, and ace it. Whatever darkness she had would fall by his hands, or hers. But it would die.

She didn’t even realize that she had started to cry. Or that tears escaped her eyes and ran down her pale cheeks until his hand whipped out a hankerchief and wiped them swiftly from her face. She would have been happy if she wasn’t so startled. It had been a while she cried. Especially without knowing. She kinda felt embarrassed. She had shown this boy all sorts of different emotions that she felt tongue tied on what she should say to him. She had already thanked him, multiple times. No doubt if she said it again, he would doubt the sincerity of it all. Plus, she had hugged him, which wasn’t rare for her but still not common. So she did what she could do, smile. Brightly in fact. She brushed her wayward hair from her face.

"You are welcome. If you need any help, just let me know." He said and Alina laughed.

“No Kaegen. Thank you and the same offer stands for you! Anytime you need someone on your side, I’ll be there.” She stated. Her mama called her loyal to a fault. But she saw no fault in this. If someone needed someone on their side, she would be there.

A lone bell rang out among the fields, signifying the beginning of dinner. The sound caused Alina’s stomach to gurgled loudly and hungrily. All of a sudden, her previous responsibilities came to mind. She still had 3 essays to write that were due tomorrow and topic answers to write. She was going to get most of them done before dinner but clearly got completely side tracked.

She laughed. “And that’s the bell that says Cinderella’s gotta go. Thanks for tonight Kaegen,” she said before hugging him quickly and starting to run up the path. “Remind me to ask you to show me your garden the next time we see each other!” She yelled before disappearing into the throngs of students on their way to the great hall. She knew the memory of this night would stay with her. And she hoped she would see this boy again. Her hand unconsciously pressed against her chest where the flint lay on her skin with the memory of his smile in her mind.