(I actually dreamt up this entire chapter, so it may seem random at some points but I just couldn't pass it up.  Also no illustration, I can't draw ghosts and I asked Luv but the poor guy is so overworked that he couldn't do one)

"Come on Poldara, hang in there a little longer, we're almost to the hospital"

"General, his vitals are dropping fast, he's not going to make it."

"SHUT UP!!  If my nephew dies on your watch, so help me I will drag you to Jastrem myself."

"We are trying our absolute best to save him, sir-"

"Then fucking try harder, and have you got Mandara on the phone yet."

"Yes sir, I told him everything and he and Mr. Poland are waiting at the hospital."

"You hear that bud, your dads are waiting for us, just hold on a little longer, please."

"We just lost his pulse, someone grab those defibrillators, quickly."

"Poldara no, I forbid you to die, keep fighting soldier ... please ... keep fighting ... Poldara ..."

"Poldara dear, it's time to wake up."

Poldara's face scrunched at that voice, he didn't recognize it yet it seemed oddly familiar.  He blinked his eyes open and looked out at his surroundings.  At first, everything was obscured by a blinding white light, but once he sat up and his eyes adjusted, he found himself in what looked to be a throne room.  He was very confused, wasn't he just in a burning aircraft hanger?

"Where am I," he said, "Is this heaven?  Am I dead?"

"Not quite, my grandson." a voice said from behind him.

Poldara jerked his head to the voice, he squinted and raised his arm to shield his eyes from the light that shone from behind a figure.  He couldn't make anything out about the person, but from their silhouette, he could tell that they had massive wings and seemed to be wearing a crown.

"Who's there?" Poldara asked.

The bright light shimmered down and revealed a country; a country with black, yellow, and white wings that draped down to the floor, a flag of rose red with a shield in the middle, and crystal blue eyes that seemed to radiate a kindness Poldara had never seen before.

Poldara lowered his arm and gawked at the country, a country he had only ever heard stories about and seen in a painting in the history museum.

"K-Kingdom of Mandoria?" he wondered.

The king smiled in a way like he was greeting an old friend, "indeed I am, though you may simply refer to me as your grandfather, dear Poldara."

Poldara blinked at the kingdom, then slowly stood up from where he was sitting.

"Y-you know me?" he inquired, still having trouble believing what he was seeing.

"Of course I do, your father and uncle speak of you greatly," Mandoria said, "I can not begin to tell you how many letters they have sent that mention you in one way or another, not to mention I have been watching you grow from up here.

"Where's here?"

"My home," Mandoria responded, he then led Poldara on a quick tour of the castle as he continued to explain, "when someone dies, their soul comes to The Kingdom of the Great Beyond and lives out their afterlife as they did on earth.  Of course, there are many people who were not as fortunate in life as I was, so they are permitted to craft their afterlife as they wish."

"Huh, I knew it, I am dead," Poldara muttered.

"No my grandson," Mandoria corrected him, "not yet at least, my sons have prayed to me to protect your soul from the guardians of the afterlife so you would survive.  I have done that and brought you here, but whether you live or die is now in your hands, you can choose to go back to earth and keep living, or you can stay here with me and move on to the afterlife."

Poldara stopped walking and turned to his grandfather, "well it's a no-brainer, I want to go back to my family."

"I'm sure you do, but first I must show you what you're wanting to go back to." The late king said, he then held out his hand for Poldara to take.

Poldara stared at his hand in confusion for a moment, then hesitantly took it.  It felt surprisingly warm, like he was holding the hand of someone alive and breathing, not the spirit of his dead grandfather.  He was so focused on the feel of Mandoria's hand that he didn't notice that the castle melted away around them and they were standing somewhere else, only after their hands parted did he realize where they were.

The two were standing in a large hospital room, and the first thing Poldara saw was MA and Poland sleeping on a couch leaning against each other.

Poldara's face brightened and he walked towards the two, "Papa, Uncle MA, I'm so glad to see you two, you'll never believe who I fou-", he tried to touch MA's shoulder to wake him up, but his hand went right through his uncle.  Surprised and slightly alarmed, he tried to touch Poland's wing but was met with the same results.

"You can't interact with them Poldara," Mandoria said, "right now you are a manifestation of your consciousness, unable to touch or speak to people without a physical body."

Poldara retracted his hand and turned to Mandoria, "w-where is my physical body?"

The king motioned with his wing to an area of the room that was curtained off from the rest of it, Poldara's eyes flicked between his grandfather and the curtain, then he slowly walked up to it.  He touched the curtain to see if his hand would go through it, it didn't so he grabbed it, he hesitated for a moment as he was scared of what he would find, the sound of soft crying coming from behind it didn't help.  With a small breath of courage, he slowly opened the curtain and was left completely frozen by what he saw.

He saw himself, his physical body was lying on a hospital bed with IVs and vital monitors connected to him all over the place.  A tracheal tube was attached to his mouth, clearly indicating that he couldn't breathe on his own, it made his throat hurt looking at it.  One of his wings was bandaged closed and other bandages were covering at least 50% of his body, but what horrified Poldara the most was his legs.  His left leg was in a cast from thigh to foot, and his right was amputated at the knee.

Poldara felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to Mandoria, whose face had a sad expression plastered to it.

"It is worse than it looks I'm afraid," he said, "you have many severe burns that are likely to scar, your lungs are unable to function properly from the amount of smoke you inhaled, your legs were crushed to the point that one had to be amputated and the other will forever be crippled, and your spine has suffered enough damage that your temporarily paralyzed from the waist down."

Poldara was distraught from hearing all of this, he looked back at his broken body and imagined the amount of pain he would be in if he was awake. "This is what you wanted to show me, grandfather?" he asked.

"Yes," he confirmed, "this is what's waiting for you if you decide to return to earth, you will be in pain for the rest of your life.  But if you choose to come back with me, you will die peacefully and won't ever have to worry about being in pain again.  So what's your decision?"

Poldara stared at his body for a long time, pain for the rest of his life was hard to imagine, he knew that if he decided to keep living that he wouldn't die of old age, he could become as old as Mandoria and he would still be forced to live in pain, he wasn't sure he could handle that.  If he died then he would never experience that pain, he could go on like nothing ever happened, death really didn't sound all that bad right now.

A quiet sob broke him out of his thoughts, he turned to the sound and saw his dad sitting next to his body.  He had no idea how he didn't notice him there before, but he was now focused on watching him.  Mandara was holding his son's hand and was crying into it, he looked so exhausted, his eyes had dark bags under them and his whole body seemed to tremble in a way that wasn't only from crying.

"Please wake up, Blue-Jay," he was saying, "I can't watch you die, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, I couldn't live with myself without you here."

Mandara raised his head and softly begun stroking the charred feathers on Poldara's uncovered wing, "I love you more than life itself, my son, I would give up mine if it meant saving yours.  Please Poldara, all I want is to see you open your eyes, even if it's just for a moment, I just need to know that you're going to be ok.  I don't even know if you can hear me or not, but if you can, I'm begging you ... please ... wake up ... please."

Poldara could feel tears falling down his face as he heard his father's words, he knew that his dad loved him that much but seeing him saying that to his unconscious son, fearing that he's going to lose him, meant so much more.

Despite not being connected to his body, Poldara could still feel the fingers softly brush over his feathers, he tried to fluff them up to tell his dad he could hear him, but they remained flat.  The young country then walked over and knelt by his father, he tried touching him but his hand once again passed through him, though this time Mandara reacted with a small shiver.  Mandara looked over in the direction Poldara was kneeling but he didn't see anything, and the way his dad stared right through him was very unnerving to Poldara.

"Dad, please don't cry for me, I'm not going anywhere," Poldara said, he made up his mind, he couldn't leave his family behind, he meant too much to them and they meant too much to him to leave them behind and if it meant enduring a lifetime of pain, then so be it.

"So you have made your choice, dear grandson," Mandoria assumed.

Poldara stood up and turned to him, "yes grandfather, I won't abandon my family for my own selfish desires, I will face all the pain in the world to stay with them."

Mandoria smiled and dipped his head respectfully, "a wise decision, one I wish I had centuries ago."

Mandoria waved his hand and the hospital room faded to black, leaving only the king and his grandson. Poldara looked around at the new scene then back to Mandoria, who started to glow and seemed to be fading into the light.

"Wait, will I ever see you again?" Poldara asked.

"In another life perhaps," Mandoria said, his voice echoing, "but until then, I will be watching from above."

The king's body finally dissolved until a glowing yellow orb was left where his chest was.  Then two other orbs manifested next to the first one, one was light blue and the other was light pink.  Poldara took a step back as they grew in size, then they transformed into three animals, a blue wolf, a pink dragon, and a golden eagle.  Poldara gawked at the creatures, they were the most beautiful yet terrifying things he had ever seen.

"Young Poldara, son of the countries Poland and Mandara, grandson of the Kingdom of Mandoria, we have come upon thee to grant thy wish to return to the land of the living."  The wolf said, her voice as clear as a crystal blue lake.

"W-who are you?" Poldara asked in both awe and fear.

"We are the Aberra, Guardians of the Afterlife," the dragon said, his voice making Poldara's chest tremble, "I am Empyr; Spirit of the Courageous"

"I am Ora; Spirit of the Virtuous," the wolf said.

"and I, Mandoria; Spirit of the Benevolent, have called upon my fellow guardians to help you return to earth."  the eagle said.

Poldara's eyes got even wider, his grandfather was a guardian spirit?  Before he could ask questions, however, Ora and Empyr dissolved back into their orb form and entered Mandoria's eagle form, one eye turned blue and the other turned red.

"Are you ready, my grandson?" Mandoria asked.

Poldara was too dumbfounded to say anything, so he simply nodded, with permission given, eagle Mandoria slowly lowered his head and gently touched his beak to Poldara's forehead.  A wave of electricity shot Poldara and he fell to the ground, the last thing he saw was Mandoria in his kingdom form hold his hand, then everything went black.

(I wanted to try something new for this book, though unfortunately, this spirit stuff will most likely not occur in the other chapters, sorry.  Maybe I'll make a Mandarin mythology book after this)