"Please stop!" 

Elle woke up to the sound of a little girl screaming. She opened her eyes and gasped as she looked at the scene that stood before her. Brown grass, weeds that sprung up from the earth covered the ground, and dead flowers wilted. Elle curled her legs into her chest and fought the panic that built inside her chest. 

"Help!" 

Elle's head perked up, and she looked around the dead field. A crow squawked from off in the distance and drew Elle's attention to a large tree planted in the middle of the area. Amid the dead field, this tree boomed with life. Its bark looked strong, and the leaves were bright green. Beautiful fruit bloomed on each branch. A soft glow illuminated the tree that made it truly beautiful to look at—especially surrounded by the depressing scene of death.

"Please!" the voice sobbed. "I can't do this anymore-"

Elle ran toward the sounds of the little girl. The closer she got to the cries, Elle felt her heart start to race. She ran until she stood right in front of the beautiful tree. A faint and harsh whisper emanated from the bark. She leaned in closer to hear what it was saying, but a branch from the tree swung at her. 

"HELP ME!" screamed the little girl again. 

Elle ran around the tree and desperately looked for any signs of the little girl. She didn't see anything, but the voice of the child was coming from the tree. Is the little girl the tree?  Elle wondered as she sat down in front of it and stared. 

The harsh whisper grew louder and more intense as Elle stared the tree down. Occasionally she thought she recognized one of the words being said, and she thought herself crazy, but the whisper sounded familiar to her. 

Elle nudged closer toward the tree. Once again, a branch flung its arm at her, but this time she didn't move. This time she held her hand out and attempted to channel all the magic she had in her hand. The tree's branch stopped and tried to swing another branch behind Elle. Again, she held out her other hand, and this time both the branches froze mid-air. Finally, Elle walked right up to the trunk of the tree and placed her hand on it. 

It was then that she heard the whisper for what it was. 

"You'll never make friends if you wear that to school, Elouise! You'll look like a loser, and your father and I didn't raise a loser! Put on the dress that I bought for you this instance!" Elle vividly remembered this conversation with her mother. It was her first day of fourth grade. Elle had a new t-shirt with a dinosaur on it that the nanny bought for her, much to her mother's disapproval. Nevertheless, Elle wanted to wear it to school so badly. 

Her mother had none of it. 

Eventually, her mother got Elle into the dress, and when she came home from school that day, the t-shirt was nowhere to be found. 

"Elouise, you think you'll ever find a boyfriend when you act like this?! You're so ungrateful. Your father and I have given up so much for you! All we are asking you to do is stop being a bitch for one second and go out on the date with him!" 

This conversation was when Elle was a freshman. Her father was trying to procure funds for his political campaign, and the businessman's son had a crush on Elle. She didn't want to go, but her parents forced her. 

The boy smelt of Axe Body Spray and Abercrombie cologne. 

A single tear fell down Elle's face. She listened to the words coming from the tree, and she realized, though a thing of beauty, the tree was evil. Everything looked so put together and gorgeous on the outside, but the inside was clearly in havoc with itself. 

Just like her mother.

Elle had to do something to stop the whispers. She placed both of her hands on the trunk and took a deep breath. Growing nature was something Elle knew she could do. Destroying nature was unknown to her. She willed for her hands to suck the life out of the tree. To allow the meadow around it to get life back to it once again, the tree stood frozen in place and tall. 

Slowly she circled the trunk of the tree. She reached out her right hand and placed it firmly onto the trunk of the beautiful tree. Suddenly, a surge of life flowed through her body. She felt her hair stand up in the air, and she slowly started to levitate. The meadow around her began to revive itself. 

The whispers that once haunted the meadow were now filled with ear-piercing shrieks. It took everything in Elle's willpower not to stop the siphoned power that flowed through her. 

"It's working!" the voice screamed from inside the tree. "Please! Hurry up! Keep going! I'm almost free!" 

The once glowing tree was now a memory as the bark turned a sickening color of grey. Elle smiled as she finally took her hand off the trunk and ran around to the side of the tree with the small hole. A little girl stood inside the tree; she fought at the dead bark, clawed her way through the hole, and fell to the ground. 

She wept as Elle crouched next to her and put her hand on her back. 

"You saved me."

The little girl slowly looked up from the ground and stared at Elle. A heartbeat pounded in Elle's chest as she made eye contact with the little girl. She knew her. 

Elle was staring at a younger version of herself. 

"You're really pretty," the little girl said as she reached up and grabbed a piece of Elle's hair. "Your hair is blonde like mine! The tree kept telling me I wasn't doing anything with it, but yours looks pretty right now. Maybe I can do mine that way too!" 

Elle fought back the tears as she picked the little girl up from the ground. She remembered this girl, but the memories felt like a distant and faraway land. This little girl was full of hope and genuine happiness regardless of the situation. 

Life hadn't snuffed the joy out of her yet. 

"Let's get you home," said Elle, not sure where home for this little girl was. "I'm sure your mother is worried sick."

Little Elle sat firmly on her hip and continued to play with her hair. "We should go save the other pretty lady," she said casually. "She's only a few steps away, and she's tied up. She needs help."

She kicked down off Elle's hip and ran through the now revived meadow. For the first time since saving it, Elle looked at the beautiful flowers that surrounded the ground. She saw the beautiful trees that spread throughout the area. Rushing water, now crystal clear, flowed through the middle of the field. 

"El-" Elle began to call the little girl by her name but didn't want to scare her. She also didn't want to scare herself. "Tiny human!" she called as she chased after the little girl. 

She followed the direction the little girl walked in until she found a woman tied to a long wooden pole. She was beautiful, with blonde hair, clear blue eyes, and a beautiful extravagant dress. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Elle approaching her. 

It was her mother. 

"Elouise Mayweather! You get me out of here now!" 

Elle thought about turning around and never coming back. She thought about how satisfying it would be to watch her mother stay tied there forever. Make her feel a fraction of the suffering she felt. 

But she couldn't do that. She knew she couldn't. 

She walked over to the pole and untied her mother. When the ropes fell, her mother glared at her before she grabbed both girls by the arm and began leading them away from the meadow. "Wait until your father hears-"

Elle ripped her arm away from her mother and picked the tiny version of herself up before her mother could take another step. "No," she said. "No, I'm tired of all the mean things you say. I'm tired of your narcissistic tendencies and your weird desire to have me be a carbon copy of yourself. "

Tears welled up in Elle's eyes as she watched the look of horror on her mother. "I hate you for taking away the joy I had as a child," she said, looking at the tiny Elle. She reached her little hand over to big Elle's face and wiped away the tears falling from her eyes. 

"It's okay to cry," she whispered. "Sometimes I do too!" 

Elle smiled at the little girl and then directed her attention back to her mother. "I am no longer your puppet. I am not Elouise Mayweather. I am Rosemary of Glorianna. I control the powers of the earth and all the living things that inhabit nature. I can give life and take it away. I will no longer be part of the mess you've created for yourself just because you hate your life." 

When her mother opened her mouth to respond, Elle watched as the ground split and a vine reached up and grabbed her mother by the arm. She wailed into the air as another one sprouted up from the ground and wrapped around her other arm. 

"ELOUISE HELP!"

Elle sat down on the ground and watched as vine after vine sprouted from the ground and wrapped around her mother. Eventually, the only thing visible was her face. She had tears falling down her cheeks as she attempted to talk one more time to Elle. This time, Elle raised her arm and watched as a sprout grew and danced to the rhythm she moved her arm to. The vine wrapped around her mother's mouth, and then drug her down into the abyss.

"Darker than I anticipated that being," Elle said to little Elle. 

Elle saw a bright light from the corner of her eyes and watched as tiny Elle merged with her and became one. Then, she felt her mind open, and the memories of her past in Glorianna filled her. When she opened her eyes, she was back in the cave and came to a sudden realization. 

She was no longer Elle Mayweather. She was no longer Rosemary of Glorianna. She was both, and none of them at the same time. 

She was just her. And for now, that was the only thing she needed to know. 

"Rosemary?" asked the guardian with a hopeful look. 

"Call me Elle, but yes," replied Elle. "Let's go kick some vein ass."