~Please you stay alive~

5 Years in the Past...

Mrs Helda smiled as she looked out of the window, seeing the beautiful evening sky and the setting sun.

She was alone in her cottage today as Aera and Jimin had went out to a park together.

Mrs Helda volunteered to come along but her old tired body could not say the same.

The past fifteen years with Aera had been filled with secrets and mysteries.

Mrs Helda sometimes felt quite lonely and burdened, with the heavy responsibility of taking care of the future guardian and the Forbidden Door.

But since the last two years, old age had started taking a toll over her former active and strong self. She could no longer use powerful magic spells as they required a lot of energy, something which Mrs Helda could no longer afford to give.

As days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months and months to years, she feared that her end was soon to come because after all, she was in a ripe old age of 90 years.

And because of this, she had come to decision that either today or tomorrow, she would tell Aera the truth.

The truth that was hidden from her for the past fifteen years. A truth that now needed to untold.

But one question kept troubling Mrs Helda and that being,

Would Aera be able to handle it all?

///

The young fifteen year old laughed as she and her friend walked down the road, talking to each other and joking around.

The sun started setting while the sky turned to a beautiful shade of pinkish red.

The two teenagers walked next to each other as they slowly approached the small cottage the girl lived in.

"Aera, remember how before when we were small kids, I would prank you closing the lights of the room and make ghost noises. You should have seen the expression on your face everytime I used to do that!" Jimin said as he laughed, remembering those times when Aera used to freak out thinking that the house was actually haunted.

Hitting Jimin lightly at his arm, Aera huffed as she cringed recalling those moments when she used to be so gullible to even believe the most non-sensible and unbelievable lies and jokes Jimin used to tell her.

"Hey, common, I was a small kid." She defended herself to which Jimin raised an eyebrow in a teasing manner so as to say *yeah right* and laughed it off.

A smile formed on Aera's face as she looked at Jimin. 

Words could not express how grateful she was to have such a sweet and supportive friend as him. Had he not been there for her, Area would have had a very boring and lonely childhood.

Well, to put it in other words, one could say that since childhood Jimin was the only true friend Area ever had.

The two walked down the road and soon approached Aera's house. By this time, the sun had set while the sky had turned dark. The stars were now visible in the dark blue sky as they shone, decorating and beautifying the night.

Now as they stood at the doorstep of their house, Aera was about to knock on the door when she suddenly felt a presence behind her.

Turning around, she looked at her side to see Jimin standing next to her (not behind).

"Weird." Aera thought as she remembered how she had felt a similar feeling yesterday and the day before.

It was as if, for the past few days, someone was following her in the dark. Always keeping an eye on her...

"Aera?" Jimin suddenly spoke to which Aera came out of her thoughts. "Is everything fine? You seem to suddenly be a bit lost." He pointed out to which Area quickly shook her head as a 'no' for an answer.

"I am totally fine." She quickly answered as she tried to get rid of the weird feeling.

Knocking on the door, they waited for a few minutes after which the front door was opened and out came an old lady, wiping her wet hands with a small towel.

"Aera, Jimin! Welcome back home!" Mrs Helda greeted with love as she hugged Aera and gave a smile to Jimin.

"Thank you grandma." Jimin answered politely as he hugged the old lady. "It's been a long time since I last visited you grandma. How are you?" He asked.

Silence...

His answer was greeted by silence as he and Aera gave a confused look to each other.

Mrs Helda fell silent as she suddenly could sense a powerful dark presence somewhere near.

Her eyes scanned the surrounding area while her heart raced. Something in her was telling her that they were in grave danger at the moment. But, if a dark spirit truly was somewhere around, how did it enter this realm?

Wasn't the Forbidden Door closed shut? 

"Grandma?" Aera called out with confusion as she noticed how tense Mrs Helda suddenly became.

"Children..." Mrs Helda mumbled as her eyes turned to a golden colour and almost invisible threads of gold started surrounding her. "Run!"

A loud bang was heard as a ghoul emerged from the woods and headed towards Aera.

"Grandma!" Area screamed with fear as Mrs Helda threw a magical spell at the ghoul, causing it to fall back with force.

Quickly helping Aera stand up, Jimin looked at the weird dark shadow like creature and then back at the Mrs Helda who now had some glow radiating from her hands while her eyes had turned to a golden colour.

"Children, head towards the cottage and don't come out." Mrs Helda instructed with an urgent voice.

Holding Aera's hand securely in his, Jimin helped her up as they both dashed inside the small cottage, their hearts in their throats while their eyes wide with confusion and fear.

"What is going on?" 

They both thought in unison as Aera saw with horror that the black shadow had gotten up and made a dash towards her grandmother, pushing her down to the ground which caused Mrs Helda to sustain an injury on her head.

"GRANDMA!" The kids screamed with worry as Jimin immediately got up and headed towards the front door of the cottage.

"Jimin! Where are you going? Grandma has instructed us to not go outside." Area reminded with worry clearly being shown from her eyes.

Jimin's eyes softened as he saw how worried and panicked his friend was. "Aera, stay here and don't get out of the cottage. I am going out to help grandma." Jimin whispered as he gave a small smile to his friend and quickly headed out.

Running towards Mrs Helda, who was groaning was pain, Jimin helped her stand up as he looked at the dark shadow with confusion. "Grandma, what's going on? What is that thing?" He asked to which Mrs Helda looked at him with her honey like golden eyes and then back at the ghoul.

Never before had she seen such a powerful ghoul. 

The ghoul had a black cloth covering it's face, preventing Mrs Helda from being able to see who this ghoul could be. But one thing that she did know was the reason of the ghoul's presence in this realm.

Aera

"Jimin, take Aera and run far away from here." Mrs Helda said to which Jimin furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head.

"No," He desperately answered. "We are not leaving you alone." 

The ghoul mumbled a few words under his breath as black wisps of air started surrounding him, an action which caught the attention of Mrs Helda and caused her eyes to widen with shock.

"It can't be...The Epodynos Thanatos."

A dark black circling ball formed in the ghoul's hand as he then looked up and threw it at an extremely fast speed towards Mrs Helda's direction.

Mrs Helda, though known to be very powerful and skilled in magic, was after all an aged woman and thus did not have as fast reflexes as she used to have before.

The ball flew at top speed as Mrs Helda tried dodging as quickly as her frail old legs could.

But alas, it was not fast enough.

The ball, which was now just a few centimetres away, was about to hit the old woman when Jimin pushed her out of the way and a loud bang was heard.

.

.

.

A gentle wind blew which started clearing the black coloured smoke that had formed because of the collision of the spell with another object.

A tear rolled down Aera's cheek and fell on the wooden window frame as she realized whom the black spell had hit.

"JIMIN!"

Getting up, Aera ran out of the cottage and rushed outside as she saw the unconscious Jimin who lay on the ground, a pool of blood surrounding him.

"No! No!" She mumbled with panic as she tried to stop the bleeding.

The ghoul's eyes slanted as it smirked. "Aera, nice to see you again." It whispered with a hoarse voice as it formed another spell and threw it as her direction.

Noticing the upcoming green coloured spell that was aimed to hit Aera, Mrs Helda immediately snapped out of her daze and collecting each ounce of energy that was left in her, threw one last powerful spell at the ghoul.

"Skotadi katastrefo!"

The golden coloured spell zipped through the air, destroying the previous spell which was thrown by the ghoul. It then flew with a mighty force and crashed onto the shook ghoul who was shocked beyond measure to even dodge.

The spell hit the left area of the ghoul's body, causing it to loose balance and fall down with pain.

A defeating silence took over the atmosphere as the ghoul lay on the ground with an injured arm.

Area who was still dazed because of the happenings that took infront of her eyes, got up and headed towards Mrs Helda who had a very faint heartbeat while her energy was at the verge of being completely drained out.

"Grandma..." Area whispered as tears fell from her eyes.

Mrs Helda's chest went up and then quickly fell down, indicating that she was still alive. A thought that sparked a small flicker of hope in Aera's broken and shocked heart.

Holding her granddaughters hand in hers, Mrs Helda gently stroked it as she gave a small smile. "Aera, I am sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Area asked with a broken voice as painful tears slipped from her eyes at seeing the condition her friend and grandmother were in.

"Area, my dear child." Mrs Helda mumbled as she tried to wipe away her grand daughter's tears. 

With one last straw of energy, Mrs Helda waved her hand and a book popped out right out of thin air as it floated and landed beside the young girl.

Handing the book to Aera, Mrs Helda took a breath as the words that next left her mouth shocked Aera beyond measure.

"I planned to tell this to you in a better situation...I planned to sit with you and explain this to you in detail but my dear child, I am running out of time." She said as she could feel an extreme wave of tiredness and weariness crash her by every passing second. "You are the future guardian of the great kingdom Azmaar and for that reason you need to be protected and kept safe from any danger till you reach of age."

Confusion took over Aera as she gave a weird look to the old dusty book. 

"Keep this book safe with you and when you turn to the age of twenty years, head towards the old wisteria tree near the woods at midnight, when the moon is shining brightly down below. And once the time which joins the previous day and the next day comes, without a delay open the book." Mrs Helda whispered as her eyes slowly started closing.

"No grandma, not you too. Please don't leave me." Area desperately said as she tried to think of ways that would help her grandmother stay alive and would stop the bleeding of her unconscious friend.

But her desperate tries took to no avail as Mrs Helda took her last few breaths and soon her eyes closed as she then fell into a sleep from which she would never wake up again.

Tears continued falling from her eyes as her heart could not take in the amount of shock and grief she was going through.

Aera was so engulfed in despair that she did notice the black shadow that now loomed behind her.

"We finally meet, guardian Aera."

A deep voice said which caused chills to run down her spine.

Turning around her eyes met with that of the ghoul's as anger took over her. "You killed them...you monster!" She screamed at it as she lunged forward to attack the ghoul but with a simple snap of it's fingers, Aera fell down to the ground, an action which caused pain to immediately jolt through her.

Her eyes started closing as dizziness started taking over her.

She could see the ghoul was about to attack her to which she closed her eyes with fear.

But minutes passed by and nothing happened. Finally, Aera opened her eyes to realize that the ghoul was no longer in sight and instead in its place now stood a man who wore a blue cloak with a crescent moon used as a pin to hold it together.

The man gave a warm smile to Aera as he then sprinkled a golden coloured powder which caused her to close her eyes and fall asleep.

Hello everyone! 

It's been three continuous chapters during which my main focus was Aera's past and though I know that some of you might be itching to know what is happening in the other side (The Blue Eyed Prince's side), knowing about Aera's past will play a big role in this book.

But don't worry because from the next chapter onwards the main part of the story will begin.

By the way, here are the meanings of the two spells I mentioned earlier:

1. Epodynos Thanatos: Painful Death

2. Skotadi katastrefo: Darkness Destroy