Continued from part 1

A dense white mist pooled on the ground. The flower was gone, a naked body curled up on the ground, the shape of it barely visible through the foggy veil that hugged it like a blanket.

His heart skipped a beat. Rose looked so small and fragile and appeared to be deeply asleep. He couldn't see her face, as her hair was covering most of it and she had her knees pulled up against her chest, her arms slung around them protectively. This was the way he had last seen her, curled up in pain when her soul was so brutally ripped from her, her body melting away, until nothing was left of it, a flower blooming in its stead. Running his fingers along the soft petals, he had even called her beautiful then.

Shame rose within him when he sank to his knees beside her to gently brush the strands of hair from her face. The softness of her skin against his fingertips sent a delicious tingle through his body. Like in a trance he stared at her face, drinking in every feature, the delicate sweep of her brow, the heart-shaped bow of her slightly parted lips, the straight slope of her nose. Perfect, she was perfect.

But he couldn't tarry now. With his other hand he fumbled for the second phial in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out and uncorked it. Everything needed to be swift, or else this whole endeavour would be doomed to failure. Greyish ripples curled inside the glass, Rose's name echoing ghostly from within. A vague scent of honey and wildflowers hit his nose, but it wasn't like a real scent, more like a distorted memory of it. An unpleasant shiver skittered down his spine.

However, there was no room for doubt, so he poured the liquid onto the grass beside her, where it spilled on the ground with a feeble hiss. From a shadowy mist a new flower sprung forth, strangely pale and near transparent, a veritable illusion, just like Serande had said.

A jolt went through Rose's body and she opened her eyes, clear and blue like the sky above. At first they were unfocussed and seemed to be lost in the void, but then they found his own and recognition dawned in them.

Andor instantly retreated and took a step back to where Elia was standing.

"Y—you!" was the only word coming from Rose's lips, her voice raspy and hoarse. She still had not moved, as if she wasn't aware that her body existed. Her eyes darted from him to Elia, fear and confusion mingling in them. "No! P—please!" it broke from her and her whole body began to tremble, as if in remembrance of the pain that had wracked her.

"Don't be afraid." Andor rose his hands in a calming gesture. "I'm here to help."

At the sight of the phial in his hand Rose's eyes widened in panic, her hands gripping her knees even tighter as if she wanted to make herself as small as possible.

"Y—you hurt me." Her lower lip wobbled, her face as pale as a sheet.

"I will not hurt you anymore, I promise. Please, you must believe me." He quickly dropped the phial, but Rose only pressed herself further into the ground, mumbling over and over, "N—no, no!"

This was going to be more difficult than what he had thought. He threw Elia a sideways glance, a silent plea for help.

"He speaks the truth," Elia said, tentatively taking a step closer to the mist enshrouding Rose's shape. "We are not here to do you any harm."

"I don't believe you," Rose muttered and tried to shuffle further away from Elia, yet her body didn't seem to want to cooperate. "Y—you are one of them."

"If by one of them you mean that I am an elf, then yes, you are correct, but none of us is here to hurt you." She knelt in front of Rose, partially shielding her naked body from view with her own. "Put these on," she said, placing the bundle of clothes beside Rose. "You are going home."

"He did this to me." Rose pointed with her finger at him, oblivious to Elia's words. "He tricked me. He made me drink this liquid a—and it burned away my insides and he just stood and watched." Her voice was choked. "He watched me and he did nothing!"

"I didn't —" Andor began, realising that nothing he would ever say or do would be enough to erase what he had done to her.

"You are evil!" Rose hissed, her voice cracking. The acid of her words burned through every shield he had raised around his heart.

"I'm sorry, I —" He searched for something else to say, but then his eyes were drawn to the new flower beside Rose. It was bleeding a greyish mist onto the ground, while dark clouds rapidly ate away at the bright blue sky above. A distant rumble chased goosebumps over his skin. This was what Serande had warned him of. If they waited too long, the magic would be off balance and tilt.

"I don't like this," Caladon muttered behind him and Bergil said, "We have to get moving, or we are all going to be trapped here."

"They are right. We must hurry," Elia said, scanning the glade as she held up the dress for Rose, "so you better get dressed."

Rose finally looked down at herself, her cheeks turning bright red.

"My clothes, where are my clothes?" She struggled into a sitting position and hastily reached out for the dress, her motions awkward and clumsy as if her limbs needed to be convinced of their renewed existence. Her hair was a disarrayed mess, pieces of grass and the occasional petal stuck to her blonde locks.

"They're gone. It's part of the spell," Andor explained, trying not to look anywhere lower than her collarbone.

"What, but why?" she said while she pressed the dress against her chest to cover herself from view.

"Because the humans are not supposed to come back," Elia elaborated as if she were talking to an unreasonable child, "and while they're flowers, they do not need clothes."

Rose stared at both of them incredulously. "So a flower, that's what I was?"

"Yes," Andor said quietly. "But not anymore. I am giving you back your life and you are free to go."

"And you expect me to be grateful?" Rose was now livid, frantically rubbing earth off her cheek with her finger. "You should be ashamed of yourself. Luring humans into this sticky trap of yours, that's disgusting. How many have fallen for this trick before me?" She surveyed the glade around her, the countless white flowers a silent accusation.

"None, you were the first. I mean, I have not done this to anyone else. There have been other humans, but that wasn't me."

"How do I know this isn't another trick?" Rose glared at him.

Elia let out a sigh. "Listen, Andor is breaking our most sacred tradition and about a dozen of our laws to give you back your life. And while I do not approve of his decision, I reckon that his boldness should be proof enough for you that this isn't another trick."

Rose pondered Elia's words, as if she was trying to find the lie in them, and then her gaze slid to Caladon and Bergil. They had come to stand closer and were now quick in directing their attention back to the ever darkening sky above.

"Have you all come to gawk at me?" she said, her face flushed in either anger or embarrassment, most likely both.

"Come on, there's nothing to see here, so turn around, will you?" Elia gesticulated to the three of them, and held out her hand to Rose. "Let's get you dressed. We really can't linger any longer."

At first Rose appeared reluctant to take her hand, but when she noticed the strange greyish mist creeping like spidery fingers towards her, she jumped to her feet rather quickly.

A fleeting glimpse of her body was all Andor allowed himself before he obediently turned around on his heels. He didn't need to fan the flame of her hatred for him by being caught ogling her.

However, the image of her sensual curves was quickly chased away by skeletal shadows rising from the ground around them.

"What in the Ancient One's name is this?" Caladon muttered beside him, and from the corner of his eye Andor saw Bergil reaching out for his knife.

The sky had turned the colour of lead and an eerie wind picked up around them.

"I don't know, but it doesn't look natural to me," he said, sending a silent prayer to Atunar, hoping that whatever this was, it wouldn't devour them whole.

"Maybe those flowers want a magical phial too?" The lopsided grin on Caladon's face was barely covering up his nervousness.

From behind them came the rustling of cloth and mumbled swearing.

"Getting dressed can't be that complicated, can it, even for a human?" Bergil threw an unnerved glance over his shoulder, gesturing to Elia that they'd better hurry.

Rose's hissed answer was surprisingly colourful for someone who until recently had been a flower.

Bergil's eyebrows shot up to his hairline, but he refrained from making another snide remark.

"Whoa, she has a quick tongue!" Caladon wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, shut up!" Andor rolled his eyes. How was it that his friend, no matter how bleak the circumstances, always found a way to drop one of his infamous lines?

With every minute trickling by, the greyish shapes slithering along the forest floor swallowed more and more of the green and white. Andor shifted on his feet and had to resist the temptation to also reach for his knife, even though he suspected that whatever was rising here, couldn't be fought with weapons.

"Time's up, human!" Bergil snarled, something he only reserved for when his patience ran utterly thin.

Andor was ready to tell him to cut it, but then Elia called from behind them, "She's ready."

He whipped around and for a moment all creepy darkness was erased from his mind. Elia had been right about the dress. It fitted Rose exceedingly well, hugging her body in all the right places, even though it was a tad too long for her, the forget-me-not blue a perfect match for her eyes. Not that Rose seemed to care. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest, her eyebrows drawn into an angry thunderhead and her eyes narrowed to slits. If looks could kill, he definitely would be a very dead elf by now.

He forced himself to swallow the completely inappropriate smile that was about to dawn on his face.

"Can I have my things back now?" She said, pointing at her bag which he was still clutching in his hands.

"Here," he said with as much calmness as he could muster.

"I do have one more question," she said, ignoring Bergil's exasperated huff and Caladon's raised eyebrows as she adjusted her bag. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I—" Andor broke off. Now that he had the chance to explain himself, his voice failed him. He wanted to beg her forgiveness, even though he knew that she wouldn't listen. She hated him and what hurt the most was that she had every right to do so. For the rest of her mortal life she would hate him, while for the rest of his endless days he would have to live knowing that he had wronged her.

Thunder clapped overhead, a gust of wind tousling Rose's blonde locks. The tumultuous sky darkened her eyes to the midnight blue of a raging sea. Those eyes would be the death of him.

"Nevermind, Andor," she enunciated his name with painful clarity. "I only hope that someday someone makes you suffer just as much as you have made me suffer."

"You are going to make us all suffer, if we don't get you out of here fast," Elia said, unceremoniously gripping Rose's shoulders to push her towards the exit. Ignoring her protests, she made Rose jog alongside her, the lengths of Rose's dress dancing like blue ripples through the thick grey mist. Bergil waded ahead, knife at the ready, away from the encroaching darkness.

Elia was right. They had to get going.

"Come on, move!" Andor called to Caladon, who had stopped to gape at an unseen ghost behind him. When he didn't respond, Andor grabbed him by the tunic and pulled him along, Caladon's initial resistance making them fall behind.

"The flowers," Caladon muttered, his eyes glazed, "they are alive."

"Stop looking at the flowers!" Andor shouted.

As fast as he could he dragged Caladon through the ankle-deep mist, but they weren't advancing fast enough. It was as if it was slowing them down, like those wicked bogs in the Swamp of Sadness. Fear clawed at his heart, but he quickly shoved away the disturbing images of souls being turned into twisted reflections of themselves. This wasn't going to happen. He wasn't going to let his friend be devoured by vengeful shadows.

If he could only break through Caladon's daze and get him to run! He could already hear the low pitched humming that emanated from the barrier. It made his skin prickle, but in a reassuring kind of way. At least the shadows had not yet gotten to the edge of the glade. That was a relief.

With renewed vigour he clamped down on Caladon's shoulder. "Snap out of it or you won't be dancing with Elia ever again!" he shouted.

Was this really the best he could come up with?

Caladon blinked, his eyes refocussing. "Elia?"

"Yes, remember her?" Andor said, relief flooding his chest.

"She still owes me another dance," Caladon said, emerging from his stupor. "I'm not letting her off the hook so easily!" And without another word he shot like an arrow towards the others ahead.

Andor didn't look behind and jumped over as many white flowers as possible, not trusting that they might not secretly be planning an attack on him. One step after the other brought him closer to the edge of the glade, away from the mysterious shadows. Bergil had already reached the ring of trees. Elia wasn't far behind, Rose trudging along with difficulty, her legs most likely not yet used to having to run. Sprinting as fast as he could, he quickly caught up with them beside the massive beech where they had discarded their weapons.

"Come on, let's get out of here while we still can!" Bergil urged them on, picking up his arms.

Elia and Caladon wasted no time, grabbing their own bows and quivers, while Andor only had eyes for Rose. She held on to the tree trunk for support, struggling to catch her breath, and didn't even seem to notice when he came to stand behind her.

"What was all this, those foggy things?" She didn't turn around, if it was to avoid looking at the shadows or at him, he didn't know.

"I don't know, but once you step through the barrier, you will be safe," he told her, pointing at the branches ahead.

He wasn't sure if his heart was beating so awfully loud because those shadows were the creepiest thing he had ever seen, or because Rose was so incredibly close that her scent engulfed him like a tantalising wave. His nostrils flared and his eyelids fluttered close. She smelled so good, like summer coming to life, and it made him want to do things that could never be.

"I—" he began, taking a step back, just to be sure. He didn't trust himself not to do something else stupid.

"What?" Rose snapped, whipping around towards him. Her chest was still heaving with the exertion and tiny beads of sweat made a few stray locks stick to her forehead.

He wondered how her heated skin would feel against his own, but her frosty gaze made him quickly bury his hands in his pockets instead.

"I want you to have this," he said, pulling out one half of the Elantymon and offering it to her.

She made no move to take it from his hand. The distrust in her eyes settled like a thorn in his heart.

"Please, I swear that this isn't another trick. Just accept it as a gift."

She only narrowed her eyes. "Why would you offer me a gift? You hate all humans."

"I—I don't hate all humans."

"Yeah, he doesn't hate all humans. He even has an unnatural obsession with at least one of them," Caladon remarked dryly while he adjusted his bow and quiver, throwing uneasy glances over his shoulder. Rose didn't pay him any heed and Andor had to suppress the urge to elbow his friend into silence. He was being impossible and only making matters worse.

"Please, take it. It would mean the world to me," he insisted. This was his only hope, the silver lining he wanted to hold on to when she was gone. He would resort to begging if he had to.

A terrifying thunder rent the air and Rose froze on the spot, renewed terror blooming in her eyes.

"Just take it already and go," Bergil said, snatching the rose quartz from Andor and shoving it into Rose's hand. "He isn't going to trick you, believe me, but you are getting us all in danger if you stay here any longer."

Rose opened her mouth as if she was going to object, but Bergil's harsh words appeared to have silenced her and she wordlessly dropped the Elantymon in her bag.

"Go!" Elia said over the lingering rumble. "And don't ever come back here if you value your mortal life."

"I won't." Rose turned away and slipped through the barrier, sparing none of them another glance.

As he watched her walk away, her small shape blending into the trees, something in his chest cracked.

She didn't turn around and she didn't look back. That was when he knew that he had truly lost her.