Rozalin stared blankly out over the river thinking how nice the view was. Even if there were some slightly worrisome shadows on the bank of the river she didn't feel perturbed by their being there at all. It was almost like she didn't have a care in the world. "Enjoyin tha ride sugah?" a strange accented voice musically said from behind her seat.
Looking behind at the speaker Rozalin could only feel a sense of dull surprise at the speaker's presence and gave a more than slightly stupid nod in the affirmative. Rozalin closed her eyes and shook her head, "Something is wrong, my head feels weird."
"Ah believe dyin ell do that to ya sugah." Looking up once more at the speaker, Rozalin was unable to quite comprehend the meaning behind her words, so instead she decided to buy some time and spent a few minutes taking in the mystery woman's appearance. She was tall and lanky, almost boyish in appearance. Rozalin wasn't able to put an age to her features, but she didn't appear too terribly old, despite her short iron grey hair. She was also dressed in the strangest set of clothes that Rozalin had ever seen. They were sort of like the clothes the officials wore during village meetings, but were pitch black and had long tails coming out of the coat. Her shirt was pristinely white and covered in elegant ruffles and shining black buttons. Atop her head was a squat felt hat with a short bill. It was askew at a jaunty angle that made Rozalin like the woman despite not knowing anything about her.
"You in thar sugah? Mah name is Eva bee-tee-dubs. Ah am your ferry-woman today." she said before snapping her fingers in Rozalin's face several times. Suddenly, everything cleared and Rozalin parsed what Eva had said, "Wait a second. I died?"
Letting out a musical laugh and wiping away an invisible tear Eva smiled and gave a so-so gesture "You did and you didn't. You got some very determined chickies tryin tah stave off tha trip over." Rozalin gave the ferrywoman a strange look in response, "I see? No, actually I don't. What is happening?"
Eva rocked her head back and forth but said nothing before standing back up and mysterious procuding a pole in her hands that she proceeded to use to push them down the center of the river at a sedate pace. "Like I said sugah, you died. This is the passage to the other world, but you are kind of stuck in-between and could go either way."
Rozalin nodded in understanding. She didn't really remember dying, but considering dying sounded pretty traumatic it was probably understandable. "The question is sugah: What do you want to do? What happens here is actually up to me, but Ah feel like Ah owe ya one after you brought down that nasty lich critter. They throw off the cosmic balance ya see? So, Ah thought Ah could make a little deal with ya, if you wanna. Ah can give you a git outta dead free card in exchange for a little bit ah side work."
"Just this once though! Don't got expecting you can weasal your way outta dyin every time!" Eva slapped her leg and guffawed before looking at Rosalyn expectantly.
"Ahh, yes. I don't think I want to be dead. At least not yet. I am only seventeen and I have a whole world to see. Also, I met a dragon. Do you know how amazing that is?" Clamping her hands over her mouth, Rozalin's eyes bulged as her mouth kept running through her fingers spewing every little reason she had for not wanting to die today, albiet muffled by the presence of her fingers.
"Ah see then sugah. Bargain struck. Ah'll be in touch. Buh-bye now!" Eva cheerily waved at Rozalin as her whole world went black once more.
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Her consciousness returned slowly. Rosalyn was confused and found that she didn't know where she was. She also felt wrong, like she had been balled up and shoved into a wash basket. She felt... less... like there was something missing that she couldn't quite place her finger on.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The last thing she remembered was... fighting… watching the lich's face lose its smug look as he faded away… and the satisfaction of winning... followed by a resigned sadness. She remembered seeing that Mother Cham was still alive and that Serena had gotten out of her prison and then… she… died? No, Rosalyn knew that couldn't be right. Could it? However, there it was plain as the habit on a nun.
A flash of Mother Cham standing on her elevated podium teaching numbers to her and a room of other children zipped through her mind. However, she knew that thought was a distraction. A distraction that she was desperately trying to hold onto as she ignored the memory seared at the front of her mind. She died.
There was a hot lance of pain.
Then she was drowning in her own blood.
Finally a cold darkness consumed her senses.
That was the last thing she remembered before waking up... here. The cold that she remembered would be something that would probably give her nightmares for the rest of her life. However, now she felt… safe? Warm? “Did I die? Is this Heaven? I don’t suppose this is too bad a way to spend the afterlife.” she internally mused, existing there in this space and basking in the warmth. Time passed slowly as she faded in and out and she was content for a time to just exist and comb through her fractured memories.
Except…
Now fully awake and alert Rosalyn an indeterminable time later she had decided that she was very displeased with the situation and was very quickly becoming incredibly bored. Bored! There were a lot of holes in her head, and everything was still hazy, but she did know that she hating being bored. She wanted to be free, to run and jump and MOVE!
A flash of memory. She was doing martial arts forms under the guidance of Mother Cham and sparring with a familiar looking girl with pointed ears. They were both smiling at each other and looked happy. Back to the warm dark. “Let me out!” she tried to yell, but her voice didn’t seem to be working. “Oh no! What if this isn’t heaven? What if this is hell? Nonononono.” Panicking, Rosalyn did what seemed obvious. She lashed out… and felt something. She could feel! That is a good start. If she tried really hard she could move! Except now she was tired again. “Maybe a quick nap…” was her last thought as she faded out once more.
More time passed, how long Rosalyn couldn’t say but after her refreshing sleep she was really starting to get angry. Why wouldn’t her body work the way she wanted it to? She was pretty sure that she was stronger than this! Wasn’t she? There seemed to be something half remembered on the edge of her mind, just out of reach. “What is going on?” She tried to scream, flailing at the walls of what she was quickly starting to consider a prison. Rosalyn was starting to hate the afterlife.
“Ohoho! Look at you shake.”
Rosalyn froze. Where did that come from? Instincts that she didn’t know she had screamed at her to freeze. Can you die when you are already dead? Rosalyn didn’t want to find out.
“Oh my! You are in there! I am glad, I had feared that you were lost to us.” the voice boomed. Rosalyn flinched at the loudness of the laugh and whoever owned the voice seemed to notice. “Do not worry little one, I am here to watch over you, you aren't alone."
A loud *Snort* filled the room and Rosalyn flinched again. The voice let out another hearty laugh.
“With the way you are shaking it won’t be long before we meet again. I have so much to tell you.” the voice lovingly whispered, “Now do not overtax yourself. Sleep if you need too. The world will still be here tomorrow.” and with that the voice was gone and replaced with a gentle humming and an increased warmth.
The humming really put Rosalyn at ease for some reason as it tickled something in the back of her mind. A slightly nostalgic sense of deja-vu ran through her heart as the half-remembered tune lulled her to sleep. Now feeling much safer knowing that she wasn’t trapped alone in some cricle of hell, she decided to do just that. She apparently had a someone watching over her. Flashes of of a man and a woman appeared in her mind. The man was wearing a satchel and the woman was fingering a silver locket. “Oh… does that mean I am not dead?” she thought as she tiredly turned over in her head what that incredibly loud and reassuring voice had told her.
“I can still see the world. I'll have to tell Janie about dying.” She was surprised by that thought. Where did it come from? Who was Janie? The answer was just out of her reach, but she didn't have the energy to reach for it at this time.
"Oh well, thoughts for later. The world would be there tomorrow." She slept.