It was warm.

Death must be warm

It's obvious of course, why would it be cold?

It should be inviting, after all it is the biggest fear, the biggest consequence the world has to offer.

I had felt death before, and it didn't feel like this, yet this wasn't to be reborn either.

Then, my senses kicked in. The alive ones that told me so. It is not, "I think therefore I am, it is- I feel therefore I am."

The road tumbled from under me in a nonuniform pattern. Every bump and jolt completely different than the last. Whoever held the steers was pushing the animals far past their limit.

I had to step in.

The familiar pulsing of healing magic surrounded me like a mist over a town just awakening.

Opening one eye at a time I was pleasantly surprised.

Shelly was composed and asleep sitting in a position across from me. As if she happened to succumb to slumber, rather than choose to.

Only sleep defeat her, I thought as I scanned the rest of the wagon.

Lilly and Rose held hands over me in motions of the cross, they chanted words of the old Gods as they sprinkled some sort of dust over me.

Stolen novel; please report.

I didn't want to break their focus.

I liked the way they worked, the way they cared so very much.

But some of that dust, whatever it was, made its way into one of my nostrils and produced a fierce sneeze that seemed to rattle the whole wagon.

Their eyes shot to me.

Shelly, now awake, rested her blue eyes on my own pair of dark brown.

Chills shot and shivers ran the course of my spine, that would never change.

Everything stayed still for far too long.

An uncomfortable air settled in the musty wagon. One that brought a tension and unease with it. One that had to be shattered. For my own personal sanity.

Going against my nature, I broke the silence that had enraptured the wagon.

Bless me, if no one's going to say it.

Also, tell the madman at the helm to lower the reins and let the animals breathe. Hell, pullover, there is no rush. No one is dying today.

The last words caught in my throat as if I didn't quite believe it myself.

You don't know the half of it.

You always do the impossible and then, when we think you're surely dead after feats of unfathomable proportion, we come to the understanding that surely you'll die, for no one can survive after THAT.

Shelly's words were full of an emotion that boomed yet her voice was calm.

Then you go ahead and repeat the impossible with another impossibility...

You live.

After this, she let out a smile.

One that touched me deep.

Then, tears that fell gently and rapidly down her crystalline face.

Have you ever made a goddess cry?

Who am I to cause such pain?

Those tears tore my insides outside.

What had I done…