Holding Luciana's hand, Elincia walked towards her small house, lying at the distant edge of the village. As the two girls entered the house, Elincia immediately began to start the fireplace's fire. Several minutes later and the room became warm and cozy. She offered Luciana to have a seat at the only couch in the house. Then, she stepped into the small, open kitchen facing the living room. She started to prepare a warm herbal tea for Luciana to drink and get warm.
Elincia's kitchen is in fact full of many kinds of herbs; living in the forest for so long, she collected and used many different herbs the forest treasured.
She grabbed the warm cup of herbal tea and placed it in front of Luciana whose worry and anxiety seemed to have lessened.
"Here you go, Luciana. This will make you warm," Elincia said to Luciana, sitting beside her on the other side of the couch.
"So..Since you have calmed down a bit, I will try to explain to you everything I can; about the forest; about the village; about the way to get out of here."
Elincia paused for a moment and sighed heavily; she hesitated to tell Luciana the truth about this place; she feared that she would only increase the young girl's fears and sadness; however, Elincia knew that she should tell Luciana everything as this is the only way to help her get out of this lonely forest as soon as possible. Determined to help Luciana with all she got, she then continued: "This forest is not like any other...people usually cannot enter it. In fact, people normally do not...see it. Only those who are not secured, who are anguished, who are in doubt, who cannot move forward, are able to see this forest and enter it.Yet...as I told you before, once they enter the forest they would not be able to get out unless they fulfil one condition, and they cannot do so without the "Guides", and those "Guides" are...are..." Elincia's expression began to deeply sadden as she tried to continue. Her mind and heart was reliving everything that happened long time ago. Although it pains her to recall her past which she tried to conceal all these years, looking at the lonely, sorrowful Luciana who was sitting beside her, she mustered her courage and determination and continued to further explain everything.
"The Guides are unique people with a special ability of finding scattered memories of people and sensing their feelings and emotions. They "find" a person's memories, joining them together, in order to help this person to move forward, to have peace with his or her past. You can say, they "cure" anguished people through allowing them to relive their memories vividly and clearly. And Luciana, I am a Guide....I am the only Guide left here. All members of my tribe whom lived here died during a massacre long time ago, when I was still a very young girl. My mother and I miraculously survived the massacre and hid away, but she also died not so long after the incident. I....I.."
Elincia could not control herself any longer. Tears ran along her soft cheeks. She never knew why her tribe was exterminated so cruelly; was their special powers the reason? was their existence a blessing or a curse? were the culprits who committed the crime that messed up and troubled that they mercilessly killed the people of her tribe? does this power really and truly relieves the sadness and sorrow a person feels?
Many questions occupied her mind for a long time; she tried to answer them but she couldn't, so she just tried to forget...and that in itself seemed impossible....
But now, she knows one certain thing....the girl in front of her is in dire need of her. Through her powers, she sensed the sadness and confusion Luciana feels. She knew for certain that Luciana is an honest girl. And she knew that her destiny of being a Guide is one that cannot be changed and she should live with it even if it caused her sadness and loneliness, and now, with Luciana, she could try her best to turn this power of hers into a real blessing, she might answer all the questions she had in her mind all along.
With that in her mind, she quickly wiped her tears, and said to Luciana while holding her hands and smiling a determined smile: "Luciana, as a Guide, I will help you get out of the forest. I will help you move on. I will do all my best to erase your sadness, but, I alone won't be able to help you find and relive your memories. Those are your memories after all, so I need your help as well for you to leave this forest for good."