Guardians - Sara's Submission - Part Two

Getting into the actual point of this exercise, which is also where I started to enjoy the writing. Comments still welcome.

Tyr stood almost motionless on the building’s roof, watching the people down below. Even with her sharp eyes, it was hard to see every individual from such a height. Tyr only gave them a cursory glance as they bustled around on the faraway street. The one thing she could tell from up here was that none of them were Maya.

Tyr sighed and finally pulled herself from the edge of the building. She leaned heavily against one of the large vents and slid down to a seated position. She knew that trying to find Maya was pointless. She did it because she didn’t know what else to do. Even if she ever could find Maya again, Maya didn’t want her.

It had been a long time since Maya had told Tyr to go away, that Tyr wasn’t real, and that the only way Maya could move on with her life was if Tyr left her alone. It felt like a long time anyway; Tyr never had much sense of time beyond day and night and seasons, and she had lost count of the seasons since she agreed to Maya’s wishes and left.

Her first thought had been that what Maya had said was true. So much of Tyr’s experience of the world was through Maya that it hardly occurred to her to think that something Maya said might not be true. Even now, she still considered the possibility sometimes, that she might be nothing more than the product of Maya’s imagination. But if that were the case, then wouldn’t Tyr have ceased to be the moment Maya decided she was no longer needed and denounced her as little more than a hallucination? How could an imagining continue on when no one believed in it, not even its creator?

Once Tyr had realized that she did still exist without Maya, she had tried to understand what she was meant to do now. She had hoped that some long forgotten knowledge of her origins might come back to her, for Tyr could not remember a time before Maya. Her earliest memory was of standing outside of Maya’s house and knowing that Maya needed her. Tyr thought that perhaps if she searched hard enough, she might find another child who needed her like Maya had. She had tried, wandering first around the neighborhood where Maya lived, then broadening her search to nearby towns and finally the city. But the search had been fruitless. She wandered among the humans just as unseen as she had been when she was Maya’s protector. There were some of them who would stop suddenly and turn in her direction. But they seemed only able to see Tyr in brief, indirect glimpses. When they turned to face her directly, they clearly saw nothing. Tyr paid particular attention to children and did discover some who may have needed her and whom she would have very much liked to watch over. But none of them were calling out for someone in the way that Maya had been, and Tyr was just as invisible to them as to everyone else.

So it was sheer desperation that drove Tyr to search for Maya. She wasn’t entirely sure what she hoped to gain from Maya. Certainly not a return to their previous relationship. Maya had made it clear that she no longer needed Tyr. But because nothing else had worked, Tyr had concluded that she needed something from Maya in order to move on.

She had managed to find her way back to Maya’s house, a hard task with the bond between them all but gone. But Maya was not there anymore. Maya’s mother still lived there and, unsure of what else to do, Tyr followed her for a while, hoping for some clue to where Maya had gone. But it soon became evident that this was a dead end. There were no visual signs of Maya’s new location and anything else Tyr couldn’t understand. Tyr had never been able to hear well and without Maya and their connection to explain what people were saying, all human speech sounded like incoherent whispers to Tyr.

Without any real leads to follow, Tyr could only rely on the remnant of her bond with Maya to try and find her. She had given all her energy over to seeking out the tiny impressions of Maya that came to her less and less frequently. They were like small flickers of light in the distance, though more felt than seen. Tyr has tracked them relentlessly until each one faded into nothingness and Tyr was left to wait for the next. She was now fairly certain that she had found the right city, but that was as close as she seemed able to get. The sense of Maya became fewer and fainter, and now Tyr was not even sure how long it had been since she last felt Maya’s presence. It wasn’t entirely due to Tyr’s poor sense of time. She had also found herself “sleeping” more and more often. Tyr called it “sleep” for lack of a better word, but it was more like long periods of nothingness, no dreams, no sensation of anything at all. She only knew that it had happened when she awoke and she never knew how long the state had lasted. It had crossed Tyr’s mind more than once that maybe ceasing to be did not happen all at once, but gradually. Maybe it was only through Tyr’s own stubbornness that she still fought her fate.

That idea somehow seemed appealing to Tyr tonight. Maybe it had just been too long, too long searching and waiting and wondering what it was all leading to. Maybe it was time to rest. Tyr could feel it slowly beginning; the heavy sensation in her limbs that signaled a rest that was more than rest. She allowed herself to give in it and laid down on he rooftop. It was pleasantly cool, though she was gradually losing the feeling of the coolness. Her senses began to dull, starting at her extremities, then working their way up. Tyr let it come.

The sleep had all but taken Tyr when she felt it. She almost didn’t recognize it at first, and it was so small she might have not noticed it at all. But as the moments passed, she realized what it was. The feeling that was not within her, the sensation that had a place. It was Maya, after all this time. A tiny little speck, no bigger than the reflection off the point of a needle. Tyr welcomed it, but still let the sleep proceed. She could only tell from this miniscule sensation that Maya was there, and her assumption was that it was Maya giving her blessing for Tyr to leave, Maya saying goodbye. Tyr waited for it to fade so the sleep could take her.

But the sense didn’t fade. Tyr thought at first that it was only her imagination, one last hope she had to let go of to find her peace. But no. It was staying, longer than any past sense of Maya had. Staying, and more, though Tyr scarcely let her self believe it at first. It was growing.

The sleep was still progressing, though a little more hesitantly now. The appearance of the impression of Maya seemed to slow it down and it now had to fight to hold Tyr’s attention. But Tyr was fighting back. The sensation was continuing to grow, from an insignificant spark to a bright little flame. As it grew, the hope Tyr felt slowly creeping back to her was joined by another feeling: worry. The sensation had now persisted long enough that Tyr could begin to guess the emotion causing it. Though she hated to admit it to herself, it was the same emotion she always sensed from Maya, the only one she could seem to sense now: fear.

Tyr moved to get up, but her limbs would not respond. The sleep was angered, unwilling to let go of its prize. Even Tyr willing it away failed to stop it now. Tyr strained against it, focusing all of her concentration on the still growing flame that was Maya. It was taking all of her energy just to push herself a few inches off of the ground. The sleep was furious, grabbing and pulling at her viciously. But Tyr pressed on, forcing her protesting body to kneel. The sleep was enraged now, throwing itself over her back like a heavy weight. Tyr strained on. It was physically painful to move now, but still she pulled on and at last, staggered to her feet.

Still the sleep did not yield. It clawed at every part of Tyr’s body and she could almost hear it screaming at her to return to it. Tyr took a stumbling step forward and nearly fell back down. The sleep seemed pleased, confident that Tyr had given the last of her strength. Even Tyr wasn’t sure that she had anything left. She could never reach Maya if she couldn’t even walk. And even if she could, there was still the fact that Maya didn’t want her. But the sensation did not lie and now it crackled like a blazing fire. If she could just move, Tyr knew she could find Maya this time. This sense would not fade. It wasn’t the minor fears she felt from Maya in the past. It was a true, strong need, like the one that had called Tyr to Maya the first time. It was Tyr’s reason for being, and she could not fail to answer it.

Tyr roared, the first time she had roared in longer than she could remember. The sleep shuddered. It fell away, it shriveled, it died. Tyr shook off any lingering trace of it and charged towards the building’s edge. The fear from Maya was like an enormous beacon now and any joy Tyr felt at having such a strong connection to Maya again was overwhelmed by worry about what could cause her to be so afraid. Unhesitating, Tyr leapt from the edge of the building and spread her wings. She sped towards her destination. She would make it in time. She had to make it.