text: I don’t know what it is about this stupid blade but every time I touch it, I can’t stop the images that cloud my vision. My whole world turns shades of white and grey while the images play out what I can only guess to be some part of a past life. It never makes any sense to me, but one thing that never fails to take my breath away are the piercing bright green eyes that shine through the dull images drawing me in and pulling me this way or that until I come back to reality completely unaware of where I am or how I got there. I’ve been lucky thus far, my conscious self-coming back in places where the trees provide a dense protection of wise shade, water lazily flows in thin veining streams, and the animals are the only eyes to be seen for miles. My mother had said this blade was the key to my future, but as I stand here staring at the shiny, sharp, object latched to the belt around my waist all I feel is apprehension and resentment that she didn’t say more. Although I look back on my time with my mother fondly, she often frustrated me with her way of making everything into some form of a riddle. I always felt there was more she wanted to say, but I guess she never felt comfortable speaking her truths aloud. She was more affectionate than most others in our village were towards me, but I don't think that says much because she really didn't have the relationship with me that I saw other women in the village having with their mothers. Truthfully, I always felt quite out of place here. Like I never really made sense in their world, and never would. That's why I always lost myself in these woods, feeling more at home on my own in the elements than where all of my family and friends resided. As I pace back and forth lost in my thoughts about life and how I ended up with this magical, yet incredibly frustrating blade, the hairs on the back of neck begin to rise, a telltale sign in this forest that something is coming and whatever it is, it’s not good. Before I can start the trek to find my way back to the village, the sky grows dark and unnerving. I arch my neck to peer up at what could cause the sudden disturbance, sure enough, there it is. A vast and endless array of the most terrifyingly beautiful black scales. An endless night sky. Ehecatl. That’s when the screaming begins. I had heard the stories of nearby villages facing the wrath of such a demon but didn’t think our time to face such a creature would come so soon. Just as it had begun, it had ended. What lay before me, what was once my home was now a pile of ash and bone. From what I could tell there wasn't a single person that had made it out. Before my mind can catch up to what my body decided to do, I was off. Wherever this creature was going, I would follow. Until my feet were bleeding and my lungs were gasping for air, I would follow. This thing, this Ehecatl, stole my life away from me in a matter of minutes and I would chase it down until I could return that very favor. By the time it had finally landed the night stars shone bright in the sky. I continued to move forward solely relying on my intuition. I let my feet lead the way up, up, up. As I made my way the path I was following on the mountain continued to narrow, I now found myself shimmying along with my back pressed up against one side and my toes still dangling over the ledge while tiny bits of rocks from the very edge plummeted down, down, down. I can’t stop. Even as rain rolls in and starts to tickle my face with tiny drops that I knew would soon be consumed by thunderous booms and striking blasts of light, I can’t stop. I hear the rumbling begin just as I start to lose my footing, I slip just over the edge and the free fall commences, I turn around as quickly as I can and reach for my blade that is strapped to my waist hoping to plunge it into the rock, but as soon as the cold metallic blade bites my fingertips, the world begins to fade as shades of grey and white begin to form and the world as I knew it begins to fade once again into nothing but a pair of piercing green eyes. I could feel whatever was coming before it had physically touched me. It was like an electric current that found it’s way to my very core. I was sure I had been struck by lightening until I felt something catch me. My vision was still clouded with images of white and grey making it impossible to tell reality from whatever visions danced before my eyes. I had to be dreaming as I was gently lowered into the soft, wet ground. Whatever had saved me had dropped me in an open field filled with nothing but overgrown grass and what appeared to be a small log cabin. As I quickly gathered my bearings the storm started to pick up so before I could think I started to run as fast as my legs would carry me to that log cabin standing on the opposite end of the clearing. Without so much as a knock I opened the door, hoping whatever I found inside would be less confusing, less intriguing than whatever had just happened to me outside. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was empty, and whilst it was small it felt incredibly inviting, as if I already knew where everything was I made my way over to the only window that this cabin had to try and figure out what had saved me, when I saw it. It wasn’t the sheer size of the beast that disturbed me. It wasn’t the way his wings looked like they could take down an entire army in one small swoop. No, it was the all too familiar, piercing green eyes that stared directly at me through the rain. As if what I was seeing wasn’t unsettling enough, I continued to watch as those piercing green eyes shrunk, and changed into a mess of lean muscle, and curly black hair as dark as the night sky. I couldn’t stop myself from walking towards the door and opening it to get a better look at whatever this was that I was seeing, but when I saw the large gash in his side spanning from his hip all the way up to the bottom of his rib cage. Without so much as a second thought I rushed out to him just as he started to fall to the ground. With his head in my hands, I ripped a piece of my cloak to apply pressure to the wound and helped him slowly sit, then stand and hopefully make it back to the cabin and out of the relentless rain. Time seemed to both fly by and stand still as I worked to try and repair the skin that had somehow gotten mangled by the elements as this man that I have been seeing for the past several months in flashes of my imagination faded in and out of consciousness. After what felt like a lifetime the bleeding began to subside and curiosity got the best of me while I studied the unconscious face of the monster in front of me. How could something so beautiful be so destructive? Why had I been seeing him in visions? What was his tie to this very blade that my mother gave me before she passed away? As I started to get lost in the thoughts that were running through my mind at an unnerving speed, I was suddenly rooted to my spot and pulled back into the moment at hand as his eyes flew open. I don’t know what drew me to him, but I leaned in slightly as I took in the sharp curves of his chin and cheek bones waiting for his lips to open and say something, anything really to explain what was happening. I knew that this man in front of me was the very creature that I was hunting down to slaughter mere hours ago, the irony of the fact that I just saved the life of the thing that killed everything I held dear to my heart does not escape me. Yet, as I looked in his eyes, I knew there was more to whatever he was, and whatever he was doing that I couldn’t help but feel pity for the lonely gleam that shone through. A small gasp escaped me as the words “You have my blade.” Rang clear as day through the silence. I jumped back not because I was scared but because the deep, raspy voice that came from him felt like something I had heard a million times before. As if reading my thought, and not having the patience to wait for me to work through whatever ideas were working their way through my brain, he slowly stood and walked his way over to me, I was sure it would be my end, but for some unknown reason I wasn’t scared. I closed my eyes and waited as I felt his fingers brush against my waist, shooting another jolt of that electric current I had felt earlier, grabbing the blade my mother had given me. I don't know why I had the sudden rush of relief flooding my body as the blade left the strap on my waist, instead finding it's home in this man's hand, but it felt like the blade had been crying out to me for so long and it had now finally found where it had been dying to go. In that moment, I knew I could not be the one to take his life. Within a matter of minutes and a few words from that unnerving voice, I had gone from hatred and anger to awe and confusion. I could not explain what compelled me to to do what I did next, but I knew it was meant to come to fruition. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his without hesitation, before he could do anything to stop me. What happened next took my breath away as all I could see was a different version of those very same images that would play in shades of white and grey only this time they weren’t. As if some veil had dropped, I could see everything in vivid color, I could hear the voices of the images ringing loud and clear in my mind. It was no past life. Those images they were memories from a time before I lived in the village that I had called home, thinking that was where I was born and raised. I was wrong. This was wrong, but it was the truth. That place was no home to me, I had only been there a measly year and a half. The truth was beautiful and cruel. These memories, they revealed my world to me like a storybook. I didn't fit in, I didn't belong in that village because it was never truly my home. I watched and listened as my childhood, happy as can be, and my young adulthood made their way back to me and the lies those people embedded in my brain using their ancient magic were unraveled. It was like that blade and these lips that I kissed were piercing my very soul and opening it up to what my reality was and how much I truly missed it. My heart ached as I saw my life before I was taken, before I was changed, play out and dance in wonderful color. My family, my life, and him. He was no monster. He was my other half. He was the better part of myself. He wasn’t destroying the lives of the people I loved he was burning down every village of ancient witches who had stolen my life. He was searching for me. In that moment when I took a step back to peer into those endless green eyes my heart cracked a little more and I knew, I had found my way back home.