The water of Tenebre’s river giddying flows down the valley, washing in its way the stones of different color which lie on the bottom of the river bed, and the quick flow of the water somehow reminds of the passing of time, of memories left behind and of life that continues to go further and further despite all the tragedies, sadness and happiness of the world.

Up the river, so close to its dizzy water, Anaya can be seen. She’s mirroring her face on the blue-purple mirror of the river while her lost glance reveals a kind of loss in the abyss of memories.

Suddenly, she closed her eyes as if bothered by the sunlight that is mirroring its golden arrows in the same water in which Anaya is mirroring her face. But even so, with closed eyes, she keeps feeling dizzy and lost, because life was missing from her body for so long, and today, feeling so much shining and life-giving pulsation from all around, Anaya feels how her chest is pressed by a miraculous and secret force, which she never felt before.

Anaya slowly looked toward the sun, still with her eyes closed. She smiled, feeling the warmth of the sunlight caressing her face, and then, a rebellious gust of wind whipped her hair on her back and on shoulders, moving it slowly as if being blown by the breeze of life.

„Vāḻkkai! (life)” the old lady murmured and again smiled because for a long time she didn't say this word, for many years, but it was still a word that she loves and loved once. „Viti illāmal pōṉa piṟaku, nīṅkaḷ ēṉ vāḻkkaiyait toṭarkiṟīrkaḷ?” (Tamil) - „Why are you still near me, life, when fate is gone?”

Only the gust of wind answered to her, keep whipping her hair and moving her garments while nature around was breathing in a sweet rumble of eternal happiness. Then, the water stopped its flow and its blue surface became suddenly transparent, then a milk foam, and from that water, Gaea showed up in front of Anaya.

The titanide said nothing. She only stood like this, above the water, minutes in a row, watching at the old lady from in front of her, who was still with her eyes closed, watching the sun. Actually, Gaea didn’t talk because she knew that those moments were saint for Anaya, because only once in a year she could feel the gust of wind caressing her face, and also only that day of the year she could mirror her face in the same water where many years ago she ended with her life.

Eventually, Anaya opened her eyes and looked at Gaea, on whose face was read calmness and peace, but Gaea was also remembering the past and the same memories were seen reflected in Anaya’s glance. „Years pass like moments, Mother Earth, and we are also passing through life like the wind. Will we find out sometime the secret of eternal life?”

Gaea smiled. She was used to such questions listened to from the old lady’s mouth, but she felt that today Anaya was even more nostalgic than usual. „We have only one life, Anaya and we can’t control its flow.”

„And yet, I would have given an eternity to have such a power in my hands.”

„Why? Why do you need an eternity when you still wander through this life for so long, much longer than it was necessary? Why not lead the steps of your soul toward Aeon?”

„Because I still want to feel that I’m living, Mother Earth. I still want to be a young virgin, to sing in front of my parent’s house, to dance next to the beloved man that makes my soul sing, and to die once again in the arms of my love.”

„For this, you must reborn, Anaya. To feel once again the plenty of life you must give your soul a chance to have a new shape.”

„This means to forget my former life.”

„And … what was so good in your former life that you can’t turn your back to it and forget the evil they did to you?”

Anaya shuddered, for a moment, and looked at the titanide, then watch at the milky water: a younger Anaya, falling on her back in these waters, showed up like a dream of the old lady, and then, she saw the back of a man, squatted on the river shore and looking at the same waters that swallowed her body. But Anaya cannot see the face of that man, as she cannot remember who he can be, but something in him tells her that he’s waiting for long next to that water: he is waiting for a fate to turn back the wheel of time or maybe he’s there to end with remorse and sad memories.

Gaea looked in the same direction, but she saw only how the man turned his back to the river and moved further. On the river shore, in the same place where he had been, it was a small flower of Blue African Violet, carefully put on the ground, after he first kissed it and tried this way to send to the flower his hidden love.

***

It's a big celebration in the village in the valley. It’s dance and it’s music and there are young people grabbed by hands there, one next to the other, and moved by the rhythm of life, while glancing at the one who stole their heart, with glances full of love, full of longing, because youth it’s like a wild horse who escaped from his prison, after being caught and kept captive for a long time because others thought that this way this horse will be submissive and will listen to them.

But … can one stop the wave of life flow down? Can one tell his heart not to beat anymore, when next to him is the one who makes the blood in his veins boil and madly flow? No, it’s impossible.

The young Anaya is dancing next to Kiran, a young man about 20, tall, slender, with black hair like the feathers of the crows and a mustache of the same color which is barely seen coming out through his dark olive skin. His eyes instead are blue: like the sky, like the river water, in which is seen the flowing of time and the dance of the rhythm of life.

Anaya instead is his opposite: long, white hair, short, with black eyes and white, milky skin - she’s so white that she could be easily mistaken with a precious phosphor that had just been put out to be watched by the sun and envy by people.

But even so, despite this visible contrast between them, the two young men feel so attracted by the other like a magnet, because wild horses, galloping through their soul, make them approach more and more, while their fingers unify in one fist, their glances lurk at the other’s eyes and their lips, longing for a sweet kiss, are slowly moving, bitten by the white phosphor of their teeth and this colors them in an alluring red - a red of passion.

Kiran suddenly passed his arm at her back and approached her to his body and whispered in her ear: „let’s go there where can be alone.”

The young lady hid her shy glance and, slowly smiling, she agreed. Then she followed him while he kept grabbing her hand, not to lose her in that mad crowd of dancers, excited by the rhythm of the music.

Their leaving hadn't been noticed because nobody cared about their love, about of two young hearts heated by the fire of wild love because on that dance floor were many others that felt the same - wishing to feel it much more intense, longing to taste that forbidden apple of fleshy love and later to spend a life together in the sweet embracement of fate.

Outside it was a warm night, despite the playful gust of wind that was whipping the young branches of the trees and making their leaves slowly tremble. But the sweet kiss of that gust of wind was trembling also the thin cloth of young men’s garment, making them pleasantly shudder and to deeply feel the secret call of their body’s longing.

Holding her tightly by the hand, Kiran continued running toward the trees seen in the distance because there was their hidden place: their small Heavens which was hiding them from others because even if they were both young and free, Kiran couldn’t love her as he wished, freely, because being poor and orphan made him vulnerable while Anaya was the only daughter of the richest man in the village who disliked the fact that Anaya was next to him and he not only once threatened him with death if the young man doesn’t leave her alone.

But even so, Kiran’s love for Anaya was stronger while days passed by and the two young people were fighting for their love story: against fate and against humans.

Arriving under the trees, Kiran suddenly hugged her to his chest. The young woman’s breasts hardened under the tender hug of the man and her heart started to madly beat in her chest. But even if she loved those moments spent in his arms, she was afraid of what will others say and about her father’s anger.

The young man suddenly kissed her and that kiss felt as if flames burned her and Anaya pushed the man away from her. He watched her, confused. „Did I am too rude?” he asked, confused, seeing that she was trying to escape from his „trap”.

„It’s not this,” she stammered. „I just think that it’s not right what we are doing. Even if our love leads us toward this sweet abyss and we are rushing toward it, it seems to me that we should wait, Kiran. I … cannot be with you without my father’s acceptance.”

„But … he won’t accept this ever, Anaya. To be together we must fight.”

„What you propose is madness. You are asking me to give up to… innocence for a life together. Do you at least realize what you are asking me?”

Kiran watched her, confused: her words hurt him because he decided this, like a final step that should be taken. He doesn’t see another path to walk onto to be with her. If Anaya’s father finds out that they finally joined their bodies in that warm summer night he won’t have any other choice than to accept them. But Anaya was opposing this idea and Kiran had the feeling that she hides something more than her fear for her father. „Are you sure that it’s only because of this?”

Anaya shuddered. „What else … can be? No, it’s only this,” she stammered, but she was lying because the young woman had a big secret - that wasn’t allowing her to live freely, to love, or to be happy as she wanted. „I love you,” she finally said and her sweet whisper made the man give up in front of her. „I’m only asking you to trust me and to give me time. I promise we’ll make it. I promise we’ll be together. Just I need a little bit of time, ok? A short time for an eternity together isn’t that much.”

The young woman rose on her fingertips, put her palms on the man’s shoulders, closed her eyes, and kissed him. Her kiss, long and innocent, made Kiran calm down because even if he was ready to give free reins of his passion, he knew that it means to lose her and he better dies than to live without her.

He closed his eyes too and fell prey to the sweet wave of emotions that surrounded them, like Anaya’s arms which were slowly embracing his neck, approached her hot body of his till the fire which lived inside them didn’t burn them completely and transformed the void in which they were spending their night into a mad arson of passion.

***

The next morning, Anaya decided that it was time to choose her own destiny. To fulfill this, she had first to end with her father’s madness, who, blinded by greed and love for money, did, in the end, a deal with the devil, and the price of that pact was Anaya.

For many years, since she was just a 15-years-old girl, Anaya had to face that devil and to see him every day because her youth and beauty had blinded him and he wanted her next to him all day long. But … the devil’s power over the girl was limited, because Anaya’s father, despite his greed, still kept some love in his heart for his daughter and, when they signed with blood their pact, he could deceive the devil and, secretly, changed something on that contract, and thus forced Anaya to spend only a few hours a day in the devil’s den and not an eternity as the devil had wanted at first.

The name of that devil was Coallar, who saw her one beautiful spring morning while she was picking up flowers on the field. He had been immediately charmed by the abyss of her black eyes and he decided to have her at any cost. That’s why, when Anaya’s father changed the contract’s conditions and he realized this only after he had signed it already, Coallar practically went crazy and at first wanted to kill the man, but he couldn’t do this because he was tied by a blood covenant and thus, he forced himself accept those conditions and to have the girl with him only for a few hours a day.

Walking into the grotto, Anaya shuddered, feeling the coldness around: she had also shuddered the first day she entered that grotto, five years ago. And that day, as in the first day, she had flowers in her hair: fragrant flowers that made her seem like a fairy from old stories because Coallar fell in love with her namely seeing that day that she had flowers in her hair - an African violet and the scent of the flower got to his nostrils, drove him crazy and he saw himself kneeled in front of the girl.

But even so, even she had been forced to be a captive unwillingly, Anaya accepted that fate and accepted to help her father and, even if she hated this, she came every single day to Coallar’s den and spent time with him or her father would have suffered and the entire village too and that meant that Kiran would have suffered too and she couldn’t allow this.

The young man also noticed her, while still being a teenager, one day when he passed through the village, but both children were too shy to talk to each other. They preferred to keep alive the feeling in their chest till the perfect moment will come to confess it. That time came later and also the first kiss. Then - had been the desire - to be together, one way or another, but for this Anaya had to rebel against fate, but she felt being so weak, so unprotected in front of that fate. She chose to hide the truth and she did well because Kiran wasn't as strong as Coallar was and if he would have decided to protect her, he could have been hurt or killed, but Anaya also didn’t know how to break the spell that was keeping her tied to Coallar.

„Why are you staying there and not approaching?” she heard the strong voice of Coallar, coming out of the depths of the grotto and this made the girl shudder again. Even if she heard that voice for years, she still wasn’t used to this, as she couldn’t use to his presence and wasn’t his bodily presence because despite his age king Coallar was still good-looking, but the black aura, floating around him, made the young woman be afraid and to want to run away of those cursed places.

In the end, she got her heads together and grabbed tightly the handle of the boxes with sweets she prepared for Coallar. She was doing this every day: she was doing this only when she wanted to get something from him and that day was one of the special days.

Entering the hall throne, the young lady looked around, but he wasn’t there and this amazed her because she was sure that he was around, for she heard his voice talking to her not that long ago. Suddenly, she felt him behind her, deeply inhaling the scent of her skin. Anaya shuddered again, being afraid of such movements of Coallar's, who wasn’t doing anything else than to make his desire grow more in his chest, but it was also increasing the disgust for him in the girl’s chest, a disgust that she has been felt since she saw him for the first time.

„Something changed in you!” Coallar hissed through the teeth and in his voice, anger was felt. „You are different today,” he said and, moving his hand through her hair, he slowly walked around her. Then, he stopped in front of her and, touching her chin, he forced her to look into his eyes.

Anaya knew well what Coallar was able of: he could read the past, as he could read thoughts. So, she tried to fight with her inner she, trying to hide her feelings and memories.

But hiding something from Coallar was impossible and what he saw in her eyes drove him crazy: Anaya in the arms of another man.

A roar pierced the air of the grotto and its surroundings, but even if she was so afraid, Anaya tried not to show fear in front of him.

„How did you dare, bad woman? How did you dare to turn your back to me and to betray me? Me, the king who wanted you as his queen, next to his throne?! You instead chose misery and poverty, and not the richness I could have given you.”

Anaya smiled. „Why do I need richness if I can't have the one I love next to me? I better suffer from hunger, but to have always my beloved man next to me - the one who loves me unconditionally.”

„I loved you and I love,” Coallar yelled, furious. „For you, I would have turned the world upside down and only to see you happy.”

„I don’t need that much to be happy. For being happy I only need so few and you know what is this.”

„What you are asking me - it’s impossible. I won’t ever give up on you.”

„Even after you saw my past?”

„I don’t care about your past. I care only about your future.”

„A future that I don’t want for me. Not next to you,” and her hand grabbed a dagger she had hidden to her girdle and its blade touched the soft skin of her throat. „For me, being next to you equals death. I better die than to keep coming inside of this grotto of shadows, where I know that I’m not the only one who stays by your side.”

Coallar stared furiously at her: he didn’t expect such a dare from her and also, he never thought that she would be able one day to betray him. But he was sure of something: that Anaya won’t ever give up on her madness. The only chance to have her next to him was to defeat her in her own game. So, Coallar smiled with cunningness. „Well then!” and his words amazed the girl, who glanced at him with curiosity. „If you want to be free you must fulfill my last wish.”

„Which one?”

„Spend this night here. All night long and if you make it, I mean if you stay ‘till dawns, then I’ll release you and for this, you must drink this magical potion which will break my curse.”

What did it mean a single night for Anaya when she knew that at stake was her future by Kiran’s side? For her beloved man, she was ready to stay even more next to that monster who was playing with her like a cat with the mouse before eating him: she was completely unprotected in front of fate and confused about tomorrow.

But that night was the worst of the ones she spent all her life. She expected a calm night because despite Coallar’s shadow and evil breath that grotto seemed calm, but she had been wrong: all night long she heard the growls of the wild animals, she saw shadows crossing the grotto, she had visions about reaching the Hell’s door, but the love in her heart helped her to turn back to life.

The next morning, she drank the magic potion as she promised. At first, she didn’t feel anything, only a big release that took over her soul and when Coallar told her that she was free she ran out of the grotto, without even looking back. Outside of the grotto instead, she finally understood that she had been deceived by the king: that potion was meant to steal her will and her mind.

She wandered the surroundings in deep delirium almost till dusk. All that time she saw only Kiran in front of her, stretching his hands and calling her to him. Probably that vision had been the only one who helped her to wander so much. But, in the end, she got on the same field covered with violets, where Coallar saw her for the first time as if something mystical had called her there.

She collapsed on her knees and looked at the sky while her eyes filled up with tears and she whispered: „Is this the end?”

She felt how Coallar’s hands touched her shoulders and forced her to look at him - she saw him like in a dream, smiling at her like a mad person and she could read on his lips: „not, my dear. This is the beginning only.”

Before having her, Coallar heard her last words: „you are so pathetic, king. You prefer to have the one who had been already someone else’s woman, but only not to accept your defeat.”

The time spent in Coallar’s arms had been a bad dream only, because right away after this she filled her memories with the moments spent in Kiran’s arms because that night, after they ran out of the dance floor, under that clump of trees when she kissed him and the madness of love took over her, she accepted to be his wife and she gave herself to him as if her heart was telling her to do this, because she’ll be deceived, in the end, by Coallar’s madness.

Months after that event, Anaya gave birth to a baby girl. But the young mother didn’t even look at her child because she knew very well whose child she was. So, the midwife took the baby away from her mother and headed toward Coallar’s den where Anaya told her to let the girl. On her way toward the den, the midwife met Ahi, who knew what was waiting for that girl to be next to his father and Tenebre and he decided to take care of her. Then, he took the girl from the old woman’s arms and also took the life of the midwife because he didn’t want to leave alive witnesses of that shameful past.

But Ahi didn’t know what to do with the girl: he didn’t know how to take care of a baby and he also didn’t know where he should have taken her. He uncovered the baby’s face and, watching into her eyes, he shuddered: that girl, despite her half-human nature, had huge power. That’s why Ahi decided to name her Inmar and to hide her from Tenebre and Coallar he transformed her and gave her the power of a red fox, whose destiny was to lead an army of evil.

After that, Ahi brought the baby in his den and waited because he knew well that fate, which seemed to be so cruel with that girl, was in fact fighting for her and the one who had to take care of the baby was already on her way to them because you can hide or run away of your destiny.

Anaya also knew this and decided that it was time to end with the curse that destroyed her life because after that day, after being a victim on the field covered by her favorite flowers, she stopped talking and she did everything not to see Kiran.

The young man thought that she avoids him because of the night spent together and he decided to give her some time. But he was wrong because that night hadn’t been the beginning of their beautiful love story, but its end.

Anaya got out of bed, looked for a clean dress, and put it on with slow movements, but sure. Then, she combed her long hair, but left it whipped on her back, and, barefoot, she left the house.

It was daybreak: a warm and so beautiful spring morning. Even if was still early March, the sun was brightly shining, filling the surrounding with its golden light and also warming the young woman’s soul, who was heading to the river shore.

Getting on the river shore, Anaya looked at the water, mirroring her face on its surface, and, sadly smiling, she spoke for the last time: „you won, Tenebre. I’ll choose today as being the day of my death, instead of living always in your shadows.” Then, she closed her eyes and watched the sun, enjoying its sweet kiss.

She heard voices, calling her name because her father eventually found out about king Coallar’s indignity and it drove him crazy, but he hadn’t time to lament because he knew well that his daughter won’t ever accept living after she had been humiliated: she better dies and the easiest and dignified way to die for her was Maranam River.

Anaya turned her back to the river and looked in the distance, seeing Kiran and her father running toward the river, intending to save her. But she knew that they don’t have a future to spend together, that it had been only a dream she had once. So, she closed again her eyes and she allowed herself to fall on her back and her body was soon covered by water.

She was reborn from waters at dusk, but then she had the body and the face of the old Anaya and she didn’t remember her past. On the river shore, Ahi and Gaea were waiting for her because Mother Nature felt sorrow for this young lady who suffered because of a monster and allowed her to live at least like a shadow because those who gave up willingly on their life don’t have another chance to have a new soul.

Ahi put on Anaya’s arms Inmar and allowed her to take care of the girl. The love of a mother suddenly jerked in her heart and Anaya started to cry seeing the baby’s face and she accepted to take care of her, not knowing that in fact, she was her baby.

Many years passed after that day, but Anaya couldn’t remember her past and she had the right to enjoy nature only once a year: in the same day when she had chosen death instead of life and this was possible only if Gaea was next to her because no matter how much those who lived around Anaya hated Gaea, the old fox couldn’t hate Mother Earth: per contra, she considered her as being her mother and sister, to whom she could tell about the burden of her soul, to ask for a bit of advice and to whom to smile, because Anaya had been a woman that loved to smile and sing, but, in the end, she forced herself to live like a shadow.

Actually, about the fact that Anaya was only a ghost, knew only a few: Ahi, Inmar, Gaea, Dike, and Inlan Diar. The other ones could see Anaya only when the night sky was full of stars because namely magic brought Anaya to life for a short moment and gave her the right to face the world.