Ever and Auric

“State your purpose, girl!” The massive lion roared at Dani and snarled his snow-white teeth as he growled his demand. Dani shrank and cowered in his presence and wished she hadn’t sent away the Caiman and refused his offer to help her. “How did you get into the Garden? What are you doing here?”

The lion’s baritone timbre rumbled with suspicion and urgency like deafening thunder. Dani trembled as the golden maned behemoth leapt close enough to rip out her throat in one bite. She pressed back and leaned into the Garden’s stone wall, and willed herself not to scream or cry.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. The Silverback told me I had to enter the Garden if I want to get home. The Caiman helped me get in.” Dani’s voice quivered with fear, but her words were honest and the lion’s countenance softened.

“You’ve met the Vitruvians? They helped you? What’s your name, girl?”

“Dani. My name is Dani. I don’t know how I ended up in this world, but I want to go home. Please, can you help me too? The Silverback told me about you. He said your name is Auric. You and Ever rule over the Garden of Monsters, and you know how to find the Garden’s exit. I just want to go back home. Please.”

The great beast softened his tone and stepped back from Dani as he studied her face and fragile human body.

“I believe you, but I don’t have time to help you. Letum and his demons are planning to revolt at sunset tonight. I have to get a message to Ever at the Leaning Tower. Letum wants to kill the Raven and take over Sacros. Ever is the only one who can warn the Raven in time.”

“I can go with you. I can help you.” Dani pleaded and her mind raced in naive desperation.

“You can’t help me. You wouldn’t last an hour in the Garden of Monsters.”

Dani released her death grip on the stone wall behind her and straightened her posture in defiance. Emboldened by the Auric’s insult, Dani raised her voice and found a confidence that contradicted her small stature.

“I already made it through the forest, and I faced Tawa and Saanvi alone. They told me you can’t see Ever or you’ll both die. Is that true? How do you expect to get a message to her if you can’t talk to her?”

Auric looked Dani up and down as he continued to size her up. His gaze shifted into the distance and back to Dani’s eyes again.

“Fine. You’re tougher than I’d expect for a little lost living girl. But you’re right. I can’t physically be in the same place as Ever. It was a choice we made when Jah asked us to join him in Sacros as Vitruvians.”

“Why would you agree to that? Aren’t you and Ever in love?”

“Yes, we're in very powerful kind of love. But we’re also star-crossed souls. In the living world, we were fated to live out endless reincarnations of our doomed love story. No matter how many times we died together in the living world, we were reborn again to play out the same tormented destiny. We found each other in every life. We fell in love every time. And every time we were on the brink of happiness...Ever would die. It was excruciating for me. I could never save her. And every time I watched my lover die in pain, powerless to help her, I would die too. Then we’d be born again, find each other, fall in love, and die together again in agony.”

Auric sat back on his haunches, curling his long tail around his fawn paws, and lowered his head. His heartbreak was palpable. Dani felt her own heart break and wondered what it’d be like to love someone so much that she’d die of a broken heart without them for mere moments. She wondered how many times Auric died with Ever in his arms. She wondered how painful it was for them. Dani wanted to comfort Auric. She wanted to stroke his glistening golden fur. But she could only ask him how he and Ever finally stopped the cycle of reincarnated love and death.

“Is that how you became a Vitruvian? You were given the choice to stay here instead of watching Ever die over and over again?”

“Yes, Jah finally answered our prayers. The last time Ever and I died in the living world we begged and prayed to the Universe to make us a deal. We asked the World to grant us grace. We said we’d be willing to never see each other again in exchange for our eternal servitude to the Universe. We came to the Garden of Monsters for the first time together as passing souls, and Jah offered us release from our repeating torment and heartbreak. He said we could live together forever in the Garden as Vitruvians and Protectors if we agreed to never speak or touch each other ever again. We could be in love forever, and we could exist in the same world as one another. It was the easiest choice Ever and I ever made. I protect the Garden’s entrance here, and Ever protects the Leaning Tower at the Garden’s exit.”

“That doesn’t sound like an easy decision. It sounds more like a painful sacrifice.”

Dani wondered how anyone could sacrifice seeing their soulmate and falling in love countless times in lieu of unrequited love for all eternity.

“Sacrifice defines true love. It's a painful decision, but it's an easy one to make."

The grand Vitruvian lion rose to all fours and his majesty took the breath from the young living girl who was lost in a world of monsters and nightmares.

“If you want to help me – if you want to help Sacros – find Ever at the Leaning Tower and tell her Letum is planning to kill the Raven at sunset. Bring her my message.”

“How will I know the way?”

“You’ll have to start at the beginning. Listen to the flowers, quiet your thoughts, follow your intuition. Avoid monsters and watch out for demons. Most importantly, be quick about it. All Hell breaks loose when the sun sets, and if Letum kills the Raven…the sun will never rise again. And tell Ever I love her.