The Tale Of Freedom and Burden

Once there was a small little grove in the middle of a very big forest. This big forest had been uninhabited for many years. Why was this forest so barren? How could there have been no human living here? The landscape of the forest made the perfect little home for any creature. One could easily make a home there. Perhaps the forest was barren because the grove was full of life. The grove, as no one knew, was a haven for two spirits. These two spirits made their homes in the grove.

Freedom, who was an eccentric beauty. Often found herself laying in the warm sun. She would often perch upon the highest branch of her favorite tree and watch as the panda's crawled about eating the nearby bamboo. Freedom was part human and part Feline. Though she possessed more of her human mother than of her father. She was considered a rare beauty. In her homeland being beautiful is the highest honor. Freedom was given the duty of keeping her other rival, Burden, at bay.

Freedom's Homeland and Burden's Homeland had a peace treaty with each other. Freedom was the Princess in her land and Burden a princess in hers. The two were supposed to oversee the lands together, and make decisions together. Everything fell on them, the wars, the famines, everything. Although, Freedom and Burden didn't always see eye to eye. And this resulted in chaos sometimes. As Burden, would never let anything go.

Burden, who was very sad and negative all the time, found her time best spent sitting in the dark contemplating herself. Something her people did on a daily basis. Burden was called beautiful in her land too. Her darkened hair had a unique blue shine to it. She was a very pale skinned person, and she didn't like the sun as much as Freedom did.

She ran her hands down the folds of her dress and watched as the sunlight hit it's every weave. Then she would talk about how ugly the dress really was. And Freedom could hear every word. Burden was all human, but Freedom sometimes thought that Burden wished to be as she was.

In this strange and crazy world that Freedom and Burden made their home, was a world of rules and magical things. Being a spirit did not make you dead or heavenly. It only made you more powerful and alert. Freedom enjoyed having her unique abilities, one of which was long range sight. She could see something miles and miles away. She could also sense the feelings of another person. Even Burden's feelings were leech onto her every now and then. No, being a spirit was a very high honor for the two young girls. They were protecting their homelands. Being a spirit meant they were also the only ones who could activate the Orb.

It was not out of character for Freedom and Burden to fight. In fact most of their day was spent passing nasty comments to one another. Or playing naughty tricks on each other. Though childish, the two somehow found the time spent as fun. It was on the Day Of Giving, a very special holiday in Freedom's homeland, that she decided to wander down to the Celestial River to bathe. Something Burden did very rarely. You can only imagine the chaos that caused.

Freedom was a bit easier at letting things go, they lived in a section of trees and made their homes high up in the branches. At least Freedom did. She loved living in the high altitude. Burden was very attracted to the ground and found it much easier to stay there. Though their homes were apart from each other, Freedom still couldn't help but pick a fight about Burden and Bathing.


Freedom walked down the leafy trail which led to the Celestial River. She breathed in the clean river air and removed her clothing. Her dress was made from the finest weaved silk, very expensive in her homeland. She set her clothes down upon the large rocks which surrounded the river, then settled down in the cool water. It was relaxing to feel the waves softly pass her by. It was then that her abilities began to sense something. She looked around the river, she felt a presence nearby not too close but definatly near. Her eyes scanned the crowded forest. She suddenly felt the being's mind blend with her own.

The vision began-

Lightening struck the night sky, the stars were clouded by the clouds of smoke. It was hard to breath, a surging pain went up and down her side all the way to her fingertips. She was walking, stumbling around trying to get away from the smoke and the fire. Looking around her she could see the place she was in was charred to the ground. Fires burned everywhere, there was no life, nothing. A sudden shock caused her to drop to the ground. Her body writhed along the hard rocky surface. When the shock stopped she continued trying to escape the madness. Soon she saw the edge of her little grove and she suddenly felt fearful. But with all the fear that she felt, the need to get to somewhere safe was even more urgent.

The vision ended-

Freedom gasped as she stood suddenly, her erratic movements caused her to slip on a rock in the riverbed, she slipped and fell into the cold water. Her feline side suddenly took over, like lightening she sprung from the river giving the rippling water a hiss. She dressed quickly and wandered towards the edge of the grove. She was shaking all over from her leap. She stood still and tried to calm herself. She needed to get understand what the vision had been about, but she couldn't do that all frazzled.

Finally satisfied with her calmness she plunged into the forest. She passed the tall trees and bushes passing them with no regard to their beauty. She stepped over the luscious flowers which had always given her a peaceful scent during the day. As she continued she passed the huge rock wall which had been so fearful the first stormy nights. It have often given the effect of an shaky mountain ready to collapse at any moment.

The rock scared Freedom to the point that she refused to pass the rock within a close distance. She came to the very edge of the forest, already she could see signs of the outside worlds decay.

"What has happened?" she asked herself softly.

Brownish plants laid within the grove, it was a color that portrayed the likeness of life and death. She wanted to lay a soft finger upon the brownish plant, but the painful groan of a being caused her to look elsewhere. She peered through the branches of a tree, the sight which she saw looked identical to the vision she had before. Only in the middle of a huge rock crevasse laid a man. He looked to be dead as he did not move. She dared to crawl out to inspect the being better. She crawled on her hands and feet and crouched beside him. He had a very kind face, but it was wrought with fear and anger. She touched his strong face which was rigid and etched.

Her heart went out to him with the calmest of feelings. Though she knew not of this man, she still felt for him. Beside him lay a single shard of paper which was torn and blackened with the fiery chasm which had hurt him so. She took her hand from his roughened cheek and reached for the tattered piece of letter. She lifted it to her eyes to read the scribbled words.
It Read-

I don't know who will read this. I can only hope whoever does read this tarnished note can prevent what happened here from happening anywhere else. Five days ago we discovered a man who'd been traveling for days on end. He kept repeating the same words- Death Is Freedom- We later learned that this Mantra was being used by our enemies army. He was brainwashing his soldiers and teaching them this mantra. Thus, they would rather die than be taken captive. Among the bodies of the dead enemy soldiers we also found journals. One man's journal entry caused us so much despair that our battalion refused to fight. His journal entry was this-

Death is freedom. Those were the first words to come across my mind as I sat up. My head was spinning and I had no idea where I was. I look around the small room. Everything was white. By the looks of it, I was the only person to step into the room for years. Where am I? And why do I still think of those words? Death is freedom.

-This man's pain and suffering went into his first journal entry. His hand never scribbled another word. We were betrayed by our comrades and now as I lie here in this burning world I find myself saying the same words. Death Is Freedom. Stop this man who is my enemy, and bring peace back to the world.

It Ended-

Freedom realized that it had been this man's memory she had seen. She did possess the power to reach into another person's mind. But this was the worst thing she had ever seen or read. She touched the mans face once more there was still warmth on his face.

"I wonder if he's still alive.." Freedom wondered.

She used her ability to call out to Burden, when she arrived the two carried the man back to their home. They laid him inside Burden's house as it was on the ground.

"Is he alive?" Freedom asked.

"Barely, I don't think he'll make it. We should contact the Council and see what's going on." Burden commented her voice wrought with worry.

Freedom nodded, "I will contact the council you stay here with him."

The two agreed, for once, and Freedom raced off to the Haven Tower where she would contact her homelands council. Freedom was unsure of what they would say. But it had to be somethiing good.

Burden took a moment to read the letter which had been with the man. THe words burned her like fire in the forest. She had seen the death and decay of the land, it was not even her homeland but Freedom's which was burned and destroyed, yet she still felt sorrow for her.

“We were created for such times as these.” she spoke, her voice low and draught with sadness.

Freedom soon returned, "I could not contact them. Something has happened!"

"Did you try contacting my homelands council?" Burden questioned.

Freedom began to cry, "I did..but no one would answer. Nobody, I tried even a civilian to contact with there's no one left but us and him. He has to survive we need to know who he is and where he is from." Freedom said in a hurried voice.

Burden nodded, "I know, my mother trained me some in medicine, I don't know much about herbs though. It would really help if we had one of your doctor friends." Burden commented.

Freedom spent the rest of the day sitting as high as she could in her tree trying to contact anyone. By evening she got something very faint. Familiar, but faint. Freedom reached farther and farther until finally she could hear the voice loud and clear.

"Hojo?" Freedom asked aloud.

Freedom could contact someone and follow their thoughts if this was indeed Hojo he would know how to talk to her. She waited patiently she suddenly received his reply.

"Freedom, is that you?" came the garbled voice. Freedom was having a hard time hearing him clearly. He faded in and out, Freedom quickly told him all that had transpired and told him where to go to find her. He agreed quickly. Freedom let go from his mind, the strain of keeping him connected caused an extreme energy drain. She managed to climb down from her tree, as soon as she hit the ground she collapsed. When she woke Burden was standing over her.

"You okay?" she asked showing no immediate concern.

"I'm fine." Freedom said trying to act as though nothing had happened.
"How is the man?" she added.

Burden sighed, "Still alive. He's a strong guy maybe he'll last. Were you able to contact anyone?"

"Just one person, Hojo. He was a friend of mine back home, he's coming here as soon as he can." Freedom said a smile on her face.

"How is he going to be able to help us if he's our age? He's too young! I barely know anything how much can he know about medicine?" Burden nearly yelled.

Freedom turned and crossed her arms, "For your information he's older than us, by five years at least! He was going to study to be a healer when I left."

They were silent for a moment, only the swaying of the trees overhead broke the eerie strange. Burden turned and began walking towards her home.
"I'm going to check up on our soldier." she said softly.

Freedom turned and watched as she walked away, her ears flicked back and forth with a vengance. Freedom was boiling. If she had been born with a tale, it would be going crazy right now. Freedom eventually ended up following Burden, she was curious as to how their patient was doing. When she looked in the house Burden gave a heavy sigh.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

Burden stood and shook her head, "I guess he wasn't as strong as I thought. He's gone."

Freedom looked at the man's face.

“His face looks so pained. He did not die peacefully.” said Freedom.

"He died more peacefully here than he would have out there." commented Burden.

Freedom began to cry, "Our world is gone. Everyone is dead, how can we ever bring it back?"

Burden looked to her and did something freedom had never seen her do.
She smiled.

“You helped him pass on Freedom. You led him to our grove where he died on the outskirts. I believe he died knowing that someone would read his last statement. He hoped that maybe that person would be able to do something about what happened out there.” Burden said pointing towards the outside of the grove. “It was you who gave him peace.”

Freedom shed a tear and smiled at Burden. “Thank you, Burden. You do not know how much that means to me.”

A day passed and Freedom waited on the very edge of the grove. It was late at night when Hojo arrived. He told them about all that had happened.

"There was no time to contact you or anything. Our enemies attacked without warning, we have no idea who they are. Both sides got a pretty good beating."

Their world had gone to ashes. Some had survived but their lush green world was now a desert. Freedom and Burden would spend their time figuring something out. What that would be they weren't sure. But now they had Hojo to help them.

Freedom and Burden would save their world.