Death is inevitable. Death belongs to life, like a feather to a bird, like a cloud to the sky and like a mother to her child. He's destructive, cruel, enraging, frightening, dreadful... But he's also a bearer of hope, a saviour, he's encouraging, generous and merciful.
He may be a split personality.
But neverthe he's a man of his words. He always keeps his promises.

______

When a mother loses her child, the whole village ought to wear black for two days.

One day of the last week was such a day. A terrible day. Not only one, but two children died. The pain of the mother couldn't be imagined.

They were two sisters, as vivid as hummingbirds and loved by the villagefolk. The older one had been black-haired and known as the wittiest of all children in the village. The younger one on the other side, was a rather calm-hearted blonde with a heart of gold.

It was an accident.

It had been a rather hot summer and the river usually bypassing the village was dry. The scanty harvest had already claimed many lives. The people where hungry, so a good-hearted farmer from a nearby town decided to bring some supplies for the poor. He stopped his carriage next to a field to unload.

The two girls, Marian and Jade like they were called, played on the stunted wheat field with a ball they found earlier in the woods. A game of hither and thither.
Marian was, proportionately to her age of course, taller than Jade. At one time, when she caught the ball, she held it high up in the air, so that her younger sister couldn't reach it.
"Fetch!" she yelled playfully and threw the toy far away towards the main street. Jade, with a yelp of delight over the change of the game, ran after the ball. Marian followed her close behind.

It happened that the ball flew far enough to hit some barrels standing at the edge of the field. The clanging scared the horses that where harnessed to the carriage of the farmer and they bolted. The heavy animals buried the tender girls under their hard hooves.

_____

Even today, three days after the incident, the people of the village decided to wear black. A true sign for the love they felt for the two young souls.
A traveller from the far north had stopped in the small village the day before to witness the funeral.
The stranger was an odd contemporary. He was travelling alone, without horse or luggage. A well-mannered man with expensive clothing. He always claimed that his companion with their belongings would follow him soon but even days and weeks after he travelled further no stranger who seemed to know the man came to the village.

The reason the villagers hadn't forgotten his strange appearance was that he had made a deal with the mother of the dead sisters.
At first he only expressed his condolences, like a gentleman should. But then he spoke his true thoughts, "I've rarely seen such a sincere feeling of sympathy from a whole village. I travelled far and witnessed many funerals. Probably more than one should witness in a lifetime. Still, this one touched me deeply. That is the reason why I would like to reveal my expertise to you."

Certainly every other person would have called him a fraud and a hypocrite. Using the desperation of a mourning mother. But the women who just lost her children clutched at straws. So instead of throwing him out of her home, she listened.

,,I will bring your children back to earth. Certainly, the life that they will live won't be the same as before but they will remain in the world of the living. That's a promise."

The woman kissed the man's hand and looked full of hope into his eyes. If there was only a small chance that her kids would live, she would take it.

"There are two conditions though," explained the stranger. "Firstly, your children are never to return to this village."
The mother nodded quickly. What a small price to pay for two lives.
"And secondly, they will work for me. I won't bother them very often, but when I call they have to come."
Again, the woman just nodded.

"So be it," the stranger declared and the moment the woman turned her back on him, he was gone.

_____

"Makaveli! You're coming?" Jade looked back at the boy that was following her heavy-handed. He was carrying a massy backpack and tripped with increasing frequency over the stones in the stone desert.

"Not everyone is a spine-tingling ghost," Makaveli responded kiddingly and exhaled heavily. "I need a break," he stated and sad down on the nearest bigger stone.

"Not a ghost," answered Jade, nevertheless she floated back to her friend to sit down next to him.

"How far is it until we're there?"

"How far are you willing to go?"

"Probably only as far as the next town is to get some food."

Jade laughed. "Okay, we can walk to Saint Aniston and sleep in the hotel then."

"You mean I'll walk. You'll float." He pointed to Jade's glimmering appearance.

"Yes. But Makaveli? We've known each other for over a year now."

He shrugged. ,,Still, it creeps me out. Why can only I see the glimmering again?"

,,Because you're the guardian I chose. Come on now. The break is over. Saint Aniston is still some miles away. We've got enough money by now. Maybe we can buy you a horse when we're there."

,,Now that's a great idea. And who knows, maybe your sister is in Saint Aniston, as well."

,,I hope so."