Beatrice

Alanna enjoyed her job. She knew that wasn't fashionable and that many wouldn't understand, but it brought her joy.

The first thing she loved about it were the hours. She woke with the dawn - still fasting - so that she could walk among the Sacred Pinetum. After that was her duties at the beach and then she retired to her small, breezy hut for the duration of the scorching heat, until it was time to repeat it all again at dusk.

The chores were gentle. Rake the leaves, store the nuts, maintain the paths. Cookie, her fluffy canine companion was now better than the job than she was. He sniffed out the pinecones for her and cleared the gravestones with his paws. They had found each other, washed up on the sand. Each of them saving the other. Alanna had had a different name then. In many ways, she had been an entirely different person.

"It's you and me bud," she told Cookie, giving him an affectionate pat and a swift itch behind his ear and under his chin. He wagged his tail so quickly that his bottom almost scraped the ground.

Alanna hadn't intended to become a Guardian. The small fishing village that bore her roots had been swept away in one of the worst Tsunami's of the year. Her stubborn father had ignored each and every warning until the wave itself was upon them. She still didn't know what had happened to him.

Suddenly, Alanna could taste the sea. Smell the sewage. Her eyes were blinded by the sea swelling around her and she was back on that meagre scrap of broken wood once more, swirling in circles and breaking every waves until she finally slipped under and -

Cookie's sharp bark brought her back to the present and his reproachful eyes seemed to say stay in the moment.

"Alright old man," she said, dropping him a quick treat from the pocket of her soft, white skirts. "Shall we go and see her?" she asked. Cookie thumped his tail again, sweeping the leaves around him up and into the air, making Alanna's heart soar once more. See, he really was better at the job than she was.

When they reached the tree, strangely small and fragile amongst the giants surrounding it, the sun was bathing it in its bright orange light. Alanna settled amongst the curving trunk that seemed to have been formed just for her and stroked the bark that was now worn smooth. As she always did, she gently cleared the name plaque by her foot of dirt and debris before reaching over and gently knocking on the pear tree's trunk. The heart of the tree.

Tap, tap. They waited.

Cookie's tongue lolled out of his mouth as he looked excitedly between his mistress and the Pear Tree. He moved so quickly that his head appeared to be on a swivel.

Alanna knocked again. Sometimes, the tree just wasn't ready to open the first time. If it hadn't absorbed enough light during the day, it would need to call on the neighbouring trees for energy and that took a little time.

She fingered some of the nearest leaves. Pinched one between her finger and thumb. It was almost bone dry.

Starting to get a little worried, she knocked again. Harder this time and a rapid tattoo that demanded attention. Still nothing.

No, don't do this to me now, she thought. She gently pressed her forehead into the bark, wondering if it was time. For a minute, she stood there, hesitating. The softly whispering wind in her ears and the smell of the earth abundant around her.

Then Cookie barked. A happy yap, accompanied by a rapidly thumping tail.

"Beatrice," Alanna said, "I was beginning to get worried!"

The girl who stepped as though from the tree was petite and slim. Her childish figure had never blossomed, unlike the Pear Tree that her family had chosen for her, which had always bloomed with sweet white petals, every Summer until the last.

Beatrice looked up at the summer sky and smiled. She turned towards the sun and raised both arms up into the air as though she were offering it a gentle hug. Then she laughed and started running through the forest nearby, leaping over fallen logs and weaving through branches. Occasionally, she would venture a little too far and the holomatrix that gave her form would fade out, then she would come closer to the heart and become so saturated with colour and resolution that she appeared real.

Today, she reached out as if to trace the edges of the bark on the fading wood. She sighed softly, "my tree grows old," she said to Alanna. There was no denying it. Alanna had never been told why her parents had chosen the Pear Tree, but she assumed it was because the girl loved the fruit so. She also didn't know what the child had done to earn a seat in the Sacred Grove, despite having died so young. Usually, that was all that the trees would talk of, but Beatrice had always waved her questions away, changing the subject whenever she felt uncomfortable or suggesting they play a game.

Beatrice was very fond of card games.

Alanna knew that there wasn't much time left, she gently placed a hand on the hologirl's shoulders and asked, "Do you want to tell me before you go?"

The girl opened her mouth as if to speak and then clamped it shut, "No, I think I'll let you find out about it after," she said. Alanna hugged her gently.

"What shall we speak of instead?" she whispered.

The girl twirled the end of one long plait around her finger, "Everything else?" she suggested.

Alanna laughed, "but where shall we start?"

"Well," the girl hesitated and Alanna inhaled sligtly, "I have always wondered why a snail has a shell?"

They chatted for hours, until the sleeping sun had almost slipped away. By the time the cold started to set in, Beatrice had curled herself up into Alanna's lap. Cookie was snoring softly at their feet.

As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the hologram of Beatrice faded away. The trees all around them seemed to droop in sadness. Keeping the hologram running for so long had severely depleted their resources. The Pear Tree was the first tree to have died during Alanna's stewardship. Perhaps this would always be the way. She wasn't sure, none of the other holograms had meant so much to her as Beatrice.

Eventually, as the night life of the forest began to stir, Alanna stood in front of the Pear Tree once more. She pressed her forehead to the bark and sought out the implant that had been buried there, long ago. Bracing herself against the stinging pain that always came with a first connection, she broke open the code and started dowloading Beatrice's memories into her own memory bank. It didn't take as long as she had expected it to, but then Beatrice's life had been cut short too soon.

She took a moment for the memories to sink into her consciousness. Waited for the inevitable rush as her own brain adjusted to them.

Oh sweet child! She had been that girl! The first to be tested on. The original candidate. She hugged herself tightly to stop herself from feeling the cold and darkness that surrounded her. Beatrice would live on in her now. A guardian of the forest and a keeper of souls.

As Alanna reluctantly peeled herself away from the dying tree and started to walk away, she leant down and gathered some of the fallen fruit to take with her. There was an empty space in her garden that needed to be filled and she had developed a fondness for pears.