I do not own Gakuen Alice or any of its characters. This story and its concept is entirely mine though.
Do leave Reviews please, they are my motivation for writing.
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She was walking down the mountain path. she had never taken this way before, in fact she had not even known such a path had existed to get down the mountain. Hugging herself because of the chill, she kept moving. Perhaps it had not been the smartest idea to take a new path, when darkness was approaching so fast, but then she had been somewhat lost when she had come across it. It seemed to be taking her down the mountain, for now anyways.
She stumbled as she suddenly came upon an opening in the trees. She was besides the last trees before a few feet of rock and then the drop. Her eyes widened at the sight that awaited her. She was at a ridge on the side of the mountain. The forest lay before her, exquisite in its green beauty, glowing in the light of the setting sun. but she only recalled all of this much later, then she could only see that beautiful form in front of her. He seemed like an angel, a being not of this world, as he stood there... facing the west. she was on his right, so she could see the side of his handsome face, tinted in the colored rays of the setting sun.
There was something about him so breathtaking, that she could not for a moment think that there was anything human about him. It was not that he was the most handsome, but something ethereal made him so much more than a man. A dignity, a sadness, a pain and a terrible loneliness perhaps... Yet even as her brain registered all this, he raised his arms as if beckoning the fading sunlight to embrace him. They both stood there for a while, him with his open embrace, and her too transfixed by him, to move.
As the light faded, the lines of his face became harsher, as if they showed his fury at having been left behind by the sun, the light and the warmth. Slowly he turned and then, his eyes met hers. She gasped, his irises were a deep dark red, and whether it was a belated sense of self preservation or just the strangeness of the situation that made her do so, she turned and ran. she had no clue how she went down the mountain and reached her home. Later she would always say, it was as if the forest itself had parted to let her escape.
She had been 17 at the time.
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40 years later
She smiled as she looked into the face of her only grandchild. The girl was sleeping cuddled up in a blanket. Once more her thoughts went to how much she looked like her mother. There was nothing of her son in this child, except her brown eyes. Beautiful and so warm, his son had had the most beautiful eyes ever. His wife Maya had often said that she had fallen in love when she had looked into those eyes. She closed her eyes, but she could not stoop the tears at such a terrible loss of life. Her son, Rei, his wife Maya, pregnant with their second child had gone to get a gift for their daughter's birthday. They had an accident on their way home, and never returned. The sole survivor had been their 7 year old daughter, who had escaped unscathed. It had been called a miracle.
That had been 10 years ago.
Her grandchild had turned 17 today. She had not even mentioned the day. In the past five years she had realized that the firl not only completely understood that her parents were gone, she also saw her birthday only as the day she had lost them. She was a brave child, and she also knew that she was not to blame, but she could not stand her birthday being celebrated ever.
She softly thanked the gods again for sparing the life of this girl. This child was her miracle indeed.
