Once again the townspeople ran me out. They always do. I never have money for food and they are afraid of my abilities. There is a wanted poster for me, so they always recognize me. The idea of having someone in your town who can manipulate emotions is not very appealing to them, I guess. The part I don't understand, is when they blame all their issues on me claiming I was the one making them angry, if I was doing that I would stop them from being angry with me. I guess my greatest flaw then, would be my reluctance to use my ability.
I was very tired, and hungry. I found a bush of berries I the forest and was not thinking clearly enough to realize that most berries are poisonous. I was very lucky that they were not. After my small amount of food I curled into a ball underneath a tree. The air had a slight chilly breeze to it, but my shirt was long sleeved which helped a slight amount. I ignored the cold and drifted into a light sleep. My glasses falling half off my face.
In the middle of the night, with the full moon peeking through the tree branches from high in the sky, I lifted my head to a faint sound. I adjusted my glasses back into position as I tried to identify the sound. A low grumble… a growl. Soon the yellow eyes could be seen not far from me. I was sick, and weak, which makes me the perfect pray. I slowly pushed myself to my feet, my knees wobbling as they adjusted to once again holding my weight. I watched the eyes that laid on me, not making a move until they did. The wolves lunged from the darkness and I broke into a full sprint. The air was cold on my face, and I could feel the branches of bushes and trees scraping my arms though my shirt as I ran. The thud of many nimble paws could be heard behind me, catching up. I cursed my inability to see well in the dark, something I inherited from my human mother. One branch collided with my face, tearing away my glasses, though that did not matter in this situation. It did not change my ability to see. Just as I could feel the breath of the animals on my back the ground fell from my feet. I curse my stupidity for letting myself fall when I have the ability to fly, but in my panic the thought did not occur to me. I barely felt the pain of my body hit the ground as my consciousness escaped me.
My body was extremely sore, I did not want to move. There was a sense of concern in the air, coming from two different sources, though one was significantly weaker than that of a normal sentient creature. Maybe I was just imagining it?
"Kana, please, wake up?" The voice was familiar, where had I heard it before? Was it one of the inhabitants of a village I had been to before? No, this voice was more familiar, someone I had seen many times during my childhood. A fairy, like my father, but which one. Who had survived the humans taking their wings and the destruction of the forest? I knew Helbrum did, I saw him among the Holy Knights, and could recognize him by his hatred of humans, but this person was kinder, and the voice different.
I struggled to open my eyes against the bright sun, trying to focus on the one who spoke. That didn't help much, without my glasses the person before me was just an unrecognizable blur. I did have a guess though "Harlequinn?" my voice was weaker than I expected.
"It's King now, but yes" his concern didn't fade, did I look that bad? I looked around, but that didn't help much, I still could not see anything. Without warning a hand placed something in mine. I brought the item close to my face to find that it was my glasses. I put them on to see a magenta haired boy and Harle-King. This boy was the source of the fainter concern, which could only mean he had an incomplete heart, a condition that only occurs in a small amount of circumstances.
"How did you find them?" I asked the boy.
"I read your memories and retraced your steps before your fall." He explained "You can fly, why didn't you then." He went on the asked.
I gave him an annoyed look which he seemed to not understand, before returning my attention to King. "You recognized me?"
"Not at first, but I had time to think." He looked at the boy. "Gowther, can you carry her back to the tavern."
The boy, Gowther, did not answer, he simply picked me up and began walking, with King floating beside him. It hurt, to be carried, but I didn't say anything. As we traveled King explained to me that I would be meeting some people, a captain named Meliodus, Diane, Ban, and Elizabeth. He told me that they were mostly nice people and that he would convince them to take care of me, claiming that it was clear I should not be on my own. It annoyed me that he did not trust me to take care of myself, but I was glad I would not be alone or cast out. He was my King, how could he let them cast me out?
It creeped me out a bit that the Gowther did not speak. In fact, everything felt off with him. His body was colder than that of a human despite him looking like one. His emotions were weak, barely existent to the point that even he was likely unaware of them, and they didn't change much. One would think that would make me want to get away from him, but oddly it drew me in. I wanted to learn more, I was intrigued.
The blaring tone that all old fashioned alarm clocks have cut through my dream. My eyes opened to the white expanse of my ceiling. "Why is it always the same people?" I whispered. I had been having the same set of dreams for about a year now. I already knew what happens after and before the dream I currently had, as I had had them all before. I never had any other dreams, just those. I longed for that to be real, and this to be the dream. In that world I was at least able to help one person, instead of always making things worse.
Eventually the screaming of my alarm clock became annoying and I shut it off. I wanted to go back to sleep, but could not as I had work in less than an hour. I fumbled around the nightstand, trying to locate my glasses, but accidently knocked them to the floor. There was a couple faint clatters, meaning they bounced somewhere. I cursed faintly, this would take a lot of time to correct. Lowering my feet to the floor I had to be careful, since if I stepped on my glasses they would break. Once my feet were on the floor I gently lowered my body to the floor and patted my hand around the tile. It took about ten minutes until I found my glasses. This was a time in which I wished I had a spare, so that I could simply put those on and not have to deal with the issue of needing glasses in order to efficiently find my misplaced ones.
As I slid my glasses onto my nose a strange thought slipped into my head "how did they find me?" but I shook it out soon after it came in. There was no point in worrying about a dream. Dreams aren't supposed to make sense. Maybe that's why I fell when I can normally fly, though that could also be attributed to the fact that flying is harder when I'm malnourished as I was in the dream.
I slapped myself, there is no reason to worry about a dream when I'm supposed to be going to work. I stood and looked at the empty bed on the other side of the room from mine and sighed. It was my first year in college, and only a month in and my roommate already dropped out. Such a shame, I had liked her. She was so shy that it was adorable. I grabbed my room key, toothbrush, and toothpaste and headed to the bathroom. As usual I watched myself in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. My green eyes were so dull, I always looked as if I'd rather be somewhere else. Though I guess that's fitting since I would rather this be the dream. My hair was the interesting part, it is white despite me not being an albino. It resulted in me always being picked on during my elementary years. How I hated those kids, and the teachers for letting it happen. Though those memories had become so fate it didn't really matter.
I sighed and returned to my room, getting dressed in the blue button shirt and khakis that are standard for my job. This part of the day had become so routine that I did it without thinking. I puttered around a bit before brushing my hair and putting on my jacket. I made sure I had my phone, keys, and wallet before leaving and waiting in front of the cafeteria for the shuttle. The shuttle took me to the subway station and I took the train to the grocery store I was employed at. I clocked in and signed in at my register like I do every weekend day, and stood in silence since there are never any costumers this early.
Working a service job is frustrating at times. People are unpredictable and get upset for no reason. There is one woman in particular who often runs out of money on her debit card and has somehow convinced herself that I am stealing her money or refusing to let the transaction go though. She always demands to see my manager and when he asks her what the problem is she points all the blame at me. To which he explains that I have no control over whether or not her card is approved or declined. She screams about us being unfair to her, and he escorts the woman out of the store. Then one of our shelfers rolls his eyes and gathers the unpaid for items to reshelf.
I would have welcomed that woman today though. I was feeling unusually tired, despite having had nine hours of sleep. I have been consistently tired for about a year now, though today was one of the worst days. The fact that we had no costumers did not help with this issue. There was no stimulation to wake up my brain. I felt like a zombie. The manager noticed I was having issues focusing, so he brought me a cup of coffee from our in store café. Bless him, he is very caring and thoughtful, I can tell that he cares a lot about everyone, even the people he does not know. Though the same quality that I admire also makes me worry about him. People who are caring are at the most risk for pain. They are jaded much more easily when put into tough circumstances. Like Helbrum, for example. He used to be such a caring guy, especial towards Harlequin. He was trusting of the humans, but they turned on him. He saw such horrible things that turned his caring into hatred. It pains me to think about what happened to him. I wish I could change his fate.
I slapped myself. There was absolutely no reason for me to be thinking about dreams, especially while at work.