"Look at those flowers, I'm sure granny will love them!"
"Ah don't run away, Ryuuto!"
Running after the five year old boy, Kokone eventually trips and falls. She slowly stands up and looks around, a little confused, like if she didn't recognize her surroundings... but suddenly she remembers!
"Ryuuto?! Where are you?!"
She frantically searches for him in the near area, but he's nowhere to be found. He probably went deeper into the forest after Kokone fell...
She sighs. Being a babysitter isn't an easy job. Why did she accept this ag- Ah, yes! They would pay her a good amount of money. She smiles remembering this...
But Kokone, dear, you need to actually return the child to the family for you to be paid, you know? She remembers this and runs deeper into the forest while calling out for Ryuuto.
She passes by some beautiful flowers. She's an airhead. She looks at them for some time... and then remembers her quest at hand. She continues... for a bit... and the cycle repeats itself.
Eventually, though, while she was admiring some other flowers, she feels tugging at her scarf.
"Ah, help!" She screams. And falls.
"Kokone it's just me..." she hears someone sniffing. She opens her eyes and looks in front of her.
"Ryuuto, you sca-!" She stops herself mid-sentence. Taking a closer look, she notices the boy is crying softly, a pained look on his face. Turns out she hadn't been the one who fell several times in their little forest trip. Ryuuto tells her how he was picking up some flowers for his granny, but he fell down a little cliff (a cliff half his height, according to him) and hurt his knees. They were bleeding. Kokone paled.
"Oh no! I didn't think of bringing a med kit! We need to go now Ryuuto I'll take you to the hospital!"
The boy screams while Kokone panics. She was killing the child! He was a little brat, yes, but he deserved to live a good, long life!
While trying to calm him down and convince him it wasn't anything it's just that... she couldn't let the boy bleed out or with an open... cut... what are those called-
"Excuse me, do you need help...?"
Both Ryuuto and Kokone scream again. Kokone would've fallen again, let's be real, but she was still sitting on the ground.
Who had spoken was an unknown woman. Wearing majestic clothes.
"Are you a princess?" Ryuuto asks softly, still whimpering slightly.
The woman smiles at him and kneels besides Kokone, in front of the boy.
"Sorry, I'm not a princess, but I know how to help with your injury!" She reaches towards a bag she was carrying, taking one of those med kit thingies that Kokone has but doesn't know how to use anyways. There's like more than one type of band-aid there, outrageous and confusing! "May I...?" The woman interrupts Kokone's trail of thought. She hadn't heard what the woman asked, but she nodded anyways.
So the woman started healing Ryuuto, while he looked at her as if she really was a magical being. And yeah Kokone agreed, you gotta be a magical girl to know how to heal injuries. Her name was a cool girl.
But yeah what was her name?
Kokone gulped nerviously, for some reason? She apparently felt intimidated with how cool this other woman was. Trying to make her voice sound normal she asked her "um, can I ask your name?"
But of course she ended up sounding like a frog. Real smooth.
"Ah, yes! My name is Avanna, it's nice to meet you. May I ask your names too?"
"Ryuuto, I'm Ryuuto and I'm five years old! But I'm mature for my age okay?"
Avanna laughed softly and smiled at him. Kokone thought she would say something like "it sure shows you crybaby" but she was too cool for that... amazing.
"I can see! You were very strong back there while I healed your injury."
Kokone "oh"-ed, if that's a thing. When did she finish healing him and how long had they been sitting there?
"Oh and this is Kokone! She babysits me sometimes but it always ends up being the other way around you know!"
Listen you little-
Avanna laughs softly, again. What a melody. Kokone could listen all day.
"Are you sure you're not a princess?" She asked aloud without noticing. And then covered her mouth in shame. And thankfully didn't faint.
But it worked! Avanna laughed again. And insisted she wasn't a princess but let's be real...
...
Yeah she wasn't. But she'd be a good one!
So talking about her- she gracefully stood up, shaking possible dirt from her dress. Ryuuto stood rapidly too and beamed at her.
"Hey! What are you gonna do now?! We should go pick up some flowers!"
Kokone was close to screaming "NO, NO, NO! YOU'LL GET HURT AGAIN!", but Avanna smiled at him and took his hand, telling him she'd stay with him and teach him about flowers, but only for a bit because she had somewhere to go...
Her castle? Probably.
Kokone slowly followed and listened closely to Avanna's explanations. She would normally forget about things people told her in like... 5 minutes... but she felt this time would be different and she'd remember these insignificant random bits of flower trivia forever.
There was something about Avanna that intrigued Kokone, that made her want to listen to her more. Was she a singer? Because it was probably her voice. Kokone felt entranced by it, and her previous nervousness from losing Ryuuto and then seeing him hurt vanished as soon as she heard Avanna laugh for the first time.
As basic as it seemed, Kokone had taken a liking to this Avanna girl. Wild. She could've sworn she didn't like girls this morning.
Avanna must be a magical princess. She makes the impossible possible.
And while Kokone kept thinking on ways Avanna was the number one princess of the world, she suddenly noticed someone tugging at her scarf for the second time in the day.
But she didn't scream. Or fall. Certainly a development. "This is all Avanna's doing!", she thought to herself. "Wonderful. Amazing. Would come to the forest again".
"Hey, Avanna made this bouquet and I'm gonna give it to granny! Do you think she'll like it?" Ryuuto asked, holding the bouquet for her to see.
It was Avanna's doing though so of course "Yeah, she'll love it!" she answered, ruffling Ryuuto's hair slightly.
He shook his head at her touch and walked back towards Avanna.
"Thank you again! Granny says I need to say thank you."
What a good boy.
"It's no problem" she told him, caressing Ryuuto's hair.
And he didn't shook her off! Favoritism! But she could totally understand. Ryuuto was a man of culture, she admitted.
"I must go now, if you'll excuse. It was spending time with you, Ryuuto. And you too, Kokone"
Don't fangirl don't fangirl-
"Ah yes! It was nice meeting you! Thank you for helping Ryuuto back there... I really didn't know what to do..." she said while rubbing her head nervously. Like those anime girls.
"I shall take my leave, then..."
And she started to walk away...
Both Kokone and Ryuuto looked at Avanna's back sadly, silently... but Ryuuto snapped out of it first, and tugged on Kokone's scarf again. She didn't scream. Or fall. She just nodded at him and took his hand, walking away towards Ryuuto's house.
"She was cool, you know. But lying is bad." Ryuuto said to her.
"Huh? Lying?" She asked him, confused. As far as she remembered, Avanna hadn't lied...
"Yeah because she says she's not a princess but she totally is! She's like the princess from that movie Rana likes, or the princess from that book Rana likes! Wow I need to watch more Max Steel"
And he started to ramble about manly stuff... Ben 20 or something?
But she agreed with him. Avanna was totally a princess. Which, honestly? Was scary.
As they were exiting the forest, Kokone glanced at the warning in the entrance:
"Beware: rumors say this is an enchanted forest! Many people encounter magical or mystical occurrences! Legend says the forest is protected by fairies, and there are many magical creatures to be found if your heart yearns for them. They mean no harm, don't be scared... but then again, these are just rumors! Have fun!"
Kokone thought about it for a second... and you know what? Hopefully Avanna wasn't a princess. That way, there was actually a chance she was a real girl, and she'd hopefully find her again someday.
What a wild day.