-Lilac's Birthday-
It was bright and sunny day at Dragon Valley, in a treehouse isolated from civilization lived a dragon girl named Sash Lilac, together with her friends Carol Tea the wildcat and Milla Basset the hound, they lived in solitude providing for themselves through different means. 7 months ago a great disaster had struck all of Avalice, A cruel galactic warlords by the name of Arktivus Brevon had crash landed on our world, and threatened our way of life. A group of Heroes however stopped his efforts and returned order to the origin kingdoms, as a result the Kingdom Stone, the artifact that provided power to all of Avalice to power their technology, transformed and became a spiraling swirl of energy which looks over the Avalician night.
In ten o'clock in the morning and Lilac have just gotten up from bed, this was the latest she've ever woken up, mostly because dragons don't require as much sleep as everyone else, she simply walks towards the living room with her nightgown still on as she yawns from uncanny exhaustion. Once she enters the living room she notices Carol sitting on the couch playing Bingo the Multiva on the three kingdom's top selling video game console, the Cyber Striker.
"Carol, Where's Milla?" Lilac wearily asks, looking around for the energetic basset hound.
"Oh, she wanted to cook breakfast for you, also goodmorning and happy birthday!" Carol announced before she was prompted with a melancholy jingle, "Ugh, this boss is haaaaarrrrrd!" she then complains.
"Carol… that's the first boss…"
"No like you can do better."
Lilac walks into the kitchen, it was like looking at the aftermath of a hurricane, the pots were either dirty or scorched, the counters was filled with resedo and leftovers and the farcet was left running. Although she was likely cringing at the current state of her kitchen, her mood became softer as she see Milla smiling and holding her attempt at pancakes with turkey bacon and scrambled egg. It was surprisingly well made for someone her age, and as Lilac give it a taste she was surprised how satisfying it tasted.
"Wow! This is surprisingly good!" Lilac complemented.
"Thank you, I tried really hard!" Milla was happy that Lilac liked her cooking, then pouting due to Carol's laziness, "I just wished Carol would've helped."
"If you're tired then I'll clean this up for you as you go take a nap."
"No! It's your birthday! You shouldn't be doing any work! You go ahead eat, I'll get Carol to help!"
As Lilac sits down and eat her breakfast, she sees Milla trying her hardest to get Carol to help her clean the kitchen, however the attempt resulted in conflict as Milla and Carol fought among one another, however the wildcat ultimately agreed to help.
After both feline and canine was finish tidying up the kitchen, they both began discussing among each other, which intrigued Lilac.
"Hey! What are you two talking about?" Lilac asked politely.
"Oh, uh…" Milla began, showing signs of nervousness.
"We were going to tell you we having a trip to the ski resort at Shuigang!" Carol fibed.
"In April?" Lilac questioned.
"Well you know how cold that place can be."
"I guess you have a point."
Carol then began to whisper into Milla's ear, "You can distract her at Shuigang while I go to Shang Mu and have everything set up."
Milla nods in response, taking Lilac by one of her tendrils.
"W-what about Carol?" Lilac asked.
"I'll see you there! If I don't come in time then see me at Shang Mu!" Carol calls.
At Shuigang Lilac and Milla was at the snowfields, the resort was miraculously open this time of year, Milla didn't expect it to be open and her reaction signalled a red flag, Lilac was suspicious of her friend's reaction, but either way she didn't care.
Both girls buy themselves a pair of skis for each and began skiing down the hills, at least Lilac was skiing down most of the hills, Milla wasn't expecting the resort to be open but something told her that Carol knew this will happen. She wasn't scared of heights and she had basic knowledge on skiing, however she also wasn't the thrill seeker type, either way this was Lilac's day so she didn't care, she simply remained on the smaller hills, though she felt mildly embarrassed, mainly because she was the only eleven year old among seven and eight year olds. Although she didn't like the idea of being so much older in comparison to the other children, Lilac and the children's parent found it very charming.
"If you're embarrassed then how about we go down a hill together?" Lilac assured.
"I'm fine, I think I'll get a sledge or something." Milla responded.
"You sure, you look pretty embarrassed and unhappy."
"Yeah, yeah." The basset hound hushed.
As the water dragon leaves, Milla simply makes a fake smile, That was mean of Carol to trick me like that!
Milla then quickly rushed to the large resort complex, "Hey! Is there a phone I can use?" she politely but quickly asks one of the employees. The employee guides Milla to their closes telephone, the basset hound ponders to herself as she tries to remember the right phone number Carol told her about. She finally remembered and began dialing the number, waiting for the wildcat to answer the phone:
. . .
"Hello, this is the Shang Mu City Hall you're calling, how may we help you?"
"Um, yeah, uh is Carol Tea there?"
"Please Hold"
. . .
"Hello? Who'sa this?"
"It's me Milla, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THE RESORT REALLY OPEN!"
The hound heard muffled laughter in response.
"Carol! It's not funny!"
"I'm sorry, hehehe, I'm sorry. OK, I'm sorry."
"Anyways, how's the set up?"
"Perfecto! Everything is going according to plan, we're just waiting for some people, can you stall Lilac for about… 3 hours."
"Three Hours?! It's already 2:30!"
"Hey! Just relax and have fun. Cya!"
. . .
Milla sighs in response, she decided to take Carol's advice and enjoy her three hours at the resort. She stalled Lilac all she could for three hours, from skiing to playing a couple games in the main building to having a nice filling lunch. Although Lilac was enjoying herself, she noticed Carol's absence, and frequently questioned Milla about it. Three hours had past and when Lilac asked about Carol whereabouts one last time, she finally responds:
"Milla, please, where's Carol because I know you know." Lilac asks, with a slightly impatient tone.
"I guess she's at Shang Mu… somewhere…" Milla shyly responds, feeling guilty for making Lilac stay there as long as she did.
"Alright, lets head over to Shang Mu, then." Lilac sighs in response.
Both girls returned the equipment and changed to more appropriate clothing for the warmer climates south of the snow fields.
Shang Mu was as bright and lively as ever, the large amount of people and it's diversity gave the city it's lively atmosphere. Carol sudden appeared on her motorcycle in front of both girls, Lilac wasn't very happy with her, she could tell. "What's with the 'I'm going to kill you Carol' face?" she asks
"Well, you never came to the resort, it's my birthday! BOTH of my friends are suppose to be hanging out with me during my birthday, how would you feel if I did the same to you?" Lilac argues.
"I know you're angry, but let me make it up to you, just look at the big screen!"
Lilac is briefly confused about what Carol meant, they look at the large screen at the city's town square, and the dragon girl was pleasantly surprised of what she saw.
"Well today was a average and nice day for all of Avalice, until we got notice from an unknown source that today is one of our heroine's, Sash Lilac, birthday! So let's cheer her a happy birthday!"
The raw amount of cheering throughout the entire city, made Lilac feel very flattered towards the cheering crowd and forgiving towards Carol.
"I'm sorry, though why did you have to bring Milla into this, like I was admittedly kinda mean to her and selfish towards you." Lilac apologized.
"It's OK!" Milla said with a wide grin.
"Yeah, also we're not done yet! Let's go to the city hall!" Carol assured.
Milla gets on Carol's motorcycle from the back as all three girls starts heading towards the Shang Mu City Hall. At the city hall the group of girls notice two guards at the entrance of the building, they gave the girls free entry into the building and when they entered the build they were greeted with a large party for her. The leaders of the three kingdoms were there as well which caught her by surprised, it was a large part indeed and was invite only. Lilac recognized most of the people as she have personally helped them in the past, there were even a couple of Red Scarves here as well which especially took her off guard.
"I'm surprised Zao would even let you guys here, heck, I'm surprised Carol even invited you two!" Lilac states as she addressed Rob Stiil and Hanna Skarlett first, since they were the first two people she noticed, "Especially when I heard you guys recently went through a big adventure."
"Well, I figured you at least deserve a good birthday." Hanna coyly responds.
"I actually forced her to accept the invite, she thought it was a prank." Rob explains.
Lilac giggles in response which only annoyed the female fox as the hare calmly tries to relax her.
"Well, I hope you had a great birthday!" Lilac hears another familiar voice, this time it belonged to Helms Willow, an owl who lived close by and been doing research on the Kingdom Stone's origins.
"Oh! Helms! eh… sorry about the yelling, I keep forgetting about your strong sense of hearing." Lilac's tone becomes apologetic and soft in response to Helm's sudden ear covering gesture.
"I-it's fine, I'm just enjoying the party, you have quite the amount of friends!"
"I guess so."
"LILAC!" Helms ear ring of pain after hearing the screeching pulse of the dragon girl who came dashing towards Lilac, "Happy Birthday!"
"Hehe, nice to see you too Lily. I see Raiku is doing a decent job at raising you."
"She's still a handful, but everything been alright, I decided to help Helms out a bit on his research as a side project of sorts." Raiku explains, a south chinese tiger.
"Really?!"
"Pretty much, I was surprised too, but I think he will make a useful member to the group." Helms acknowledge.
"Well I should find Carol and Milla."
Lilac walk past the crowd of people as they wished her happy birthday and thank her for her actions, they shook her hands, hugged her and sometime some would be fairly too flattering. Out of all of the people she passed through and met, she finds General Gong and Neera Li through some coincidence. "Having a great time, Sash Lilac?" the General asked.
"Of course, though I would like to find Carol and Milla, though."
"I saw them talking with some of the guests, I'm sure they're going through the same issues as you are." Neera explained.
"Well thank you."
Lilac continues her trek through the large crowd of people, she finally reach a balcony and stares at the swirl of blue energy float in the night sky. I guess nothing will be the same again. I mean I have nothing against being treated like a hero, but I do miss it when it was just me, Carol and likely Milla doing whatever we want and don't have to worry about all of this. Though I don't regret it, because I like to help people and I know I can be a little cocky sometimes, but honestly I just want to protect my friends and my home. Amazing how every year you think more about the future.
"So are you going to sulk here or are you going to go back to the party and find your friends" Spade asks in a rude tone behind Lilac.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, my brother wanted me to come, he thinks I still care for you."
"Heh, do you?"
"Hmph, I don't know what you mean by that, and honestly I don't care."
"I have a question."
Spade remains silent.
"Why did you help us seven months ago."
"That's for you to figure out."
Spade then exits the building when the Royal Magister approaches the troubled dragon girl, "Tell me dragonblood, why aren't you enjoying the party. Granted I prefer a more quieter and dignified celebration, however I suppose it's how you want to celebrate this occasion." The Magister muses.
"It's not that, it's I'm just thinking now."
"Elaborate…"
"I mean I'm grateful for all of this but I just miss it when I didn't have to worry about everyone."
"Are you saying you shouldn't have saved Avalice."
"No! Of course not, I'm just worried about the future, I think… I know this isn't the end, it's never the end."
"You are wise to understand this, I too fear this is far from over. However until then we should be grateful for such times as these, there's always time to prepare. Now, let's go find your friends."
"You're right"
"By the way, I'm only supporting what that Red Scarf told you, I may be old but I'm still keen."
"Thank you."
HAPPY 1st ANNIVERSARY!
of
~Freedom Planet~