The birds were chirping, the sounds of laughter and gossip echoing through the air outside. The sun was already high in the sky, warming the earth and all of its inhabitants below. The clock on the wall had just struck ten, and her stomach growled in opposition to her sustained lack of sustenance. Still, her primary concern waned from hunger to worry as she stared at the locked door across the room.
Out of a desperate desire for comfort, Nashi had huddled herself in layers of blankets and sheets and towels, anything she could find, but they had long since stopped emulating her mother's warmth. The layers from which she sought out solace now only served to add an even greater weight to the one already in her heart.
Lucy had gone out to get groceries for supper at about six in the evening prior, leaving a six-year-old Nashi behind for what was meant to last no longer than an hour. As a result, she had not eaten since their early lunch, her stomach was quick to remind her. She had sat patiently, energetically chasing around their little dog Plue in the rented room. He was strange for a dog, but Lucy had told her that he very well was - a spirit of the Canis Minor. That's what Mommy said, and Mommy would never lie to her. And so she believed. She had fallen asleep about twenty minutes into the wait, exhausted from a day's adventure, and so had not been aware of time passing until she woke in the early morning to a black sky and an empty room.
Lucy had assured her daughter that she would be gone not even an hour, bringing with her a well-dressed ginger man as protection detail to appease little Nashi, and had left her Plue to play with before locking the door securely behind her. And Mommy had never lied. So where was she?
Now it was light and noisy on the other side of their door, and Nashi swallowed as she hardened her resolve to play detective and scope out the scene for her mother. With a great deal of trembling and courage, she wiggled out of her blanket cave and landed ungracefully on the carpeted floor, nearly falling over before regaining her balance. Her head spun slightly, likely from combined hunger and heat, but she quickly shook it off and made her way to the door. Several stops were made along the way, to pick up socks and shoes and such, until she found herself standing, hand reaching for the door.
Wait, no. One more thing.
She had almost forgotten her mother's most prized treasures, excluding only herself. The gate keys.
The little girl's eyes scanned the room before landing on the table by the bedside, on which stood a short blue vase of dying lilies. Her feet drew her closer to the vase until Nashi found herself pulling out the stems and throwing them to the ground dismissively, petals scattering around her. Her impatience had her sticking her hand inside, right to the bottom, soaking herself in the process as she grabbed around until she felt them fall into her hand. Her nerves eased as she pulled out the keys, eight in all, shimmering gold in the sunlight that leaked through the windows. Their familiar patterns calmed her almost instantly and she took a moment to admire them. Though she knew them, Nashi had not been particularly good at summoning the zodiac spirits, but she had only started training earlier that year. She was very proud to say that she could summon with all of her Mommy's silver keys, including a very articulate grandfather clock spirit, and a compass who was quite the opposite in personality, with whom she got along with quite nicely. The pretty lady Lyra sometimes sang her to sleep, her voice almost hypnotic. Then there was Plue, her very best friend called the little doggy, whom she could keep out of gate for hours at a time.
For her own protection and practicing purposes, Lucy would often entrust her silver keys to her daughter, who had them already in her possession. And so, with all of the keys now with her, she only needed a better way to hold them.
After surveying the room once again, Nashi took a lace from one of her mothers shoes and proceeded to string each golden key before tying it around her neck. They were tied too close for her to use, but she didn't have the magical power to summon them anyway, so it did not trouble her. There, there was no way she would lose them like that. With keys still in mind, Nashi went to grab her mother's belt from the bed, where it had been tossed the previous afternoon as they returned exhausted from their daily search. She wrapped it around her middle and pulled it as tightly as it would go, the pouch with the rest of the keys resting at her hip for easy reach. Feeling slightly more confident with the weight of her friends, Nashi took the door knob in her hand and, pushing it open, welcomed in the sun of a new day.
Having keys that she could successfully call upon was comforting, but the girl was quickly reminded of her situation as she entered the busy bustling streets. Her Mommy was missing, and she needed to find her. How long had it been now? What time was it? Nashi did not know. Only that it had been way too many hours.
Oh yeah. And she hadn't eaten.
Even on an empty stomach, Nashi carried onward. She spent the day walking back and forth through the nearby bazaar, asking anyone and everyone if they had seen a pretty blonde young woman. She had learned quickly that asking for her Mommy was no good, as people around her seemed to look for a pink haired woman in their thirties at that. She did nab a few fruits along her way, only getting caught once, but that was an older gentleman who let her off the hook easily enough after a stern talking to.
"Stealing is wrong, and I won't do it again," she had lied, properly chastised. Even so, the fruits were not filling, her stomach still growled, and she couldn't afford to pay for food or have time to stop her search.
On and on she went, losing hope as the sky grew darker, until she was forced to give up for the day. Everyone was going home, and her mother had always warned her, "Nashi, it's dangerous to go out at night, especially alone. Promise me you won't." Having already broken half of her promise, the little girl retreated to the hotel room they had rented together, hoping that perhaps her mother went home after all. Either way, the promises she kept to her mother were important. The mother and daughter had a level of love and trust that was much, much stronger than one to be forged with an old merchant off a busy city sidewalk.
The next day, the search proved no more fruitful than the last, though her thieving skill had improved, for better or worse. At the end of the day, the guilt held no candle to the satisfaction stealing had reaped. She managed to collect about two hundred jewel total, and although that wasn't a lot, it was certainly a start. However, she was still caught now and again, and it became clear that if she were to continue on this route, she would have to shine up on her escape tactics as well.
On the sixth day Nashi noticed the stink. Though she bathed as best she could every night, she had run out of soap. Not to mention she was wearing the same clothes every day. She hadn't packed much, after all. It was only supposed to be one overnight stay. Though it did not cross her six-year-old mind at the time, Nashi was considerably lucky to have not been kicked out of the hotel by now. And so it was, as she left the room that day, her goal was not solely focused on finding her mother. Her faith was being exhausted at this rate, and the new distraction, though it misdirected her, suited her nicely. She needed new clothes, and while Nashi's cash stash was growing, she certainly couldn't afford to blow it on an outfit. As she couldn't call on Virgo like her mother might, the little girl ended up snagging a few adult shirts from a popular store where the clerks were all distracted with noisy customers. If it had not been for her tiny stature, her pink hair would have distinguished her from the crowd. Luckily, it seemed to only blend into the racks of clothes around her. After ducking into an alleyway to change her current dress, she reentered the main street another block over. After ditching the shirt in a box with a cat, she was planning to cut that day short and book it home to put the other new clothes away when something in one of the shop windows caught her attention. It was a sort of rag doll. It was sewn, but very pretty, and Nashi couldn't help admiring it in the window, completely blinded by the lack of any other sort of toy on display. Nashi was immediately completely enraptured and so her feet walked her right through the shop doors before she could spare a glance at the store sign.
Inside of the shop it was dark and smelled quite curious, the air thick with scents and perfumes, the sources of which lines the walls from floor to ceiling in shelves upon shelves of odd bottles. Large and small, thin and tall, and ranging in colors and opacity, some even glowed. She stared at them for a moment in utter awe, but then remembered the doll, and ran off to find where the window was. Once she found it, Nashi thoughtlessly reached out and removed it from the stand, all senses of manners forgotten. In her hands it was even prettier than she had initially thought, and felt soft to her touch. Dark brown buttons made the eyes, and thick yellow yarn framed the face, shorter strips in the front for bangs. She wore a simple blue dress with cut off sleeves, and a strange stitch around the feet that she supposed were meant to resemble boots. Nashi was not stupid, however. What had truly drawn her to the doll was the resemblance it bore, with the light blue ribbon tied into a bow in the yellow yarn hair. The doll, she looked like Mommy.
How long the girl stood looking at the doll, she wasn't sure. It could have been hours, or maybe just seconds, but she felt as if in a trance until she heard rusting from the back of a shop and a pair of footsteps getting louder and louder. Her eyes widened and her heart raced, and she didn't dare look up. At the sound of a low pitched voice that sent shivers rolling down her spine, she forgot all of her hesitation and bolted without another thought. She ran and ran until she was out of breath and didn't stop running until she had closed the door to her rented room behind her, and she held the doll close to her pounding chest as she fell against the door.
She didn't leave her room at all on day seven. Plue came out for a while and watched her sit. Her got her water, but she didn't eat that day. She refused to let go of the doll.
On the eighth day she was finally kicked out of the room as the staff remembered her at last. Her time was up. Mommy wasn't here, Nashi thought sadly, and now she had no more time to search. As she wandered the now familiar streets that day, she decided that she would go to Crocus. It's where she was born, and where she had lived for the first couple of years of her life, though she and Mommy would still leave for weeks at a time. Mommy had friends there from her old job at the magazine. And magazines had reporters, and reporters had resources.
And she had a home in Crocus. It was small, and it was probably full of spiders, in disrepair from lack of use. She hadn't even seen it in a couple of years, and was not sure that she would be able to find it. But it was definitely better than the street.
Right? Right.
It was with this thought that Nashi began a new adventure. It was her Mommy's adventure to find and rescue her old friend, and it was Nashi's adventure to find and rescue her Mommy. Time to play stowaway, she thought, and to the train station she went.
So I've actually had this for a while, and I started by posting the first few chapters on Wattpad under the name RQVT, but life had other plans. I'm editing it now so it's a bit different, but I think I'll be happier with it as it is here. Anyway, tell me what you think, it would make my day!
Later,
Me