Before any of my THE or SSD readers come and assault me, please here me out! I've just moved into my dorm and is slowly acclimating with this new college schedule, so please bear with me as I try to squeeze in writing during the down-time when I don't have classes or schoolwork. I whole-heartily apologize for letting anyone down with my lack of fanfiction updates and doing fanart requests. Gah.
As a petty way of saying sorry, I've typed up in a few hours a quick one-shot, drabble of sorts. It is an introspective look into the life of a certain pink-haired lumberjack, and short it may be, I hope some readers out there find substance in this spur-of-the-moment piece. I really had no intentions of creating this; seriously, it just came to me before bed and I typed it out since I couldn't sleep. So this is a surprise for me too. Haha.
Disclaimer: This one-shot idea is mine, but props go to Namco for Tales of Symphonia and its characters.
Seasons
Life' grandeur can be expressed in many ways, differing amongst the eyes of the masses. Some have witnessed life at its pinnacle through moments of happiness, others when enduring strife, and the few, befalling to the cruel, unforgiving hands of reality. A girl, just on the brink of the age of twelve, was cursed with experiencing everything that life had to offer: the good and the bad. That little girl watched her life pass her by, transcending to the most high and then falling deep, dictated solely by the way of the seasons.
Summer. That's how her life began. Bright, cheery, and full of promise. A young girl with an overseeing, dedicated father, who sought the best for his family; an endearing, affectionate mother, whose compassion was the bane of her existence; and a younger sibling, who was not only a sister but a playful companion as well. Her future, it shined just as radiant as the sun's rays during summer, illuminating the presence of a tomorrow holding so much potential... However, the sun couldn't stay for long. Summer soon ended; the days becoming shorter, the nights longer. The glory days for the girl closed with her happiest moments becoming nothing but a distant memory of yesterday. In to replace it was something unbeknownst to the girl, something that wasn't warm or familiar like the sun of the summer...
Fall. The sun faded far over the horizon, and the young girl was left with an unfamiliar cold front. Her world, which was once safely blanketed with sunlight, was no longer comforted, protected. The elements had seeped in, bearing their claws of change. The verdant grass wilted, the leaves drained of color fell from branches, and the trees were left empty. The change was inevitable. Nature's hand could not be stopped. Her mother succumbing to illness, her father unable to work from strain, and her own little sister departed to work regardless of age—the poor girl, she witnessed it all, unable to thwart the unfortunate events that transpired... It was that lonely night alone sitting at the bedside of her dying father, who had slipped into a coma due to his sickness, did she garner the strength to retaliate. Now, her happiness had dimmed along with the sun, and it was that depression that birthed a dreary resolution steadfast in her heart. She was determined to do something, anything to reclaim those summer days, even to the point of desperation...
Winter. The bleak season offered no remorse, no mercy. An unrelenting barrage of blizzards ravaged the girl's world. A blistering cold so fierce caped the lands, causing any and all life to die. It was a massacre; it was at this time the girl was left with nothing: her mother was long dead, her father breathing his final breaths in an ethereal state, her sister working lowly jobs for pay in some unknown town and for some unknown person. And here she was forfeiting her own body and soul just so she could have everything she once knew back. But the Winter never did let the sun return. Slowly, the girl descended into the abyss, submitting to that final ray of hope that she could see at the edge of the horizon. The inhumane experiments began on her, with the scientists coaxing with forked tongues. All her wishes would come true, they had said. In reality, however, her wishes, her world, her life halted, frozen in the eternal reverie of the broken dreams of Winter... Though, not all was lost. Years would pass—sixteen years to be precise—until the snow would thaw and her life gradually came back into motion, thus foreshadowing the dawn...
Spring. Nothing in the girl's world was left the same since she had last saw it. Her home, her town, and even her own self. Everything had changed. But it was that change that allowed her this opportunity, this second chance at life. The grass wasn't the same shade of green, the leaves not shaped the same, the trees taller than she remembered—the loss of familiarity was unsettling at first, realizing that resting with her deceased mother were both her father and sister. The revelation shook her and she initially felt utterly alone, but this time, she didn't have to endure the troubles herself. Although not her counterpart sister, a new cast of companions gradually gained her trust and her heart. She began caring for them and getting attached. Together they helped shelter each others pains and supported one another through their individual journeys. And even though it wasn't the life she had dreamed of, this new world, this rebirth of life was something she was willing to embrace hand-in-hand with friends at her side.
... For once in her life, Presea Combatir was finally looking forward to the seasons again.