It was undoubtedly a gloomy, miserable, and rainy day to go outside.
There was no one else going outside either nor modern cars driving carefully in the continuous rain to typically get to somewhere else that is sunny or go to work.
As for Stephanie, she feels slightly gloomy about going outside.
She is typically wearing a long-sleeved red shirt, long white pants that reach down to her ankles with pockets at her hips, and flip-flops.
Around her neck is traditionally the same necklace that is a silver chain that loops around endlessly, and hanging off the silver chain is a golden heart-shaped pendant.
She was sitting comfortably in the narrow seat in front of the window, grimly watching the rainfall rained on the city, nothing but making everything wet with every touch of each raindrop the ominous clouds merely gave.
It almost feels peaceful to heartily enjoy on a gloomily modern day.
Considered almost extremely peacefully for Stephanie to genuinely enjoy on a gloomy day.
She sighed gently in boredom and leaned a little back into her narrow chair, slowly stretching out her long thin legs slightly for them from being cramped from sitting extremely too long on her seat.
She glanced wistfully at her beloved kitten at her lap, curled in her lap with her kindly eyes gently closed, which is naturally a Siamese cat, with a dark head with two white ears, a white body with a black tail and a black underbelly.
The adorable kitten was making vibrant sounds with pleasant purrs as Stephanie gently petted her with her right hand, stroking gently as she softly purred from the gentle pets on top of her head.
She glanced back at the city, bored out of her mind until an idea frazzled into her mind.
She glanced keenly at her cleared table, naturally noticing a musical box, and she smiled gently.
Being careful as she can, she carefully picked up her adorable kitten from her stomach of where she was precisely, and placed her on the floor, softly stroking the fuzzy head once more, before getting up from the chair, as the adorable kitten woke up from her nap, gently opening her eyes, revealing a steel blue eye with a jade green eye.
She mewed softly after she had lightly roused from her nap and stretched out her small form to unstiffen her body too, before getting up from the ground where she was gently placed on, following after Stephanie as she walked over to the cleared table where the small chest is.
She carefully opened the small chest's removable lid and inside was chess pieces, in different shapes and sizes, along with brilliant colors.
Stephanie softly closed the small box gently and walked away from it, over to an adjustable shelf and lightly pulled out a narrow board, typically decorated with squares that are precisely in the chosen colors of red and white.
Stephanie gently placed the board down in the middle of the cleared table, getting ready to participate in a classic game of modern chess and carefully opened the small box once more, getting out the pieces from inside, and she first pulled out a red queen, a white bishop, a red knight, and other pieces that are all together in separate colors, 16.
She comfortably seated on a chair right next to her and her kitten sat on the other side of the cleared table, perching patiently at the chess pieces.
"Fern, be very careful please." Stephanie gently warned her adorable kitten. "These chess pieces are extremely old."
For some odd reason, Fern, the adorable kitten's name, respectfully nodded her head, as if "okay", responding politely to her soft warning and Stephanie gently smiled at her understanding.
"Would you like to play with me?" she politely asked, making a gesture with her right hand.
The adorable kitten gently nodded her head yes again and Stephanie carefully removed her gentle hand away, cracking her knuckles.
She reached into her pocket and carefully pulled out a modern coin from her pocket, with a red side and a white side.
"I'm going to flip this coin to see which color we both get, okay?" she gently explained to Fern.
Fern nodded her head yes again and Stephanie flipped the modern coin that she pulled out of her pocket, as it soared into the air, went down, and she instantly caught it with her right hand, before placing it on her wrist.
"Color?" she politely asked.
Fern glanced at the white king in front of her.
"I'm guessin' that your color is white?" she asked rhetorically.
Fern understandingly nodded her head yes.
"All right then, mine is red." she generously agreed.
Fern nodded her head again as if "okay" and Stephanie slowly removed her hand, revealing the modern coin on the back of her wrist and it was exactly on the white side, that Fern agreed to as the red side was precisely on the other side, like how Stephanie agreed to, too.
"White it is then," she gently replied, shrugging her shoulders slightly, as she is gently placing the modern coin down on the cleared table. "You go first since you've made the first guess."
Fern nodded her head to graciously accept with her and positioned herself, so that she is sitting still and said, in a soothing, calm female's gentle voice, "Pawn to E-6."
The pawn that is the 6th pawn, moved magically, to the area where Fern genuinely wanted it to be to play the game.
Stephanie gently smiled and said politely, "Pawn to D-3."
The 4th pawn of her red area moved to the area where she genuinely wanted it to be at, and she glanced up back at Fern.
"Your turn, Fern." she softly replied.
Stephanie gently smiled and commanded one of her pieces and Fern commanded her own as they typically played.
Before long, they are down to the final pieces, and it was naturally her turn.
"Your turn, Stephanie." Fern softly purred.
Stephanie politely nodded her head and was going willingly to say eagerly "Checkmate" to complete the modern game, when her door slammed open, startling Stephanie and Fern, as she meowed in genuine fear and instantly jumped into her lap, trembling slightly as Jessica came in, her face bright red with fierce anger.
She instantly noticed Stephanie sitting comfortably on the chair in front of her and looked genuine and naturally anxious about her fierce anger.
"Where were you for 3 hours?!" she angrily shrieked in her anxious face.
"I was merely playin' chess," she answered politely to her angry question.
"Chess?!" she exclaimed bitterly, glancing angrily at the unfinished game. "It is child's play for someone stupid!"
"No, it isn't." Stephanie protested softly, typically trying to reasonably assure her. "It is an intelligent game where you test each other's minds and-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, enough of the crap! I don't want to hear more of it!" she abruptly interrupted her explanation.
Stephanie went silent and felt slightly worried about her angry look.
She was going to interrogate her about what's wrong, when Jessica merely tossed the unfinished chess game off the cleared table into the wall and slapped Stephanie's cheek, as Fern got down of her lap, hiding underneath her bed as Stephanie collapsed on the ground from her chair, with her hand on her stinging cheek.
"You will be staying here for a week until you learned to not play any more of those stupid games that you loved!" she yelled furiously at her, before storming away from her, slamming the door close hard and promptly fastening it merely shut to remain her in her room from coming out.
There was merely a terrible moment of uncomfortable silence and Stephanie gently rubbed her cheek, wincing softly in mild pain from the stinging slap, before using her magic to entirely collect the chess pieces from the ground that Jessica tossed from the cleared table and placed them back on the cleared table, as her chair that she fell off came back up, as she returned up to her feet.
"Are you alright, Steph?" Fern worriedly asked, coming out of her hiding spot.
She was silent for an odd moment, before noticing something bad.
It was one of the chess pieces and it was undoubtedly the red queen.
Apparently, Jessica's unique strength instantly made the red queen snap into two and Stephanie softly sighed.
"Maybe Jessica's right." Stephanie mumbled as she cautiously placed her left hand on the chess piece, carefully concealing it in a cupped method instead of a flat way, whispering gently, "Ila."
At that moment, she gradually shifted her palm away from her other hand and instantly revealed the red queen piece as one piece again instead of two like last time and merely placed it back down on the chess board, as Fern looked confused.
"What is she right about?" Fern asked thoughtfully.
"Me playing games. I'm way, way, too old to play games. I guess I could try somethin' else than this…" she slowly mumbled.
Fern walked over to her and sat back down on the ground, gazing thoughtfully at her for a memorable moment, before placing her right paw on her knee, being careful with her claws and gently smiled towards her.
"Don't listen to what Jessica said. You matter. I dearly loved you ever since you've eagerly adopted me from the animal shelter." Fern calmly explained, politely trying to positively assure Stephanie from being down.
Stephanie stared at Fern for a moment, before nodded her head up and down, understanding Fern's reasonably assuring and gently scooped Fern up from the ground, being careful not to accidentally hurt her and placed her head into her chest, as she carefully placed her paws on her head, purring softly.
"Y-You're right, Fern. She's just being herself. I just need to calm down." she murmured softly.
Fern nodded her head gently and there was a memorable moment of eternal silence, with the soft pattering of gentle rain.
At that moment, Stephanie glanced wistfully at the chessboard for a precise moment, until she instantly caught odd sight of something strange in the middle of the chess board.
In the middle of the modern chess board is undoubtedly a glowing light and it wasn't like any other illuminations that she has typically seen.
"Fern? What is that?" she carefully questioned, gently breaking the eternal ice between the both of them.
Fern glanced over her shoulder and instantly noticed the glowing light that she was staring anxiously at, and... felt confused about it.
Stephanie cautiously stood up from the ground where she was sitting comfortably and slowly, but carefully walked over to the glowing light and gazed at it, curious about what it is precise.
She reached down with her left hand to gently connect with it when something pushed her to the left-hand side, as Fern came out of her arms, and she suddenly was greeted with flowing water.
She frantically tried to swim up to the surface to get some air when something pulled her underwater, and she didn't have any time to react nor to find out who is pulling her underwater.
'Help! Someone! Help!' She panicked in her thoughts, as she desperately tried her best to get back into the exposed surface.
Then, a figure peeked over the side of the riverbank, that she fell instantly into, in an unusual shape of an armed knight, and reached inside the water for her, and grabbed her left hand, and before she merely recognized who undoubtedly saved her, she fainted from gradual exhaustion from being inside the flowing water too long and desperately trying to swim back to the exposed surface.
After being pulled out of the freezing cold water and undoubtedly felt something odd before she even passed out.
The odd feeling was wood.