All fell silent in the forest, all but the huntress and her prey.
Sylph sunk her fingers deeper into the wooden bow's handle, her fingers fitting perfectly into the handle's mould. She leapt backwards to create distance, the long threads of faded brown hair sweeping across her vision.
It was as if she was born to do this. The bow felt like a part of her, every curving arc and every splinter of wood that sometimes needled her slim fingers. She had been blessed with precision, a gift bestowed upon her from the skies.
Wind slipped through the gaps between her fingers as she threw them up to the bow's string. Cradled in them, a thin spear of brown wood well sharpened at the tip.
She pressed the bottom of the arrow into the string with graceful speed, anticipating the barely audible click sound that came a second later, before guiding her fingers to the string itself. It penciled a small line into the tip of her thumb, resting itself in it.
She drew the string, as she had done countless times in the past. There was no sting of a string carving deeper into her finger. Her skin had already hardened from countless cuts, forming a small fold where the string could lie.
No doubts and uncertainties arose as she released the arrow into the air from between two fingers, the wind trailing behind the arrow brushing past her cheek. It ripped through the currents of the air, creating a small tunnel of breeze that circled around it as it flew.
Sharp, brown eyes directed her fingers, her bow. They weren't cold with ice or blazing with passionate fire. They were simply filled with the strong-willed desire for a dream. They were eyes that would not flatter any other, eyes that were striking only on their own.
They shouldered the burden of placing the food on the table. They were the salvation of a starving family, among thousands of others.
Her village was the very law that decided the fates of its people… That was, a life of sweat and blood. You see, the birth of that very village was a mistake.
Needless to say, it was the herbs that drew people there.
It was unbelievable. Right there, were thousands of herbs, herbs that were priced so high that a small amount could forever correct the poor, pitiful fate of a person and his family, to a fate of wealth and riches.
A group of adventurers had gathered into the very spot that would become the center of the village. None were able to resist the whispering temptations of money. Weak, herbivorous monsters were attracted there. The large space guaranteed a quick exit from any predator that foolishly came charging into the space for some food. They were easy to chase off.
First, tents and campsites were set up. An invisible border marked with torches and dancing golden flames warded off thousands of weak creatures.
The real border was built shortly after. It was no short of a perfect circle that encompassed all of their future riches, shaped brick by brick, each one soon becoming lost among the red sea.
Then, harvesting began. Sufficient supplies had been brought into the place; making it a temporary living spot was no difficult task. It took a year, at the very least, before they could harvest the herbs.
But problems had already begun to surface. The weak monsters had settled just outside the border, and with little place to move to, they were all packed into a tight circle that closely shadowed the border. Essentially, a large ring of bait.
It was no surprise that, not long later, the place was surrounded by creatures, gargantuan beasts that would soon become the bane of the village's destiny. A few tried to escape. Humans were not their natural prey, but the territorial beasts attacked anybody and anything that invaded their newfound homes, whether or not malicious intent was present.
It was impossible to escape with a group. Maybe alone, it was, but most of the remaining adventurers had already brought family. They were left stranded in the red ring, and it stayed on to serve the very purpose of prison.
The border was expanded, slowly and slightly over the years. Their home was getting larger, just as it was becoming a larger prison. There was no money, only rice and grain. The skills of the hunt were lost among the waves of generations. There was no meat.
Every last herb's values plunged. They couldn't be brought outside for trade, so what value could the greenest greens possibly hold? Grain became the common currency among the people. Every household had powerful medicinal herbs and top-grade culinary herbs, something that people began eventually begun to view lowly after some time. Without any meat, they could not serve as good ingredients in meals, because they were all the people had. Only plants for every meal, and grain for the slightly wealthier.
The river that cut across the border became the divider for those who influenced grain trade: the wealthy. Of course, they were far from wealthy. It was just a way to address those who had some slight control over the main currency of the village. They had slightly bigger houses, but housing was never a main issue; they were located in a forest, with plenty of sufficient materials inside the border.
There was no real separation between the two. The only real difference was that the "wealthy" usually didn't work in the harvesting fields. Of course, not all of the villagers on the other side of the river worked in the fields either. A small wooden bridge linked the two sides, ensuring that the river did not become the much unneeded class divider.
The village had no real leader, but people with hearts that commanded courage and leadership rose to the unofficial position. At times, small groups of volunteers were also sent outside the border to locate a safe path where the people could escape through. None of those groups ever came back, and over the years, fewer volunteers appeared.
The village was doomed to a destiny of imprisonment, and only the persistent would pave out a separate path for themselves.
Sylph was not one of these people. The only things that mattered in her life were her eyes and her family. Her mother, to be exact.
Her mother was probably best described as someone who would never let go of a tragedy, carrying it, along with the burden of sorrow, everywhere, even into the deepest of nightmares. It had been fifteen years since her father's departure from the world. She didn't have the exact details; her mother would only say that he had moved on to a better place.
She never really knew her father. She had only been one when she left, after all. Her mother had provided for the family ever since then, working in the fields in the early years of her life.
Sylph grew weary of it all, trying to draw her mother out of the daze that she was in. It was probably because of this that she grew up as an independent person; who else could she rely on but herself?
By miracle or not, Sylph became the first person in the entire village to hunt for her food. That was when she was nine. Nobody else but herself knew who had taught her the long-forgotten art. Her hunt was still limited to the minute prey of the large creatures beyond the border, those that somehow managed to avoid the piercing teeth of those very creatures and found their way into the settlement, into the forests inside.
And to further complicate matters, she could not sell the meat for much. Nobody in the village could afford a high price. She had to get enough grain to feed herself and her mother, and whatever meager amount of the leftover meat she had went to their meals.
Her mother stopped working in the fields when she had started to grow weak. She began to collect the wild herbs from the edges of the border instead, which she sold to farmers. It was not the best of businesses.
So here she was. Hunting to put the food on their table once again. The thought of hunting wasn't truly exciting, but when she picked up her bow and examined the unsymmetrical, carelessly crafted weapon, she could not help but throw a small smile back.
How natural it felt, to have it in her hands. She would cradle it for a moment, running her fingers along the rough wood. It was like having the world at your fingertips. It was her world.
Her spirits would soar, just as her arrows soared, dragons fighting their way through the sky in their majestic ascension to the heavens above, riding on wings of wind spread out so wide out they seemed to occupy the entire vastness of the sky.
To be able to simply shoot down straw targets with the slip of a finger every single day, it was the best thing that could ever have happened to Sylph.
She had no real friends; she had no need for them, her bow took that position. You were weak if you had to constantly be relying on others for help.
She didn't have to rely on anybody; she had no need to, for her eyes were all she had ever really needed.
It was not to say that she detested forming bonds or finding new friends. No, nothing like that. Perhaps she simply disliked the company of people. Perhaps she just simply didn't see the need to. Perhaps…
It mattered not. It was no exaggeration for her to say that when she tilted her bow to the heavens, they became her entire world. Every last word was true, right to the tip of her tongue.
Her eyes allowed that to happen. Everything she had today, needless to say, was because of them. And on that very day, when she had first drawn the string of a bow…
That was when her eyes had truly opened.
She had ventured ever so slightly beyond the border, in high hopes of finding a slightly larger creature to bring back home with her, hopefully without incurring the wrath of the large beasts.
The arrow found its way to it, right on the invisible bull's-eye. It buried itself into the creature's fur, and the creature crumpled down lifelessly. It was fairly simple.
She let her tense shoulders fall back down, letting out a deep breath of relief. She stepped forward to collect her rewards.
Gigantic jaws tore through the shadows of the trees and snapped up the creature. Ominous crimson orbs shone from beyond the darkness. Shadows spread along the beast's back, forming sharp, spotted patterns on its leathery hide. It opened its mouth as if to smile devilishly, revealing what was inside. Bits of skin and meat of a deep crimson red were speared onto the jagged tips of its teeth. A smell that could only be described as bloodlust filled the air. Its scaly tongue flicked out, delivering a torrent of air and a hail of translucent yellow liquid.
A few drops crashed into her skin.
It burned.
It was acidic! Instinctively, her arms flailed out and shook off the acid. She jumped in surprise, and then clasped the burnt skin on her withdrawn arm tightly, as if it would somehow ease the stinging pain.
The monster crunched up the rest of her hunt quickly, flashes of white and bones revealing through the thin openings of its closed mouth.
And then the creature locked gazes with Sylph. Its eyes alone struck pangs of fear into her heart and they were vulnerably revealed through her scrunched up expression. She reached for her bow, but it wasn't there. From the corner of her eyes, she found it lying on the forest undergrowth, disfigured by a thin layer of mud and soil not too far away.
She simply ran, forcing all her energy into the desperate sprint for her bow. She could hear the creature's feet sinking slightly into the mud with each step, creating greenish-brown splatters on the ground behind her feet. Her heart pounded on the walls of her chest in harmony with her feet that pounded the ground beneath her. Shallow breaths were all she could afford, and her lungs screamed for more air with every passing second.
The bow was an arm's length away. She leaned forward as she ran, arms grabbing for the bow. She snatched it up, but not before tripping and landing face-flat in the mud, pressing into it a shape identical to hers. She had no time to admire the slender figure in the mud, and so she pressed her weight down on an elbow and anchored herself up from the back of her body.
She barely managed it and stumbled forward, before returning her normal pace. She could feel the pulsing sensation beneath her skin, and her face felt red. She reached out behind her belt for her quiver and whipped out an arrow, which she somehow managed to fit into the string amidst the annoying movement and her fear.
She quickly skidded to a halt, using the momentum to do a small spin to face the creature and sent an arrow whistling towards her foe. What surprised her was that her quick breaths and her irregular stance had not hindered her accuracy. It pierced the creature's leg and dragged it down.
It hit the ground and the impact pulsed throughout the ground. It was not a very large monster by the forest's standards, but it was heavy, by the looks of it.
She turned back and tore through the air as she began her run once more. The border was nearing. She could make out the seemingly endless wall of red already.
The footsteps returned. The steadying thump sound behind her was making her nervous. She instantly filled up with regret every leaving the border. No blood would have had to be shed then.
The border was so close she could smell the faint aroma of a Syrus herb wafting about the air now, blending with the metallic smell of blood and sour sweat in the air.
It was foul.
She was almost at the entrance! The assuring fact that monsters beyond the border avoided fire and smoke (Which the entrance of the border so conveniently provided to chase them off) fetched back some comfort to her, for she knew she would outrun the monster by a long distance and arrive into the border soon enough.
And as she turned around to see if the creature was catching up, not a footstep left before the border, she was greeted with a large ball of pale-green acid. In no more than a blink, it flew right into her eyes.
Time only permitted a scream, a cry that tore through the forest and the abyss beyond it. She fell back, into the cradling arms of familiar grass. It was the last thing she felt, and the sting that was clawing viciously at her eyes became so numbing it was surreal. The pain overwhelmed her, engulfed her, and she drifted into an eternal darkness.
The light that filtered through the translucent window panels gushed into the dark room, a waterfall of faded colors giving the room a weak, dying glow.
At least, that was what it should have looked like. When Sylph awoke, she heard only the incessant chatter of a few voices around her. She recognized her mother's voice as one of them instantly, distinguishable from the rest with her mellow tone.
"She's waking up!" Somebody gasped.
The voices hushed down, and it suddenly became awkwardly silent.
"Can you hear me?" Her mother's gentle voice fell softly on her ears.
"Mmm… Yeah…" She groaned, feeling a tremendous strain on her muscles as she tried to get up.
A pair of hands pressed down on her chest, a sign for her to get back down.
"Sylphis…" Her mother's voice was scattered, full of worry and sorrow. "Can you… see?"
Sylph looked around her.
Darkness.
"What's going on?" She said, her voice steadily rising to a higher pitch.
"Sylph, please-" Her mother tried to calm her, but Sylph could easily tell from her voice that she herself wasn't very assured.
"My eyes… What's happening?" Her lips quivered as she spoke. Memories - ones she would rather have not remembered - came rushing back.
"You ventured out the border, didn't you? Poison from one of those creatures… it entered your bloodstream. We managed to stop it from spreading with the herbs… but… the damage was already…" She stopped, the lump in her throat preventing her from saying more.
Nobody wanted to be the bearer of the devil's bad news, after all.
"So… my eyes…" Sylph choked out, trembling as she spoke the next few words out loud.
They're gone?
The terror, the hate, the worry, the anger… they couldn't be described. She couldn't even tell which emotions were which. Everything was just a big mess inside.
She tore out of what seemed to be a blanket, ignoring the strain on her legs. She stumbled out of her bed, her hands fumbling about for something to grab, to provide some reality and shape to everything, to tell her that this wasn't just a nightmare that she would wake up in cold sweat from.
Why?
All in one moment, the one thing she treasured the most…
Stolen.
Why was this happening to her? Her talent… Stolen from her just as easily as she had found it? She could almost picture the Gods above, laughing with sickening pleasure at the way she was cringing right then.
Was it truly that funny? She had just had her entire universe to slip through her fingers so quickly it couldn't even register in her brain. But… why?
The words tasted foul and sour in her mouth as she unintentionally choked them out.
Why?
"Please, stop doing this-" Her mother tried to stop her, but her voice would no longer reach Sylph's ears.
Sylph found the door, bringing her fingers down the rough wooden surface until her hand reached the doorknob. She twisted it, with all the weight of her body falling upon her arm, and walked outside as it swung open, dragging her cold, tired feet with each step.
She heard voices calling out, but they already seemed distant and surreal to her. She just kept walking, a wave of disconsolate thoughts overcoming the urge to stick her hands out to prevent her from crashing into something.
She didn't even know where she was heading now. Anywhere was fine, really. She didn't feel like screaming… She was way too tired for it all.
Her shoulders crashed into an object once or twice, but she ignored the pain that rippled throughout her arm and just kept going.
She could hear water gushing from where she was now. She was at the river. She slowed down, and stopped for a moment.
She could picture the beautiful, crystalline water flowing, its weak currents battling over each other for dominance. She could picture the tall green blades of grass spreading endlessly about her, dancing along slowly with the wind's hush melody. And the morning sun that was now warming up the tips of her icy cold fingers.
Why didn't she see them before? Why was she only noticing all this now?
She took a few steps forward, to hear the rush of the water once more. She scuffed closer to it. Before she could take another step, a warm hand grabbed hers, from whichever direction it came from she could not tell.
"You don't want to do that." A gentle voice came from behind. It definitely felt male, although it was difficult to actually differentiate in tone.
"What do you…?" She barely finished her sentence as it dawned upon her with sickening realization that this person had been eyeing her since she arrived there.
"I doubt it's worth it. Whatever the tragedy that occurred." The voice said, firm, yet remaining gentle. It sounded almost like singing, yet…
How did he know?
A tiny wave of ice-cold water licked at her feet. She was that close to the river. Did he think she was about to jump in?
"I'm not…"
It was as if he wasn't even listening.
"Hmm?" He wondered out loud.
She shook her head in frustration, her eyebrows tightly knitted together above forcefully shut eyes. What in the world was he thinking?
"I'm sorry, then… I can't claim to understand your situation. But if you-"
"Then don't try to!" A stifled cry suddenly burst out from her. She found it hard to believe that the voice was hers.
"I'm sorry-" A rather helpless response emerged, but not before Sylph cut it off.
She felt so clueless right then, as she turned the opposite direction and left.
She was heading further… into the darkness.
She clutched whatever clothing she was wearing, balling her fists up tightly. She had been condemned to a fate of eternal darkness. She looked left, right. A giant valley of darkness swallowed her up.
Without realizing it, she had suddenly begun to shed tears. Like the precious, fragile pearls they were, they fell to the ground and shattered softly, the resonating sound flowing into her ears.
The green grass was turning black now.
She was crying now, choking back sobs with gritted teeth. Why was this happening? Exactly what did she do that warranted such punishment?
Was it coincidence, or fate?
Or was this simply heaven playing with the life of a worthless little girl?
It certainly seemed that way.
Where was the sky? The sky that had once been the giant blue canvas, sprinkled with clouds of white… Strokes of darkness painted over it, eating the sun and poisoning the clouds. Everything was slowly fading to black, full of the black venom that was eating into her life.
Where was her sky, her world?
It seemed like a brief moment ago, where she had last picked up her bow, how she smiled at it. The bow in all its mockery, smiled back.
And what of her betrayal… of the one who entrusted it to her? All the sincerity and sweat poured into the bow… it was now useless.
Never again would she be able to send arrows gliding into the air, skimming along the faint outline of an orange horizon.
Never again…
It seemed strange before, when she had heard tales of people doing this. But now it wasn't so strange at all. She began to laugh, sadistically and quietly in between her sobs.
How ironic, all of it…
When all emotion had departed from from her, she no longer knew how she should have felt. Standing there, breathing deeply. It was all too surreal, but this was real.
Too real.
For a moment, she didn't want to be reminded of this tragedy. She simply wanted to stand there and forget everything.
But it was impossible, for she knew that behind the sheet of darkness that lay before her was a captivating, azure sky with yet the deep maroon of the great oceans.
What lay behind were clouds of a pure, diamond-white that pillared the entire weight of that very sky as they shifted beneath it slowly, by the second.
What lay behind was grass carrying the priceless pride of emeralds as they swayed fearlessly under the divine, topaz-glow of the distant sun looming far above them.
A bitter melody lingered on in this suddenly fragile heart of hers.
Her eyes trailed all around. Still, everything was black.
On that very day, her world faded into the cruel, menacing darkness.
Her mother had brought her back home, wrapping her cold body up with a torn, but warm jacket.
She had been standing there like a lifeless doll, waiting for someone to find her when she had become lost in the darkness that now shrouded her life, her vision.
"Have a good rest, dear. For now, try to forget everything and rest. Worry about things tomorrow, okay?" Her mother said, wordlessly bidding her a good night with a light kiss on the forehead before quickly, yet gently, closing the room door.
It could almost have been her mother lying to herself. Her mother wasn't someone who forgot things either. No less so for a tragedy.
Like the silent sobs coming from beyond the door, she, too, let the tears run inside the silence of her head.
It wasn't easy to forget everything and sleep. When you woke up the next morning, you would remember everything. And everything wouldn't be okay.
But maybe it would have been good, just to get some peace. But sleep abandoned her that night. She drifted away, not into a deep sleep, but into the deep darkness that never seemed to leave. It was like a nightmare, except she could feel everything, hear everything, smell everything, taste everything, but… see nothing.
It dragged on, for a painfully long time. And as pitiful as her weak protests against the black mist were, sleep never came.
But then a gentle, soothing voice interrupted her nightmare. And somehow, everything felt alright.
Sylph awoke with the same cluelessness as any other person when their day just began. But after fumbling about for the torn-up curtains so she could get some sunlight to fill up the dark room for a few minutes, reality struck her in the head once again.
She clambered out of bed, one hand automatically shooting up to prevent any crashing or banging against anything. It moved about in the air, until she found the door. She stepped outside, and the smell of breakfast greeted her nose.
It was the usual fare: vegetables and… vegetables.
She silently ate up. It still tasted unusually good among all the sourness upon her tongue. Maybe she was hungry after not having a meal for whoever knew how long she was asleep after the poison entered her blood.
Or maybe she was just exhausted from everything.
"You alright?" Her mother's voice interrupted her thoughts.
It was hard to answer the question. How hard had she wished that everything would be alright? But she knew that no matter how hard she wished the arms of the clock would not turn back for her.
"I don't know… I really don't." It was all she could say at the time.
"Take your time to get used to it… It can't be easy, but I'm sure you'll get used to it soon enough." She said, pausing uneasily. "I'm sorry, dear."
Sylph didn't even know if she should have said 'It's not your fault'. She didn't know how to respond, only nod weakly.
"Sorry." Her mother repeated, although this time it sounded like she was talking to herself.
Sylph finished up the last of her greens.
"I want to go somewhere for a bit… Do you mind?" She said, softly, with exhaustion.
"Not at all… Do you need me to bring you there?" Her mother asked, her concern and scattered thoughts choking up her seemingly average sentence.
"I'll manage… somehow."
Her feet remembered the path. She felt the wet grass beneath her feet as they crunched ever so softly, her exposed feet soaking up the surprisingly cold liquid.
She wanted to go to the river again. She needed a voice… a calming voice to tell her everything was alright.
Water could be heard again, gushing loudly, yet calmly.
Was he there?
She looked around. Of course, darkness was all she was rewarded with as she had expected, but it seemed to be a habit that stuck with her.
"Are you looking for me?" The voice startled her slightly from behind.
Before she could reply, a hand pressed something into her palm.
"Notebook." He answered, as if reading her mind. "My ears don't hear a thing. I hope you don't mind jotting your thoughts down here."
He was deaf?
Millions of thoughts poured into her head. So that was why he was so slow in responding the day before? And he was admitting it so nonchalantly, as if it mattered not to him.
A pen was conveniently clipped onto the back of it, as she just found out after driving her fingers about the rectangular object for a short while. She quickly penned a short line down.
About yesterday…
"Yes, what of it?"
I didn't know you were… deaf. Forgive me for the fuss I made…
"Ah, no worries about that. You weren't trying to drown yourself or anything, it seems." His voice was like music to her ears, soothing and calming, and strangely, like waves crashing gently onto a shore. Yet it could only do so much for her.
Doesn't it bother you at all? Being deaf?
Without any consideration, she simply wrote it down on an impulse, a question that had just as suddenly entered her mind as she had written it.
"It does. Every single day, every passing moment, my heart still floods up with the regret, pain and sadness." There was a short pause. "I suppose I don't like to drag people into my own situations. I'm the deaf one, not any other being. So let them pass by me without noticing anything, and I can be alone like I wish to as well."
I see…
"Your writing is terrible!" He suddenly chuckled, completely varying his tone, as if to avoid any further discussion of the topic. His laughter was noticeably false, yet it brought out the light-heartedness it was supposed to. "Can't you stick to the grids? Your words are all over the place."
I can't…
"Why not?"
I'm… blind.
She could pick out the soft gasp.
"I'm sorry as well." He sighed. "I never knew."
Forget about it.
"Isn't it funny?" The warmth that she had found in his voice suddenly returned again. "Two people who have lost something precious to them, gathered here. We must look like idiots."
Sylph could not hold help but let out a weak, sarcastic laugh.
Indeed… I wonder if this is heaven's game with me.
"Who knows, indeed?"
Actually, I never believed in all of this. I'm not someone who would toss all my problems and worries to some invisible entity and wait around, hoping that my problems would be solved without having to do anything. I'd rather take things into my own hands, instead of leaving it with something that might not even be there.
"I wouldn't be too quick to judge. You never know if there really is someone like that up there in the skies. I don't know either, and I wouldn't bet my life that there was someone, but I wouldn't mind following a little superstition or two just for the extra luck." He added, "Just for fun."
How old are you?
She suddenly penned down without thinking. That was a question that had been bothering her for some time now. She wondered if she shouldn't have written it.
"Seventeen." He laughed, and this time innocently, sweeping away any doubts that lingered on in her heart. "Why, what's with that look on your face?"
Nothing… I thought you were older. Much older.
"I'm guessing you're about seventeen as well, then?"
Sixteen, to be exact.
"Oh, you're oddly tall for your age."
I get that a lot.
It felt strange. Somehow, she didn't feel that bad any longer. Maybe it was having the company of someone who could understand her pains… But then again, he probably couldn't have suffered too badly, compared to her situation…
"Is something the matter?" A concerned voice pulled her back into reality once again.
Actually, I just lost my eyes. Yesterday.
"Forgive me once again. I've been slightly too careless with my words." He swiftly apologized.
No… I was just wondering about your situation. My eyes… they meant more than just sight to me.
"Yes, and?"
They were my world… Never mind, you wouldn't understand it.
There was a short pause, and she heard him take a deep breath, as if to prepare for a long speech.
"You're not being very fair."
Sylph's eyes widened with surprise. What was he trying to say?
"So what? I don't know anything about you, but please, don't try and tell me that your eyes are more important than my ears. I've lost something too, and you'd truly be blind if you were saying that I wouldn't be able to understand anything."
What? All the words on the tip of her tongue shattered. She had just said something terribly selfish, it seemed…
And the terrible silence dragged on. Only the gentle flowing of water, the rustling of a few golden leaves surfing a gentle autumn breeze…
She could picture him, silently watching the water stream by, wishing he could listen to the calming sound he missed so much. She couldn't write something now… she didn't even know which direction he was facing, or how she would tell him that she was trying to write something…
"Your eyes… They must really have been precious, huh?" Once again, the voice had rescued her from the darkness and the chilling silence that had been growing on her.
I've always dreamt of being a bowman. Ever since I was a child, when I first discovered my talent, it's become the world to me. Now I can't even aim my bow in the right direction.
She dragged each line on the notebook slowly, each word overflowing with bitterness.
"And when your life's ambition, your dream, the only thing that kept you going in life was stolen, how did it feel? Like your heart was ripped out?" A tinge of that very bitterness verged on the tip of his voice, as if he truly knew...
There are probably no words to describe the terror. Thousands of emotions… and it felt like I was going to explode because it all seemed like a terrible nightmare, except that you can tell when you're dreaming or not, and it was no dream.
"I see…" Sylph heard a hand run through some hair.
This reminds me… I don't even know your name, or what you look like.
"Clove. Nice to meet you," He stopped, eagerly waiting for her to finish his sentence.
Sylphis.
Her hand stopped as she finished the arc of the last letter. She quickly corrected herself.
Actually… Sylph.
"Alright then, Sylph. Did you know that the word 'Sylph' refers to an invisible, mythological being of the air?" He teased.
And did you know that a 'Clove' is one of the spices found in the field?
"No," He laughed. "I didn't know that at all. I don't work out in the fields too often."
And I'm no expert on fairies either.
"Fair enough." He chuckled again.
She could picture a warm smile on his face, and it gave her a little comfort with the strange knowledge. She smiled back, a weak, but truly joyful smile.
Maybe things were going to change for the better.
Note: Ah, how long has it been since I last posted? Okay, after writing one whole chapterfic for my personal enjoyment, I'm back, it seems, with another one. I hope this is worthy of some attention now. The planning has taken a terribly long time, and it might not be one hundred percent complete yet, but I hope this chapter will somehow bring justice to the plot. Also, I know that for some, this is the period of exams. Important ones. Yet it would truly help if you just headed over to the review button. Thanks in advance. Well, it's up to you, actually. (NONO, REVIEW)