Quite some distance away from the abandoned city of Mater cropped up a small village called the Black Order. In this city the people had never heard of a prince, a beast or an enchanted castle. They were far too content with their tiny, mundane lives for "silly talk" like that.
In this town there lived a young girl. Her name was Lenalee and she was the most beautiful girl in the entire town. She had long, black hair that was so soft just looking at it made one feel as if they were floating on a cloud. Her eyes were large and very pretty with a brightness that you may guess was lit by some invisible fire within her soul. Her figure was certainly something worth admiring, to be sure. Her smile was said to be bright enough to light the town at night.
It's easy to imagine that a great deal of men pined after her and they were not shy about saying so. One of the more aggressive of these men was Tyki Mikk. He was the most attractive and sought- after man in town and everybody knew it. He was a tall individual towering at six foot four. He always dressed well in either a loose fitting shirt and pants or a fancy suit with his curly, jet black hair tucked under a hat.
He was determined to have the lovely Lenalee fall in love with him and then make her his wife. Lenalee herself was unimpressed with him and would have gladly told him that to his face if not for the sake of being polite.
Lenalee lived with her brother in a simple, but large house in town. After their parents had died in an accident, they had settled into a comfortable routine. Her brother would cook and take care of the bills while Lenalee would clean the home and do the shopping.
She never wanted to leave her brother's side (not that he would let her, anyway), but she craved a change. She wanted something interesting to happen to her so that she could feel as if she were living for once.
She also thought that she might want to fall in love if it were with the right person instead of the shallow and boring men that her town seemed to produce. It was a day not unlike any other when the change she so craved would come.
Lenalee was shopping at the town market one day as it was one of her many chores. Though they often had little money to spend, Lenalee always managed to find a way to stretch a penny so that they could afford plenty.
As she was looking over a vegetable cart for the best tomatoes in the bunch, her eyes wandered over to another stall selling jewelry. She didn't usually wear that sort of thing because it wasn't her style and she simply didn't have the money for it. However, this time she saw something breathtaking on the stall.
The most beautiful bracelet she had ever seen. It was thick and silver with ornate drawings twirling around on it. Her breath caught in her throat and she forgot to breathe at the sight of it. The owner of the stall turned to look at the staring Lenalee and shot her a glare as warning. This threw Lenalee back into the moment and with an apologetic bow of her head, she left.
As she left she sighed lightly. She had so wanted the bracelet, but she couldn't afford it. She couldn't even afford a piece of it. Lenalee hung her head, thoroughly lost in sadness. She was so engrossed in these emotions that she did not see that someone had been observing the whole thing and was continuing to watch her as she walked away.
When Lenalee got home, she was greeted by the smell of onions and burning food. That could mean only one thing, her brother was cooking dinner. Sighing in exasperation, she went into the kitchen and put the groceries down on the counter. Sure enough there was her brother standing in front of the stove stirring something that looked like mud.
"What are you making, Komui?" She asked trying her best to smile at him. Komui turned around with cooking utensils still in hand and smiled warmly at her.
"Lenalee, welcome back!" He greeted enthusiastically. "I'm making soup!"
Soup? Lenalee questioned cautiously. She craned her neck to look into the pot on the stove and saw something she thought looked like brown glue. Her body gave a small shudder.
"Would you like to taste it?" Komui asked holding out a spoon hopefully.
"Well... I'm not really hungry and it's not really my thing," she began trying to think of an easy way to avoid trying it.
Komui's hand with the spoon dropped and his head dropped low in a sulking matter. As she watched her brother whimper, Lenalee summoned up her courage and took a bite. It didn't taste so bad, but there was an overwhelming taste of onions. That must be why the house smelled like that.
"How much onion did you put in this, brother?" Lenalee asked.
"What?" Komui said looking surprised. "There's no onion in that. We're out, that's why I asked you to buy some." Hearing that, Lenalee tried not to choke on the soup. She didn't want to think about what could be in it to make it taste and smell like that.
After cautiously eating the soup with her brother, Lenalee set out putting the groceries away and tidying up the house. Lenalee found that she cleaned almost every day no matter how much work she did.
My brother is a disorganized slob. I don't know how he can work like this. She found herself thinking as she threw away a pile of junk mail from his desk. And he has way too many files too.
That night she finished work and laid down in bed to go to sleep. When she slept she often dreamed tedious and boring dreams or nothing at all. She thought it mirrored how boring and tedious her life and the lives of the people of her town really were. Though she craved adventure, she was rarely able to dream of it and she thought maybe that was because she didn't know what kind of adventure she wanted.
She didn't know what she wanted, only what she didn't want. This night, however, she had a new dream or perhaps it was a nightmare. It started with Lenalee walking in the woods. She didn't know how she got there or how to get out, but she didn't think about that. For some reason, she didn't care. She just kept walking like it was the only things still important to her.
She recognized the trees as those on the very edge of her town's territory. She thought she was walking on what used to be a path, but it was overgrown and rocky from age and from being unused. The trees were all dead and few showed any signs of healing. Low-hanging limbs and clinging shrubbery were evident everywhere, often interfering with her journey.
Curiously, every time she stumbled or tripped during the trek, she just continued walking without wasting another moment as if nothing happened. When she finally stopped she had reached the edge of the forest. The sight that greeted her when she got there was terrifying.
There stood what seemed to be an abandoned city. The crude homes were chipping and rotting. Weathered by the elements, some of the buildings had collapsed under their own weight. All the plants in the windows and gardens of the homes had long been dead and there was not a single person in sight.
Beyond the streets in the distance Lenalee could see a large, formidable castle with lights burning distinctly inside. She took a step forward without realizing she was standing on a cliff and fell down a deep slope.
Screaming, Lenalee shot up in bed. It took her ten entire minutes to calm down after that. At first she had been frightened, but the fear later gave way to a peculiar interest in her dream.
An abandoned city, huh? A mysterious castle.
She laid back down and began to relax as she thought on it. Maybe dreams are now the only places I can go for excitement. Well, my dream did seem rather exciting. An abandoned city...not bad.
It isn't a bad thing, really. Not a bad thing.
