Don't worry, the traveling through universes will come. Soon my follower soon.

Rane had become my personal servant. Obviously I didn't make her do much of anything, I did teach her to read and write. For the first time in a long time, the rock shell that was my heart was growing soft and mushy. I didn't mind it either. It was a great feeling. Her blue eyes would peer up at me, eager to learn. It was hard to remember that I was only a year older than her. Today was different. Rane was lying sick in bed. It was the obvious symptoms of Influenza. No one had cures to anything, humans just had to deal with it. I had no doubt that Rane would have died earlier on the streets but I took her in, and it the illness slowed. Even for two weeks.

When Rane had first started to cough and sneeze, I had naively assumed a cold. It seemed that I had forgotten what time era I was in for just a few days. I had to be escorted out of Rane's quarters after her sickness bordered on lethal. I remembered her looking at me with her helpless, tear filled blue eyes as her sweaty palm was ripped out of mine.

"Don't leave me Shiru..." I had told her my real name. She didn't question me, she went along with it. The other servants had given her strange looks. She had ignored them in favor of trusting me completely. I hated my moment of weakness for her. I had faltered before leaving the room. I couldn't be there. I couldn't watch the sky fall forever, her eyes turn lifeless as her skin became pale with death.

So I waited outside, in a room adjacent to my own, where Rane was resting. For days I could hear her hacking coughs, and dry heaving, until they became less frequent. I remember I couldn't bear not being able to comfort her any longer. The memory of her blue eyes pleading with me to stay with her. So I ran to where she was sleeping, with rasping breath, unlike how she usually made barely a sound while she slept. I kneeled by the bedside and clasped her sweaty, pale hand in mine.

No matter how many times they're rough hands had tried to ease my hands, well any of my body -parts away from her, I stuck to Rane's side. It was a tragic moment as I stared at her collapsed tiny body. Her breaths became slower, slower, and then they stopped. Rane, believe it or not, was the closest thing to a friend I had ever had. In the much too small three weeks I had known her, I had grown closer to her than I had to almost all of my other family members. Drystan doesn't count, we look after each other's backs, that's different.

Some of the male servants proceeded to take away her body, most likely going to burn it. Before they could though, I got the daisy chain bracelet I had made for her off her wrist. Something to remember her by, though I doubt I could ever forget her.

Securing it around my own wrist, I sat there numbly for hours remembering trying to every time she smiled. How her eyes shone with pure joy, and the smile which brightened my entire world. Rane had turned into my little sister the weeks I had known her. The one who I would take care and who I would always protect. With her loss, I resolved to harden my heart again. To make sure that I would be able in survive in this world, because such a loss, was an everyday occurrence during this time.

And I had to remember that. As one single tear fell from my eye, I didn't notice the human shadow creeping against the dimly lit walls, right behind me. A large hand forced itself to cover my mouth. I screamed, but it was muffled. "Shhh." The person whispered, I could tell it was a female. "I don't mean you harm. I need you to calm down, and follow me."

The woman let me breath through my mouth again and I turned to see a very familiar looking person, except older and with dark brown hair...But the eyes, the sky filled eyes were the same.

"R-Rane." I had just seen Rane die though, this couldn't be Rane. Rane had red hair.
"Close enough, it's Rosa." Rosa said abruptly. I noticed the miniscule differences between her and Rane, this girl had to be at least twelve.

The small tattoo on her arm made me gasp in shock. I knew that mark far to well. "You're an apprentice to Merlin." Rosa smiled and nodded silently. She led me through the castle hallways until we came to one of the older stone corridors. She looked side to side and knocked three times on the moss covered stone.

I looked in awe as a passageway opened.

Seeing an old, thin staircase in the dim light of the passageway, I follow Rosa down it, as she shuts the passage door behind us. Stopping once we reach the bottom I grab her arm to pull her to a stop, which was quite difficult for my five year old body to accomplish, and asked her with suspicion,
"Where are bringing me?"
Rosa merely pulled her arm away from me, and said, "Merlin wishes to see you."

Merlin, the Merlin? He was a fairytale, even in this world. "You believe in fairytales?" Rosa glared at me, it felt like a dagger stabbing into my heart. Those were Rane's eyes. She didn't deserve them.
"People think rebirth is as well, but you and I both know how that turned out." Rosa smirked at me and my eyes widened in shock.
"You're like me." I whispered out in a somewhat husky tone.

"In a way. My grandmother was like you. She told me stories. Rane never got to hear them." Rosa laughed and whipped out her arm from my tight grasp.

"You know Rane." I questioned sharply. The wounds in my fist shaped organ, still fragile.
"Knew. We're cousins, after I was offered an apprenticeship by Merlin, I couldn't refuse. He told me I had to cut ties with all whom I loved. I did. Merlin is a manipulative bastard, but he's a powerful genius. It turns out I would be his servant that would help him find an apprentice."

"But that isn't fair!" My childishness broke free for just a moment.

"I dug my grave and now I have to sit in it. Always read the fine print." Rosa whispered and we pulled to a stop at an old ancient looking door. She didn't bother to knock and opened it casually.
A man sat in...A blue hawaiian shirt and purple bellbottom pants. His beard was in a giant grey braid. My eyes burned at the eyesore that sat doing disco moves to music.

Rosa coughed loudly. I just stared at the horror scene in front of me and stated bluntly, "You're supposedly Merlin."