It was like I had been awake the entire time, like being awake for 2 days straight. But the weird thing was that I didn't feel the tiniest bit exhausted or tired. I was sure I hadn't slept that night, but I felt so fresh and awake. I sat upright and for the first time I properly looked around the room. It was actually pretty small but that only reminded me more of my home. I turned my body and kept my feet hanging above the ground.
I knew walking was going to hurt but I refused to keep on acting like a paralised person. As I clearly wasn't, or at least not anymore. I put one foot on the floor and the other slowly followed. I had to tightly grasp onto the matress to keep in balance. Instead of walking out the room my first thought was to have a look outside the window that had been staring at me all this time I'd been laying in that fluffy bed.
When I looked outside I practically only saw trees. Only the small area surounding the house was empty and only covered in low growing grass. I had guessed that we were pretty isolated since the woman from the day before told me the nearest village was at least a whole day ride away.
"Ah wait, I guess she didn't tell me if they went by foot or by horseback..." I shrugged and sighed "Either way, going so far just for some medicine for a stranger that's doing pretty good is ridiculous."
As I kept on staring outside for a bit longer a faint doubt and confusion started popping up into my mind. "wait... why aren't there any flowers?" I leaned outside a bit more looking as far as I could. "i'm pretty sure I saw pettals flying in the wind last time..." I muttered between my cringing, because of my stinging knee.
I turned around to look inside the room. "Didn't it smell an awfully lot like flowers here though?" I took a deep breath..."It's gone..." I made a dreamy expression. "Well it doesn't smell bad, since it's a forrest but I can't smell any flower like smell." I walked over to the door and (clumsily) opened the door to peek into the hallway. When I saw no one I opened the door completely and walked a bit further to look outside the other windows.
"no flowers...not anywhere" I scratched my head. "Was I hallucinating?" I asked myself. But by that time my knee was stinging so much I just decided to shake it of as that and started searching for a way to escape the second floor.
I quickly found stairs. "This is gonna make me reminescense" I said to myself as I stared at the stairs. Why? Because I knew I would be descending the stairs on my behind, one stair at a time. Something I did all the time when I was small.
halfway the stairs the front door opened and the woman from the day before walked in with a bucket of water squeezed between her arms. She saw me and her face filled with a surprised expression that slowly showed a hint of despair. She almost dropped the bucket while hastingly putting it on the floor. when she did she ran over to me.
"what are you doing?" she kneeled down to be at the same height as me and grasped onto my hands. I smiled, removed one of my hands from her grasp and started rubbing my knee softly. "I feel a lot better now, don't worry." I told her. She smiled a bit and assisted me the rest of the way down leading me to a couch.
When I sat down she sat across from me. It was quiet for a while but at some point we both looked up and looked each other in the eyes. I smiled "We had the weirdest conversation yesterday." she smiled as wel and bowed her head: "My name is Kiki Seiran, I'm a traveler and this little house is owned by the master that travels with me." she stood up after she said that. "Should I make some tea?"
I laughed and nodded. While she was on the other side of the room preparing our tea I looked around the house. It felt warm even though there wasn't really all that much present. It was a bit dusty but not to that extent that it bothered me. I thought it was weird, it felt as if they had bought too much furniture like cupboards and closets but didn't have enough stuff to fill them with.
"And you?" I looked up to Kiki who was staring at me with two cups in her hands. "I?" she smiled when I asked her that.
I brushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear and after considering my situation for a bit I looked up at her. "My name's...Shi...Shigure, like the flower!" She looked at me confused.
"Ah...the Yura Shigure is a red flower...I was named like that because of my hair." I patted my head. "I see... though I've never heard fo that flower I guess it does fit." I felt at ease when she smiled. She kept on drinking her tea. "Aren't you going to ask me?" She stopped drinking.
"Do you want me to?" I looked down and started stroking my hair. "Don't worry even if you don't want me asking I will still have to...My companions will be back soon and they as wel would like an explanation." she stood up and went back to the other side of the room again. I sighed and rubbed my temples.
"Was that why you didn't ask me anything last night?" When I asked her that she started laughing. "Even if I had asked you anything yesterday you were so 'gone' that you wouldn't have been able to answer any of my questions normally. And since you didn't ask me the obvious questions why would I force you to answer mine?" She sat down again and started drinking her second cup of tea. At that moment she looked down at my cup that I hadn't touched a single time.
"Aren't you going to drink any?" she pointed at my cup. "Oh, sorry...I will" I forced a tiny smile on my face when I told her that. "The tea smelled like all kinds of herbs, it reminded me of the forrest back in Tanbarun.
I looked up at Kiki. "This tea..." "Yeah?" she answered me.
"This tea is made with a lot of herbs from Tanbarun, right? This may sound weird but are we still in Tanbarun?" I brought the cup closer to my nose and smelled once more. Kiki nodded "You're right it's a tea we import directly from tanbarun, my master likes it a lot?"
"Import?" I asked her. She nodded "yup, you're no longer in Tanbarun Shigure, though this place isn't that far from the border...it's Clariness." When I heard her say that I sighed. "I see..." I muttered between my lips.
That meant that I couldn't try to find safety unless I crossed the border once more. Clariness' government and citizens didn't have any obligation to protect me after all.
"I guess it'll be a while till I'm home..." I sighed and looked up at Kiki. "Kiki...", she looked up at me "don't worry i'll tell you everything I can tell you. I don't really have any other option at the moment." She looked surprised but her expression quickly turned into a smile. " I see, wait a minute I'll go look where my campanions are, they're taking extraordinary long to get here." When she got up I heard some rustling at the door before it opened with a loud noise.
"How can they not have ANY medicine in a village where at least a hundred people live!" A loud voice accompanied by a more mature and softer voice introduced themselves into the room. they were having a pretty incomprehensable conversation until they looked around the room and saw me sitting on the couch.
At that moment I breathed in a sweet florescent smell. A big guy with blue hair and brown eyes was staring down at me and I was etranged with his sudden appearance. I could've stared at him for a while but suddenly another guy caught my eye. He was a bit smaller that the blue haired guy.
He had silver hair and piercing blue eyes. Instead of simply staring at me he walked over to the couch and grasped onto Kiki's shoulder.
"Welcome back, master." " Kiki." he interrupted her."yeah?" Kiki asked him surprised. "When did she wake up?" Kiki simply stared at him and after a while she looked at me.
I clenched my lips together and nodded my head towards Kiki. I stood up and bowed as deeply as i could've possible bowed "Nice to meet you my name is Shigure, I've been in your care.." before I could finish my sentence The guy let go of kiki's shoulders and walked over to me. I was startled and tried backing up which only ended in me collapsing because of my knee. Before I could fall to the ground the guy grapsed onto my shoulders and pulled me up.
This resulted in his face being awfully close to mine. The position we had achieved was something neither of us expected but he took the chance to have a good stare at my face. "...really pretty.." I could hear him mutter and in that moment I cathched another glimpse of that florescent smell.
It became clear to me that the smell was coming from this boy who was glasping my shoulders and only at that moment I realised that i had never witnessed a flower that smelled as good as the smell he dragged along with him.