June 23, 1997.

A Summer Day.

8:09 AM


At this time, Hilda should be awake, but she isn't. She's currently sleeping, and even though the curtains are wide opened and the sun is on her face, she can't awake. She remains asleep, not because she's tired, but there's something going inside her head.


It's now a sunny day over Trolberg, a little warmer than usual but still a fine day for a Sparrow Scout Activity.

Hilda is now outside, walking at a steady pace on a sidewalk that leads to an intersection.

Walking right beside this sidewalk, she sees a beige wall right beside the sidewalk accompanied with a circular, pink mural on it with a little blue flower growing on the cracks of the sidewalk.

The sun is currently on the east, so she wouldn't someone walking on the left side of this sidewalk, but in fact, someone os walking on that left side.

It's David.

"Oh, hi," Hilda greets, stopping her pace to let him go first.

"So Hilda, ready for the Baywatching Activity today?" David optimistically exclaims, showing joy in doing an activity.

Then Hilda looks at the sidewalk David came from to see no sign of Frida whatsoever, which David didn't notice.

Hilda looks back at him. "So...where's Frida?"

David places his hand on his chin to think about where she sent and after a few minutes passed by, he finally remembered, weird. "Oh, she just went back to get some lenses for the binoculars and some batteries and film for the camera."

Hilda nods, understanding why she would be behind in an important activity like this. "So...what do you wanna do while we wait?"

David pulls out a map. "Let's set out to Mt. Har and then take a short peek for Frida."

Then David puts the map back in his bag, and Hilda feels like something is off from what he wants to do, knowing that they have to work as a team.

"...David, why do you want us to go without Frida?" Hilda asks with concern.

David looks back at her with a surprised face. "Hilda, what do you mean?"

"I mean, why do we have to go there without Frida? Isn't that against Sparrow Scout Law?" Hilda points out, worrying about David's conduct of having to do this.

David looks back at her with worry as well. "Yeah, you're right. Maybe let's wait for a bit."

Then David sits down with his back against the wall and Hilda does the same, waiting for Frida but as the minutes slowly tick by, the sweltering heat of the sun is slowly getting on to Hilda's nerves.

Where is she? I thought she would already get the lenses, the batteries and the film by now.

She's getting irritated, Frida's not here for too long and she can't waste any more time in this frigid heat, waiting for someone.

She turns to David. "David, can we go now?"

David quickly replies. "Sure."

They both got each other up and soon they wouod make their trek towards Mt. Har, following the trail guide that was given to them by Raven Leader, to take a picture of the Trolberg Bay and whoever gets the most picturesque of them all gets a badge.

After following the trail, the two finally arrived at their destination in the mountain, a conveniently located flat area on the mountain for them to sightsee.

As Hilda got out of the path to see the light, she was amazed by what she's seeing.

The pristine, bright, blue and clear sea meeting the land, with the warm, rich yellow, sand drawing a barrier between land and sea. The land on itself is pretty nice to look at as well, with the mighty mountains surrounding both the sea and the city.

She was marveled at the sight but with David, he's too racked up with himself to marvel at the sights.

As Hilda sat down to safely see the view, David sat down right next to her on a rocky surface, dusting his shorts, to...tell her something.

"Hilda..."

Even though Hilda is busy looking at the majestic sight, she can't ignore whatever David has to say and so, looked away from it to pay attention to David.

"Yes?"

David rubs the back of his hair. "Look, you've been a good friend and all..." David starts off, thanking her for the healthy friendship she's given. "And, and I wish that I could pay you back for what you did for me. The marra, the vittra, the troll rock, the marra, the book," David groans at it's mention, "the marra, again, and many other things that I'm all thankful for."

David closes his eyes in requiem, shedding a tear to thank her for her help in making him himself.

Hilda awes in appreciation. "Aww, thanks."

David wipes away the tear and looks back on Hilda. "And now...I got this, this, thing that I want to say but...I can't."

Hilda raises her eyebrow. "Why?"

David places his hand on his right arm, nervous to say his next line. "I'm afraid that this feeling that I get would be a bad thing for both of us, all of us."

"And now that I'm here, trying to tell you this, I won't." David looked down in shame, thinking about this feeling that he's getting, thinking that this isn't the way he should thank her.

Hilda approaches him, reaching out her hand in pity for him. As she lands her hand on his shoulder, they both felt comfortable being with each other, a feeling that both of them are really unaware of, and then as she wiped away his tear, she decides to speak up for him.

"Look, David. I appreciate you coming out to me like that. It's really nice of you to say, and also, I'm always here for you, even if you're afraid or nervous, I'll always be here."

After Hilda gave her comforting remark to David, he felt like those words alone could motivate him to do a hundred things, but this time, he decides to tell her something, something that would make her smile.

"Hilda, can I tell you something?"

Hilda looks at him with all ears. "Sure, what are you gonna tell me?"

This is it, the moment he's been waiting for, he's finally coming out.

"Hilda...I don't know how to say this but," David says, pausing to think of something to add on to it before suddenly screaming, "I love you!"

...

The area was silent, David covered his mouth with both hands while Hilda was just...speechless about it.

She didn't expect this coming. As Hilda moves closer to him, David shudders away, scared that whatever he said might have done damage between them or even the activity itself.

"David, that's wonderful," Hilda said, making a reassuring smile at him.

David slowly uncovered his mouth from his hands as he looks at her with surprise. "What, what do you mean?"

Hilda placed her hand at his shoulder, again. "Look, what I meant is that, it's nice for you to come out. Sure, I may not feel the same but it does feel nice getting that off your back," Hilda explains, looking at him with a comforting stare to make him feel welcome.

"And look, I welcomed your fearful self, it's a nice touch to you, and now with...this. I'll keep it as a secret, just for you."

After Hilda gave her comment on his confession, David smiled so wide that Hilda smiled back and David suddenly went in for a hug which Hilda reciprocated and both had a nice hug with each other.

After that, they separated and looked at the view for a little bit until David looks back at her with something else to say.

"Uhh Hilda." "Yes?" David fiddles with his hands. "About something that I said..."

Hilda pays attention. "Yes?"

"Maybe...after this activity, do you wanna go somewhere, just the two of us?" David asks, standing up from his spot and reaching out his hand, seemingly there as a sign that she says yes.

Hilda looks at him with...mixed emotions. "Look, I like the offer but I'm afraid I have to say no." Then immediately, she thought she could see his face change at the drop of a hat, from being happy to extremely disappointed.

David then begins to plead and plead about it, never seeming to accept NO in every try, his pleas felt sound like a broken recorder as she's trying to step away from his repetitive pleas.

"PLeaSe!"

As she took her final step back, she accidentaly stepped on a cracked place in the spot they were sightseeing on and it immediately fell apart, with Hilda standing on it. She then fell nearly a thousand meters up from the mountain, seeming to fall into the sea, with a piercing scream.

"aaaaaAAAAAAHHHHH-"


"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Then Johanna immediately enters the room and shakes her daughter awake, wanting to know what is happening to her and why she's screaming and after shaking her 3 times, she finally woke up.

Hilda woke up sweating, her back is drenched like she just fell in water, and she's gasping for breath, hoping that that dream is not real, not real, she wouldn't permit to that ever happening.

As she looks around, she found her mother sitting right beside her in her bed.

"Hilda, what's wrong?" Johanna asks, clearly concerned about her.

Hilda tries to think of an explanation but somehow, she can't. Where can she even start?

"It's probably just a little bad dream, that's all," Hilda excuses, belittling her dream as a "little bad dream."

"Then what's that screaming all about then?" Johanna points out.

Cruddlesticks, now what.

"It's nothing, probably something about bikes again."

Johanna doesn't trust that at any time but she can't deal with it now, Hilda just woke up, so she'll probably remember the rest throughout the day.

Then Hilda got out of her bed and walked to the bathroom almost immediately, to think about that dream.

Why is David like that in there?

I know he'd never do that, yet why is he doing it?

Those questions are all what Hilda could think as she continued to wash her face again, and again, and again.

After that, she closed the faucet shut and went back to her room to change into her usual outfit.

Then she goes out to eat some breakfast.

"Hilda, I prepared you breakfast."

As Hilda sits down in the dinner table, she can see her omelette breakfast joined with a glass of milk and as she eats the omelette, Johanna reminded her of something.

"Hilda, don't forget your Baywatching Activity."

"Baywatching Activity"

As she ate another spoonful, her mind remembers that, it was indeed an activity that was told yesterday by Raven Leader and was mentioned in her dream.

Is this some sort of coincidence?

Am I still in the dream?

As she's slowly overthinking, she just nodded at her mother's reminder, making Johanna suspicious of what she actually dreamed, knowing she won't just accept her reminder at face value.

Then as she finished up her meal, Hilda then placed her plate at the sink before running back to her room to dry her back and change into her Sparrow Scout uniform.

After donning the uniform, she then waved goodbye to her mother before going outside and shutting the door on her way out.

As she's running towards the sidewalks, her mind is slowly starting to overthink this through, making her almost stumble herself and sometimes bump people over as she's running towards the intersection, the place where she, David and Frida agreed to meet up.

As she saw the sidewalk that leads to the aforementioned intersection, her eyes start to recognize some things in that specific sidewalk.

The beige wall, the pink mural, the little blue flower on the cracks.

Her mind almost can't take it, it's slowly driving her mad, and with these details in mind, it didn't help but make her look down to the sidewalk to try and erase these from her mind.

Then as she approaches the intersection, she almost stumbled upon David in the way which made her brake her pace but it did made her trip to the sidewalk, hitting her head hard. David screams in shock.

"Hilda! Are you okay, is your head fine, is it bleeding, is it broken, is it-"

Then as he stammers his words out of concern for his friend, Frida excused him out of the way and brought Hilda out from the ground, though it did hurt her a bit.

"Oww, my head hurts," Hilda says, holding her hand at the back of her head. Then Frida lets her sit down against the wall to let her head rest while she wraps a gauze around her head.

As she's finishing wrapping it up, Hilda finally recovered from her trip and opened her eyes to finally recover.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, you just tripped yourself and now your head hurts!"

That voice sounds familiar, like something out of a dream.

Then as she actually opens her eyes, both Frida and David are sitting down in front of her.

Seeing David almost makes Hilda pull herself backwards but seeing Frida with him makes it a comforting sight since it proves that she's not stuck in a dream.

Then Frida pulled Hilda up from the wall and back up again in order to ask her what happened according to her.

"Hilda, how did you trip yourself there? That must've hurt alot." Frida asks with visible concern.

"I wasn't looking," Hilda excuses.

Frida was surprised at this, she knows Hilda would always pay attention to where she's running.

"What do you mean? Are you in a hurry or what?"

"I wasn't looking, that's all I know."

After not receiving an honest answer, Frida decides to just let it go and let Hilda off for a little while the activity still lasts, and tl distract herself from worrying too much about Hilda, she decided to see if her binoculars and camera are working.

Seeing an opportunity, Hilda walks over to David to talk.

"...hey David."

"Hey Hilda, are you now okay?"

Hilda reaches for the back of her head and even though she felt something, it didn't hurt as much as last time so she gave a thumbs up.

Hilda then focuses on David noe that Frida is busy checking her materials.

"Hey David, can we talk in private?"

"Sure, why?" David asks, raising an eyebrow in question.

"It's about something that's related to me tripping over," Hilda explains.

"Uhhhh sure, I guess?"

Then David is immediately dragged over to the other sidewalk to talk in private.

"Aghh, why are you dragging me, is this important?" David asks, pulling away his arm from Hilda's hand in response.

"Yes."

David nodded blankly.

"So, this might be weird but...I had a dream about you."

David was just speechless, his mind just turned numb for a second, trying to figure out how Hilda dreaming of him caused her to trip herself to the sidewalk hard.

"...what?"

"Yeah it sounds weird, but the weirdest thing is-" Hilda pauses, inhaling a big gulp of air before exhaling it all out- "you confessed to me."

David had nothing to say about that, he's still speechless about that whole thing about Hilda dreaming about him but now he's told that he confessed to her in the dream, now that is just screwing his mind.

"May I ask what did I confess to?" David asks, being absolutely confused about her dream.

"I think it's about "your love to me" or something, ughh."

David could feel his stomach irk in disgust, why would he even do that? Yeah, they were friends but he would never even wish that he would confess to her like that.

"Hilda, that dream is not true," David says, telling her about it.

"I wish."

David sighed with all of this happening at once. "Now is that it or is there something else?

As Hilda was about to continue, Friida found the two and called them over to do the activity which they both did and while they were walking towards the designated spot, Hilda leaned over to David's ear and continued the story there.

While they were walking, Frida was just laying out everything the activity had to offer, the goals and objectives of the activity, the benefits of it, and as she glances to her back, she saw that Hilda and David weren't paying attention.

"Hey, what are you guys talking about over there?" Frida asks, catching Hilda and David off-guard with her question.

"Ohh, we were just...umm," Hilda tried to excuse her way out but can't find a reason.

"Badges! We were talking about badges, like which badge are we gonna get tomorrow," David excused in Hilda's place.

Hilda looked at him with surprise, that he'd find an excuse, since he has never excused before.

Frida took them at face value and they both continued the walk towards their spot, which Frida said it out loud.

"According to this trail guide from Raven Leader, we just had to take this path towards this spot in Mt. Har."

Mt. Har

That word resonates within her mind but thankfully Hilda kept it to herself and managed to walk up the same path in her dream and after reaching the top, the view from up here is just the same as the one she saw in her dream.

And just like in her dream, it was just as marvelous and beautiful.

She decided to move a little further to see the rest but then David pulled her over to the side, seeing a cracked area in the spot.

So many coincidences in one day.

After finding a good spot in the area, the three became taking pictures, putting down notes and talking about the view that they all see, all the whioe Hilda and David felt awkward being next to each other in the same place in her dream.

Then after that, they both packed the pictures and notes in the bag and went back down to submit it to the Tourism branch of the Safety Patrol.

"Whoo, that's a fine day, right?!" Frida celebrated.

Both of them celebrated but they both weren't feeling a little better for a bit.

And then as Frida waved goodbye to the two, they were now walking back home with a conversation.

"Also Hilda, I had this weird dream too."

"What is it?" Hilda asked, curious to know about his dream.

"It's like your dream but...in my version."

Hilda looked at him with raised eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"It's like what you said, but this time...it's you."

Hilda froze at the mention of David's dream, she didn't even know that their dreams are related and soon suspects thatt something else is happening and somebody here is pulling the strings.

"How is it that we get the same kind of dreams?" Hilda raised a question. "It's like, someone out there is specifically choosing us and then making us love together, ughh, I'm thinking it's the marras."

"Wait, wait wait," David interrupts, how did the marra got into this? I think you hit your head too hard."

"David!" Hilda yelled, not liking that snark on her head. "Think about it, who else here has the powers to manipulate our dreams?"

As David tries to think of someone else other than the marra, it took him minutes to get a good answer and then he concedes.

"See, it's them."

"Wait, Hilda," David pauses Hilda's rambling, "Think about it, would you really blame them for a one-time thing?"

"Well..."

"See what I mean?"

Hilda gave it some thought, she suspects the marra because they're the only ones that have the ability to change dreams but then again, this only happened one time, so who knows.

"Yeah."

And then as they walked, Hilda passed by her home and as she opens the door, she waves David goodbye before closing it, letting David walk towards his house, greeting his parents, eating lunch with them and then going back upstairs to go to sleep.

As he slept within his blankets, another dream arises.