li dynasty: You know I love you! I wanna read some of the stuff you write. Hmmm, maybe give me a story about your cat?
Disclaimer: Hahahahah- your mom.
Chapter 5: Never Adjust
"Please teach me how to live / A little more vulnerably than I do now / Won't you taint me just a little/ That way, even if I get hurt / And lose everything around me / This song of truth will flow through my heart."
"I...I just want to be by your side." she balled her fists in her lap. "Please don't go."
"Don't worry. I'll come back, I promise." he said while standing by the door. I watched the blurry scene unfold in front of me. It was like looking out the bottom of a glass; I couldn't recognize the faces, but the voices were those I had been hearing since my journey began.
"Okay." the female voice hesitantly responded. Silence followed for about a minute until what I figured was the male exited the room. A white light engulfed me and I was now floating above some sort of battle field.
"We suffered a horrible loss. There were no survivors on either sides from what we've gathered." a male's voice I didn't recognize said. Then, the battle field disappeared and I realized I had been looking at a screen. Two blurred figures now stood in front of me.
"But... No survivors? Does that mean-" A familiar female voice said.
"Yes, I am very sorry for your loss." the new male voice said. I watched as one of the figures tightly embraced the other. "Now, we must look toward the future-" My vision of this world began to diminish and I was swept back into darkness.
I sat up in bed in a dark room which I assumed was mine. From the window, I could see a moon glowing against the dark clouds.
"Why another dream? I thought they were over..." I said to myself and shook my head. "It's the stress. I'm going insane. Darn." I pulled the covers off of me and stood. "Wait, how'd I get in here?" The last thing I remembered was the island...the wave... "Oh yeah, you passed out... again. How cliché. If I pass out two more times, I'll beat Lisa's record." I told myself while walking to the table in 'my' room. I noticed that the windows near my bed weren't even; they were insanely crooked. This bothered me... A lot. So did the ceiling, which was obviously created by human hands. They most definitely didn't have technology. I exited the door to my bedroom which was also crooked. I sat at the table in the center of the room.
On the table sat a note. It read:
Passion-
I am so sorry for what happened earlier. The weather specialist said you should regain consciousness by tomorrow, so I'll stop by around 12 to see how you're doing. I hope you're awake! Anyway, the town meeting was pushed back to tomorrow or whenever you feel better. Everyone feels really bad about what happened and I hope you're not upset about it.
-Riku
"I gotta get out of here,"I told myself, "The people here don't seem too fond of outsiders."
Aww, what about those kids? They were so nice!
"Shut up." I said to myself.
No. Make me.
"Fine, I'm not listening."
Yes you areeee.
"Shut up before I kill you."
I'd like to see you try.
"Try? I'd win."
You couldn't win against a paper bag. Hahahaha.
"You're mentally unstable." I said.
I know. I replied and then decided that I should stop talking to myself for a while. People would start to ask. I shrugged and refolded the note. Looking at the clock sitting across from me, I realized it was 5 AM. I wasn't tired and it would be impossible for me to go back to sleep. What to do, what to do... To burn time, I brushed my teeth and changed into a short outfit. Then I organized my stuff around the room. Now what, smarty? I sat down at the desk and tapped my fingers on the wood.
"Ooooh!" I exclaimed, "I should fix the communicator!" I opened my drawer and pulled the cell phone-like device out. The screen was still black, so I opened up the back and began messing with the power orbs. About an hour later, I realized I had become bored of this.
"Aw, c'mon." I said to myself, "You gotta finish this!" I stared at the pieces of the communicator on the table. "Why won't it fix?" I sighed and began to piece it back together. It would be pointless to make myself keep working on this, especially since I didn't know what I was doing. I slammed the desk drawer shut. I wasn't a help to anyone and I knew that. I wasn't special at all, so why was I here? My friends... It was obvious why they were chosen to come. They were all so smart, so perfect, and just so... wonderful in general. And modest about it.
They're better off without you...
"I told you to shut up." I said while I slid on my shoes. Being in here so long would drive me even crazier; I needed some fresh air. I exited my apartment complex.
The warm outside air gently swept across my cheek. The sky was a dark blue with hints of the morning sun to the east (or so I guessed it was the East). I could see mountains further inland and many lush green trees. I inhaled deeply and smelt the ocean. I had never lived near an ocean before, only on vacation and who really counts that? Plus, I had never seen ocean water look so clear before. I began walking down the dirt path, past several houses and buildings. A few people were walking around too, mostly fishermen though. I waved and smiled at them to be polite and they did the same. So far, things were okay. No one stopped me or made a fuss. Phew. I got down to where the beach was and saw several kids paying some sort of ball game. They threw the odd shaped ball back and forth, some even punted it. I watched them for a while, semi interested. It looked really fun...
Someone tapped on my shoulder, so I turned to see who it was.
"Find this interesting, ya?" Wakka said. At least, I thought he'd said his name was Wakka.
"Yeah, what're they playing?" I asked pointing to the kids.
"It's a game called Blitzball. It's popular 'round here." he said with a heavy islander accent.
"Oh." I responded. I watched as one of the children, a young brunette girl, missed her catch causing the ball to roll over in my direction. I tapped my foot against it and passed it back to her.
"Thank you!" she called to me.
"No problem." I replied with a smile. Gosh I love little kids...
"Kids are so silly, ya?" Wakka said to me. I nodded. "So, whatta you doing up so early?" he asked.
"I usually wake up pretty early and I needed some fresh air." I responded, "What about you?"
"Fishing. Would be school, but you got it cancelled for us today. Good job."
"Did I do something...?" I asked, a little worried something had happened while I was sleeping.
"Nothin' bad, da school people had to meet with da mayor to discuss how they'd teach wit you in da school."
"Oh, that makes sense. But, why wake up so early to fish?" I asked.
"Good money, ya know? It's an easy job that da mayor'll pay us for. Da more fish, da more munny we get. After that huge wave yesterday, we got ten times more fish than usual. I just left earlier and got twice as much as I do when I stay late."
"Well, that's good!" I replied, "I'm happy for you." Wakka smiled and scratched his head.
"Ya, well I-" he was cut off in mid sentence.
"WAKKA! Hey, who're you talking tooooo?" I heard Sora call. I looked past Wakka and saw him running toward us.
"Hi, Sora!" I waved. He reached us and stood next to Wakka.
"Hey! Are you feeling better?" he asked me.
"Yeah, I think I was just tired." I laughed, "But I'm fine now." He was such a little ball of energy!
"That's good!" he exclaimed and grabbed one of my hands in both of his, "I'm really sorry about what happened with the rock and all, but will you please stay?"
"I couldn't leave even if I wanted to. The only way of communicating with my friends is broken and they're my way out. It looks like you guys are stuck with me until I find them or they find me." I explained.
"That's okay! We're glad to have you!" he enthusiastically said. I laughed.
"Well, that makes things easier on both our parts."
For the next hour, Sora and Wakka showed me around the island. They explained stuff about their school, the geography, games, foods, and so many other things. I was having trouble analyzing so much information. After Wakka left, Sora took me to the Market and helped me find foods that were like the ones on Earth. I got a few fruits that resembled strawberries and some vegetables that looked like lettuce and broccoli, a salmon-like fish, rice and noodle-like things, bread, and various other foods they suggested. It was all so cheap! After I paid for it, Sora helped me carry the items back to my apartment.
Once we were inside and the groceries were set down, Sora looked around.
"Wow, how'd you get all of this stuff in here? Where'd it come from?" Sora gaped. I had arranged most of my earth stuff the day before around the room to make myself feel more at home. He poked my battery powered CD player. "And what's this?"
"Well, most of the stuff in here comes from Earth. It's stored in this space thing that's always with me. And that, Sora, is a CD player."
"CD Player?" he asked.
"You know, music comes out of it..." I muttered. He shook his head, confused. "I'll show you." I walked over to him and turned it on. A soft melody poured out.
"What song is this?" he asked while the melody played. Then, the beat picked up and the words started. Anata no kawari ni sora naite ita nara...
"It's called Smile."
"What're they saying?"
"Oh, let me switch it to the English version my friends and I recorded..." Back when we were on Zxeaphon, we had amused ourselves with Karaoke and recording CD's. I pressed the arrow button to track 5. The song began again with the same melody. This time, my voice replaced the originals. If the sky was crying for you, I'll turn into a sea and embrace it. Even if we're swallowed by the storm and lose our map, your back is the signpost for me now...
"Wow," Sora said over the music, "I like this song. Are all Earth songs like this one?" I shook my head.
"There are different categories for music." I said as the music continued. Smile smile watch me always, watch me forever whenever. Smile smile I want to believe, I want to feel it forever. "Like rock, pop, rap, R&B, country, metal, emo. And sometimes these categories combine or go into subcategories. This is another one we recorded..." I pressed the arrow key to track 7. Pam's voice began singing the translation to Without You. I wrote the words "I miss you" in the sand. The blue of the sea that day was too dazzling. I wander alone, searching for you among the passing crowds in the bustling cities... "That's my friend Pam on the vocals; she's an excellent singer." I sighed, "Most of my CDs are left with the others. So, next time we see them, I'll play more music for you."
"Sounds like a deal," he said holding his hand out.
"Yep." I responded while taking his hand in mine and giving it a firm shake.
"So, who are these friends of yours?" he asked.
"Oh, I have pictures. Lemme go get them..." I turned to enter my room when someone knocked at the door.
"Don't worry, I'll get it." Sora said, walking to it. I nodded and entered my room. On my desk was a frame I had of me and the others. We had taken it in Zxeaphon
during the recording (hehehe we were treated like celebrities there). It was really cute, from left to right stood Amber, Carolyn, Pam, me, and Lisa. We all had really
cute poses and were wearing Zxeaph Gear (fashion statement outfits, maybe I'll draw a picture and scan it sometime?). Then I opened the drawer and pulled a few more pictures I had that were sitting under my broken communicator. These were actually taken on Earth. A few were from Jessica's parties (she held several to keep Table 9, our middle school lunch table, in touch), some of Karina and Nadia (they were my friends since I was born pretty much), some of my family, and a few of my pets. I usually brought these with me so they'd be safe and luckily I had them on me when we were on the bus.
When I left my room, I noticed Riku and Kairi were sitting at the kitchen table with Sora. "Oh, hey guys." I said waving the pictures, "I went to go get some pictures."
"Yeah, and earlier she had music coming out of the box," Sora said, pointing to my CD player. I pulled up and chair and fanned the pictures out on the table. Kairi reached and picked up the one of my little sisters, Cherish and Tia. They were outside of my house on the driveway and playing basketball.
"Who are they?" she asked, pointing to them.
"Those are two of my sisters, Tia and Cherish. That's my house in the background." I responded.
"What are they doing?" Riku asked. I guessed he'd noticed the ball.
"It's a game called basketball. It was very popular in the US where I lived."
"You Es?" Sora asked.
"It's short for United States of America, a country which is like, a very small part of the rest of the world. The US is broken up into states and then those are broken
up into cities. I lived in Maryland."
"States?" Sora asked again. "Did they all have names?" I nodded.
"There were fifty of them in the US. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas..." I begin listing them all in alphabetical order (I have it memorized IRL. xD) and ended
with, "Wisconsin, Wyoming. All fifty. "Complete silence followed.
"Wow." Sora broke the silence, "How did you memorize all of those!"
I shrugged. "We had to do this dumb song thing in like, 4th grade. It had all fifty states in alphabetical order and we had to sing that part about three times in the entire song. But, I got Hawaii and I got to be a sea turtle so that made everything better." Confused looks again. Better slow down with the details... "Hawaii's a state in the US. It's a lot like here, I guess."
"Have you ever been there before?" Kairi asked.
"Er, no. I wish though. I've seen pictures; the ocean water is so clear, it's always warm, and it's got a lot of mountains. When I first looked around here, I was reminded of it. Then again, all worlds share similarities with each other I guess." Just keep gushing out with information. You'd best stop. I caught myself. If I gave away too much information, I could mess up the future of this world. "Then again," I quickly added, "What do I know? I haven't spent that much time on other worlds." Okay, this wasn't a total lie so I didn't feel that guilty.
"How long do you think you'll be here for?" Sora quickly asked.
"I have no idea. It depends when I get in touch with my friends, but by the way things look, that may take a while." I looked at my hands and twiddled my fingers a bit, "I don't know if I'll ever get in touch with them now, so I'm mostly hoping they'll figure out where I am. That's okay though," I looked up, "I'm in no rush." Well, that's a lie... I was in a rush. I needed to save people, not be stuck on some limited technology island...
"If they take a long time, you could always help us with the raft," Riku said, "And then come with us..."
"Yeah!" Kairi agreed, "It'd be fun, plus there's not much else to do here."
"We can show you it tomorrow-" Sora began.
"After school, though. It won't be cancelled tomorrow." Riku said.
"How about we go down there today? We still have some time." Kairi said.
"Yeah and then we have that dumb meeting." Sora stuck out his tongue, "Just a bunch of adults going on about nothing."
"I hope they don't make me give a speech or something. I'll freeze up." I stated recalling the 'speech' I had given on a previous world. It consisted of, "Um... Hi?"
and then complete silence. It wasn't my fault, they hadn't warned me in advance.
"They'll go easy on you," Riku said, "The adults'll probably do most if not all of the talking anyway."
"Well, that's good." I muttered. "What time is it at?"
"They said around seven today. We have a little over five hours." he responded.
"Oh," I said, studying the pattern on the wall behind them.
"Do you want to go to the raft now?" Kairi asked while setting the picture she had been studying down. "That way, we'll have plenty of time to talk and work."
"Good idea!" Sora said, pushing his chair out and stretching. Everyone else slid out of their chairs, so I did too.
Once we made it to the second island, Kairi, Sora, and Riku led me to another part of it. We went through a door, down a hallway (Kairi explained the path was cut through one of the hills on the island), and out of a second door. From there, we went across a bridge, and then down off a sand dune. I saw in front of me a partially-worked-on beached raft. On top of it sat several supplies like wood, rope, shells, and twigs.
"We're no where near finished." Riku stated blandly, "But at least we're getting somewhere."
"We'd be further along, but the last raft we made got destroyed in a storm before we finished." Sora said, "We're being extra careful with this one."
"That was about a month ago." Kairi said, "So we're making decent progress." I nodded.
"So, what're you using to hold the wood together?" I asked as we got closer to it.
"A shell cement base." Riku responded pointing to the bucket of crushed shells that sat next to the raft. "We use these shells mixed with water, clay, and a type
of plant found here."
"Oh," I responded. It kinda sounded like the concrete we used on Earth.
"And to reinforce it, we're tying the wood in sections." He pointed to a few pieces that were tied together. "Like that."
"Have you guys picked out what to use for flotation devices? Just incase it's too heavy for the wood alone?"
"Flotation devices?" Riku asked.
"Like balloons." I said, "You could tie some air sacks to the side of the raft. Two on each side would be good I think... And then that way, it would have less
chances of sinking."
"Good idea." Kairi said, "We hadn't really thought of that."
"So, you'll help us?" Sora asked excitedly.
"Of course!" I nodded, "It'll be fun."
"Awesome." Sora responded.
"Well, we should see what we can get done today!" Kairi said, "We left off with..." Kairi reached into her pocket and pulled out a white piece of paper. "Sora and
Riku need to get more wood. Passion, would you like to start working on those air sacs?" she asked me. I nodded.
"Sure."
"Alright then, let's get started!" she exclaimed. Riku and Sora nodded. They set off for the other part of the island. I stayed on this side and looked at the leaves on
the coconut trees. In order to fully examine them, I had to go up a ramp on the far side of this island and then jump onto the top of one of the trees. The leaves seemed durable, but they weren't full enough to use as sacs. Plus, I didn't think they keep a decent consistency when dried. I jumped down and landed on the sand with a thump. I walked to some of the bushes and examined the plants here. Most of the leaves were too tiny to provide any help. I sighed and climbed up the miniature hill we had slid down to reach this part of the island. I walked down the stairs of that hill and into the shallow water. Towards the rock wall to my right was a bush full with purple, blue, and green plants. They seemed to be pretty diverse, so looked through these. The spiky purple plant in the middle was too stiff to bend into an air sac and the other plants just weren't durable enough. So far, all of the plants that grew in the bushes and ground of this island wouldn't work.
I looked up and shielded my eyes from the sun. Toward the top of the trees were large green leaves. I watched as one broke off in the wind and flew down toward the water. I followed it until the water reached my knees. Luckily I had waterproofed this outfit, so I waded in further. When the water was up to my shoulders, I could reach out and touch the leaf. I pulled it toward me and noticed that the water didn't go through it. It felt pretty durable and I could easily wrap it up to form an air sac; it was perfect. There was only one problem... I turned around in the water and gazed back up at the rest of the leaves.
They were too high up. I waded back to shore and exited this part of the island. Sora or Riku should be able to help me... I walked under the bridge and up the stairs. Riku had just exited some cave in front of me. I walked up to him and held out the leaf.
"I think we could use these," I said, "But they're way high up."
"That's not a problem. We can reach them, I'll show you-"
"Show me you stuff!" We heard Wakka yell. I turned around and saw him and Sora beginning to duel.
"What are they doing?" I asked Riku. He stood next to me.
"A duel. We do it a lot here. Wakka uses a blitzball as his weapon. Sora, as you can see, uses a wooden sword." he replied. For fun, they beat the shit out of
each other. Okayy...
"Oh." I responded and watched as Wakka chucked a ball at Sora who hit it with his sword. Sora took a few whacks at Wakka who spun around and used the ball as a shield. After a few seconds of watching, I went back to explaining to Riku the process I'd use to create the air sacs. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something blue flying toward me. Riku quickly grabbed my hand and pulled me into him. I felt the wind from the ball pass by my head and listened to it splash into the water near the miniature waterfall. I could hear Riku's heart beat through his soft shirt. He had a nice smell; it reminded me of some of the guys from Earth.
"Wakka, watch where you're throwing that thing! You could have hit someone!" he yelled. I quickly regained my composure.
"Sorry, man!" he called back and continued to fight with Sora.
"Are you okay?" Riku asked me, his deep green eyes studying mine. I rubbed the back of my head, slightly embarrassed of my uber slow reaction time.
"Ha...ha... Yeah, thank you!" I smiled. His eyes softened and he smiled back.
"It seems like things are after your head here. I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for you." he replied.
"That'll be okay with me. I'll probably need extra help." I muttered.
"Hey, let's go and get some more of those leaves," he said, "That way, we won't get hurt from Wakka's carelessness." I nodded.
"Good idea." We walked, once again, through the exit that led to the second part of the island. From here we stepped on a small wood box next to the door and then jumped onto the roof above the door. Directly in front of us was a small door-like window built into the wood that covered this wall. Riku climbed up and into it first. Once in there, he held out his hand and helped me into it.
"This way," he pointed into the dark depths of the hall. "Hold my hand so you don't get lost, okay?" he said. I nodded and took his hand in mine. We began walking into the darkness. I felt the dirt path begin to go uphill. "Be careful not to trip." Riku said. "There are some big roots on the ground.'
"Okay. Where is this leading to?" I asked.
"The top. It's a path created over some plants and through the hill."
"Who made all the stuff on this island?" I asked, amazed at the structures used here.
"We did, well, with some help from the adults." Riku responded.
"Wow." I said. "On the main island, was everything there built by people?" I asked while following him across the treetops.
"Yep; that's why nothing looks the same." He took a step over a large section of leaves. "Watch your step, there are a lot of ditches around here."
"Okay." I carefully stepped over the pile of leaves and followed after Riku. He seemed to know just where he was going and so I guessed he was up here quite frequently. In no time we made it to the spot where the leaf I had found had fallen from. There were enough leaves to make dozens of air sacs.
"Is this okay?" Riku asked while crouching near the plants.
"Yeah, this'll be perfect." I kneeled next to him and examined one of the leaves in my hand. "How do I pick these without hurting the plant?" I questioned.
"Here," He moved his hand over to the leaf I was looking at and lifted it up. From the stem he dug a bit into the ground. He wrapped his fist around where the stem turned white and placed his other hand flat on the ground next to his fist. In one swift motion, the leaf came clean out of the ground. "Now you try." he said while placing the leave he had just plucked on the ground. I mimicked what he had done, but when I pulled it did not come out.
"Eh?" I muttered. Maybe using all that magic yesterday drained some of my strength?
"Pull harder." Riku said. I nodded and pulled harder this time. It still didn't come out. "Harder." he said again." This time, I pulled as hard as I could and -pop!- it came out!
"Awesomeness!" I exclaimed.
"Good job." he said patting me on the back, "How many should we gather?"
"I'd say six, incase I screw up on a few."
"Alright." he responded. About ten minutes later we had gathered all six leaves. We retraced out steps back to the tunnel, each carrying three leaves. Riku shifted the leaves from his right hand to his left so he could lead me through the tunnel again. I felt like an incompetent, stupid little kid holding his hand. It was slightly harder going downhill because there were a lot of rocks and roots, but I luckily avoided them because Riku would point out every time we came near one. As we exited the dark tunnel, I saw Sora and Kairi walking across the broken bridge toward us.
"Hey guys!" Riku greeted. I waved at them and they waved back.
"Where've you guys been?" Sora asked as we dismounted from the door.
"Gathering leaves for the air sacs." I said, "I saw some we could use high up and Riku helped me get them."
"Good!" Kairi said, "We can create them tomorrow."
"Why not now?" Riku asked. Kairi pointed at the sun.
"It's time to go back to the island. They're starting that meeting soon." she responded.
"Right! I almost forgot about that." I said.
"Same here," Sora said and pointed at Kairi, "She reminded me just now and we were going to go look for you two."
"And now that we've found you, I guess we should head back?" Kairi suggested. Everyone nodded and we made our way to the dock.
It took a little over twenty minutes to row back to mainland. Once we banked the rafts, Kairi led the way to the Town Hall. I could already see a crowd of people heading toward the little house that was the Town Hall. It seemed like many people of all age groups would be present. New comers are a big deal for this world...
The moment we entered the Town Hall, a hush fell over those already seated. The mayor stood on a stage behind a platform in the front of the room with seven seats behind him. Three of those seats were already filled by some rather old looking gentlemen. As soon as he saw me enter, he gestured for me to join him up front. I looked to Sora.
"Go, it's okay we'll find seats." he said giving me a thumbs up. I forced a smile and nodded. It felt like I was walking through water as I approached the mayor. I could hear a murmur of whispers from all those I passed. My heart raced inside of me as I stepped on stage and sat in my designated seat. I felt my eyes dart around the room attempting to absorb details. This was almost as bad as that (almost) sacrifice I had to witness. There were people everywhere; some sat at the top balcony that overlooked the stage, some stood/leaned against the wall if they were on this floor. All the faces looked the same to me.
"Welcome, everyone!" the mayor called from the podium, "I'm glad so many could make it!" Immediately, the room's volume decreased. "As you all know, we've gotten a new arrival. This is the second time ever in several years we've had someone arrive here from such a far away distance."
"Yeah, but does she know anything?" I heard a voice yell from the balcony. Yeah, I'm right here people.
"Yes." the mayor confirmed. This flung the room into a hush discussion. "Order, order!" he demanded. The room once again, hushed.
"Why is she hear?" a woman called suspiciously from the center of the ground floor. The mayor chuckled.
"I'll let her explain that." He stepped down from the podium and I rose. Oh god, oh god... I thought as I stepped up to the podium.
"Well, the reason why I'm here is..." I inhaled, "Um well, you see, I crashed. My ship that is. I was on my way somewhere with my friends when our, er, navigation
went out of whack and we crashed. I'm in no way a threat to anyone here and I won't be a permanent problem. I just have to wait until they pick me up."
"What's your name?" someone yelled.
"Passion. And I'm from a world called Earth." I responded.
"Are you normal?" someone else shouted. What the hell kinda crap question is that?
"Um, I don't know?" I responded. "As far as I've seen, I'm not mutated in anyway or different from the people here. Oh, and I'm decently mentally stable...I guess.."
"Are you planning an invasion?" a child's voice asked. I laughed.
"No, I have no intention of harming anyone in this island community. I'm really just a kid after all..." I responded. The mayor clapped.
"Let's all give this young lady a hand." He stepped up to the podium. "I'll take it from here," he whispered to me. I nodded and sat back down.
The assembly lasted around half an hour. It was really rather boring. After it, I was bombarded by so many people, it took me about an hour to finally get away when Sora pulled me along. He took me to a lady who introduced herself as the principal of the school. She was very polite and allowed me to tour the school. After we had finished (roughly two hours later), she handed me a uniform, two locker numbers, and a schedule. She explained that all the books I needed were in the first locker and that the second had my gym clothes. I thanked her and then Sora walked me back 'home'.
"So, Sora..." I began as we walked down the hill, "Are there any other towns on this world other than yours?"
"There are a few, just behind that mountain." he said and turned to point, "But travel doesn't happen that often."
"Oh," I responded, "Do you think that, maybe, my friends could be there?"
"Of course!" he said, "If they are, we'll hear about it in a week. That's when they'll deliver the news. And if nothing shows up, then maybe they're just keeping it low key." I nodded.
"I guess I shouldn't be worried too much. They'll be fine without me; they usually are..." I looked over my schedule. "For now, I'll just focus on learning more about this world."
"May I see that?" Sora asked, "So I can see what classes we share." I handed it to him.
"I hope everything's generally the same. Mathematics should be fine for me, but as for the other subjects, especially History, I'll be clueless in." Not to mention it'd been a while since I had to be in school...
"I have a book you could borrow. It gives a really good history on this island. Do you want to borrow it?" he asked while we turned left on the dirt road.
"Really? If you don't need it-" I said. Sora waved his hand,
"It's fine, really. I don't use it anymore." he said. "We can stop by my house and I'll get it for you."
"Thank you!" I said while giving him a hug. "It's so much easier being in a new world when people help me out." Sora laughed.
"Well, you're friendly, not hostile. It feels good to help." he replied. "Not to mention, you did save the island."
"That was no big deal, I couldn't have not helped." I responded.
"No big deal? I've only seen our most experienced mages create something that powerful and they're old." He paused, "Is everyone on Earth like that?" I laughed.
"No no, you're right. It is uncommon. I'm just... different." I said, "Hey, isn't that your house?" Good attempt at changing the subject.
"Yep! I'll run in and get it real quick." Sora said and ran into his house. Iwaited out in the warm island temperature. The warm had just begun to set and every once in a while, I'd feel a warm air current brush past me. This little town seemed so peaceful; I could hear the murmur of people and birds, I smelt lots of food cooking, and I could feel the perfect balance this world held. The genuine innocence and untainted feeling this world emitted...
Why the hell was I here? I'd only screw things up; I was off of Earth to fight, not to vacation. I felt something pulse behind me, like an aura of some sort. I pivoted on my left foot to see what it was. Nothing was behind me... Again, I felt the aura pulse; this time it was closer and coming from my right side. I walked in the direction of the aura. It felt... familiar. I could feel it becoming stronger as I approached a bush near the side of Sora's house. The bush was ordinary green with purple flowers, so I checked behind it. A silver object lay at the base of the bush covered by a few leaves and the grass. I picked it up and brushed it off.
I recognized it immediately. It was the dagger Carolyn had won during a contest on some world. It was an original design and good for protection. She never let it out of her sight... Why was it here? I held it by the handle and felt a surge of her aura shock through me. Time literally came to a stop for me; I was frozen for that moment and left alone with my thoughts. Why was it here? Why was it here? Why wasn't she here with it? Where was she? It couldn't have just fallen with me, she had to be here with it. But... She... Wasn't.
"Hey Passion!" Sora called from behind me. "I've got the book." He approached me. "Sorry it took so long, my mom wanted to know when I'd be in for dinner." I turned around and hid the dagger behind my back.
"Oh, no problem. Thank you so much!" I took the book from him.
"Sora!" I heard an older woman's voice call, "Time to come in!"
"I'll be there in a minute, mom!" he called back. Sora rolled his eyes and smirked. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, okay? We'll stop by there on our way to school." I nodded.
"Thanks again, Sora!" I said as we parted at his doorstep. The walk back to my apartment was slightly dark because of the setting sun, but it was all good. I looked at the dagger in my hand realizing that I shouldn't get upset or over analyze this. Just smile, everything's gonna be okay. I assured myself as I unlocked my door. I wondered what weird dream I'd have tonight...
This took me a while to write. Sorry people! I have midterms coming up, so my next chapter may take awhile or just suck in general. ♥