Chapter 6: History

The train ride back to Hargeon was silent. Both girls sat across each other, arms folded across their chest, staring out the window and not saying a word to each other.

Erza had tried to get the story out of Evia while they were waiting at the station, but Evia kept her mouth shut.

"Not now, there's too many people," she merely whispered and Erza agreed with a stiff nod. Hopefully she had her patience would last until they reach Hargeon Woods.

Evia, however, wasn't in a very good mood, particularly due to the fact that Erza decided to tag along. First she was dragged all the way to this madhouse of a guild, and now here she was, sitting in the same locomotive a feet away!

What is wrong with this girl? She thought to herself in annoyance. Doesn't she have anything better to do?

The train chugged on as they continued to ignore each other. The scenery changed from time to time. Once in a while, they would go right through a tunnel and everything would turn pitch black. Not that it bothered them or anything.

Finally, Erza decided to break the silence. She leaned forward and said, "Evia, can I ask you something?"

"What?" Evia snapped.

Erza decided to brush it off and proceeded. "Who is Kibble?"

There was another long silence before Evia answered, "He's my friend."

"What sort of friend?" Erza inquired.

"What do you mean, 'what sort of friend?'? He's my friend!" Evia said indignantly.

Erza sighed. "Well, what does he look like?"

"You shall know when we get there," Evia replied and went back to the view.

Well, that was a memorable conversation.

Erza thought of all the possibilities Kibble could be. He could most certainly be human, but if he is, wasn't it reasonable for him to join Evia along during the battle in the woods? Or maybe it was just his nature, that he wasn't a fighter?

Maybe he was too young...

Maybe Evia had a little brother? It was possible.

Who names their brother Kibble?

What if Kibble isn't really human at all? There's another possibility. Maybe he's a woodland animal? But what kind? Rabbit? Squirrel? Deer?

No, he can't possibly be a deer. Erza disticntly remembered Evia mentioning that she occasionally eats deer meat so there was no way Kibble can be a deer.

What other woodland animals are there?

Chipmunk, bluebird, racoons, eagle, hummingbird, bears, beavers, wolf, rats, hedgehog... the list goes on and on.

But what if Kibble wasn't any of the above mentioned? He could be a supernatural being for all that's possible?

But was it really possible?

Erza was coming up with so many theories, she hardly noticed that the train had come to a stop. Evia immediately leaped out of her seat and dashed out of the train. Erza blinked and jumped out of her seat as well and raced after Evia.

"Hey, you weren't planning on leaving me?" Erza demanded when she caught up with Evia. Evia barely turned her head when she replied.

"You seem busy."

Erza fumed. Busy, my foot! She thought.

"I was not!" Erza replied indignantly.

"You sure seem like it," Evia said. "Now come on, we're wasting time!" And with that, she sprinted off. Erza chased after yet again.

"Evia!" Erza called out and sped up a pace or two. Geez, she was like a gazelle!

"Evia!" Erza shouted. The woods weren't too far ahead. She can see Evia running towards the entrance. "Evia, hey!"

"Kibble!" came the reply. Erza couldn't help but slap her palm onto her forehead.

She came nearer to the woods. This wasn't how it was like when she first set foot here. Before it was dark, cold and creepy. Now warm sunlight was streaming in through the leaves and a gentle breeze was blowing her hair. Erza slowed to a walk and let the scenery sink in. She took a deep breath and felt calmer, serene even.

However that feeling didn't last very long when she realized that Evia had gone missing again.

"Evia!" she yelled. She was starting to get impatient.

A head appeared from behind a bush. "Oh, Erza, did you say something?" Evia asked inocently.

Erza clenched her fist tight to stop herself from slapping Evia in the face.

"You squaw, we had a deal!" Erza said, sounding almost furious.

Evia looked confused. "What deal?"

Now she was starting to get on her nerves. "Don't play dumb with me, Evia! I said if I let you come here, you'd tell me your story!"

"But Erza, I never asked you to come along," Evia countered.

"That's not what I meant!" she roared and raised her hand to give her a good smack in the face, but her hand was halted midair by something hard gripping onto her wrist.

"Evia, let go of me!" Erza demanded.

Evia kept her gaze steely and straight and tightened her grip. Not that it would affect Erza in any way. Erza was strong and Evia knew it.

"You can get really hard-headed sometimes, can you?" Evia asked.

Erza blew a raspberry.

Evia sighed. "Well, you're al going to find out about it one day, anyway."

Erza struggled to keep her voice even. "You promised me, Evia."

"Well, I did say you are all going to find out sooner or later, and from the fact that you won't ever leave my side until it's out, I might as well make it a 'sooner'."

Erza gaped.

"Well, are you ready?" Evia asked.

"Yeah," Erza replied, her voice slightly high-pitched. Finally!

"But on one condition."

Erza couldn't help but let a groan leave her lips.

"You have to promise me not to question anything else until I feel like it, alright?" Evia stated.

Erza felt like punching everything in sight. To her, that was like the ultimate sacrifice. Who knows how long she was going to wait?

No, she decided. Better to let her tell her first story, rather than asking another one and having no answer.

"Alright, fine," Erza subtly agreed.

"Kibble!" Evia called out.

"Evia!" Erza hollered.

"Sorry," Evia apologized. "But help me look while I tell you, okay?"

"I don't even know what he is!"

Evia sighed. She completely forgot about that. "He's a squirrel with flappy arms. Shouldn't be that hard to find. Oh, and don't call out Kibble, he doesn't respond to strangers."

Erza nodded involuntarily.

Evia inhaled and exhaled. "Alright, here goes nothing."

And so the storytelling began.

"I come from Hargeon Haven Orphanage," she started slowly. "I don't know who my parents are and I was there for six years."

"Six years?" Erza exclaimed.

Evia nodded. "No one bothered adopting me. I was that shy around strangers. I didn't have a lot of friends either. Except for Vierra, she's—"

"Who's Vierra?" Erza asked all too quickly.

"Please don't interrupt," Evia said.

"Sorry," Erza said.

Evia grabbed unto a tree branch and swung herself up while peeking among the leaves.

"Vierra is this girl that I met in the orphanage. She was twelve when she came. Who knows what happened to her parents. She lost her memory so she had no ways of knowing. She was my only best friend there. She didn't mind hanging around me."

Evia got down from the tree and continued to walk alongside Erza.

"There were others, too, of course, but they don't acknowledge me that much. In total, there are thirteen of us: me, Vierra, Sinclair, Seymour, Jas, Ianna, Chip, Azalea, Sybill, Yukina, Cora, James and Grady. Our caretaker is called Alice. She's really nice but she can be mean, too. She would say 'rise and shine, my lovelies' and then yank the blanket off us."

"Evia, you have a last name, don't you?" Erza asked as she searched among the bushes.

Evia nodded. "Lockheart; one who keeps her heart locked away, they said. Our last names either come from our characteristics or if you already have one. Vierra had one but she couldn't remember it, so we called her Moony, because she likes to daydream a lot, especially about her imaginary boyfriend..." Evia smiled at the memory.

"Imaginary boyfriend?" Erza repeated, puzzled.

"Yeah. Vierra would draw a boy's face over and over again on different pieces of paper, because she kept ripping them or losing them. He's not bad, if I do say so myself; long, spiky hair, piercing eyes, crooked smile. She even wrote down his personality on the side; humorous, kind, brave, silly, energetic. 'Someday, I'll meet him and we'll get married', she used to tell me."

"Erm, well yes, continue," Erza urged.

"Right anyway, the others had fairly interesting names. Sinclair and Seymour Darkray, did I mention that they were twins? Sinclair is the more popular and interesting one, though..." suddenly, Evia had a strange look on her face, but she quickly snapped out of it. "Seymour hardly ever shows himself. Then there's Jas Boney, because he's so skinny. Ianna White, because her hair's white and she's so pale. Chip Lionmane, because his hair looks just like one. Azalea Tearce, because she can be such a crybaby sometimes. Sybill Hardy, because he was pretty muscular for a kid. Yukina Valentine, Cora Corelli, and then, James Hawking, because he has really good eyesight. And Grady Ultramarine, because that's her favorite colour, she said."

"What's Alice's surname?" Erza asked, out of curiosity.

"Copperbarrel, because she has copper skin and well... she's shaped like a...barrel."

Erza stiffled a laughter. Evia joined in.

"Oh! I think I know where Kibble might be!" Evia suddenly exclaimed. "Follow me!"

She ran along a narrow path between two trees with Erza following closely behind.

"I never knew how I got there," Evia continued. "Alice told me she found me half-dead in front of the door when I was seven. My name and age were all that I remember. Lockheart is my real last name, by the way. My body was freezing and Alice immediately took me to the doctor. They poked me with a bunch of needles, she said, but they got me better in no time.

"I was the first few kids who wound up in the orphanage. The others were Cora, Grady, Chip and Yukina. I got along fine with them, though I was the quietest. At least everyone knew how they got there. Chip and Grady's parents were killed in an accident, Grady's parents went missing during a sea storm, Yukina's parents were drug addicts and Chip's parents divorced and his dad took all the money with him, leaving him and his mother penniless. The mother can't afford to take care them both, so she left him there.

"And then, Vierra came. She lost her memory, I told you that, so she got really close with me. Then Jas, James and Sybill came not long after. Jas' lived with his single mother and she got really sick. James an Sybill's dad left for war and their mothers were the nurses there. They never returned.

"Ianna ran away from home when she was ten from her abusive parents and Azalea's parents kicked her out. They became best friends immediately, because of their similar fate. Same with James and Sybill. We became good friends, but my best friend was still Vierra.

"Then came Sinclair and Seymour..." Evia's voice suddenly trailed off.

"What's wrong?" Erza asked.

"Nothing. I'm fine," Evia replied.

"Did they do something to you?" Erza inquired, but Evia kept silent.

"Oh, I'm not supposed to ask you anything else," Erza said, a little disappointed.

"No no, I'm fine. It's just that... no, I'm supposed to tell you, I promised. So, uhm, let's just put it this way: everything changed at their arrival."

"How so?" asked Erza.

"Well, from the looks of them on the first day, you can tell that they are really up to no good. But strangely enough, only Sinclair was in the spotlight. Seymour disappeared somewhere in the building a few days after they came. They were twins but the only thing differenciating them was this slanted scar across the forehead. Sinclair had that, Seymour didn't. Sinclair had the looks and the personality, it was hard not to fall for him, I can tell you that."

Erza didn't need any further explanation for that.

"Sometimes I go to the library. It's just a small, stuffy room with all these children books in it. I was completely fine there, all peace and quiet. But after the twins came, I almost always felt as if I was being...watched.

Erza kept silent.

"Sinclair never paid any attention to me. He did to the other girls. He made them all part of his gang, except me and Vierra. He tried to make Vierra change her mind, but she refused. Somehow I think it was something that I did that made him like that, but I can't figure out what. I even delibrately cut myself on the forehead, but I was too scared to fully do it so I made one across my eyebrow, see? But that didn't work and I was too heartbroken to figure it out back then—" her face flushed red at the memory.

"—then again, Seymour almost never showed his face. Occasionally, Sinclair would go looking for him. He even went outside looking for him in the dead night. I suppose he was shy around strangers, too. I don't know much about Seymour. He's mysterious.

"Vierra stayed by my side, no matter how many times Sinclair tried to convince her. She couldn't understand his problem with me either and he wouldn't answer no matter how many times Vierra asked. He would sullenly walk away after that with his gang. Alice wasn't that much help either.

"A spell, that's possible right?" Erza suddenly piped up.

Evia shrugged. "I'm not sure. They do posses some magical powers but I don't think it's some sort of hypnosis."

Erza's eyes widened. "You never said that they possesed powers!"

"I didn't?" Evia said. "Oh, sorry. Yes, some of us do posses powers, others were late bloomers, or so we call them. I was one of the late bloomers, but even the late bloomers discovered their powers later on. I didn't at all."

Erza stared in amazement.

"One day, there was this travelling circus in town and Alice decided to buy us all a ticket for the show, telling us that we should bond. So I thought maybe that Alice had noticed all along and tried to do something about it. And then she..."

Erza was suddenly lost in thought, remembering the night where she first encountered Evia. In the distance, she heard a clown's horn. A clown belongs to the circus. She let out a small gasp. Could it be?

"Is something the matter, Erza?" Evia asked.

"I'm good, please continue," Erza said.

"Okay. So you know how circuses have all these different kinds of acts, like acrobats, elephants, magicians,..."

Erza was deep in thoughts again. The travelling circus... No, it was impossible! That was years ago, Erza didn't know how long, but it didn't seem likely. It must have been a coincidence. But why?

Evia's voice suddenly grew sombre. "And then came the stampede."

"Stampede?" Erza repeated.

Evia nodded sullenly. "I didn't know what happened, it was all so sudden. One minute we were enjoying a fire-eater act and the next minute, a guy was screaming 'Help! The animals have escaped!' and all of a sudden, a whole herd of animals came bursting in through the tent, their eyes red and mad with rage. Everyone panicked and tried to flee the situation immediately, but the animals were faster. Some were trampled, killed even. All of us tried to escape, but we were seperated along the way. I remember being surrounded by a lot of smoke and animal feet stomping all over the place. It was only then I realized that the whole circus tent was on fire. The scene...it was horrible. It was like watching a massacre. I saw bodies and flesh everywhere, fire burning every bits of them left. And then I—I saw—" Evia's whole body shook and shuddered as she felt fragments of the tragedy broke into the surface of her mind.

"Saw what, Evia?" Erza asked, trying not to sound demanding.

"Vierra..." Evia whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Vierra? What's wrong?"

"She—she was murdered, by a c-clown." Evia fell to her knees and trembled. "He grabbed onto her arm and pulled her somewhere, but she was fighting him, refusing to follow him somewhat and then he-he, stabbed her."

Erza's eyes widened in shock.

"Then he hauled her over her shoulders and carried her away. I can't see anything else after that, a giant flame burst in front of me and I was thrown back at them impact. Most of the animals were either suffocating or dead now, like the people. It was so horrible, I thought I was going to die there. I tfrantically looked for an exit somehwere, but my legs were badly burned and I tripped so many times. The fires just kep getting bigger and bigger and I was having difficulty breathing. My throat was parched and I thought I was going to di as weel, until...a miracle...happened..." Evia's voice trailed of yet again.

"What sort of miracle?" Erza asked.

"I—I really don't know. I was crouched on the ground, ready to take whatever fate had to offer. My thoughts were all scrambled. I was thinking of my friends back at the orphanage, my life when all this was going to be offer, water... And then, out of nowhere, a gush of water really did come. It was enourmous, it came crashing down in waves and I nearly drowned. The fire was immediately put out. When I came to, everything was burnt to bits. Charred remains were all that was left. I called out and went looking for other survivors, including my friends, but no one was there."

"You don't mean to say that—" Erza's question hung in the air.

"They were gone, all of them. I was the only one left," Evia mumbled.

Erza felt a sharp pang in her chest. Now she only felt guilt. So this is why Evia didn't want to tell.

"I'm sorry for forcing you into this," Erza apologized.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for," Evia said, her tone somehwat sad. "It actually feels kind of good to let it off of my chest. I tried going back to the orphanage and live the rest of my life, but it was unearthly and disturbingly quiet. I still imagine all of them running around and pulling at each others hair, Vierra, Sinclair... I probably sound like a mother telling you this." She stopped short and chuckled. "Finally, I can't take any more of it and ran off. I kept running and running, not knowing where I was going. And then I ended up here. It's a nice little place. I like it. It takes me a while to adapt. Sometimes I would catch myself thinking of the circus fire and the waves and sometimes, without realizing it, I conjured it to reality. For a long time, I was struggling to control the fires and waters, nearly killing myelf at times. It wasn't long until I realized that I was the one creating everything, and it all come from my mind, my memories. So I battled them in order to get rid of them. It was one of the harder tasks in my life, and the memory wasn't completely erased of course. If it was, I wouldn't be telling you this. But it doesn't bother me that much anymore, I was able to put a stop to the disasters with a little practice. I still miss my firends terribly though, but there's nothing I can do to bring them back to life, so here I stayed for the next five years."

Erza nodded in sympathy and put an arm around Evia's shoulders. "How old are you?" she asked.

"I'm nineteen, I think," Evia replied. "I came here when I was just turning fourteen."

"It's been a long while, hasn't it?" Erza asked.

Evia nodded. "Yeah. I still miss them."

"Where do you live, exactly?"

"We're nearing it," she replied and went through a thicket. Erza followed her and came to a surprising sight.

"Welcome to my home," Evia announced as she climbed up the branches leading to a tree house, streaming with sunlight.