"Hiraeth" (n.): a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return; a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past
Chapter 1: Prologue
"So, tell me where should I go?
To the left, where nothing's right…
Or go right, where nothing's left…"
-Anonymous (idk I found it on Instagram)
In her slumber, Lumine heard a voice.
"Ask not who the doors of the world are closed to. For they will always open for you."
In my dreams, I found myself in a sea of flowers.
The flowers swayed dramatically as the wind blew.
I gaped-
*Poof*
-and flopped down.
Rolling over, I giggled as the petals tickled my face.
I'm like a starfish. Wait -I'm like those people who make snow angels. Flower angels! Oh my god I can make flower angels. There's no bugs too. They're so prettyyyy… Is this an anime-ish art style? I wanna draw like that!
Thoughts flickered through my mind and I let out a sigh, glancing up at the sky. I haven't felt this relaxed and happy in a long time. Come to think of it…I must be dreaming.
Of course, as usual, I woke up the moment I realized that. The brightness of my bedroom clued me into the fact that if I don't get up within the next five minutes, I would be late for school.
I squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself back into the dream. I wanted the moment to last as long as possible. I wanted to keep that feeling of happiness with me forever. With luck, maybe it would last throughout my first class.
A minute later, I found myself within the field of flowers once more in the same starfish position. I could tell I wasn't really dreaming anymore. I was probably half-asleep and half-awake; the place I was in somewhere between a dream and imagination.
Trying to keep my thoughts solely on the flowers surrounding me, I forced myself to smile.
Keep sleeping dangit. I don't want to do calculus. I don't want to write an essay. I don't want to do my history project or the mitosis lab or speak french or help strike the set I worked so hard on.
Surprisingly, I didn't wake up again. That was my first sign something was wrong. Usually, once I began thinking about school, the dream would fade and I would be left to irritably mutter about how unfair the world is. As most teenagers do.
My hands clenched around a blossom, startling me further as I realized I could feel it getting crushed between my fingers.
The sky turned a vivid sunset-red.
I sat up, and saw the sea of flowers burning.
The flames were small but they were everywhere, spreading like a plague towards me. Flowers crumble and turn to ash, one after another. Fear consumed me. I gripped my wrist so tightly I could feel my bones creak.
"What in the apocalyptic fanfiction is this-?" I breathed out hysterically, trying not to cry.
I was trapped in a nightmare. But this one didn't feel like any of the other nightmares I had.
If this was what people call a vivid dream, I never want to have one ever again. But something's wrong…
Is this really a dream?
An instinct urged me to run, so I did.
Minutes passed. Something's definitely wrong. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I looked around wildly as I ran. Everything's gone, either reduced to ashes or in the process of. How was I unharmed? The heat felt real. The smell of burning plants, my aching feet-
Wait.
Since when did I wear high heels? Since when did I learn how to walk -nevertheless run- in high heels?
Realizing this, I immediately tripped.
And woke up in a forest.