The passage of time for the Arturias was no different in comparison to child Arturia.

When night came in the world, the Arturia's had no choice but to sit through it. In which case, sleep was the only thing that they could really do. Food and sustenance did not appear to be required for their spiritual bodies. In which case, they didn't need to really sleep either, but the mental exhaustion was building.

Since they had arrived in this strange world, none of the Arturia's had opted to sleep because they didn't need to. Instead, they remained awake and vigilant in order to react to any unexpected changes.

After several nights with nothing happening, the Arturias no longer had any qualms with sleeping. And yet, it was in sleep that they all truly came to understand the significance of their present existence.

It was a world of dreams no different from one's own.

Saber Alter closed her eyes and drifted into slumber, but it felt as if she was 'waking up' for the first time.

She blinked in confusion, the sky overhead no longer the dark of the night, but the blue sky of the day.

What was this?

She looked down to see small hands and a tiny body before freezing when her gaze travelled upward.

"Something wrong, Arturia?"

Across from her, a young child was staring at her in concern. It was a familiar face and appearance to the boy that she had seen her child version interacting with earlier in the day.

"Shirou?" She spoke the name before she could even stop herself.

Shirou frowned and walked closer to her.

For her part, she couldn't help but inwardly panic. She wasn't the child Arturia that Shirou knew.

"You seem a bit different?" He placed a hand over her forehead and looked her over in concern.

Her maturity was showing due to her full control over body. There was no way that she could act as a child given her adult temperament nor would she pretend to act like one. Hell, she didn't even know what was happening right now so why did she have to force herself to act like someone that she was not? She was her own person.

"Does it matter?" She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes coldly. It was the expression of a tyrant who had ruled Britain with an iron hand. Given her childish appearance, she looked entirely willful.

In all honestly, she expected Shirou's expression to change, or at least to react negatively in some way, but all that he did was smile and hug her closely to make sure that she was feeling okay. It was like, regardless of what kind of person she would become or grow up to be, he would accept her and always stand on her behalf.

It was an odd sort of feeling.

Her brows knit together before she turned her face away and directly changed the subject.

"T-Training," curse this childish mouth for stuttering. "Lets train."

"Sure." Shirou's reply came quick.

If Saber Alter could recall, the situation seemed to be identical to the scene that she'd witnessed when child Arturia had practiced with Shirou for the first time. If things were going according to the same script that she'd seen, then this was the time when Shirou would pick up a twig and reinforce it with magic as a weapon.

Indeed. That was exactly what happened.

He picked up a twig and beckoned for her to begin the sparring lesson.

She didn't attack right away and instead carefully hid the confusion in her face while trying to come to her own conclusion to what was happening.

Was this all real?

Or was she just reliving the experience that the child Arturia had undergone?

She looked at the wooden sword in her hand. Well, she supposed that she'd just have to find out.

Child Arturia had lost this exchange after making light of the twig in Shirou's hands.

Saber Alter wouldn't make such a careless mistake. Moreover, she already had the accumulated experience of using a sword.

To use a mere twig against her was an insult.

"Don't make light of me," she said sternly.

Rather than actually have a match, the first exchange ended it all.

Drawing from the energy of her Magic Core, she directly overpowered Shirou's magical reinforcement and snapped the twig in his hand.

He balked and stared at it with disbelief, but the world just continued on as if Saber Alter hadn't just changed the original script by winning.

Was this some kind of new time line?

Better yet, was it her own time line?

The thought made her mind go blank, but Shirou didn't remain startled for long.

He laughed wryly and observed her with a keener eye. "I'll take you more seriously next time. I suppose that I'll have to use a sword against you now. You're quite skilled even at such a young age."

"Naturally," she huffed. However, she did not feel any satisfaction at Shirou's praise because she felt like she was cheating. She had numerous years of sword techniques in her mind while Shirou was the true genius.

He would have had schooled her younger self hands down. She'd already seen it happen.

Saber Alter suddenly had a lot to think about.

She didn't know what was going on, but she did understand one thing about her present self. "Shirou," she called out to him.

He looked up at her. "Yes?"

She nodded imperiously before replying.

"I'm hungry."

Shirou grinned before moving towards her and ruffling her hair. His actions were so fast and natural that she couldn't even attempt to stop him. "Coming right up," he said.

Somehow, she refused to accept that a part of her actually felt comfort in his actions.

While Shirou cooked lunch on the side, she sat alone on top of a rock.

She pinched herself and felt an acute pain. She was definitely in a physical body and not in a spiritual one. Right now, she could feel the hunger in her stomach and the familiarity of exhaustion in her muscles. Hard as it was to believe, she was alive in this world.

The last thing that she could remember doing was falling asleep. Did that have anything to do with anything?

She didn't know.

All thoughts left her mind from the moment that Shirou handed out a piece of roasted chicken to her. It was the very same one that had previously had her mouth watering. She took it in her hands, and being mindful of her manners, she wasn't a child; she bit down, chewed, and then swallowed.

Her eyes widened and suddenly she could understand the unrestrained image of her child self eating.

Dammit she was crying.

Not because of joy or lack of self control, but because of envy.

Child Arturia really did have it good.

"Arturia?" Shirou, bless him, immediately grew concerned when he noticed the tears glistening in her eyes. However, she had no inclination to explain the origin of her bitter tears. Instead, she just kept eating, and eating, and eating.

Seeing her appetite, rather than chastise her, Shirou simply began making more as if already used to her large appetite.

It was then while she was gorging herself that the world stilled.

Suddenly she couldn't taste anything. Everything just froze in place.

NOOOOOOO!

There was genuine despair in her eyes when they opened to see her Lancer and Saber counterparts nudging her awake. If looks could kill, she would have had killed them already if not for the rationality of her mind.

The world that Saber Alter had found herself in seemed to only be accessible to her in sleep.

"You too, huh?" Her counterpart's words knocked some sense into her and she schooled her features.

"…" She stared at them in disbelief before taking a breath and calming down. "What's going on?" She asked.

"You dreamed of turning back into a child too, right? Shirou was also there?" Saber Arturia asked sternly.

Saber Alter didn't deny it.

The same thing seemed to have had occurred for everyone, but right now, Saber Alter was more concerned about another matter. "Why did you wake me up?" She had been in the middle of eating.

Neither Lancer or Saber Arturia answered.

Saber Alter was the last one to be woken up so everyone had decided to wake her up in order to discuss what was going on.

Now however, every one of the Arturia variants was too busy contemplating to themselves to bother holding a discussion. The dream that they all had was just too real.

What if instead of a dream, whenever they slept in this world, they transferred over to another 'Alternative Record' of their time line?

It seemed to make sense in a way.

Saber Alter had already changed the progression of events by beating Shirou in a training session earlier onward. Moreover, there was no telling what other changes that the rest had already made. The timeline would soon begin to diverge if only minutely.

By watching the order of events that occurred to child Arturia, could the other Arturia's in turn be able to influence the 'Alternate Records' of their dreams?

Another world.

Another timeline.

No one had an answer, but just the thought caused all of them to possess varying emotions on their faces. Mainly determination, and resolution.

Maybe, maybe this was actually an opportunity to change things for the better? A second chance with a guide to help show them coming events so that they could prepare for the worst?

Caught up in their musings, the silence between them caused them all to notice when one of them made a noise.

Lily froze while in the midst of getting comfortable. Unlike the other Arturia, she didn't have much to think about because she'd never had the opportunity to rule as a King in her life yet. She honestly didn't have any regrets at this point in her life either. Therefore, she laughed stiffly at the expressions of her counterparts, but in truth, she didn't care.

"D-Don't mind me. I'm just going back to sleep."

There was a trail of saliva at the edge of her mouth.

It wasn't difficult to assume what Lily had on her mind.

The rest considered it, and soon followed suit to their own Alternative Records.

Thinking could wait.

Hunger was the enemy.

P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious

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