The day that was not (Part 3)
It is dark. In a shadowy void of nothingness he just simply exists. It is hard to breath, even hard to blink - almost as is he isn’t meant to be here, like anyone is supposed to exist here.
„R..“ a feminine voice flys through the nothingness, it lacks emotion but at the same time overflows with it seemingly.
„R.n“ the same voice shouts again. He blinks his eyes: „Who is that voice? Why do I know her? What does she want?“ he would have loved to shout out loud but the void even swallows every other sound except for the voice.
„Run“ he can finally make out what the voice called out to him: „But run from what?“ He wants to asks, but again nothing comes out of his mouth. He squeezes his eyes. Finally he can see something in front of him. A silhouette covered in darkness walking torwards him. With each step the entity comes closer the cries turn louder.
Finally the figure stands in front of him. Two violet eyes look almost angry at him. What had he done, should he run from this? More and more of the person becomes visible, but most of it is covered by a dark veil. Almost white skin draws a strong contrast to the shadowy darkness. He knows that face, he has seen it just some seconds ago.
Subaru gulps with a shaky voice the first words spoken in the void can be heard: „S-S-Satella?“
Shortly, the girls eyes turn almost joyful but quickly return back to the more angry expression almost as if realizing something.
Her mouth moves again: „Run!“
Subaru doesn’t know why but he just wants to run suddenly. With a blink everything around him changes.
He is wide awaken. Something definitely is wrong, but what? Carefully he fully sits and stands up. His view falls onto Fortuna. Why is she not angry? He didn’t come back before darkness, he even missed dinner by falling asleep. Is he still unable to asses what he can and can’t do with his mortal body? But she doesn’t seem angry nor worried. If he has to guess it is almost like she is obvious. Is it some kind of trap? Did she realize that something isn’t right about him? Waiting for him to completely screw up?
There is only one way out of it. He bows down and says with a apologetic voice: „I am sorry about yesterday. I must have overestimated what I am capable of.“
A second of silence follows. Was it already to late? In a panicked voice Fortuna answers: „Wait, wait! You didn’t do anything wrong yesterday. Everything is ok.“ She bows down to his level: „I am very sorry if I gave you the impression that you did something wrong. Why don’t you sit up, you should eat something, after all you are a growing boy.“
At that Riz feels greatly relieved. But something still felt of like something was missing? Was his sudden unwanted nap result of some kind of magic. He has already learned a bit about this worlds magic and spirits, but definitely not enough to decide whether this was the cause of it or not. Or was it some kind of overstimulation? Or a result of his magic meeting with this world‘s mana. If he had been alone, he would have probably screamed out in frustration.
Fortuna gently walks over to the kitchen cupboard and points at it: „ In here you can find something to eat.“
At that he blinks, because she already showed him that. Is it because he gives the impression of a forgetful child. Biting his lip he asks nicely: „ Could you perhaps give me something out of there.“ He doesn’t want to sound ungrateful but doesn’t their contract state that she has to take care of him. Was she already sick of it? But she seemed so joyful yesterday.
Fortuna only blinks in confusion: „ Don’t you remember Riz? I cannot touch anything except for you because of your divine protection. Do you really feel well.“
Dread starts to form inside his stomach. But yesterday they formed a contract. She can interact with the world again. He reaches out to his magic and that is when he realizes: „Wher-e I-s the-e cont-ract?“ He asks with a shaken voice.
„What contract?“, Fortuna asks innocently.
His breath starts to get irregular. What is going on. Did my magic dissolve? Did I dream everything? He looks at the door and runs for it. He is almost in some kind of trance and cannot even hear Fortuna‘s panicked voice calling out for him. He runs outside into the snowy forest. His feet are cold, He forgot his shoes. Not even after a minute he falls straight into the snow. Everything feels cold. What is going on?
A strong chill runs down his arm. It is cold. Why is it cold? The clothes Fortuna gifted him are warm. But it is cold. With shaking hands his hands glide over the fabric. It also feels wrong. He looks down and frowns. They look wrong. They are wrong. He is wearing the rags again in which he entered this world. What is going on? Did Fortuna change him while he slept? She looked so disapproving of them yesterday. Is it some kind of lesson for falling asleep yesterday in the middle of nowhere?
He takes a long breath. He realizes that something clearly doesn’t add up: „Do not panic, calm down.“ he tries to assure himself. Then he hears Fortuna‘s voice calling out his name. He turns around and stands up, but nearly falls over. Fortuna runs torwards him, her eyes clearly reflect worry. By seeing him the worry changes to a more relived shade.
„What are you doing Riz? You cannot run out like that especially in clothes like this. What if you catch a could or fever! Oh no I hope you didn’t catch one yesterday!“ Furtana almost rambles.
With a guilty expression he looks at her :“ I am sorry, everything just looks so unfamiliar. I got a strange dream and didn’t know what to do.“
At that Fortuna‘s face softens: „ Well let’s go back home before you really become ill. I forgot how children can be sometimes, please cut me some slack. It has been a long time since I last had to take care of a child and after meeting you only yesterday, I still have to adjust to it.“
The last part caught his attention. So I met her only yesterday, but I can clearly remember that it was to days ago. So something really is wrong, but what is it? Some kind of backslash of traveling between worlds. Some kind of precognition ability, maybe some kind of divine protection? He shakes his head, there is time for this later. Now he should try to lessen Fortuna‘s worry. Without a word he heads to the shack with her trailing after him.
Finally, the cabin comes back in view. The whole time neither of them spoke. To Riz‘s surprise somebody stands in front of it. The sun is about to disappear again behind the snow-covered mountains.
„Thank Od Laguna, you found him!“ the figure says. It is only know that Riz recognizes the other person, it is the ghost he met yesterday, or more like the other day or maybe like in his vision - It is Archi.
„Yeah, thankfully he didn’t come very far, he was a bit spooked because of some nightmare. I’ve got a feeling he is quiet the rascal, almost like Emilia. But thank you for coming so fast to help me Archi.“ Fortuna smiles at the other ghost.
At that Archi blushes slightly, but turns his head around to cover it up: „Of course I did. Also, it is not like there is anything else to do but wait around here. So it can be seen as a nice distraction for once.“
Then he raises his attention to Riz: „Well, while we are at it let me introduce myself. The name is Archi, don’t wear it out and don’t forget it.“
At that Riz blinks. It is strange to be introduced to the same person twice in such a short amount of time - at least he guesses it was a small amount of time since he has met Archi. In his confusion he almost forgets answering and stutters: „Ah yeah, my name is R-Riz. Nice to see you ag- meet you.“
Archi studies him: „It is kind of strange that he can communicate with us like this.“ He returns his gaze back to Fortuna: „You said that he has some kind of divine protection for that? Never heard of one like this. But well we haven’t really experienced here anything from the outside world for a long time, haven’t we? It is kind of sad that Theklas exciting think to have happened was a stray mabeast breaking through the ice in the lake.“
There it was again, that unknown term. With a uncertain voice Riz asks: „ E-Excuse me but what is a mabeast? I’m not familiar with that term.“
Archi raises a brow at that: „He really doesn’t know some obvious stuff, does he Fortuna? Well you see Riz mabeast is another word for witchbeast. They are monsters believed to be created by the jealous witch. They are a curse onto this world.“
At that the only response left for him was a stammered:„Witch?“
Fortuna looks worried at him: „You do not have to be afraid, as you know the witch was sealed centuries ago by the sage, sword saint and dragon. You probably have experienced it at least once.“
She takes a small break almost like hoping that Riz would finish her thought. But he could not, after all he is not from this world, so how could he have known anything about it.
Now it is completly dark again. The only light source is the rising moon and the bright light from the cabin. But it must have been enough for Fortuna to see his confusion.
With a heavy sigh she continues: „It is just unfortunate that so many of us share here features. My purple eyes, our white hair and the elven heritage of every soul in this forrest - They are all reminders for the world of the existence of the witch of envy who devoured half of the world.“
With an expression of pure hate she looks up to the moon: „If it had not been for that awful reality-changing witch, you certainly would have been our demise, wouldn‘t it Satella?“
He gasps. He cannot fully comprehend everything. Because everything also stopped to matter with this one word.
…Satella
… his mother’s name.
And exactly at this moment the darkness overtook him again.
Everything is blurry. Daylight replaces the vast darkness. Subarus doesn’t understand what is going on. Again he hears a voice. He just wants tu run, but from what?
„What's the matter, boy? You look like you've seen a ghost.“ The voice called out. The world suddenly turns colorful. The Appa merchant is standing in front of him. He holds out an appa to him, but why? He turned him away before for having no money.
Subaru only asks full of confusion: „What?"
„I asked you about the appa. The appa! Do you even have money?" The merchant‘s voice turns angry, but it couldn’t compete with the voice from before.
... „What?" Is still the only response he is capable of.
„The appa! Are you buying it or not?" The man asks.
Subaru finally comes up with another response: „Oh…like I said, I'm broke beyond compare…" Subaru shakes his head. He does feel kind of awkward for having repeat it front of the same person twice today.
„What the hell? If you're just browsing then move along. I run a business here I don't have time for beggars" The shop's keeper yells and waves Subaru away.
Subaru walks further away: „What's going on? wasn't it nighttime just a minute ago?"
Then he hears it again, his skin turns cold, the hair stands up from his neck and for a second he could swear that his heart missed a beat: „Run.“
He starts running, running like his life depends on it. He runs further, but he doesn’t know where. But it doesn’t matter, because he has to do only one thing- run.
The people passing him give him a scrutinizing look, if he had worn something screaming slums a knight would probably have held him up accusing him of running away from a crime.
He continues running until finally his legs give up on him and he collapses on the ground. He ran for a long time - so long that the sun is already setting.
It is just now that he really can clear his head for a bit. He looks down and raises his clothes to find his belly uncut and perfectly healthy: „The wound on my belly is gone, like it was never there to begin with. But what did I see the before, was it some kind of nightmare? The I have some kind of future sight ability?“ He jokes to himself, the terrors of before seemingly forgotten.
"Oh, right! I forgot about Satella! Damn it, didn't Puck ask me to take care of her? I have to get back to that shop, the su already is setting."
He stands up and turns around: „So where am I exactly?“
Suddenly a loud explosion can be heard far away. Out of instinct Subaru turns torward the source of it. A giant smoke pillar erupts almost at the end of his vision. Clouds appear almost instantly on the clear sky and particles start to fall from the sky.
Subaru holds out his hands: „Snow?“
Then a large being seemingly appears out of the smoke. Everything turns cold. Two yellow orbs shine trough the night.
A disgruntled voice falls over the town, it can be heard in the whole capital: „This world has nothing left making it worthy to exist. So by the terms of my contract sleep along with my daughter forever.“
Before Subaru can even let out another confused „what?“. Subaru starts losing consciousness. The last thing he feels is excruciating pain, his body becomes heavy and he is unable to move.
The last thing he can thing before being lost to the white hell is the warning of the voice.
How should he have run away from that thing?
.
.
.
Snow falls quietly down swallowing the capital in a bright nothingness.