Deja-vu
She’d gone to the past. No explanation, no possible reason or excuse to how she got here but here she was. Soaking wet, somewhere which was not where she was in a few mere minutes ago. One minute she was walking excitedly to Sersi—and now Dane’s—apartment to tell/surprise them that she was going to graduate college early and the next she was rolling down the side of a small hill right into a pond.
Luckily being able to swim and the plus of the pond being not so deep, she easily got out.
Taking a look at her surrounding she was definitely very much lost. Taking a look at herself, she found that her bag and everything that was on her besides her clothes were gone. She hurriedly looked back at the pond and groaned as she saw her bag floating among the green mush of moss.
“Great. Lost my way and lost my phone. Just great.”
She dug her foot back into the mud to try and salvage whatever was left of her floating bag. But before she could get far, someone took notice of her.
“Are you okay?” It took all her willpower to not look back at who was talking because she knew perfectly well who it was.
“Sersi, what are you doing? We must go back as soon as we can.” Sprite panicked as she heard another familiar voice that was setting off alarms in her head that told her this was a very bad situation. Very very bad.
“But, Ajak look, she must be hurt.” Sprite could hear someone joining her as the water splashed with every step.
Okay think sprite, possibly from the past Sersi is walking towards you and you may have grown up but they might still recognize you. Think!
As Sersi got closer, Sprite dived into the pond. Disgusted with herself as she rubbed as much mud as she could on her face and hair. She heard a yell of panic as her head broke the water’s surface.
“Are you okay?” She could feel two arms holding her—probably in case she slumped into the water again.
Even after being covered with mud, she still wasn’t sure if she wouldn’t be recognized. So she laid all her weight at the green armored Sersi and pretended to cough as she buried her face on her shoulder,
Probably tracking mud all over the woman’s clothes. Sorry Sersi.
“Ajak! I think she’s hurt!” Another pair of arms took one of her hands as they walked to the edge of the pond.
She vaguely heard Ajak telling Sersi to get something that would dry her up as the woman herself checked Sprite over. There wasn’t anything hurting, so she herself figured she was fine. Sprite froze up when Ajak came to look at her face.
A warm familiar hand brought her messed up hair away from her face and cleared up the mud that was covering one of her eyes.
“You have wonderful hair.” Of course, her bright-colored hair wouldn’t stay concealed. Although Ajak showed no sign of recognition besides the color of her hair.
“One of my friends has hair like yours.” Sprite was confused as to why Ajak was talking to her so politely, softly, and slowly. But then she realized Ajak didn’t know her. To her, this grown-up sprite was just a human lost and not a member of her family that missed her so very much. The fondness and familiarity only came from Sprite’s point of view. Ajak only saw a stranger.
Sersi came back not too long after and left again after being told by Ajak to go ahead of her. She would follow up along with Sprite.
After trying her hardest to get the mud out of her shoes, Ajak’s voice startled her.
“You’re not from here are you?”
Sprite tried her best to look nonchalant and continued cleaning. “Why do you think that?”
As Ajak chuckled, she turned to face the older woman.
“Your clothes don’t belong from this time.” She gestured at Sprite’s body and the shoe that was in her hand.
“And you are not where you’re supposed to be.” She froze under the watchful eyes that used to look at her with care and love.
Her suspiciousness alerted Sprite, and she realized. “That kind lady from before, you sent her to get your other friends didn’t you?”
Ajak tilted her head. “And how do you know I have other friends?”
Sprite had no answer and just sat in silence. She wasn’t wrong before when she said Ajak didn’t recognize her. She didn’t. But Sprite could see clearly that Ajak knew her. So she asked the question she dreaded.
“Do I remind you of someone? One of your friends?”
She held her breath as Ajak kept her gaze on her, unblinking.
“I have a theory as to who you are. But I’m not sure if it’s true.” A pause. “No… I don’t know if I want it to be true.”
She could hear her own choked-up voice. “And what if it is?”
“Who are you?”
Sprite was sure you weren’t supposed to mess up the past but a part of her also wanted this Ajak to know who she was and treat her with the same kindness she would treat her past self.
“I’m a storyteller.”
Ajak’s eyes teared up and Sprite knew she had broken at least one of the many rules of time traveling.
She was engulfed in a hug and she groaned. “Ajak you’re going to get mud all over yourself.”
Ajak of course didn’t listen as she took Sprite’s face into her hands and turned it side to side as if wanting to see every little bit of her face that held a resemblance to her face before.
“Look at you! You’ve grown,” Excitement turned to horror “you’ve grown. Sprite what happened?!”
She was quick to calm her once leader. “I’m okay. A lot of things happened. But I’m okay,” when she didn’t look convinced Sprite added “and happy. Very happy.”
“How are you here? Did the others come with you?” Ajak turned to look back to the lake.
“No. I’m here alone.”
She pried the hands on her face away and Ajak cupped both of Sprite’s hands instead. “Tell me about the future.”
Sprite snorted. “I’m pretty sure that’s violating time travel rule number one.”
“Tell me how are the others doing. Are they okay? How are you doing??” Ajak pushed on.
“We’re fine. Hey! We have movie nights at the very least once every few months.” Sprite excitedly told her.
“And is everyone okay?”
Sprite wondered if Ajak had mind-reading abilities along with her healing ones. There was no possible way Ajak would know they weren’t all- alive in the future or that she was dead herself.
“Well if it hurts you to talk about them- us it’s fine.” At Sprite’s questioning glance she answered. “You’re not very good at keeping secrets Sprite. I can see it in how you keep avoiding looking at my eyes. I’m not- there in the future am I?”
She could feel the tears slowly coming out of her eyes as she answered shakily, “No, you're not.”
“Well. To be truthful I’m not worried about my death. I am worried about how you all will fare without me ‘mother-henning’ all of you to remember to eat for Arishem’s sake.” Ajak exclaimed.
Sprite laughed and added, “At least you never had to remind Druig that.”
They fell into heartfelt laughter all the while with tear-stained faces.
As the minutes passed by she wondered if it was her who didn’t want to let Ajak go or if it was Ajak who didn’t want her to leave. But unlike when she arrived, this time she had a feeling that her time was up and she had to go back.
Ajak seemed to feel it as well. “Can’t you wait until you meet the others? They finally won’t joke about your height anymore.” She teased.
Sprite replied. “Yeah, and mini-me will have a heart attack. Besides, I don’t think I’m the one controlling this time travel thing.”
She took one of her hands out of Ajak’s grasp to wipe her tears away. As she did that, she could see new droplets arising in Ajak’s eyes. Sprite chuckled and looked down at the hands that were holding hers.
Softly she whispered. “I’m going to be alright. You can let me go now.”
“I know, I’m so proud of you Sprite.”
A dream and many centuries later she stood in Sersi’s living room. One of her shoes missing and mud was still in her hair. Faintly she could still feel the phantom feeling of a motherly hand on her shoulder.
“Sprite! What happened?! Your filthy!” Sersi went away probably searching for a towel.
Sprite called out. “I think I need a new bag. And phone too!”
“What? What happened to the ones you have?” Sersi came back and as she handed Sprite her towel she froze.
“What?” Sprite asked.
Sersi’s eyes glossed over. “Deja-vu.”