The day was falling slowly, the Sun was towering high up in the sky hiding behind the thin curtain of pearl white clouds. Unlike the dark ominous clouds before, these white sheets of gas looked as though free from every sin.
August, as he walked slowly in the spacious streets of the town, his gaze falling here and there on different types of things people were selling. Then finally after a while, he saw a familiar shopkeeper, Logan —the vendor from before, he recalled. The old man looked exactly like he did a week ago. The wrinkles on his face were maybe a bit deeper?
August walked towards the shop as he remembered being told to bring some rice home by his mother.
"Uncle Logan!" he said, greeting the shopkeeper, "Good afternoon."
"A very good afternoon to you My Lord," replied Logan with a smile on his face, "firstly, let me thank you for saving my life back at the southern forest", he gestured to the various fruits and vegetables he had for sale, "So, how can I help you today?"
"No need to thank me" he replied waving a hand, "that was mostly Shelly. I can't take the credit for that" then, scratching the back of his head he said, "Do you also sell rice?"
"Of course" Logan replied, bringing out two full sacks of rice, then he opened them from one side and said, "I have both white rice and the red one. Which kind do you want to buy, my lord?"
August was here to buy rice as he was ordered by his mother. But the fact he didn't account for, was the presence of another variety of rice. Watching his puzzled expression Logan began to compare both of the rice varieties one by one, but that was something August already knew.
One of the many advantages of being a bookworm of course.
The fact that made him puzzled was that he couldn't recall which variety did his mother told him to bring.
'What a chore'
Indeed, he was already enduring the twitching of his muscles along with his mind recovering to the previous state from the aftereffects of the strain put by echoes on him. The question wasn't that difficult to answer, but August struggled to make a decision however.
"The red one" he said, not bothering to think for too long. He chose the type to take home which he knew had higher nutritional value than the other. Given, that was the only thing he knew about grocery shopping.
"And how much?" the humble shopkeeper asked in his usual polite manner. Watching expressions of the little boy in front turn into confusion he said, simplifying for him to decide, "A pack of two, three or five Kilograms?" with a lighthearted chuckle he continued, "Or perhaps all of them?"
"No thanks" August stared at him with a blank expression, clearly not impressed by his attempt to make a joke, "The pack of two kilos would do just fine."
Not bothering to humour Logan with more jokes and chortles, August bought the stuff he was asked to and left for home. On his way home he saw all but familiar sights of people doing their everyday work, children playing wholeheartedly, he saw people laughing, cracking jokes together. A sight which made him feel a hint of warmth inside.
Then he turned his gaze to his left, there stood a magnificent building, more luxurious than most of the houses in the town. Suddenly he was overwhelmed by the memories of the events from the past.
August had given up on the idea of becoming a mage long ago. So, he had no reasons to learn more about elements or mana, that's why he never enrolled into the regular classes. He never wanted to be the reason for people to hurt or worse, to lose their lives. Therefore it was better for him to stay away from the children of his age who were aspiring to become great mages one day.
That's why he never got to talk to anybody after the trial class incident. That's why he never had any friends beside Shelly. But it was all for his sake. Befriending someone sharing the same goal on which he had given up upon, would've only resulted in hurting himself more. God knows what would've happened if he was continuously reminded of being an ambivalent not by anyone else but himself.
So it was alright for August. Alright to be alone, alright not to be a genius mage or whatever, alright to be an ambivalent, alright to be …a failure.
'No need to fret over it now'
With a sigh he waved all of his worries away knowing well that he had left those worrisome matters a long way back.
As he took a step ahead he saw something or someone very strange to their nameless town. The sight was also unusual for him to make something out of it. At some distance from himself he saw a crowd of children younger than him gathered in a circle.
Were they playing a game or was it something else?
Well, it wasn't like a gathering of children was quite a strange matter for the town but to him something seemed very unusual about that. It was like air suddenly shifted or was there a change in atmosphere?
Whatever it was August decided to take a look, as he got close to them he saw some colourful winged insects hovering above the crowd. He thought this might not be a game but they are here to watch those beautiful insects. Who could blame them, it sure was an uncommon and beautiful sight.
Then he got more close to them and saw more of those insects, as he was able to take a closer look at them he found them even more beautiful. They were like a treat for the eyes.
Their thin membranous wings glamoured with all the different colours of the rainbow. Blue shone vibrant as did red and yellow. The colours blended into one another perfectly giving away a sparkly radiance. While there was the rest of the insect as well, their two long coiled antennas, three pairs of jointed appendages and longitudinally segmented body but let's be real here, who in their right mind would ignore the beauty of their huge, coloured wings.
As August drew more closer to the circle formed by children and got a glance at the middle he found out that there was someone at the centre. August guessed that this stranger might be the cause of this beautiful gathering of these winged insects. And he was right.
He earlier thought the centre of attraction might be one of those children from his town and they would be showing off their elemental aspect or something like that. But what or whom he saw however after going past the crowd was a face very unfamiliar to himself and the whole town.
It wasn't like their town was so big for him to not recognize an outsider. His gaze fell upon the mysterious stranger.
— — —
Before August, there was a girl sitting on a luxuriously crafted and well made wooden wheelchair. As she turned towards August he saw her face clearly.
Her silver-white hair swaying with the gentle winds of the day, falling occasionally on her flawlessly beautiful face. Her deep blue eyes shining like gems as did her pearl-white skin in the brilliant warmth of radiant Sun. Sure, the weather was cloudy a while ago but it cleared?
She wore a long white well designed gown covered with black stripes fashionably, complimenting her fair skin-tone well in the Sunlight. The silver earrings sparkled as did her black ribbon tied in a bow along with her long beautiful hair. Two braids tied within the bowed black ribbon, bangs falling on her face and the rest of them kept untied in perfection.
As beautiful her attire and all of the appearance was, her elegant body language and the glamorous way she carried herself wasn't also something lower than that of royalty. August for once thought she might very well be the princess of the Empire but then his reasoning —what might the princess of The Empire would come to a place like here for? —made sense. Another thought came to his mind, like he had seen this kind of captivating beauty with elegance before.
Where?
He suddenly remembered.
'Is she …is she Princess Aurora?'
That can't also be true, because Princess Aurora lived hundreds of years ago, if not thousands. So what, August thought, 'She might be a descendant of princess Aurora'
Finally August came to his senses as he realised his wild speculations weren't making any sense. But the question still remained: who was this girl in front of him? What was her identity? From the looks of her she doesn't look much older than himself.
He scratched the back of his head lost in his own thoughts, again. August thought their gazes met for a moment but he immediately realised that he was being late to go back home.
'Crap! Mom would be furious'
He turned away in a hurry, the thought of finding more about this beautiful girl did cross his mind but he was too much of an introverted shy person to talk to a stranger, let alone a beauty like her.
As he was about to take a step forward someone from behind grabbed his arm. Their grip was gentle, just enough to make him stop right where he stood.
He turned back only to face the girl, her deep blue eyes stared at him in a complicated expression. She let go of him as August stood there for a while in confusion. Then she said in her gentle and pleasant voice,
"Excuse me …Can you help me? I think I am lost."
She said something but August stood there …frozen. How? And why is this beautiful girl talking to him? She said something about being lost? What? how? Who is she? Where did she come from? Why was she asking him for help? …Why him?
August was overwhelmed by the rising questions in his mind but he stood firm. Trying his best to not let his confusion be seen on his face. The beauty of the girl in front of him was bewitching enough to make anyone stumble on their words and what's with her voice? It's so pleasant and good to hear but for some reason it was sending shivers down through his spine.
For a moment August thought her to be a human mimicking creature trying to lure him in her trap. He thought of her innocent and overly gorgeous face to be a result of a spell.
'Is this some kind of elemental aspect?'
August was trying his best to find out more about that stranger. Trying to draw more logical conclusions but the wheels of his thoughts stopped turning as she spoke once again snapping him back to reality,
"Hey! Are you alright?"
"Ahm.." Clearing his throat August threw all of the useless thoughts away and answered her,trying to gather all of the confidence as he could at that moment, "Ah, yes, I am"
"Oh! Thank the gods" She said her eyes shining with an emotion August couldn't quite comprehend, "So, can you help me? Please"
The gentleness in her voice washed away all the suspicions August had about her. Even he didn't know how.
"Well it depends" He answered in his confidently firm voice, "Can I ask who might you be?" he continued with the same expression, "Haven't seen you around here"
"Ah, yes" She answered without a delay, "I am new here. It hasn't even been a full day and I am already lost."
While this girl seemed like a noble lady, royalty if nothing else. She wouldn't have come here alone. Not to mention she was in a wheelchair, so there were more chances of her having someone to carry her around or to push her chair or whatever, not like he was suddenly interested in her wheelchair or something.
"A friend of my father's lives in this town. You would've probably heard of them" She spoke trying to let out more details as she remembered and August was waiting for a name because there was hardly anyone in their small town he didn't recognised but he was left surprised when the girl in front of him spoke her next words, "uh his name is Lord Valerius."
August's eyes widened in surprise hearing his father's name and got lost into his thoughts once again. What? Father? But who is she?
She asked me the way to my own house?
"Get away from my sister you creep"
Suddenly a voice shouted from behind and that was the only thing August remembered before falling on the ground unconscious after receiving a smack directly on the back of his head.
— — — — —