The First Step towards the Future

I wasn't too sure about what I had been expecting. But, their mild looks and gentle smiles definitely weren't on my list of expected reactions. I had just gone in the dining hall in my weird outfit, and all they said was...

"Well, what are you waiting for? Sit down and eat, child."

"That dress does suit you well, Princess Elly! I do have quite the taste, don't I, Janmira?"

"... I don't know about that, Lady Regina."

I edged a bit closer and got up on the tall chair, looking around the table quite anxiously. "Don't I... look weird?"

"Why ever would you look weird with the genes of that father of yours?" Regina asked.

I shook my head. "No, I mean... With my hair like this?"

Regina looked up at my short, dark curls. She frowned, "What about them?"

"I mean they're so short!" I shouted in exasperation. "I look weird wearing a dress with hair as short as this."

"... But there's nothing wrong with short hair?" Regina said to my disbelief. "I prefer mine even shorter in the summer heat whenever I visit the Desert Lands."

I got even more frustrated at her nonchalance. Then, before I could shout out any more, my mentor had called out to me gently, "Child, there are many customs around the world. Although Saule Kingdom wills their women to have long hair, other countries do not hold so much importance in the length of a person's hair."

"You mean to say," I started. "... that I don't look all that weird the way I am?"

"Definitely not," he said. "You look perfectly normal."

To my expectance, there was a shout of disagreement. However, it wasn't what I had expected at all. "She absolutely doesn't look normal, you old scrooge! She looks delightfully wonderful! Isn't that right, Janmira?"

"Un." The ghost unexpectedly nodded. "... You look beautiful, Elle."

Caught by surprise, I had to struggle for a coherent answer. "Um.. Ah! Tha-Thank you, Janmira."

Receiving a compliment from Janmira while she had that girl's face was quite a new experience, and although I fretted about it too much, I also felt a certain warmth.

"Now, let's all begin breaking our fast before it all gets cold." Regina clapped once and the table once again glowed before revealing an array of morning food. Bacon. Eggs. Assorted meat and bread. Cups of fresh juice. The delicious smell wafted into my nostrils, making my stomach grumble impatiently. I picked up some honeyed ham with a silver fork and bit into it. My mouth was filled with the sweet, juicy flavor, and I sighed in delight. I gorged myself up, now finding such well-made food to be a delicacy especially after those three months of rough travels. Even the food prepared on the Wyvern Clan couldn't compare to Regina's meals.

"Delishoush!" I spoke with food still in my mouth.

"Chew slowly, little one," Regina chided me with a smile. "There's plenty to go around."

After our lovely meal, we got ourselves ready to leave the flower house. Janmira cloaked herself as per usual, but I was surprised when even I was given a dark hooded cloak for myself.

"We'll need to be covered where we're going," Regina explained, fastening the cloak's buttons on my chest. Then, she brandished a shiny little thing. "And here, something for your hair."

She clipped on a blue-gem ornament at the side of my head, keeping the few stray strands of hair out of my face.

"There. Now, don't you look like the perfect, little girl?" I faced the mirror by the doorway, finding myself looking not so abnormal after all. My short hair still somewhat stood out in my eyes, but the shiny, elaborate pin on it did make me look like a baby girl, with hair still short from infancy. I giggled at the thought. It seems like I have been growing younger and younger ever since I had been brought back into time.

"I love it," I said, looking at the woman's ruby eyes. "So where are we going?"

She smiled mysteriously. "A place where you can start living your dream."

My eyes grew wide. "And where might that be?"

"Oh, just follow us," she said. "You'll see it when you see it."

~~

It seems like the primary mode of travel in the Isle of Malaya was walking. I didn't really mind, but it did strike me as odd. We had been walking as a group of hooded figures. To my surprise, the morning sun, nearing its apex, didn't do much to my well bundled up form. It seems like there was a sort of insulation system in our cloaks, making it breathable and quite cool.

I've walked for hours on the Isle now but the sights still amazed me. The varying aesthetics of the visiting and local people filled my curiosity levels up to the brim.

"What even is the floating Isle of Malaya?" I muttered as a bright orange, flying large-toothed squirrel flapped around my head. It was quickly chased off by an extremely skinny man, dressed in what looked like baggy pants, with skin as white as chalk. He was shouting in a language that seemed to me like grunts and high pitched screams.

I giggled a bit despite my initial alarm.

"Well, it is hard to say for sure," my mentor replied thoughtfully. "The scribes say it has always been here in the world since the dawn of time. Others say a great warlock once made it on a whim. But even now, after so many years, the Malayan leader, the Datu, and his Maharlika can barely control the Isle's flight path."

"But they have always said back in the palace that it was supposed to be held static above a different continent," I said.

Farseer nodded. "True, but for whatever reasons, even the Maharlika cannot keep it still. It seems to have been drawn to the Aerim Continent."

"There were a great deal of problems due to that," Regina joined in. "The Continental Wars needed to be put at a still while the Isle floated past the great waters. This might have been the first long breath of peace since the start of the Wars."

"... Might I ask when it started flying towards this continent?" I asked.

Regina thought for a bit. "Probably just more than a year ago. I remember just barely returning from my travels before it started moving."

My eyes grew wide. 'Wouldn't that have been almost the same time I was brought back into the past?'

I wondered if there was a certain connection to all of this. After all, I didn't recall anything like this happening in my past life. I could only conclude that the Music might have been involved in this new event.

"Regina," I called out to her in a whisper once we were walking together. "I wanted to ask something about the gods."

Her yellow brows went up. "I didn't see you as a religious type, but go ahead. I might know a few things."

"Well, do you perhaps know of any gods... manifesting in the form of music?" I asked.

She thought about it seriously. "I know tons of gods with a connection to music. There are a few divine beings who would appear as singing angels to mortals, but... music itself as a god? I don't know, Elly... I don't recall anything like it."

"Oh, I see," I said, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice. "Then how about a certain creature, with a woman's sleeping face, scaled body of what looks like a dragon, and a coiled up tail ending with a ball of fur?"

At that, she was probably caught off guard. She paused before allowing a little laugh. "What is this, Elly? Why the sudden detailed questions?"

I looked away, not knowing how to describe my fleetful dreams. Thankfully, I was saved by the ghost's voice from ahead of us. "Lady Regina, Farseer told me to call you both."

"Ah, we've arrived," Regina claimed, almost looking shocked at her own whereabouts. "Well then, children, let us go down?"

"Down?" I asked, looking around the deserted rotunda with a large stone statue of a praying woman. "Where exactly are we supposed to go?"

Janmira grabbed unto my hand, making me flinch. But then Regina took my other one as well. I looked up at her in confusion. She said, "Well, we'll just have to take a leap of faith, yes?"

"What? And where is Farseer?" I uttered. Then, both of them started running, dragging me along, and we neared and neared the statue, and just when I thought we would be heading for a crash against hard stone, both of them jumped and lifted me up with them. Dreading the impact against the statue woman's chest, I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, I was firmly clutching onto Regina's torso, holding onto dear life. I don't know how it happened but I was hugging onto the magician when I found my bearings. "Umm..."

"Princess Elly," Regina smiled at me. "Won't you look around?"

Still embarrassed by my position, I followed her instructions and saw that instead of the deserted rotunda, we were at a hall with no windows and low ceilings. I bet I could touch the dark slabs of ceiling if I just reach my hands up. "Where are we?"

Thankfully, I was put down on the floor by my yellow haired companion. Taking that as my signal, I walked around in a circle, surveying the hall. The hall wasn't too large, but wasn't as small as a commoner's room either. The dark walls and floors made it look constricting and mysterious as well. There wasn't any furniture, and there wasn't even any doors at all. The only thing that placed the room was a marble emblem at the center of one wall. I stepped cautiously towards it.

Finally seeing the marble emblem up close, I gasped out in utter shock.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Is this the creature you were describing earlier, Princess Eleftheria?"

My body shook. Crafted onto the white marble was indeed the sleeping creature I had danced with in my dream. It wasn't a perfect likeness, but the form was undeniably the same.

"How-?" I started, but then there was the loud sound of the sliding of the panel of wall from the other side of us. From the small gap of the wall, a figure came out, clothed in the same cloak as we wore.

Regina stepped forward, quickly followed by Janmira. Then, they both removed their hoods.

"Regina, Second Magician of Elrock, and little Janmira of the West," the figure announced. "The Order once again receives you. We have already received into our company the High Warlock, Elmar the Farseer."

Then, even though its head was covered by its hood, I knew it had turned to look at me. "And who might be our new guest?"

I gulped down nervously, but also knew that I could trust whoever my companions trusted their own names with.

I removed my hood with slightly shaking hands. I moved to curtsy, but the figure had already started speaking.

"Ah, the Fallen Princess of the Kingdom of Saule," it announced, before removing its own hood, revealing a fair face and a pool of light brown hair. The woman smiled. "The Order welcomes Princess Eleftheria into our court."