Amelia opened her eyes.

She stretched her body and looked around.

It was currently morning in Horizon.

She stayed in her bed for a bit longer before her brain switched on.

"Oh."

Remembering what happened the day before, she sat on the edge of the bed.

After returning to Hocride, the group broke from Kamala. She had a lot to do to accommodate the survivors.

*YAWN*

Placing a hand in front of her mouth, she stood up and walked toward her clothes neatly folded on her chair.

"Hmm."

'I don't want to wear the clothes I wore yesterday. Let's change these.'

She walked to her wardrobe and opened it.

As she was standing in her white underwear, her gaze fell on a simple white shirt and a grey pair of jeans.

Now, only her hair needed to be worked on. The entangled mess that was her head had to be removed.

While brushing her hair, something caught her attention.

"What's this smell?"

She began to sniff the air, wondering what it could be, before suddenly jolting up.

"Something's burning?!"

Her hairbrush fell on the desk, before she slammed her door open.

The speed at which she ran down the corridor and down the stairs was astounding.

She opened the door to the dining room, and looked inside the kitchen.

"Damn it. I still can make it. Let's try again."

Noticing Orion, she quickly walked inside the kitchen.

"Orion? What are you doing?"

"Hi, Amelia. I'm cooking. Or at least I'm trying."

Holding a pan in his right hand and a spatula on his left, it looked different to his usual appearance.

To make it worse (or better for some), he was wearing the black apron that Amelia used when she cooked.

He looked pretty... good with it?

"Well, yes, that I can see. Why are you cooking?"

With a smile on his face, he explained.

"I felt like improving my cooking skills. I wanted to do something else for once."

Amelia blinked a few times and forgot her train of thought.

'Orion? Cooking? What is happening?'

Watching him scrape the burnt food off the pan, she looked around.

'That's a lot of failed dishes. There's at least twenty of them.'

Indeed, the plates were scattered on the table next to her, and on the counter on her other side.

While looking at the counter, she noticed Karteira sitting at the table in the dining room.

"You were here Karteira? Why didn't you stop him?"

"Not even a hello today?"

Karteira seemed to complain at Amelia's bad attitude today. She ignored it after that and answered.

"As if I will stop Orion from doing something he wants."

"You know how bad his cooking is, right?"

"Yes, and? He has the right to improve. What, are you scared that he will steal your place as the cook of the house?"

She laughed at her own joke.

'Something is weird. This morning is weird.'

Amelia was lost. Both Orion and Karteira were acting strangely.

"Of course not. But this is going too far right now. Leaving him alone will only led to these results. I should have been here to help him at least."

But the moment Amelia blinked and reopened her eyes, she was looking at the ceiling, feeling her body fall backward.

Orion turned around and threw what he had in his hands, and tried to catch Amelia, unsuccessfully.

'Slipping on a wrapper... Pitiful.'

*BONK*

-

"BUH!"

Amelia opened her eyes in a furry, feeling the intense pain on the top of her head.

She stood up and looked around.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

'A dream?'

All that happened previously was in her head. She dreamed of Orion cooking and Karteira defending the atrocious results of his trials.

'Thank the world it was a dream!'

Still grabbing her head, she sat on the edge of her bed.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Amelia, are you alright?"

She heard knocking on her door, followed by Karteira's worried voice.

"Yes, I'm fine. You can enter if you want."

Karteira opened the door and closed it behind her after walking inside.

"We heard a loud noise coming from your room, so I came to check on you."

She took the chair at the desk and sat in front of Amelia.

Noticing the shameful blush on her face, Karteira understood that she made the noise. Luckily for her, she managed to hear the most important part.

"So, why did you scream "BUH!" out of nowhere? We heard that one too."

If her face was slightly pink, now it was bright red.

"Are you serious? You heard that?"

"Sure we did."

Amelia let out a slow, long and quiet sigh out of her mouth.

"I fell from my bed... and hit my head on the floor."

Karteira stared at her with a blank expression.

"That can happen."

She was stuck between a raging urge to mock her, or ignore it because this would indeed sometimes happen to anyone.

Since she was on a roll in telling what had happened, she told her dream to Karteira.

And this time.

"Stop laughing!"

"Haha- No, that's too funny!"

Karteira was gasping for air.

"I'm going to die, thanks to you."

"That's not my problem!"

Amelia was pouting, while her friend was mocking her without restraint.

"Don't tell it to Orion though."

"I won't."

Karteira wiped her tears away.

"..."

They exchanged a gaze full of various meaning, until Amelia pressed further.

"You're going to tell him, aren't you?"

Her gaze was piercing.

"Of course I will tell him if you don't. He should know."

"Just to be clear, it's not to shame you. I also want to hear his opinion on that dream."

'And the fact that you slipped on a wrapper, which represented you falling from your bed.'

An uncontained smile formed on her face.

"I can't believe you when you look like that."

Karteira turned her face away, avoiding Amelia's piercing and accusing gaze, with a smile that was barely contained.

"Damn it! Now I have to tell him because of you! Why can't you keep it between us?"

'Because it's funnier like this.'

"Because it's funnier like this.'

'I messed up!'

Karteira blurted out her real thought instead of the excuse she needed.

"I knew it."

Amelia stood up, done with this discussion.

"Anyway. You can go back downstairs, I'm going to change and follow in a bit."

"Alright. Take you time."

Karteira placed the chair back in it's place, and opened the door.

"He's in the living room if you're looking for him. See you later."

She waved and closed the door behind her, leaving Amelia pouting like a child.

'I know she's having fun, but wait until I found a weakness. I'll be the first to tell him that.'

Her revenge was ongoing.

Just like in her dream, she changed to a white shirt and grey pair of pants. She brushed her hair carefully, and before long, she was done.

~

"Cooking? Me?"

Orion pointed at himself after dropping his book on his thigh.

He was relaxing on the couch inside the living room, when Amelia entered and began to tell her dream to him.

With an amused face, he reimagined the dream from her words, until the end.

"That's one way to go, I guess."

He laughed when he heard how Amelia slipped on a wrapper before waking up.

"I knew you were going to laugh too."

"Is your head alright? Is it still hurting?"

He wanted to caress her hair, but knowing that she might be hurt, he refrained from doing it.

"I doesn't hurt anymore, but can you just in case?"

"Sure."

Healing her head didn't take that long. Orion was improving the speed at which he healed drastically.

Since there was nothing else for him to improve on, everything had to be worked upon, and his healing process wasn't left out.

For minor strained and small injuries, less than a minute was needed. For broken bones, large wounds, or scars, around five minutes were needed.

Life-threatening injuries, or sicknesses were the hardest to heal. It would take half a day for that.

This was still an incredible feat. No one in this world had this kind of ability. How he used his light element was ingenious, and useful.

"Done."

He lightly tapped on her head.

"Thank you, I feel better."

The lingering pain finally eased, to Amelia's joy.

"Though, I don't really have that much of an interest in cooking."

She looked at him, knowing what he was going to say.

"Because how could you eat your own disgusting food when I am here to cook good meals?"

"Exactly. I'm just not made for cooking."

He turned his head away, slightly frustrated.

'That's one of the rare activities I am unable to do. I either burn my food, or change it's taste inadvertently.'

'I don't understand cooking.'

"I'll help you the day you want to cook. I'll teach you how to make simple meals."

He smiled.

"Yes, one day for sure. We have a lot of time on our hands anyway when we're here."

Karteira entered the room with a plate in her hands.

Orion and Amelia looked at her while she walked closer to them.

"Here, some coffee. I thought it would be a good time to have some."

She handed a cup to Amelia, and then Orion, before sitting on the other side of Orion with her own cup.

They both thanked her, feeling the heat of the cup between their fingers.

Placing the plate on the small table in front of the couch, she relaxed her body while drinking a sip of coffee.

Orion placed his book on the table after realizing that it was still on his leg, and also enjoyed his coffee in silence.

"So, I'm sorry to break the mood, but I needed to ask."

Karteira broke the silence first.

"We've had time to relax like you wanted, so can you tell me what you are planning to do next? Where are we going?"

He sipped his coffee, before looking at her.

"In all honesty, I have no idea where to go."

"Why?"

"I have no leads on the remaining three sparks that left the pillar of light in the past, and one of them was my mother's ring. We have to take care of the Apostles too, but the closest one is not an enemy, or so that's what we've been told by the man himself."

"Florian? That man who talked to you before coming to our realm?"

He nodded.

"Yes. That same person. I will have a word with Kamala to see if she has some information about him, or other Apostles."

"We've killed another one of them, we are bound to see a reaction from their side. If not, well, it's going to cost them."

"..."

A silent sigh left his mouth, which one was picked up by both girls.

"I plan on going to the destroyed town of Bandir before moving further."

"!"

The mood suddenly changed when they looked at Amelia.

Her expression wasn't pretty at all. She was full of hate just hearing the name of her hometown.

"Amelia, you have to see it for yourself. It's not that far from Hocride, and I can always go there myself beforehand."

'Travelling is going to be easier and faster from now on.'

While thinking that, he stroked Amelia's hair with his free hand to calm her down.

"One day, we'll find that Kelvin, and you will have your answer."

"Right."

Amelia calmed down, enjoying his touch.

'She's like a cat sometimes. That's cute.'

He imagined Amelia with blonde cat ears on top of her head and a blonde cat tail in her back.

He took his hand away from her hair and blushed a little.

'That's deadly! Thank the world she isn't like that.'

"Orion?"

Karteira called to him, forcing him to returned to reality.

"I hope it answered your question at least a bit."

"Well, I'm not completely satisfied, but I'll wait until you had a word with Kamala."

Kamala let the topic go, simply enjoying being here, with a cup of coffee in her hands.

Orion and Amelia also stopped thinking too much and sipped their coffee.

"What do we do this afternoon?"

Amelia asked, even though she knew the answer.

"Why, training of course."

"I knew you'd say that."

They both laughed, ready to tackle another tough day of training, in the midst of their peaceful life in Horizon.

~

While time was passing at a slower pace on the other side, a letter found its way to Kamala after returning to Hocride.

When she opened the letter, a look of surprise appeared on her face.

"This is... I have to tell him about it."

She walked downstairs, leaving her work area, and opened the little room with a portal in the middle of it.

Without fear, Kamala entered the portal.