Her dreams were erratic that morning, she saw locations she did not know yet they had the eerie feeling of déjà vu, she saw strangers who talked to her as if they were friends, enemies and sometimes even family.
These feelings came in waves, distant, fragmented, like being at a beach and observing the fishes in the sea.
There was a school, like the one she had been to, but in the dream, she was at the top of her class, and everyone complimented her, but that only made her feel bitter. She saw herself walking with two friends in the city, a happy memory where she said things that made the other ones agree with her and smile, a burning feeling built up in her throat and spilt from her mouth, it was poison, yet nobody reacted, not even herself.
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Alana woke up feeling exhausted, holding her head as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. There was a haze in her mind and there were a lot of uncontrolled, almost random thoughts, something she had only felt when she had very bad fevers.
Someone made a rustling noise to her side, and as the witch looked at the source, her mind fully woke up, with all the memories of the last day flooding in.
She had friends sleeping over in her little messy houseboat! How could she forget!? Shooting up to her feet, she looked at both of her friends. Maze was sleeping on the floor, fallen over a pile of pillows, while Qullqi was still on the couch, sleeping in a slouched sitting position, hugging her rifle. Alana didn’t know if that was safe, but she didn’t want to wake up the duo just yet.
First, she really, really needed to prepare her home to have guests over! She didn’t even know where to start first, the kitchen was a mess, there was trash littering the floors, piles upon piles of crumpled paper and dusty books...
“Oh. My clothes...” She was still wearing the makeshift leaf cape and only that, her original outfit was lost back in the muddy fields, it had stopped being proper clothing a while ago, and Alana had no idea in what state of dress she was when they entered the underground village.
Typically, she wouldn’t care about feeling ashamed of her body, but the context of being the one adult in a group of three meant she had to be more careful.
That meant a good bath and getting some proper clothing was her priority. It was a good thing that she had got some extra dresses from both Qull’s place and the mall.
As she finished washing in the cramped bathroom, she made sure to give the place a quick clean and get two extra towels, since she assumed her friends might want to bathe as well later. Then, clad in a green dress with a white pinafore over it, she moved on to the next crucial task.
The kitchen was less messy than the living room, but it was also a far more critical location, so she wanted to deal with it before anyone had a chance of waking up. Before she did, however, she picked up a wooden spinning top with runic carvings on it, she placed it on the ground and it started to spin by itself, creating a little controlled whirlwind that captured all the dust and debris on the ground as the top travelled randomly around the home.
The situation of the sink was dreary, dirty dishes alone wouldn’t be an issue, but she had allowed her pans and pots to reach a deplorable state, with rust and crusted oil, some even had funguses and long rotten food remains. Similarly, the counter where she kept her foodstuff was also a mess of bags and packages, some closed and some open, as well as some fruit, some fresh, some almost melting into puddles of rot or fuzzy from being covered in mould.
She had never realized it had gotten that bad, but now that she had people coming over, she needed to fix it all. She picked up her gloves, they were made from a special material that would shield her flesh from the rot and water, it was extracted from specials trees found deep in the jungle and then turned into shapes by a complex process, if Alana recalled correctly, the material was called ‘rubber’.
She did away with the rotten food, organised what was salvageable and cleaned up the plates, utensils and cups. She tried to deal with some of the pans as well but ultimately decided hiding most of them in the cupboard would be more cost-effective.
With her friends still sleeping, it was time to move to the living room, or rather, living area, as her houseboat was small and all but a few rooms in the back and the bathroom were all part of the same area.
The main issue zone of her messy room was a pile of paper, books and magazines. Atop this were the latest ones she had acquired, the beginner mage's book Qull had bought for her in the mall, which she was grateful for but also a bit offended at it being tagged a book 'for dummies'. She also had pamphlets and some cheap adventure novels she had found in the bargain bin.
Beneath were some books from her school years, the ones she had cared about, which were two books on the Babelish language, which was the lingua franca of the world, one book on biology, and a book on basic woodcraft. All else, such as mathematics, thaumaturgy, chemistry, history, geography and so on were left at the very bottom of the pile, long forgotten. Also adding to the pile were old notebooks, novels and comic books, as well as many random pages she had doodled on.
Finally, there were things from her grandma around, including some old, outdated and no longer functional devices. Only the radio had lasted to this day.
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Driven by a desire to be a good host, Alana decided to separate the pile in three. Stuff that had to be hidden in one of the rooms in the back, stuff that could stay in the living room and stuff that could be thrown away immediately. This would not be a permanent solution because Alana’s plan was to have the rooms in the back become bedrooms for the other two.
Just thinking of that created a wide smile on her face. She had never ever had any other person visit her home, she had only shared this boat sometimes with her grandma and now she had friends sleeping over in her living room! Friends who would later live in here for a month as they went on an adventure.
She couldn’t contain her excitement, tip-tapping on the ground and wagging her tail while thinking of all the fun things she would get to do with friends.
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By the time the other two woke up, they were greeted with a less messy home and freshly made breakfast atop the table. Alana had prepared coffee and lemonade and opened a pack of biscuits. It was simple stuff, but her eyes shone as she sat there, with two people, having breakfast!
“Hehe! It's all very delicious, no? I bought these biscuits in a shop.” she said, smiling, then blushing as she realized that was absolutely mundane information, everybody bought biscuits in a shop.
“It's a cosy place, Lana,” Qull said, drinking yet another cup of coffee. “And having a house which you can move around seems nice. I just worry about the shelves.”
“It's all enchanted Qull, takes a lot to make it fall.” Alana pouted, realizing she didn’t have a cute nickname to give Qull in exchange for those Lanas the chimera had started to use. Well, technically, Qull was already the short version of Qullqi, but everyone called her that so it wouldn’t be special.
“What happened with all those old devices that were here in the morning, pup?” Maze asked.
“Oh, I took them away, so they wouldn’t clog up the room.” Alana smiled.
“I see. You know, those could sell for some nice manas if we find a collector.” Maze smirked now.
“Arf, no. They belonged to my grandma; I can’t just throw them away.”
“Hey, it's not throwing away, it's just finding them a new home where they will be appreciated and...”
“Drop it, Maze. Don’t pressure the girl just to make a profit.” Qull warned, eyes narrowing.
Alana smiled but she didn’t think Mazeline was entirely wrong, it just wasn’t the time, maybe they could discuss this later.
“Anyway.” The witch hummed. “What are we doing today? Do we have plans? It's our first actual time working together as a trio, no?” she tilted her head slightly.
“We need to meet an agent of our sponsor, that is urgent in my opinion,” Maze said.
“You need to give me back my cape,” Qull added.
“Can’t walk around topless, Chiribaya.”
"Then go buy a shirt. You know what a mall is, right?”
“Bah... I guess, I just... don’t have the energy. Do you know how hard it will find something that fits my height? I am almost 1.9m in a land where 1.6m is above average for a girl.”
Alana raised her hand as the two bickered. “The girl on the house above is kinda tall too, maybe she could lend something. Hmm! I think I will go there right now! You two make yourselves at home, the bathroom is that door with the red flowers painted on it if you wanna take a bath or do stuff... you know. There is food in the cupboards... BUT NOT THAT CUPBOARD TO THE LEFT.”
Her friends were left staring, Maze didn’t even giggle, that was how awkward Alana had made it. Lacking the courage to continue this mess, the witch, with stiff movements, started to move away. “See... see you two soon!”
She rushed outside, taking a breath of that fresh, damp underground cave air, letting the light of the storm engine shine upon her, then rushing ahead, up the makeshift staircase, into the wooden platform by the side of the stilt house.
“Knock knock,” she said, as knocking was impossible, the front door was a curtain of wooden beads.
“Alanya? Come in!” The voice of her neighbour echoed from inside.
Abiding, Alana walked in to see the peculiar girl with yellow hair that was not blonde but rather, almost 'egg yolk' coloured in how vibrant and flat it was. She was sitting, legs crossed, on the floor, in her strange almost furniture-free home. To her surprise, there was another girl with her, a middle schooler, maybe 14 years old? Turquoise hair, wide eyes, as if she was seeing an apparition.
“Good morning Sefi. I was wondering if you had some clothes to lend to a friend of mine? She got all of hers digested by a mutant slime, you see?”
“Ah! My friend, Alana!” The yellow-haired woman stood up and gave the witch a hug. Alana blushing. “How delightful to see you! I shall investigate my wardrobe to determine if I possess any additional garments. Please stay with Rumina in the meantime, I will see you again in 3 minutes!”
Alana waved at her as she left in a rush, smiling. That smile grew tense as the turquoise-haired friend kept staring. She was a quiet girl, with a jacket over her school uniform, headphones around her neck and a dragon-themed bracelet.
“Is... is there something on my face?” The witch said nervously.
Finally, the schoolgirl gave up, tapped at her bracelet and had her hair shine up with a new white colour, a soft turquoise glow spreading over her frame, a cute pastel-coloured armour replacing her clothing.
“Oh! Hey Rumi.” the witch smiled. “I didn’t know you could disguise yourself as a schoolgirl. But you should not fool Sefirah, she is a good person.”
“That is... That is the opposite.” The magical girl sighed. “Anyway, she knows who I am, she is the one person I said I wanted to protect from the Tengu’s group! How did you know her? Did you follow me yesterday?”
“Oh! I gave her this house, didn’t you know?” the house was not hers to start with, but she was the one occupying the abandoned building by the time Sefi arrived. “We are, hmm, wouldn’t say friends, but at least pals.”
“Hello Alanya! I have brought the requested garment, will this suffice?” Sefirah said as she entered the room again.
“Of course!” The witch took the sports shorts and top and nodded. “I will be going now, thanks Sefi! If you need anything, ask me!”
But before Alana could leave, Rumi grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to stop and look back at them.
“Look, I am tired of finding you by chance every day. You said your crew has issues with the Tengu, yeah? You understand that the corporation is up to no good, yeah?”
“Yes! They chased us just because my friend stole some things from them.”
Rumi stared again and then facepalmed. “Whatever, the enemy of my enemy, Rumi, the enemy of my enemy,” she whispered to herself before continuing. “I want you to help us. I will have my agent come over to explain a few things. I also want to know what this tale of a mutant slime is about.”
“I... I don’t know if I can speak for my friends. But if they are going after Safi, then I could help. Uhm. We are called Cerberus by the way...”