“Hey, Emma are you sure you’re okay?” Natalie asked while they were in the girls’ changing room of the fencing club. “You don’t look so good.”
Emma sighed while changing out of her uniform and into her fencing attire with the other girls in the club. Why is everyone asking me that today? “I’m fine, Nat. There’s nothing wrong with me—” The rest of her words were cut short when Natalie grasped the sides of her friend’s face and forced Emma to look at her. And given that Natalie was shorter than Emma the action alone almost hurt her neck.
“You may say that, but you still look pale. Maybe you should sit this one out?”
Emma gently took her friend’s hands off her face. “I’ll be fine, Natalie. We’re just doing practice with the students who joined. So, I won’t be fencing much.”
Natalie didn’t look convinced. “Still, you should at least bring it up with the captain.”
“It could be your period.” another girl said. “Maybe it’s starting soon?”
Emma shook her head. “That shouldn’t be it, mine just ended, it’s not for another month.”
“Well, have you been stressed by anything as of late?” another girl in the club asked.
Emma thought of the dream she had in the past while, along with the memory of that woman. “I wouldn’t say that I’m stressed—” she began only to be cut off when she heard an upperclassman called out.
“Five minutes left everyone!”
The rest of the girls began to rush, not wanting to get their captain’s bad side.
Emma left shortly after putting her ring on a chain before putting it in her shirt and then quickly tying back her red hair into a ponytail. She watched from afar as the boys on the fencing team practiced.
Many of the girls cheered as those on the fencing team showed how it was done and of course, Adam was the source of many of the girls’ cheers. Emma never understood it, even though she would receive much of her own cheering from girls and boys whenever she won. But this was different, almost sexual like he was flaunting it. Emma never liked that, nor him, not really. Just how he seemed to act bothered her.
As if noticing Emma looking his way, the young man gave a smile and winked.
The number of squeals could have made anyone go deaf from the sheer high pitch of it all. Even Natalie covered her ears in a vain attempt to keep some of her hearing.
“Ugh, what a show-off,” Natalie muttered to Emma. “You’d think he was an actual Prince or some crap.”
Emma remained silent, not reacting to Adam’s attempt to get a reaction or Natalie’s comment. Her gaze was now focused on the next group. Strange. She felt far more focused than before. As she watched the clash of blades and the tips touching a person’s body, the instructor called each point. Yet in each moment, instead of seeing her teammates, she saw scenes of a battle. Those clad in armour from different regions fighting in what seemed like a senseless war. Like a scene from history long ago.
“Emma,” Natalie shook her friend lightly. “You’re up,”
“Oh, thanks.” What was that? Emma thought as she placed on the face-covering and took her position. Dreaming while awake, that’s certainly new. Put it aside for now, and keep focused.
When the instructor started the match Emma was the first to move on the attack—striking her opponent’s opening with ease.
Emma continued to hit her opponent while trying to ignore the continuous images that flashed before her eyes of soldiers from centuries past. Yet when she was about to give the final blow, instead of seeing her opponent she saw something else.
No, someone else.
Who she saw was a person, a woman dressed in leather armour and carrying dual blades of some kind, but what made it all the stranger was that this woman was covered in fur, with prominent feline features on the face, hands, feet, ears, even a tail and striking golden eyes. Her long dark hair was woven into multiple braids and held together with a leather tie with glass and metal beads in her hair.
What? Who?
But Emma didn’t get the chance to figure it out because the moment she froze, she was snapped back into reality by her opponent’s sword coming right to her face. The force knocked off her protective mask. This action sent her falling backwards to the floor.
But instead of hitting the ground as she should have, she began to fall into darkness as she heard Natalie and others frantically calling her name which soon faded to nothing. She couldn’t do anything, only fall. Falling into the dark depths. Yet within that darkness, she saw more of those images, of places and people. Many different kinds of people, some human, others different. From scenic scenery to bloody battlefields to strange creatures that she had never seen before. What was this? What was happening?
Soon the darkness vanished and she was on solid ground, as her eyes adjusted to her new surroundings Emma became quickly aware that she was no longer in the school. But someplace else. Someplace much older. The walls were all stone, put together with highly crafted masonry, as there were even carvings chiselled into the stone. From the looks of it, it seemed to be of some type of relief. A woman with long wavy hair in the center; seemingly being worshiped by many others surrounded her with extended hands outstretched to the woman in the middle.
What was this?
Where was she?
“Please!” Emma soon turned when hearing an unfamiliar voice. Several feet away she could see two people, and the room that they were in resembled that of a throne room, or something akin to it, as there was no throne to be seen. And Emma could not move.
It was as if her feet had been glued to where she stood. She could only watch from afar.
Yet the one person, the taller one looked to be male, and his ears were pointed with long pale blond hair. This unknown man was an elf.
But their faces were shrouded in darkness, Emma couldn’t understand why that was the only thing she couldn’t see.
The elf grasped the hand of a woman dressed in a white Grecian-styled dress with long flowing wavy red hair. “I beseech you, let us run. Escape this place and go somewhere far away, just the two of us! Rosa, please!”
Rosa…?
Emma couldn’t make out the woman’s face, obscured by the darkness. Not even the dimly lit lanterns that lit the walls could give a hint of who she was.
That was until she spoke.
“You know I cannot.” She had the elf let go of her hands. “I cannot flee, you know the Prince will find us. No matter where we go, he will always find us.”
“I don’t care!” said the elf. “I will fight by your side and do everything I can to protect you from him! He will keep you in his grasp ever again, please, let us hurry!”
The woman remained unmoved, she took a step away from him, increasing the distance. “Why can’t you listen to my words? There is no point. No matter what you do. Only one person can grant my wish, and until they arrive, I must wait.”
“You’re… you’re waiting for someone…?” the elf asked, almost shocked that she was thinking of someone else.
The woman named Rosa looked away. “You wouldn’t understand, I have no choice. It’s this or eternal torment.”
“Then flee with me!”
She placed a hand over the elf’s cheek, her voice was calm yet firm. “I cannot but you can. Leave before someone spots you. It would be best if you forgot all about me. If you wish to live a long and happy life, you must do this. Please, Alard, leave me behind.”
The two began to fade leaving Emma within the darkness once again as she began to fall once more letting out a yell from the sudden drop. From above there was a light that broke through the darkness, a pinprick that grew larger the deeper she fell. Emma’s hand extended to grasp what it was in the hopes of stopping, only to realize it looked to be a glowing bird coming towards her where it shifted, a hand grasped hers.
As the form of a woman held her hand tight. She couldn’t see the woman’s face, but what Emma could see was that this woman’s body was birdlike. Covered completely in feathers with silver wings. Her hands were claw-like yet Emma felt a sense of warmth from this woman as she drew Emma close. The woman held Emma to her chest as they flew, it felt comforting as she closed her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, Emma found herself staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling as she was lying in the school’s infirmary bed. What was she doing here?
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
What was that, a dream? It felt almost real.
Slowly, Emma sat up trying to recall how she ended up here, but such thoughts stopped short when she heard a gasp coming from the right. Natalie was close by, she quickly got up from her seat and went to Emma’s side. “Thank goodness you’re awake, you had me worried.”
“What happened?”
“You fainted,”
Emma frowned. “Fainted? No, I…” She ran a hand over her face unable to tell Natalie the rest. That couldn’t have been real, right? A being like that? She looked like she belonged in some book or game. What was all of that?
“Well, it’s not like you fainted on purpose,” Natalie continued unaware of Emma’s sudden silence. “That new kid was the one who decided to do a cheap shot and went right for your face when you froze. The guy was such an ass about it too saying “It was fair, she wasn’t moving” and “She hit back too much”.” She spoke that bit in a lowered tone as if to mock the person’s words. “Seriously, he’s been on the fencing team for a month. He knows not to go for the face. Because of what happened, it looks like he’s going to be banned.”
“No surprise, did you carry me here?”
“I would have, but Adam was pretty quick to come to your aid. Say what you want about him, at least he genuinely cares when someone gets hurt.”
Emma remembered the student who had taken a cheap shot, but… everything else… was it just a dream? It all felt so real like she was there.
Noticing how Emma had fallen so quiet Natalie leaned forward a bit to get a better look at her friend’s face. “Hey, are you still not doing okay? Do you want me to call Erik? I know he’s currently on a field trip with his class today but he should know about what happened—”
“No, don’t!” Emma said quickly, cutting her friend off. “Don’t call Erik, please. I don’t want to worry him.”
“It’s his job to worry about you!” Natalie told her sternly like she was scolding one of her younger brothers. “He’s your legal guardian! And a teacher to boot, wouldn’t it make sense that he should know?”
“I know…” Emma admitted softly. “I just… he always worries about me. I don’t want him to feel like I’m a burden after everything he’s done for me. And you,” Emma grasped Natalie’s hand. “You worry a lot about me too...”
“Duh, I’m your friend,” Natalie responded in a mutter but gripped Emma’s hand, not letting go. “Of course, I worry about you, you big dork. You don’t think about yourself. So, someone has to. It might as well be Erik and me. So, you better—” Her words stopped short when Emma rested her head against Natalie’s shoulder.
“Thank you, Natalie … I mean it.”
Natalie relaxed and merely placed her free hand on Emma’s head. “It’s fine…”
* * *
Emma decided, after coaxing from her best friend, that it was better to head home early for the day. Natalie tagged along to make sure Emma didn’t faint again, but to also drag Emma to a new restaurant to get something to eat.
“…and I’m covering the bill!” Natalie concluded their conversation by pointing at Emma. “So, you don’t pay, not a single dime, understood?”
“Okay, okay, I get it. Just as long as they have something spicy, then I’m all good.”
When they arrived, Emma decided to order a hot spicey stew while Natalie ordered seafood stir-fry.
“This makes me think of Gulmak,” Emma commented as she ate the rather spicy stew.
She looked at Emma, puzzled. “What’s Gulmak?”
Emma paused. Then frowned. “I… I don’t know.” The word just came out of her mouth, she sounded so confident too, but never in her life had she ever heard of a dish with that name.
Natalie merely just looked at Emma for a moment. “Maybe it’s a meal from your parents? Your birth parents, I mean.”
“I was a baby, though.”
Natalie shrugged. “Just because you were a baby doesn’t mean you wouldn’t remember some core memories. It’s been documented that some memories just stick with you. Like me and toffee pudding.”
“You’ve always liked that kind of pudding.”
“Uh, yeah? Cause it’s good? You should try it.”
“You know I’m not into sweets all that much.” For reasons Emma could never understand, she just never liked sweets. It was too much, in comparison, to something spicey that she couldn’t get enough of.
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” was all that Natalie said before going back to eat and flagging down their waitress to order a second helping of both meals and dessert for herself as well as a coffee for Emma.
Then Natalie walked Emma to her house where she paused at the front door. She needed to tell Erik and Noah what happened, but they were both busy. Erik was currently on an all-day field trip with his class and Noah was out of the country dealing with clients for his work and the last thing she wanted was to cause something needless for them.
If it happened again, she would tell them, that was the least she could do.
Still, this past while so many strange things were happening. Her dreams, hearing voices, seeing things, sleeping while awake and visions of places and beings she had never seen before, laid heavily in her mind as she went inside and prepared for bed after convincing Natalie she would be fine until Erik came home.
What could it all mean?
Out of habit, she pressed the top of her ring to her lips, she found that doing that calmed some of her anxiety, even though some people thought it was weird.
She only did this knowing that she might never get any answers since these things had never happened before.
And that woman, she sounded so familiar.
If she was the princess from the story, did that mean that she was real? That she existed at one time or another? But how could that be? This was Earth, and there were no elves.
Rosa, Emma thought as she stared up at the ceiling in her bed, her mind began to drift off to sleep. Why do I feel, like I know you somehow?
* * *
In the following three days’ nothing out of the ordinary happened. Though Erik did tell her to stay home for one day, just to play it safe. Yet she no longer felt faint, didn’t have any strange dreams or heard things in the wind, maybe it was just a one-time thing?
Even when she went back to school and practiced fencing nothing felt out of the ordinary. Well, besides Adam being more attentive towards her which bothered Natalie to no end.
Stranger things could have been known to happen to people and no explanation would ever be given.
Of course, those that Emma knew were worried, with Erik especially, when he rushed home the day she fainted, where he scolded her for not calling him immediately.
“If it happened before it can happen again,” Erik sternly told her. He then gently rested his hands on her shoulders. “I know you don’t wish to be seen as a burden, but there is nothing wrong with asking for help. You aren’t a burden, Emma, and you never will be.” He then grasped her hands. “Promise me, the next time something like this happens, you tell me.”
She gripped his hands tightly. “I will, Erik, I promise I will.”
He smiled. “That’s all I ever ask,” then his gaze narrowed as he glance off to the side at his cell phone. “Now I need to speak to the faculty for not informing me of what happened.”
I should have just called him… she thought during class. She should have been paying attention, but her mind felt too muddled with her thoughts. It was weird how she had those dreams and the like, only for it all to just stop. She looked on forums about what her dream with the tower could mean, or of those people in what felt like a faint memory but nothing felt remotely close to what people posted.
Emma sighed, rubbing the creases of her eyes with her index finger and thumb. Kicking herself for not just calling him, but the worries and doubts stopped her.
She needed to stop feeling like she was causing problems for others when they worried. But given how life was back at the orphanage, it was hard to break an old habit.
It was something she never understood about herself but felt deep to her core. It was why she did all she could to help others who were in need, to be useful, to help. It’s why so many saw her as a Prince, but she was nothing more than a fraud.
Because at least when she helped others, she wouldn’t feel like a burden.
Emma shook her head, now was not the time to be thinking such things. Nothing strange happened again, she was fit and healthy, that’s all that should matter.
I should concentrate on class. She thought going back to taking notes from what was written on the board something fluttered into Emma’s line of sight, it was a red rose petal; she picked it up and looked at the lone red flower petal, where in the world did this come from?
None of the windows in the classroom were open, it couldn’t come from outside.
Before she could speculate further something about the classroom felt off. One moment everything was normal, then the next, this strange sense that something was wrong.
It was then that Emma noticed her classmates, they were all frozen. It was as if time had ceased to be for them but kept moving for Emma.
Emma shot up from her chair, not a single person was moving, yet how could she?
Moving away from the desk Emma looked around the classroom, the hallway, then looked outside. Birds were frozen in place, and the rain that had begun to fall was also frozen.
What in the world? She waved her hand in front of some of the students’ faces, but all remained unmoving, she pinched herself, and things remained frozen around her.
She wasn’t dreaming, but this was really, really strange.
“How did this…” she said aloud only to stop when hearing something that broke the silence, it was a song, a song being sung in a language that Emma never heard of before.
Yet familiar.
Then, she noticed something. Out in the field, she saw someone moving, but they were too far away. Quickly Emma ran out of the classroom and headed outside in the hopes to try and understand this strange phenomenon. The questions could come after she caught up to whoever that was, were they the ones singing this strange song? If they did then they had an incredible range that Lacus would kill for.
First having strange dreams then hearing voices, a strange image of a beast woman in armour, and now this unknown yet familiar song. What did it all mean?
No, she could try to figure that out later, right now, she just needed to reach that person.
As she got closer, the more Emma was sure of it, this person was like her, unstuck, not frozen in place. Time kept moving for them as well.
Emma continued to run, to try and reach this person cloaked in dark blue. Whoever they were had to have some kind of answer. Were they the cause of it?
Did this person somehow stop time? If so, why? And how?
What reason would there be to do that?
When she reached the top of the hill, Emma grasped her knees to catch her breath as the singing came to a halt as well, the song had ended but nothing had changed around them. “Is this your doing?” Emma asked.
“If it was, what would you do?” the person was a woman, at least from how they sounded, who had a peculiar accent, as though she hailed from some far-off land.
“What do you think? I’d ask you to stop this. If… if you did somehow stop time, which is crazy. Just please, make everything back to normal.” This is so crazy; I feel like I’m dreaming.
“This is no dream, Emma,” she spoke as if she had read her mind.
Emma froze. Did she just read her mind? “How do you know my name?”
“I know much, even what you don’t know about yourself.” the woman said as she turned to face Emma, but did not reveal her face for it was shrouded with the hood of her dark blue robes. Yet when she held up her hands, thick gold rings with a few encrusted with large gems, others with a peculiar scrawl, and gold chains, but what drew Emma’s eyes the most was that these hands were covered in silver-blue scales and long black nails. Almost like they were claws. “You, who will change the world. You with an impossible destiny. You, who will have no choice but to fight. O Rose Guard.”
“What?” Emma balked. “I don’t know what that means! Who are you?!”
The woman pointed a scaled finger to Emma’s hand where the ring lay on her finger. “You hold the ring; this was chosen long before you were born. With one task, and one task only.” Emma backed away intending to run, was this woman sane? But she did not get the chance as a bright light enveloped her, one that came from the sky. “You must help the Princess, then and only then, will you be free.”
All Emma could do was close her eyes as she felt like her whole body was being flited in the air but with some unknown force, the strange woman in blue robes remained where she was watching as the girl began to vanish from this plane of existence. Even with all that was happening Emma still tried to reach her until nothing was left. The woman merely looked up to the sky with blue-grey eyes like that of a reptile.
“My only wish is for your one desire to finally come true. Perhaps now it finally will. My Princess…”