Minerva seemed just as excited to head down to the village as Y/N was. Vargas had somehow managed to get her saddled up without being kicked, and by the time Y/N got down to the stables, Minerva was prancing around expectantly.
"Hey, Minerva," Y/N called out. She walked up to the fence and nimbly climbed over, landing in the paddock on the other side. Minerva trotted over and bumped her nose against Y/N's chin, making the girl laugh.
"Well, it's nice to see you too, girl." Y/N pulled a bright red apple from her saddlebag and held it out for the horse.
"Here you are, girl. How about we just keep this a secret between you and me so that Crowley doesn't have a fit?" Minerva seemed to agree and soon the two were racing down the path of the paddock. Y/N grinned as she urged the horse to run, and as they reached the end of the field, Minerva's wings emerged from her back, stretching to the sides and carrying the duo up into the clouds.
. . .
The village was unlike anything Y/N had seen before. Cobblestone streets that stretched from one side of the island to the other, buildings that seemed uniform, though with twists that the owners added to make them unique, shops for clothes, accessories, and anything else that a student could want, bakeries and cafes, and too many other things for Y/N to see with only her two eyes. Even as she and Minerva flew overhead, watching as everyone mingled around below. Y/N saw a few NRC uniforms, probably other top students who had been extended the same offer as her, but most people wandering around seemed to either be dressed in a white suit, or in casual attire that blended in with those who lived in the village.
"What do you say that we get you to a stable with some food," Y/N said. Minerva whinnied in agreement. The two looped around and flew back to the entrance of the village where Y/N had seen a stable saying that it was open for people who needed an empty stall for horses, or in Y/N's case, a pegasus.
Once she was sure that Minerva was getting the best treatment a pegasus could want, she headed into the main part of the village, her eyes wide with excitement as she took in the sights that this quaint little place offered. She wandered around for the first few minutes, stunned by how beautiful and peaceful everything was compared to everything that had happened recently up at the school, but soon, she started to miss her troublesome friends.
'It would have been nice to come here with some people that I knew,' Y/N thought, her lips pursed in semi-irritation. But what was she supposed to do? Crowley had only given her permission to visit the village, with hopes that she might meet some RSA students.
But as she was walking around, she felt her phone vibrate and she pulled it out. She smiled when she saw that it was a text from Cater.
Cater <3: Where are you?? Are you okay??
'Oops. I guess I forgot to tell them...' She frowned when she saw Cater's name in her phone. 'That's the last time I trust him with my phone...' He had been the one to put his number into her phone, so he had also taken the liberty of inputting his name.
Y/N: Crowley let me go down to the village for the day. Something about bonding with the RSA students?
Cater <3: Aww. I wanted to go with you :(
Y/N: Maybe you can come next time
Cater <3: Fineee~
Cater <3: I gtg. Riddle needs help
Y/N: Okay. Cya
Cater <3: <3
Y/N rolled her eyes and was about to put her phone away when she suddenly crashed into someone.
'Shoot,' she thought. 'Now they're gonna get mad and-'
Y/N's eyes went wide as her eyes met bright hazel eyes. For once, they didn't seem malicious. Instead, they seemed worried.
"Are you all right?"
Y/N righted herself and brushed herself off. "Yeah. Sorry for bumping into you."
The boy laughed and waved his hand as if brushing away a fly. "Don't worry about it. It's a crowded village! I can hardly go a day without bumping into someone."
Y/N bit her lip. "Still. Is there some way that I can repay you?"
"If you insist..." the boy smirked. "How about you join me and my friends for some coffee? We were just about to go to the cafe." He gestured across the street to where a cute little cafe was standing with a bunch of tables that were already crowded with people.
Y/N shrugged. "Sure. Seems like fun."
The boy grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, steering her into the cafe. "Exactly what I was thinking. My name's Lan by the way." He held out the pin on his scarlet red jacket to show Y/N the unfamiliar logo of his school. "What's your name?"
"Y/N. Y/N Artem. I go to NRC."
Lan quirked an eyebrow at the girl. "NRC, huh? Maybe I shouldn't invite you to sit with my friends."
Y/N felt fear in the pit of her stomach, suddenly remembering the rivalry between the two schools. Maybe she should have left that part out...
Lan suddenly burst out laughing. "Don't worry about it, Y/N. We don't really listen to the rivalry. I'm pretty sure that it's just your school that listens to that."
Y/N rolled her eyes. "Of course. The school full of entitled boys."
"I am surprised that you're going there though. I thought it was an all-boys school."
"It is. Except for me."
"Really? You have the favour of the headmaster or something?"
Y/N shrugged, not interested in getting into the details of her odd scholarship-like acceptance into the school. Lan, thankfully, didn't press, and instead just steered her into the cafe, behind the large garage door that had been opened to let some of the sunlight and fresh air in.
It seemed that most of the cafe had been taken over by Lan and his friends because the table that he steered Y/N to was certainly one of the larger tables in the cafe. Not to mention the booths that also seemed to contain more of his friends. Y/N glanced at Lan, who was eagerly waving to everyone.
"Hey, Lan! Over here!"
"Come on, Y/N."
Lan took Y/N's hand instead, dragging her behind him as they wove between the tables, eventually finding a small booth where a few other boys were waiting for Lan. Lan slid into the booth first before pulling Y/N down next to him.
"Y/N these are my friends. Lei, Liang, Yingjie, and Peng. Guys, this is Y/N."
All of the boys waved to Y/N, though Liang seemed to be stiffer than the others.
"Where's -" Lan was suddenly cut off by another boy with flaming red hair running into the room, panting heavily. He slumped over on the edge of the table, nearly hitting Y/N in the face with his hair.
"Y/N," Yingjie said, "This is our friend-"
"I can introduce myself!" The boy stood up, flipped his mop of hair over his head, and struck a pose, throwing both arms out to the sides while puffing out his chest. "I am the powerful, the pleasurable, the indestructible Ju-Long!"
Y/N bit her lip to keep from laughing at his somewhat humorous introduction. His friends, however, had a different reaction.
"You know, you could have just introduced yourself. You don't have to throw all of that extra-"
"Ah ah ah, Lan! I can introduce myself as I see fit. So save your lecture for someone else." He held up his hand, turned his head away, and slid into his seat.
"As you can see," Lan sighed. "Everyone is..."
"Friendly," Y/N supplied.
Lan nodded.
"So, Y/N," Lei said, raising his hand to signal a passing waitress. "Where do you live on this island?"
"NRC."
Ju-Long shot up out of his seat, knocking a tray of drinks out of a waitress's hands. Y/N reacted in a flash of light, shooting out her hand and twirling her hand through the air as if she was guiding a gust of air. The coffee and other beverages righted themselves on the tray and it slowly floated back down into the lady's hands.
"Are you okay," Y/N asked.
The lady nodded. "Thank you, Miss." She glared at Ju-Long and stalked off to another table that was full of RSA boys.
"Seriously, Ju-Long," Liang sighed. "Be careful."
"But she goes to NRC! Lan! How dare you bring this..."
Y/N silenced the boy with a glare, and he quickly sat down in his seat again. But the damage was done. The name NRC started to float around the tables, and Y/N felt a rosy colour forming on her cheeks. This was not how she wanted today to go.
"Wait... Y/N?"
Y/N looked up to see two boys standing next to the table, one with bright red hair and blue eyes, while the other had skin as white as snow and hair as black as ebony. To put it plainly, they were stunning. Y/N looked around to see the girls in the cafe looking slightly hateful.
"Y/N Artem," the redhead asked. The black-haired boy seemed incapable of forming words.
"Uh... yeah. That's me." The words had hardly left Y/N's mouth before she was pulled into a group hug by the two boys. She felt incredibly awkward hugging these two boys in front of everyone, but she felt more awkward with her arms out to the side like a chicken so she wrapped one arm around each boy. Both were shouting about how they missed her and how she hadn't written to them like she promised to, but Y/N was aware of the many eyes watching them, so as quickly as she could, she separated from the hug.
"Um... is there a place where we could talk... quietly?"
The boys nodded and the boy she recognized as Neige LeBlanc grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the cafe.
"Wait, Y/N," Lan yelled, looking like he was about to jump out of his seat to chase after her.
"I'll be back in a minute!"
The two boys brought Y/N down to the docks, which wasn't too far from the cafe, and all three of them sat down, one on either side of Y/N. The girl kicked her legs anxiously as she told them about how she didn't remember them because of her memory loss. Neither of them took it too hard and quickly started explaining how they all knew each other, though Y/N had a few memories of her encounters with Neige.
"So... my family would often visit your family," Y/N asked.
Prince Rielle of the Coral Sea nodded eagerly and reached into his jacket. He pulled out a small locket in the shape of a shell and opened it to show it to Y/N. Inside was a tiny picture of Y/N and Rielle, much younger than they were now, swimming through the halls.
"I was going to give this to you for your seventeenth birthday... but you disappeared before I could." Rielle stroked the edge of the picture. "You were supposed to come and celebrate but-"
"I never did..."
Y/N felt her heart ache. How many people had she forgotten? How long had it been since she had forgotten all these people? She didn't even know how old she was now. How long had she been asleep?
"N/N?"
Neige reached out and took Y/N's hand in his. He smiled at her. "You don't have to worry about the past now. We're together again, and that's all that matters!"
Y/N wiped away a few stray tears and nodded, wrapping an arm around the boy's shoulders and pulling them into a hug.
. . .
The three soon headed back to the cafe. The boys didn't feel like leaving Y/N alone, so they pushed all of the tables together, promising to move them back once they were finished, and started introducing Y/N to the entire RSA student body. Or at least, Y/N felt that it was the entire student body. Her cheeks ached from saying hello and smiling at people by the time her new friends were finished introducing everyone.
The boy sitting to her right, Ellard, asked her if she knew his cousins who attended NRC. They were Trein's grandsons, and Ellard's cousins had been chosen to study in Pomefiore.
"No. I don't know them. At least I don't think I do..."
Ellard smiled. "That's good. They're not the nicest." He took a sip of his espresso awkwardly.
"I'll make sure to keep an eye out for them."
A/N: This is only part 1 of Y/N down in the village with her friends. Part 2 will be coming out tomorrow! Also, I'm still looking for suggestions on who to add to this wonderful world of Twisted Wonderland, so make sure to either comment or dm me what your favourite Disney movies are! Also I love the animated tribute (video posted above).