"It's not possible to save everything. Prioritize your goals." ~Uryuu Minene (Future Diary)
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It all became so lovely
Those bluest skies above me
Those funny feelings I had never felt
Before I met you
As a child, I lived in a small village that was surrounded by a huge endless forest in a mountain. It wasn't all trees, though. Nearby, in the outskirts of the village was a flower field that the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen in my entire life would bloom out of. There were other villages in the mountain, but you had to walk through the forest first to get there, which takes a really long time. I lived in a small house with my mom. I never knew what happened to my dad. Whenever I ask, Mom would quickly change the subject and when I persist, she gets mad at me so I learned that it's a sensitive button I shouldn't press. There were only like 100 to 150 of us living in each village. Yeah, our world was not that populated. But that didn't mean we lived like normal people.
It was today that I was walking home from school in a white ruffled gown past my knees with a blue ribbon on my neck with matching blue sandals and a book bag when I saw that one of the empty houses looked like there was someone living in there. I knew I shouldn't talk to strangers, but I know everyone here. I told you before; it's a tiny village! It's easy to know everyone here! Still in my school clothes, I ran up to the house and knocked in the door. A brunette woman with a colonial-looking purple dress and a white apron opened the door. She smiled, "I assume you live here in this village?"
"Yeah," I replied. "I know everyone here in this village, except you! Who are you?"
"I'm Naminè's mother."
"Oh, that new blonde shy kid?"
"Yup, here she is now!"
I turned to see a girl with pale skin and rosy cheeks, blonde hair that is draped over her right shoulder, and in a sleeveless white gown with blue sandals. "Hi Mom." She greeted quietly.
"Hello, Naminè!" Her mom greeted. "You have a guest today! Her name is..."
"Sakura," I told her. "You can call me Saki for short! Everybody here calls me that!"
"Sakura came by today to meet us! Isn't that nice of her?" Naminè's mom explained. "Let's show her around. Want to come and see our house?"
"Yeah!" I said as she led us inside.
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I'd thought I stay a while
I tried to learn to smile
So many colors I had never even known
I learned that Naminè and her mom are artists. They have tons of drawings, both completed and not completed, drawn in various styles all over their house. They make a living by selling them. Naminè is pretty shy so she didn't make friends with the other kids. She only wanted to be friends with me. She said I was the trustworthy type for her. Funny thing is, no one knows where Naminè and her mom came from. They said they just appeared here from the forest, bought a house, and began living here.
Naminè and I were in the flower fields today after school, our book bags discarded to the side as we picked flowers for our parents. "Saki?" I heard my mom call as I stood up from where I was bending down, plucking the flower before doing so. "Can you come over? It's important."
I turned and ran to where my mother was, a colorful bouquet in hand. My mother had jet-black hair and icy blue eyes, like mine. She wore a traditional white kimono with a red collar with red and yellow trim where you folded the robe over her body and a red sash secured with a yellow decorative rope. All over the kimono there were flowers outlines in various colors, almost matching the bouquet in my arms. She smiled at me, "I have something for you."
She handed me a necklace with a gold chain and a green stone with a gold leaf outline pendent. "What's this?" I asked.
"A necklace that has been passed done our family for generations," She explained. "I had this when I was your age. I thinks it's time for you to have it."
"Wow, it's a nice necklace," I said, taking the necklace in hand. "This is for you!" I handed her the bouquet.
"Oh, these are beautiful sweetheart," Mom was about to take the bouquet from me when she stopped herself.
"Mom?" I asked her. "What's wrong? Do you not like it?"
"I just remembered that I brought a camera with me so we could take your photo of you and I with your necklace," Mom smiled at me. "How about we take it with your bouquet? I'll ask that person over there if they could take our photo for us."
As Mom went over and asked the local villager for a favor, I saw Naminè with her mother, about to leave. "Hey, Naminè!" I called, running up to her.
"Is something the matter?" She softly asked me.
"Mom just gave me this really pretty necklace!" I showed her the necklace Mom gave me.
"Wow!" Naminè's eyes sparkled at seeing my necklace, which made me giggle at how cute she was acting.
"It's a very beautiful necklace," Naminè's mother complimented me.
"Thank you!" I replied. "Would you like to join us for our photo? I think it's better if I'm standing there with my necklace and my best friend and her mom!"
"Mom, what do you think?" Naminè tugged her mother's dress.
"Let's ask Saki's mother if she's okay with it," her mother stated as Mom approached us with the villager who held the camera in their hands.
"Mom, mom!" I said. "Is it okay that Naminè and her mom joins us in our picture?"
"I don't see why not," Mom shrugged. "The more, the merrier!"
As we got into our positions-Mom and Naminè's mother behind us with their hands on our shoulders while Naminè and I held our bouquets close to us but I made sure my bouquet didn't cover my face. Outside the bouquet of flowers I gripped my new necklace by its chain so that it was visible when the picture came out. "Okay, are we ready?" The villager asked as they positioned the camera to take our picture. "3...2...1..."
Maybe I'll find myself
Sitting on that distant shore
Maybe I'm not alone
It as now that I noticed Naminè's bouquet was covering her face but I didn't have the chance to point that out because the villager yelled, "Smile!" and took our picture.
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Then I see the colors fading
Gentleness of light escaping
Shadows of my fear invading
It was a winter day and I was walking home with Naminè, telling her about the recent snowstorm. The air staring to feel really stuffy, which was weird because a snowstorm just passed by. Then, Naminè and I started coughing really hard. As we reached the village center, I looked up to see thick, dark smoke covering the sky. Charcoal flew in the air and landed on the snow like black specks. I looked at the village. Houses were in fire. I saw Naminè's house billowing smoke. "Mom!" She cried, running to the house.
She was about to open the door when I yanked her back. "No, Naminè!" I shouted.
"B-But...M-Mom!" She sobbed, struggling through my grasp to get to her mom.
"Naminè, look!" I said, pointing to the burning house. "It's about to collapse in on itself in a few minutes! If your mom's in there...she's not going to make it out."
Naminè watched in grief as her house crumbled, still consumed by the flames as she sank to her knees in the snow and gripped the edges of her dress. "M-Mom...!" She sobbed, lowering her head as she began to weep over her dead mother.
Orange creatures with pyramid-like tops that resembled lanterns flew around us. One of them spotted us and its tip of the hat began to glow, a sir it was going to fire something at us. I spotted it and tugged Naminè in fear. "Naminè, we have to move!" I shrieked.
As it fired a fireball at us, I screamed and Naminè snapped her head up just before Mom tackled us to the ground and the fireball missed us.
"Mom!" I sighed with relief.
"We have to get out of here!" Mom ordered as she hoisted us up and took our hands and sprinted out of the village. "We have to get to the neighboring villages and warn them of this! These creatures move very fast, so we have to beat them!"
We ran it into the snowy forest. I stole a look back at our burning village to see it crumble to ashes, the fire still burning as it caught onto the trees near the burning homes. The creatures emerged from it and began looking around. One of them spotted us and signaled the others. "We need to hurry!" Mom shouted.
Have I seen this all before?
We took off into the forest with them flying right at our heels, trying to set us on fire but instead setting the forest on fire. One of them finally caught up and shirt a fireball at us, hitting my mom in the back and knocking her down. "MOM!!!" I screamed.
I shook her quickly but she didn't respond. The creatures caught up to us and Naminè pulled me up and yanked me with her as we ran more into the forest. I took one look back at Mom's corpse to see the strange creatures setting it it on fire, burning whatever was left of it. I immediately regretted looking back as I looked forward once more, tears running down my cheeks at losing my mom. I gripped the necklace around my neck, the last connection I have with her.
I know that there's something residing
A terror deep inside me
We got away from the fire but the snowstorm hit us but we still kept on moving. The strong winds and snowfall were a bother, but nothing we could handle as we hiked our way through the snow, hugging ourselves to keep whatever body heat we had left contained inside of us. We weren't exactly prepared to be on the run when we left school today. I was wearing a high-collared white button-up top that has a bright red bow on the neck part with a black skirt that goes down to her knees that are attached to the shirt by overall straps with silver buckles, black shoes and black headband on my head with ribbons on it for decoration with a black bow as a hair accessory while Naminè dawned her usual strapless white knee-length blue gown with blue sandals.
The snowstorm grew worse as we progressed on. Soon, all I saw ahead of me were flurries of white. "We have to stop!" I chattered.
"No...keep...moving...or...die!" Naminè shivered.
I couldn't understand how
You could be so bold
Something dark appeared ahead of us. I stumbled closer to see a dark, swirling portal. My eyes lit up. "This is our ticket, Naminè!" I yelled.
"But, what if it transport us--" She started.
"There's no time to ponder!" I screamed over the storm. "We have to trust in faith and hope that it will get us someplace safer!"
I grabbed her hand and jumped in. We landed feet first and skittered across cement. "Where are we?" Naminè asked.
I didn't get to reply to her because I blacked out due to exhaustion.
Maybe I'll find myself
Smiling on that distant shore
Maybe I'm not alone
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Anybody get the reference from the drawing I did and attached at the top of the chapter?