Gray hummed a merry little tune to himself as he strolled through town, Alile's hand in his grip. No longer garbed in his gray robes, Alile could now see that he wore a pair of shabby brown jeans and a plain green, wrinkled t-shirt, giving him the appearance of some poor bum, rather than a master thief. It had stopped snowing, and much to Alile's surprise, Gray never even acknowledged the sudden change in weather.
"Fresh aro-....empty space...!" Spritelile read, still going haywire. Every few minutes it would try and make a prediction, only to cut off and start freaking out over this 'empty space' it spoke of.
"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" Alile asked eventually.
"Shouldn't you know that already, little miss psychic?" Gray smirked back at her.
Alile averted her gaze. "I really am psychic you know." I'll show this guy, she thought, then focused, hoping she could still get Spritelile to work.
"Up...upccoming popfly? East? Predictions unsure..."
"Sure you are." Gray was looking straight ahead again so Alile couldn't see his face, but she could just feel him rolling his eyes.
"If I was a phony..." she released her hand from his grip, "I wouldn't know that there's an oncoming popfly." she edged to the right and stood a good distance away from a yard, where two boys were playing baseball.
"Oh really?" Gray came to a stop and watched the kids. "So they'll hit a popfly, and you'll be, like," Gray rose his voice to a high pitched, girly tone, "I told you so!" he bounced on his heels pointing at Alile's chest. Did he really imagine she would act like that? That was the type of bubbly airhead action Alile would expect out of someone like Alsen, not someone as calm and collected as herself. Just the thought of herself acting like that almost cracked a smile across her face. Almost.
"This is going to be my best pitch ever, get ready!" the boy with the ball said as he threw it for a pitch. Alile rose her hand above her head right before the bat was swung, her heart beating in anticipation. Gray might have made a fool out of her before, but this time she'd prove herself. But as the ball was batted, that anticipation turned into horror as she watched it blast off in a straight line.
"Oof!" Gray moaned as the ball crashed directly into his gut.
"What?" Alile gasped out in disbelief. She was wrong...again? The ball did come their way, but not in the way that she had predicted.
Gray let out a weak laugh, "Guess I got the lucky catch?" he dusted himself off and stood back up.
"How did you...?" she asked, trying her hardest to maintain her cool.
"How'd I what? I didn't do anything."
Alile was lost for words. Gray wasn't wrong...he didn't do anything but take a ball to the gut. What could the cause for this be?
"You look as if you were the one that got hit." Gray stared at her attentively.
"Pfft." she brushed his comment off.
"Are you salty over making a fool of yourself yet again?" he asked as he reached for her hand again, but she stepped back.
"You know you have to give that back, right?"she asked, referring to the ball. Truth be told, she could care less if those kids got their ball or not. She just couldn't stand letting this man get away with making her look like a total idiot.
Gray laughed as if she had told a really clever joke, "Give it back? To those snot-nosed little spoiled brats? Even tho they'll just go crying to their mommy and daddy and get a brand new one anyway?" he laughed some more while slapping his knee in obvious exaggeration.
"It's their ball, isn't it?"
"So what?"
"So give it back. Now." Alile spoke with authority. She hoped Gray hadn't forgotten that he was practically in her pocket right now.
"What are you going to do if I don't, little miss phony?" Gray asked, his tone practically daring her.
"Did you forget that I can easily turn you in if I so please?" Alile whispered so that no one else would hear her.
Gray pouted like a child, "Oh alright..." he turned back to the yard where the boys had been playing, but they were no longer outside. "Oh well, we tried, back to our romantic date~" he tried to walk off, but Alile flicked her wrist, using the wind to pull him back.
"You're not going anywhere."
Gray whimpered like a scolded dog. Minutes later, the kids, along with a woman who could be assumed to be their mother, came outside.
"Are you sure it really went into the street?" their mother asked, scanning around the yard.
"Yeah, it just blasted off like a rocket!" her son complained.
"That's the fifth ball you lost this week..." their mother sighed. "Looks like daddy will have to buy you a new one tomorrow."
Alile elbowed Gray in the rib. "Go on."
"Do I have to?" Gray groaned, but Alile just stared at him expectantly, so he cleared his throat. "'Scuse me!"
The woman and her kids stopped and turned around. "Can I help you?" she asked.
"I believe this belongs to you." he lazily threw the ball over the gate and briskly walked off, not even giving them a chance to thank him. "Happy now?" he grumbled to Alile, who followed close behind him. Returning the ball seemed to have replaced his jovial nature with a rising ire, but before Alile could question him on it, he pointed up and chimed, "Oh, lookie! This is the best restaurant on this side of town!" the building he was pointing up at was labeled 'The Red Stork'. Just like that, he was back to his normal self. What was wrong with this guy?
Gray wrapped his arm around Alile's and led her inside. Polished mahogany tables decorated with fine silk tablecloths filled up the front of the restaurant, each accompanied by a pair of chairs. To Alile's left, a large counter with an overhead roof made up the reception desk. Due to the thick orange curtains that covered the windows, the sunlight filtered through and mixed with the red walls and ceiling to give the room a reddish-orange hue. The entire floor was encompassed by a thick red carpet. All the red coloration along with tables for just two made it clear that this was one of those romantic diners for couples. It was made all the more obvious by the fact that everyone there were either couples between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, or newlyweds. No wonder they call it 'The Red Stork'. Very clever. Alile imagined that someone girly like Casele would instantly love this place, but Alile herself found all the red to be rather abhorrent.
"Don't you think you've gotten a little ahead of yourself, taking me somewhere like this?" Alile asked as Gray pulled out a chair for her. She obliged and sat facing him.
"You asked me out and didn't pick a restaurant, so I picked one myself. If you didn't like it, you should've said so. Oh, that's right, you're a phony psychic, you didn't know where we were going!"
Alie clicked her tongue. "...How long are you going to mock me over this?"
"How long will you cry wolf to the wolf himself?" Gray whispered.
Alile didn't bother responding to his taunt, simply flipping through the pages of the menu that she wasn't even reading. Maybe she could get back at him...just predict what she'll eat, and he'll have to admit that she's no phony, right? It was risky, after so many failed predictions, but at this point could she even look any more stupid?
"Thre...no, perhaps two...grilled cheese sandwiches? Curly fries, soda flavored...orange, no, no, grape, and a side of marinara and ranch." Spritelile predicted as Alile focused, but then said, "Nothing...nothing lies ahead..."
One of the unoccupied waitresses approached their table, with a memo pad in one hand and a cup with two straws inside in the other. "Hello there, may I take your order?" she asked. She didn't look like she could be any older than sixteen at best, and like all the other waitresses, was dressed in a pink uniform shirt with a matching pink skirt, topped off with a ridiculous red hat shaped as a stork. Who in the seven hells thought that would look cute?
"Hmm, I think today I'll have...some steak with a side of mac and cheese, please." Gray closed his menu with a smile.
"And for you, miss?"
"Surprise me."
"What was that?" the waitress repeated as if she didn't hear Alile properly.
"Surprise me. I'll take whatever you have, even if it must be the rings of saturn decorated in fresh vampire brains and fried by the solar rays of pineapple juice. But if you try to serve me elephant tails, or any elephant parts for that matter, I swear to the author of this book, I will see to it that this restaurant is never seen in any future chapters. Oh, but snow leopards and meerkats...I'll eat those any day of the week. Especially their lungs. We need less of those in the world if we wish to save the elephants. You do know about the oppression they are being forced to endure from freezers, right?" Alile rambled on.
"Uhm, miss...you lost me."
"She wants you to play eenie meenie miney mo and get her whatever fate picks." Gray explained.
"Who asked you?" Alile couldn't believe Gray wasn't the least bit baffled by the complete nonsense that had just escaped her lips. She didn't even know what her own self was saying, random words were just pouring out of her mouth!
"The universe." Gray kicked back in his chair as the waitress nodded and took their menus. "Let me guess — this is another attempt to make a fool of yourself?"
"I'm going to predict every single thing that will be on my plate."
"This should be interesting." Gray leaned forward, hands pressed together like an eager child.
"Two grilled cheese sandwiches with a side of curly fries, marinara and ranch dipping sauce, and a cup of grape soda." Alile said without any doubt, feeling rather smug and confident.
"Mhm hmm." Gray nodded, apparently taking mental notes.
"A broken...the growth of...I don't know." Alile spaced out as the sprite continued to try and list off the futures of everyone in the restaurant, only to freak out halfway through each one.
"Yoohoo, anyone there?" Gray waved his hand in her face.
"What?"
"I was just saying that I haven't gotten your name yet." he chuckled. "We're on our first date and we haven't even properly introduced ourselves!"
Spritelile muttered unintelligibly and softly to itself, no longer even bothering to make predictions. It sat floating in the air above Alile's shoulder, arms wrapped around its curled up knees, rocking back and forth like a traumatized child.
"Alile. My name is Alile." she said, doing her best to ignore the sprite. She saw no reason to use her awful fake name now that they were being open about being wizards.
"Alile...pretty name. How enchanting it is to meet such a pretty woman with a pretty name to boot." Gray said with a boyish grin.
"Yes, I'm pretty. Tell me something I don't know." Alile flipped her hair arrogantly.
Gray ran his hand through his hair, seemingly attempting to imitate her, "But you're psychic, there's nothing you don't know! Oh, that's right, y-"
"Oh, shut up you." Alile poked his arm with a fork. "Are you going to tell me your real name now?"
"Ah, of course, how could I forget that?!" he gasped, though Alile seriously doubted he even forgot. "You may call me Robin"
"Robin, huh? At least now I don't have to refer to you as a color in my mind."
"A color? That's all I was to you up until now? Ack...my poor heart!" he grabbed onto his chest, pretending to be gasping for air.
Alile rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on, laugh! Don't waste your pretty face giving the world that blank look!"
"I think I'll pass on that one."
"You're no fun." Gray, now Robin in Alile's mind, said.
The waitress came back and sat their plates on the table. Alile nearly smirked as she took in the contents. Her eyes, however, widened in shock. Everything was exactly as she predicted, except one thing — she had a glass of milk, not soda. Another close but inaccurate prediction. How many of those had she had by now? This had never happened before, not until she met Robin a half hour ago. Could it be that he was somehow affecting the future? It didn't make much sense, but then again, nothing did right now.
"Hope you enjoy." the waitress said and left.
All Alile could do was stare with twitching eyes, waiting for Robin to taunt her about being wrong yet again. He was staring at her, but not with a cocky smirk. He actually looked a little concerned.
"Ooh, you were so close...though I have to admit, that was pretty impressive." he said.
"It was...?"
"Mhmm. You weren't spot on, but this is convincing enough for me."
"Am I supposed to believe that?" Alile asked with skepticism. That look he had on his face a moment ago gave her the feeling that he was just being nice out of sympathy.
"That's your choice. I actually believed you this whole time though, to tell you the truth. After that magic you used on me earlier, what reason do I have to doubt you?" he bit into a large piece of steak.
"Then w-"
"Your reactions," Robin paused, taking a moment to swallow a mouthful of food, "Are priceless to watch."
He was toying with me the whole time, she thought. She had to admit it — Robin had her fooled. Her reactions, though? Robin toyed with her like that just to get a kick out of her reactions? That sort of reminded Alile of herself, with the way she rambled on with her random inanities to get a slight amusement out of how the others react.
Minutes later, the waitress returned to their table to refill their glasses. "Are we alright over here? Is the food good?" she asked.
"Oh yes, it's fantastic! We might have to come back on our next date!" Gray answered. Next date? He sure was getting ahead of himself.
"That's good to know. Here's the bill, you can pay whenever you're ready." she placed it on the table and left them alone.
"Thirty avule's." Alile read off the bill. That was quite a high price, though for the daughter of a High Mage, that was nothing.
"Not a problem." Robin pulled a credit card out of his pocket.
"That's not your card." Alile whispered.
"Why do you say that?" Robin kept his voice low as well. Obviously he didn't want anyone to hear them talking about him stealing someone's credit card.
"You said your name is Robin, not Sarah Parker." she pointed to the name on the card.
"But that's my...stage name, if you know what I mean."
"I'll pay." Alile took the cash out of her wallet and placed it on top of the bill.
"What type of gentleman would I be if I let you pay for our date?" Robin asked.
"What type of good girl would I be if I let you pay with a stolen card? You're returning that to its owner." Like earlier, she could care less if the person Robin stole from got their item back or not. She just still wanted to get back at him a little more.
"Oh brother..." Robin slumped back in his chair and crossed his arms like a child that was told they had to finish their peas before they could have a cookie.
"Can't.... can't.... I CAN'T! WHY CAN'T I?! CAN'T, CAN'T, CAN'T!" Spritelile suddenly shouted, completely losing its mind, shouting that word repeatedly. Alile pressed her fingers to her temples, her head ready to burst.
"You look like you're in pain." Robin said.
"Sorry." Alile shook her head, but the pain was too much for even her to ignore. "I'm done, can we get out of here now?"
"As you wish."
The two of them stepped outside, but Spritelile started to shout even louder and faster, causing Alile to nearly drop to her knees from the sudden surge of pain in her head. Robin placed his hand on her forehead as if to check her for a fever, a look of genuine concern on his face. "You really don't look good."
"I'm not sick." Alile moved his hand off her head, trying to play it off.
"If you say so." Robin shrugged, though he didn't look convinced. "Let's get moving then, I wanna show you my home."
"Y-You're taking me to your home...?" Alile could feel herself getting red in the face. Again. She was seriously catching a bad case of the Casele syndrome. But...a guy was taking her home?
"Mhm hmm." Robin nodded. He lead her through the park and down a narrow path through a thicket of verdant bushes and trees.
"Your home is this way?" Alile asked as they entered the woodland. Should she really have been trusting a wanted thief with a mysterious glint in his eyes? Not that she couldn't take care of herself, but still, this didn't feel right.
"There it is!" Robin exclaimed once they came across a little stone cottage. It had a forest green painting that kept it rather well hidden between all the matching trees. A 'BEWARE OF DOG!' sign was plastered against the wooden door.
"You live here?"
"You betcha." Robin fiddled around in his pocket for a moment before retrieving a key and unlocking the door. His entire cottage was smaller than than the smallest room in the empire, the ceiling less than a foot above Alile's head, and she was only a few inches over five feet. A single rocking chair covered in dark stains was positioned in front of a folding table that stood before a lit fireplace. Behind the rocking chair was a futon with several tears in it, exposing the cotton. Judging by the pillows and blanket on the futon, Alile assumed that Robin used it as his bed. Folded in a pile to the side of the futon were a few pairs of clothes, along with a backpack leaning against it. That was it. Was this really all he owned?
"Are you zoning out again?" Robin asked as he stepped inside, the wooden floor creaking with each step. He had to bend at his back just so that his head wouldn't hit the ceiling.
"No, I just-"
"You're just not very impressed." Robin plopped into the rocking chair.
"I never said that." Alile replied as she stepped inside. She didn't mean to offend him with her staring.
"Well, you asked to follow me wherever I go, so...make yourself at home, I guess."
Alile looked around as she walked with cat-like steps, not even causing the floor to creak. "Where's the dog?"
"There is no dog, the sign is just a little security measure. Thieves like myself tend to skip past homes with dogs." Robin explained.
Alile sat down on his futon, unsure what to say. With how much this man stole, how was it that this was all he had in his home? Robin rocked back and forth in the chair, leaving Alile sitting there feeling awkward. Time passed dreadfully slow, with no sound but the rocking of Robin's chair and the crackle of his fireplace.
"Feel any better, princess?" he asked after what felt like over an hour.
"What? O-oh, I told you, I was never sick." Alile said, though she had to admit, she was relieved that he took her away from all those people. Now she didn't have to put up with that god-forsaken sprite panicking in rapid fire. In fact, she didn't hear it at all now. Shouldn't it have still been trying to read Robin's future though? Come to think of it, it never tried to read his future to begin with. Why? He was the first person she ever met with this sort of immunity to it. She now had no doubt that he was the cause of all this, one way or another. But what made him so special? "Thank you for your concern though...I suppose." she said.
Robin nodded as he got up and stretched his arms out. "Care to watch some clouds with me?"
"Cloud watching? That's what you do when you're not busy stealing?"
"It's fun, come see!" he pulled her off the futon and went back outside. He laid on his back in the grass with his hands behind his head, staring up at the sky.
Alile sat down next to him. "Are you searching for one that looks like an elephant?"
Robin wriggled his nose."Pfft, searching for shapes in the clouds is lame. I like to watch them move through the sky."
"I'm pretty sure they don't move."
"Look carefully."
Alile tilted her head. Did she just imagine that? It looked like the clouds moved a few centimeters. After staring for several minutes longer, she realized that it wasn't her imagination — they really were moving, very slowly. They were like floating sailboats traveling through the sky at a steady pace. You'd have to sit down and actually pay attention to them like this to ever notice. "That...that's kinda pretty." she said, "I never noticed this before."
"Maybe you just haven't been paying enough attention to the world around you." Robin turned his head to Alile. "H-Hey, why are you crying?" he asked, sitting up.
"Huh? I'm not..." Where did that tear come from? She asked herself as she wiped it away. "It would be nice to just lay here and watch the clouds sail across the sky all day, don't you think?" she changed the subject.
"You plan on sticking around me for that long? Haven't you got anything better to do? Somewhere else to be?"
Did she? Yes, she was supposed to be helping the king and the others find the very man she was with right now. She, however, already knew that Silver would catch Robin sometime today anyway. They, therefore, didn't need her help. So what reason did she have to go back to them? She couldn't enjoy life around those people. Here, however, she could just relax and watch the clouds in peace. With just herself and Robin, it was almost as if she wasn't even psychic. If only she could spend everyday like this, maybe she could finally be set free.
"I have nowhere better to be." Alile stated, resting her back against a tree.
Robin stared at her for a moment, then said, "You expect me to believe that you have nothing better to do than hang around a wanted criminal hiding away in the woods?"
"Yes."
"You're strange. So interestingly strange. Tell me about yourself."
"I wouldn't wish to bore you to death."
"Okay, then just tell me what's wrong." he sat next to her under the tree, that look of concern on his face again.
"My sob story doesn't deserve to be heard." Alile looked back up at the clouds to avoid looking him in the eye. "You wouldn't believe me anyway."
"Alile," he edged closer to her, "I believed that you're psychic, didn't I? I can tell you have a lot you need to get off your chest. I don't promise I'll be able to help, but at the very least, I can just listen."
Alile sucked her lip. What was the worst that could happen? If there was anyone she could talk to about this, it was him. "Robin, you really do believe that I'm psychic, right?"
He nodded.
"Well, as you saw earlier, I am a wizard, an Aeromancer to be exact."
"You control wind." Robin stated matter of factly.
"Sounds like you've done some studying." Alile said.
"More like a little someone used her magic on me earlier." he poked her nose playfully.
Oh...duh. "Anyway..." she pushed his finger away, "It's said that there's a one in a million chance of an Aeromancer being a psychic. It's viewed as a rare, special gift, but it's not a gift at all. It's a curse."
"A curse?" Robin edged even closer to her. His thigh was nearly touching hers now.
"There's this little sprite thing that looks just like me, I call it Spritelile. I'm the only one who can see it. It follows me wherever I go, reading the future off of a script, but will only tell me of events to happen within the next twenty-four hours, and will only tell me the futures of people near me. Like, if I'm in a group of four, Spritelile will read off their futures for the day one by one, event by event. It'll even read off my own future every twenty four hours, so I always know what's going to happen during my day. No matter where I go, no matter how hard I try to block it out, it invades my mind." Alile exhaled after getting all that out.
"Sounds as if you're living inside a storybook and every time you enter a new chapter, it gets spoiled for you." Robin took the words right out of her mouth.
"Exactly. Robin, I can't find any joy in this world. I have no objective, no value, no anything. I'm not living, I'm a hollow shell, just existing, wading through life meaninglessly." she wrapped her arms around herself.
"So, correct me if I'm not understanding here. Basically, you've resigned on life because you feel as if there is no profit in it for you?" Robin asked.
"That's one way to summarize it, yes." Alile sighed.
"Can you see this sprite right now?" he asked.
"Yes." Alile looked at the sprite, floating right above her shoulder. It simply floated there, staring blankly ahead.
"Can you tell it to make a prediction for me?"
"It doesn't work like that." Alile shook her head.
Robin scratched his chin. He then got up and began to walk off. Alile just sat there wondering where he was going, until he turned around and motioned for her to follow.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
AUTHORS NOTES: Like what you've read so far? Why not support the author by leaving a vote, or perhaps even a comment down below? Thanks in advanced and stay tuned to see what happens next between these two oddballs!