Among the ruins of destroyed homes,
Standing on the ground swarmed with limp bodies and painted red with blood.
ˎˊ-
"I give up,"
ˎˊ-
Clang𐔌
𐦯
"Pick up your sword." A sound pleaded in agony, "Please. Pick up your sword."
˗ˋˏ
In a cruel game of twisted fate,
ˎˊ-
'Please.'
'I'm begging you.'
ˎˊ-
"You idiot."
"I love you,"
ˎˊ-
Thwack
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Liselotte is a busy girl lately. In the morning, she will work. Just 10 feet from where she lives is a milkmaid who likes to hire her to help tend the cows in her Lord's farm. For each hour she worked, Lise is paid with one gold. It's a good pay to her. She can buy a couple of vegetables or 2 kilos of meat with one gold.
"Lord Fresby is a bit fussy with the amount of milk his cows produce. You know Lotte, that man is as stubborn as a mule and as obtuse as a retard. I have difficult time restraining myself from talking back, lest I want my tongue cut."
Eliza the milkmaid grumbled to the little girl as they milked the cow. It always feels weird squeezing the cow's tits... Or nipples, or whatever they are called (Lise couldn't remember the name) but she always like hearing Eliza chattering.
"Is Lord Fresby handsome?"
"No," Eliza sighs dramatically, "He looks like he governs the Kingdom of Ugliness, if that place exist. He is the kind of man who will manage to turn even the most exquisite tailored clothes look cheap with that body of his that resembles a buggy."
Lise giggles, "Hey that's mean. Everyone is beautiful, we are God's marvellous creation."
"Look at this child talking!" The milkmaid shakes her head, smiling.
Apparently Lord Fresby wanted 1000 liters of milk each week but he only owns 3 regular cows of no magical breed. Additionally, he only has enough money for one milkmaid, Eliza. There is this mismatch between his unrealistic demand and his capability to provide the engine to meet the demand. Eliza couldn't go against her Lord, no matter how illogical and irrational the man is. So instead, she used her own pay to 'hire' Liselotte's helping hand. This way, she would be able to meet her Lord's demand even at the expense of her own pocket money.
"Why do you still work with him? Don't you want to look for a kinder Lord?"
Eliza shakes her head. She appreciate the sympathy offered by the little girl, but her circumstance is too difficult to explain. "I can't. Let's just say I am bound by a contract set by my great grandmother, who was a maid for Lord Fresby's great great grand father."
'So she is enslaved,'
Liselotte looks at her solemnly, before turning to her eyes back to the cow's tits.
'Everyone live with their own struggle, in their own way.'
After working until the early afternoon, Lise tends her mother and went back out to study with Richard. The little shop became increasingly familiar to her and became somewhat her second home. Here, she would ask Richard of all the things she is curious about and Richard would answer. As of late, he is currently teaching her the basics of reading and writing for Aeterna, the standard unifying language for Aeternus Empire.
"You're learning fast. Did you study at home?" Richard looks at the girl with approval. The small praise is enough to motivate Lise to study harder. "Yes. While mother is asleep," Says she, just finishing on the last line of letters on her practice sheet. He gives her another one.
While writing, Liselotte remembers something.
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
The question startles Richard, "Just where did you get the question from?"
"Hm... I don't know I'm just curious."
He peers to the little stubby fingers, roughen up by all the hard hand work, writing on the practice sheet. "I don't." Richard says, a bit quietly.
"You were dumped weren't you?" Lise remarks carelessly, as she writes.
Richard cringe, "You keep running with that mouth of yours." There's a part of him that wants to kick this little girl out because of her annoying comments, but the other keep her by his side. It's a bit funny, unbeknownst to him, Liselotte had become an important part of his life.
"There is this girl I was interested in. But it never developed. She was one year my junior and she ended up betrothed and marrying the son of a Count."
"Ooooh... I'm sorry,"
scratch scratch
The sound of ink pen echoes in the silent room.
"Why? Do you like anyone?"
Richard just asks that question carelessly, so he did not expect when Lise flinch, her cheeks turning red.
He smiles like a sly fox, "So this kid like someone eh?"
"I don't." She protest, trying to focus on her handwriting. "I just find a boy fascinating. That's all."
"Fascinating? Where did you learn that word?"
"Him. He speaks with fancy language. He says things like embezzlement, determinants, static, variables, conjugate, and so many other words I'm picking up and learn."
Richard smiles. Oh this little girl is annoying but so adorable at the same time.
"And where did you meet him? What's his name?"
"That's a secret," Lise retorts.
"I'm gonna kick you out."
"No-!" She panics. Obviously Richard is not going to kick her out, but the small threat is enough to make the girl confess. "I met him in my secret playground and we have been playing every afternoon for a few days now. Anyway he's strange and weird but I feel really comfortable and curious about him."
"What's strange about him?"
"Well he gave me a heart attack when we first met. It feels like I have seen him before you know? Like our interactions are just replays of my memory."
"That is strange indeed,"
"Anyway some days ago he said his tutor told him what I'm feeling is called deja vu. A weird phenomenon where we felt something familiar although we have never experienced it before. I said that makes sense and he said he also experienced deja vu sometimes as well."
Lise finish her study session with Richard, bid the man goodbye and walk towards her secret playground. The small mound of grassy hill by the lake, a body of flowing clear water and on the centre of the hill stands a huge tree: tall, proud and erect. The numerous branching and thick trunk suggest it may be thousands years old and witnessed secrets unknown. It will be such a tragedy if one day the tree were to get struck down, for whatever reason.
She sits against the tree, making sure there aren't any termites or small ants that might bit her.
Now she waits.
It's been like this for the past few days. She would walk up to this tree and instead of laying down and falling asleep like she normally would, a boy would walk up to her instead with a soft smile. His eyes reminds her of silver coins or the pale moon on the night sky; it's cool and it felt oddly nostalgic.
⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆
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𐔌 ﹒ ⋆ 𓂃 ₊ ⊹Liselotte ⋆ ꩜ ⋆ 𓂃 ₊ ⊹
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There goes the boy, softly calling out her name.
'I like his clothes, it looks very stylish and soft.'
Lise stares at the approaching figure.
He sits beside her, the fine fabric of his trousers falls softly against the harsh blades of grass.
"Remember when I told you that I am also experiencing deja vu as well?" He unfurls a sheet of parchment, brittle and yellowed at the edges. The lines and curves drawn upon it were a language Liselotte was only just beginning to learn.
"Look," Helios said, his voice a low, earnest hum. His finger, clean and pale, landed on a spot. "I need to find this. Apparently it could help me resolve my deja vu issues as well."
Liselotte leaned in, her shoulder almost brushing his. The map was a tangle of ink—squiggles for forests, hatched lines for hills, and a single, dark 'X' marking a place inside a square.
It looked important.
It looked secret.
'Woah...'
Her red eyes sparkles.
"Where did you get this?"
"In my house's library. Tucked inside a book about... well, it doesn't matter." He turned his moon-silver eyes to her, and they were filled with a urgency that felt too old for his face. "I need to find it. As soon as possible."
Liselotte's practical heart sank. "I... I can't, Helios. The sun is already starting to lean. I need to go home soon to tend to my mother. I can't spend more than a couple of hours outside." The weight of her own life felt suddenly heavy and small in the face of his grand, paper quest.
Helios was silent for a moment, studying her face. The wind rustled the leaves of the ancient tree above them.
"Sorry. I forgot for a moment you have a sick mother and went ahead with my plan. It's quite inconsiderate of me... If you can, how about we go at night,"
The wind blew harder,
"At night?" Liselotte pulled back, skepticism knitting her brows together. "It's not safe. There are... things." She thought of the stories Eliza sometimes told, of shadows that moved on their own and men who were not kind.
"I know, I..." His eyes looked down, as if deep in thought. He resumed after thinking for a while, "I promise, I'll bring trusted adults. They are quiet, and they will keep us safe. You will be safe with me."
Trusted adults. Liselotte's mind immediately flew to Richard, to his warm, cluttered shop and his annoyed huffs, the little smile that sometimes slips between his complaints. But just as quickly, she dismissed it. 'I don't want to trouble him.' His life was his own, with its own quiet pains and routines. She would not be the one to disrupt it.
She looked at Helios, at the desperate hope in his cool, nostalgic eyes, and then down at the map, at the promise of an adventure. Her life was one of measured gold coins and cow's teats, of nothing more than working and tending; this was a chance for something else.
"Okay," she says, feeling her heart racing. "But we can't meet here. We need to meet on the edge of the village, where the lanterns are still bright and most residents live. By the old well."
A soft, relieved smile appeared on Helios's lips. "Yes. Of course. By the old well." He rerolled the map, its secret once again tucked away. "Tonight, then."
"Tonight," Liselotte echoed as the late afternoon sun cast long, dancing shadows around them.
Forget the usual chit-chatter, the interesting talks and fun little plays they usually did beneath the tree. Now, our little heroes are planning an adventure.