The place I was apparently at was an orphanage: Dupont orphanage. And the circumstances for being in an orphanage are the same; abandoned or offered to the orphanage. Mine was the former. Madame Dupont, the sole owner and caretaker, said she saw me at the entrance of the orphanage, and surprisingly enough, no letter telling her what to do.
I had retained most of my features from when I was a child; brown curly hair, tanned brown skin and grey eyes. Also, I had screamed in the bathroom(out of obvious shock), so Avery had to rush in and check up on me.
"Did you hurt yourself?", she asked, checking round my body for scars. I shook my head. "Please don't scare me again. I'm waiting for you in the dorms", she replied and walked off. That was even the fun part. Upon sitting in the bathtub(and for some reason I decided to play in the tub), I suddenly heard a meow. A cat. A tabby cat, scraping at the bathtub, meowing it's heart away. It felt familiar, too familiar. Then I remembered.
"Marlon?", I called out. The scraping stopped. "Wait a minute! MARLON?!", I jumped out from the tub and scooped him out. I brought him here, he's in my dreams, I thought and breathed a sigh of relief and danced around the room. "Missy put me down", a voice bellowed and I froze. The two of us stared at each other? "Did you just talk?", I asked. "Yes, c'mon put me down", he replied and I dropped him immediately.
"Don't you have to bathe and eat?". "Are you supposed to be talking?". He rolled his eyes and pushed me towards the bathtub, "You wanted me to talk so here I am. Talking to you. It was high time we spoke too".
So here I was, quietly eating my meal, and throwing in bits for Marlon to eat. "Madame, I apologise on her behalf", Avery said whiles stuffing her mouth with food," I didn't wake her up early". Madame Dupont is actually such a sweet lady, so she just ruffled her hair and urged her to eat. The orphanage is home to 20 kids, I included. After further enquiries, the place we were at was a village called Cuvia which was ruled by a baron called Robustz Miswards. Actually, he ruled the four villages in the district.
Fun fact: There are four districts in this Kingdom, the Kingdom of Amovia. Call it a continent if you would, but it was really big, well, that's how Avery described it. We were in the Eastern district, which is a coastal district, and they deal with spices. There are two towns and a city, but she doesn't know who presides over them. All she knew was that the capital was called Aulaste, and it was ruled by the Harcourt monarchy, basically meaning that they are the rulers of the whole kingdom.
"So Aria do you want to hear a story?", Avery scuffled up to me on the bed. I patted beside me as a signal for her to sit. She was holding a large book, the usual ones that we call encyclopaedia. "Ma'am, are you going to read that?", I asked, pointing at the book. She nodded excitedly, " I always read it to you remember? You said you liked it". Me, liking an encyclopedia which contains enormous words? Sure why not. But the story she read was weird.
It was about a girl living in Manchester. My Manchester. And she kept on saying things like, "If I grow up I wanna be just like her", "She's soo free; she gets to live her life however she wants".
I snatched the book from her. I was angry, very angry. I had decided to play along the whole day, thinking I was hallucinating, but the damn cat Marlon bit me back to reality. "You're stuck here because it was your choice. Deal with it", he said, then proceeded to catwalk out of the building, I guess to explore or something. "Aria. Please not this again. You always get angry when I read this particular story", Avery said. "Then stop reading it", I blurted out.
"I can't. You always talked in your sleep about it. Always going on about the fact that you want to be her. You need to be her. To survive". "Me?", I asked, pointing to myself. She nodded quickly. She proceeded to explain that I was brought her alongside her two years ago, and I always murmured in my sleep. She spoke about a lot of things that occurred during those two years: my random outbursts from me, and getting calm towards the evenings, and I'd randomly cry and hug her when I felt down. Marlon had just come back in, and I couldn't help but smile. Wait why am I smiling?
"You're crying again", she said and used her hands to clean my face dry. Cry? Oh I forgot this feeling, when someone actually cares for you. What's it called? Nevermind, it doesn't last long anyways. "Oh you should know, Madame said we should get ready. During the next month, the Temple of Amovia would host their pilgrimage". The who what where how why? No matter, she'd explain it the next day.
I ushered her to sleep and dragged Marlon to the bed, because why not? "I missed you kitty. Where have you been?", I asked him whiles squishing him. "Can a gentleman get a room please?". "Don't make me laugh. When you were tearing up my room last night were you being a gentleman. Heck, wouldn't you be a gentle cat?", I laughed out loud. Nevertheless, we spoke about the day, and it was quite interesting to listen to him. He had such nice words to describe the day.
"After seeing all this, do you still want to head back?".
What? It had finally dawned on me that I wasn't in the dorms anymore. Was I dreaming again? It was as if I was walking on clouds. Frantically searching from where the voice came from, I heard it again, "Just walk forward dear. I'm not far". I didn't walk, I ran, well not for long anyways. A man, sitting on a cluster of clouds, had crossed his legs and was staring at me.
"Welcome Aria Davenport. You're back again", he said. "Whoa whoa whoa, what do you mean by again?", I pointed to myself and asked. "You've been here before. In fact, you've spoken to me several times. Don't try to ask me any questions I'm trying to explain myself", he gestured for me to keep quiet. "For as long as I can remember. You have been searching for your mother. Yes Manchester exists, but you don't belong there. I tried bringing you back several times but you never seem to fall whenever you ran to your mum. She's here, and I'm trying to help you get to her". Well this is confusing, but it makes sense, in the craziest sense. I have been having the dream since I went to the orphanage, so it's not quite a coincidence that it was a sign. "So she's here? My mum? So I'm actually 25?", I asked. "Well.....you were, there. You're back to being 5, now. You've actually been coming here. I tried to bring you here but you always had your memories cleared for some reason. Not anymore. I will bless you. You will never forget anymore. You must find your mum and get all the answers you've been asking". "Ha, what power could I possibly get?". "The power of dreams. I'm not the only sovereign in existence here, so I'm sure when I bless you, you would have their gazes as well".
"Sovereigns? So like gods?". He nodded in agreement. Ok great it's a magical world. I could only slap my hand onto my face. What a life. I'm really hallucinating.
"Aria not again.....wake up", a voice called out to me. That's definitely Avery. I bowed the the sovereign and gave him my thanks, then attempted to fall down.
"I'm awake now", I shouted and rolled out of the bed. This girl, dragging me to bathe and what nots. The orphanage, Madame Dupont, Marlon and Avery were such a blessing. I actually felt a sense of belonging, something I hadn't felt in a long time. Oh and surprisingly, no one was surprised that Marlon could talk, and I was the weirdo making things look awkward for the cat.
Avery helped me to write again(for some reason I had forgotten how to write but not read), and they actually learnt Latin as well(no surprise there). I learnt about the 13 calendar months, and how each of them had exactly 31 days. The specialties of the other districts, and the Academy of Basic and Advanced magics. The Temple of Amovia would hold the pilgrimage in the next month, which is the third month.
Apparently, not everyone is blessed with a magic power. So it's up to the temple to seek out the chosen ones, and when they reach the age of 11, they'd be sent to the academy. Avery said it was rare for someone from the orphanage to get picked, and only last year, one person was picked. She had faith that she was blessed, and I just chuckled and rolled my eyes.
Let's see, Avery. Let's see.