Chapter 5:

A Wonderful New World

Magic lies carried me to the top, the summit where she is not.

The bells ring through my head, and her cries pierce through my heart, if I had granted her wish… would I feel better than this…?

I hadn’t paid attention to her appearance before, but can I really say the wedding dress suits her better than her dirty, scrapped one? Does make up make her look better than mud did?

No… It doesn’t…

This can’t be right…

Her eyes have been stripped away from their gleam. She’s just a kid… one who will be robbed of childhood, one who the forest will miss.

This is just how it is right? Childhood is not meant to last forever… and I suppose life expectancy in this world is less… So it can only be natural for this to happen right? When women reach marital age it only makes sense to find a nice catch right…?

No… whether I like it or not, this world has changed my way of thinking even if a little…

A nice catch? Her? The one who tamed a magic beast?

There’s no way she’s marrying!

I can’t help but feel her smile and Tiara’s look alike. The smile I couldn’t protect, the smile forever lost to a cruel world, much more cruel than this.

She wasn’t as bold as her, but they do look alike.

———————————————————————————————-

“Hey Victor, what do you think there’s after death?”

“Nothing.”

“Isn’t that too sad?”

“What else could there be?”

“Maybe there’s a wonderful world where we can see rainbows all day! Where we can play with no restraint... A place where we can be free! With cute puppies waiting for us…”

She said smiling, extending her arms.

“If such world exists… Why aren’t we in it?”

“Why? To better appreciate it upon arrival of course!”

They do look alike… exchange Sara’s black hair and black eyes with Tiara’s dark browns, add some specs and they are the same, they even miss the same tooth…

The tooth which flew away.

Mom always protected us, as long as we had her we were alright. She was too kind of a soul, even in pain she would smile for us, but one day our father went too far… Mom moved no more—Tiara took her place.

And I was too much of a coward to do something about it.

We continued our days with normalcy, until we were permitted no more. I can still remember every detail of that day.

It was after a long day of work at the wasteland. When we reached home, dad was talking with a man we hadn’t seen before. He told us to go to sleep, so we did. But when I woke up she wasn’t by my side.

“If we were to reach such a world, would you come play with me?”

I searched for her, but never found. I asked him what had he done. But I only understood it when I was the one buying slaves.

The only thing she left for me: An envelope, and inside, a drawing of us with a dog, lying below a rainbow, smiling to our hearts content—In the picture she wrote: “Come find me, in a better world.”

*Ding* *Dong* They urge me to stand, they urge me to act.

*Ding* *Dong* The bells repeat.

*Ding* *Dong* They scream for me to make it right.

—————————————————————————————-

“Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“What would a baby understand?” She said without looking at me, sight lost into the distance.

“I’m not a baby anymore!”

“Even if you aren’t there’s nothing to be done. This has been decided way before you were born. I have already resigned to it. I just got mad because for a moment I thought maybe there was a way out. Don’t worry about it.”

“There IS a way out! Just cancel the engagement!”

“*Fhum* You are a baby after all… Just let it be, tomorrow we’ll part, and the ceremony will be held on Friday.”

“You can’t be serious! What about your pets? What about Fangy?”

“He won’t be needing a ‘proper lady’ no more.”

“This isn’t you sis! Are you really gonna play along with the noble-housewife script?”

She turned to face me, and illuminated by the moon, her hollow expression made me understand—The Sara who through arduous terrain barefoot walked—the Sara the forest loves, was lost deep into this empty shell.

“What did you expect? Rainbows and puppies?”

My heart sank. And turning to face the window again, she said:

“Just leave me alone. This is the last chance I’ve got to see the forest at night.”

Could I just tell a lie? Would it work?

“You are not marrying!”

“Who do you think you are? Scram, you are bittering the night.”

“Would you at least tell me why?”

“Why else could it be? Political reasons.”

“That doesn’t tell me anything.”

“*Sigh* The king and our father came to an agreement, I will be marrying the third prince, it will help with our reputation among our duchy, and the prince will finally have kids, there’s not much more. Happy?”

“There’s no way I’ll accept this…”

“Then don’t. I don’t need your approval.”

“You just have to wish for the engagement to never happen, I’ll do the rest!”

“Fine but if it doesn’t work please leave me alone.”

“Sure thing.”

“I wish this engagement to have never happened.”

“It never happened!”

An awkward silence left us in standby as the cold wind howled through.

Some maids passed by the door, and their gossip echoed through the room.

“I can’t believe lady Sara is getting married! It felt like yesterday when she would crawl all over the manor!”

“Yes, and with none other than the third prince!”

“Right? I was worried she was too barbaric to find a husband but everything turned out to be alright!”