A Girl's Best Friend

The little girl stood in her backyard looking expectantly at the trees. Tipping her toes, she had hoped to catch a glimpse of a familiar, blue-feathered friend.

Their new living quarters had a much smaller garden than the one on their estate. However, considering the fact that they were on the Outskirts, the mere fact that they had that space at all was an extraordinary luxury that only an influential family could afford.

It had been weeks since the Fates’ attendants had escorted them to their current residence. Their house was situated in the far end of the thirteenth zone in the Outskirts. This was done as a courtesy of being the previous main branch of the Aru family. They were situated far enough away from the other residents, who they considered to be lower-class citizens, and their property was still several times bigger than any shanty in the area. In fact, their house was still three times the size of Yami’s house in the Edge district.

“So, this is where you were hiding Un. Go make yourself useful and get my husband’s supplements from the distribution center. The package always arrives at this time, so they’ll know you’re coming and that their magic won’t work for a while,” the girl’s mother instructed.

“I don’t like going to the center it’s so far and every time I pass by the people always throw rocks and garbage at me. Can’t they bring it over with our rations just this once, mother?” she replied.

SLAP! In one swift motion a backhanded slap sent the little girl flying several inches from the ground before she fell flat on her face.

“Don’t you dare call me that! My child died as I was giving birth to her! You are nothing but an Un to me,” she snapped at her.

“But mo…,” before the little girl could finish the lady she kept referring to as mother kicked her  belly, taking the wind out of her.

She stomped at the little girl continuously as she scolded her,

“You will address me as lady Aru and nothing more! You’re very fortunate that the Fates let all our servants stay in the Heart level, so I let you stay here as nothing more but our little slave! You will not sleep inside the house; you will not eat inside the house; and you will never ever address me so casually! Understood?”

“Yes!” the little girl responded as tears fell down her face.

“Yes what?!” the lady replied as she continued to stomp at the little girl.

“Yes, lady Aru…,” the girl replied defeated.

After hearing this the lady stopped and began to straighten herself up as she responded, “Good, now go do as you’re told. When you come back make yourself a place to sleep in this yard you love so much.”

“Hey! You’re spacing out again. Are you ok?” Yami asked the girl. Her gun was still pointed at his face.

“The Omni Stone, what do you know about it?” the girl asked again.

“Like I said the first time, an old Keeper told me about it. All I know is its located beyond the gates of the Fates, and that it has the power to bind all magic…”

“… and increase it tenfold,” the girl finished Yami’s sentence.

“That’s right! How do you know about it?” he asked.

“I read about it in a book. This knowledge alone would be enough to get you doped up and exiled in the Outskirts. So, I guess this proves that you’re not with the distribution center,” the girl said as she lowered her weapon.

“Yeah, I only had to pretend to be a Keeper to get to the Outskirts so I can find you and ask you to be my partner,” Yami explained as he got up from the ground and tidied himself up.

The girl felt her cheeks turn red as she heard the word “partner”, but she quickly shrugged it off as she snapped back in reply. “What makes you think I’d want you to be MY partner?!”

“Well, judging by your reaction when I mentioned the Omni Stone, I figure you’re interested in getting it too. You said you read about it in a book, right? What kind of book has that information? I didn’t think such text existed in the realm, if it did my father would surely have heard of it,” he asked.

“It doesn’t,” the girl replied.

“What do you mean?” Yami asked.

“It would be easier to show you. Follow me,” she said.

“By the way, my name is Yami Hitsu. What’s your name?” he asked with a smile.

“What do you mean, don’t you know already? Your people call me “Un”,” she replied.

“Yeah, but that’s not a nice name. People used that to make you feel like you’re beneath them. I used to get that a lot too, and I don’t want to talk to my partner that way. So, I mean to know your actual name,” he responded.

This answer took her by surprise and made her recall her past once more.

The little girl lay on her makeshift bed made up of cardboard boxes that she found by the garbage near their house. She was also able to fashion a little awning out of plywood and tree branches so she could protect herself from either the rain or sunlight when she slept.

This evening, much to her dismay, there was a downpour. As she lay staring at the ceiling of her awning all bundled up with some loose rags and old clothes that were collected during her weekly visits to the distribution center, she found herself deep in thought.

“I don’t know how much more I could take. I’ve tried to run away several times since I’ve been here. But no matter where I try to hide myself, lady Aru has the distribution center chase after me!” she thought as she reflected on the words of the previous matriarch of the Aru family.

“I can’t have my one and only servant here running off! There is no way that I would ever set foot outside amongst the lower-class garbage.”

The girl shuddered as she remembered her words.

“This place is seriously messed up. It’s not about just getting away from this family anymore. I need to get out of this realm! But how?” she asked herself frustratedly.

It was at this moment that she had heard a familiar sound.

“WHO!”

Fuki leapt to her feet and rushed outside her awning to catch a better look at the sky. Archie, her blue feathered friend was hovering above her yard— and it seemed to be carrying something shiny in its talons.

“Archie! Thank heavens I missed you! What are you holding there?” she told the blue owl.

The bird released its grip and dropped a small silver spade at the girl’s feet.

“WHO!” it said as it pointed to the gardening tool on the floor.

“I don’t understand, what is it? Some sort of spoon?” she asked. Growing up within a realm of magic and sort of part of one of the elite families, Fuki hardly knew anything about tools or equipment. Something that she would eventually have to remedy now that magic never worked around her.

“WHO!” it said again flying toward the wall that encircled the entire Outskirts.

The owl landed near one of the shrubs by the wall that was just about as tall as Fuki was. There it made an x-mark on the wall with its sharp talons.

“WHO!” it said once again, pointing towards the scratches with one of its wings.

Fuki looked at the mark and then back on the little spade in her hand.

“Oh, now I see what you mean! But is it possible to get through that with this? And what’s on the other side?” the girl asked.

“WHO!” the bird replied again.

“You have a point, I guess I’ll just have to take my chances then. Thank you, Archie,” the girl told her only friend as she embraced it.

With newfound vigor and hope, Fuki’s latest escape plan was set in motion. Digging a hole through the wall was no easy feat. It was made with pure stone brick and was the most massive structure throughout the entire realm. In fact, the structure was so tall that if Fuki would have to guess it was roughly fifteen to sixteen houses tall— one could barely see the top of the wall when staring at it from its base. On top of this, since there were no gaps or gateways throughout the entire circular wall, there was no way for her to tell how thick it was as well.

All Fuki could do was take it one night at a time and carve out the wall as much as she could. Every morning she would do all her tasks and every night after she would dig as quietly as she could to avoid arousing lady Aru’s suspicions.

After weeks of hard work, she had almost given up but eventually her worn-out spade finally met no resistance as it clawed into the wall.

“At last. I’ve reached the other side!” she said to herself triumphantly.

As she chipped away at the last pieces of brick, she was surprised to see that there were several more feet of the tunnel that was dug out from the opposite side. And as she crawled out of the hole, she saw a dirty blue owl with bloody talons waiting for her.

“You helped me this much? Thank you, Archie!” the girl said with tears streaming down her face as she hugged her friend once again.

“Where do we go now? I heard there are a lot of beasts here too. I wonder if there’s a cave, we can take shelter in?” she asked.

“WHO!” the blue owl said as it gesticulated Fuki to follow it with its wings.

Archie guided Fuki across the jungles of the Gap, making sure to avoid dangerous creatures and hazardous areas, until they reached a certain hill. Atop that hill there was a single little cottage with the symbol of an owl engraved on its door.

This shocked Fuki as the owl was the crest of her former family. However, the symbol on the cottage door was a lot simpler than a crest. For one thing there was no escutcheon that held a coat of arms, it was just a plain old face of an owl.

Inside the cottage was one room that had a bed, a table, a chair, a fireplace, and a bookshelf. The bookshelf had the same owl symbol engraved on it and on the top shelf was one book.

“WHO,” the blue owl said as it pointed out the book to the girl.

Fuki took the book in her hands and glanced at the title, “The various realms of the known universe.”

“So, there are other realms out there!” she said excitedly.

She was elated, never in her life had she ever felt the urge to learn this much. Fuki plowed through the books absorbing all she could, and as soon as she finished several more books appeared on the bookshelf all of them pertaining to different subjects:

“Surviving in the wilderness”, “Tools and how to craft them Vol 1.”, “Magical items and gateways”.

“Looks like I still have a lot to learn,” she happily told herself.

“Hey! You spaced out again. Are you feeling sick or something?” Yami asked the girl.

“Oh, sorry. I was just shocked. I just didn’t expect you to be this nice. My name is Fuki A… just call me Fuki,” the girl said with a slight blush on her cheeks.

“Oh... ha-ha. Nice to meet you Fuki,” he replied.

Yami felt warm inside. “Something like this has happened before, right?” he thought to himself.

***