A Possible Lead Home

Night started to fall. The orange sky, covered with thin clouds, slowly darkened with the sun’s descent behind the mountains. Most of the villagers had already gone for dinner and the few people that were still outside were heading back home to do so as well.
While I was certainly hungry, especially for one of Iris’ dishes, it wasn’t what was on my mind.
I walked from the Solarian Academy back to Maya’s house, lost in my own thoughts. Pondering about the things I had learned today.

---

The sun behind Solaria looks eerily similair to the sun that was on the mirror. The same general shape. The same pointy sun tails, or whatever they are. And the same three holes.
And now that I look closely, similair suns can be seen on Solaria’s tail.
They look way too similair for this to just be a simple coincidence. The Bestia must be related to the mirror.
But there are still many things, that I don’t understand. What would the Bestia’s connection be to the mirror? What purpose did they have for it? And why was the mirror in my world?
I had to know more.

‘Julian, do you have more information regarding the Bestia? Especially this sun,’ I pointed at the background behind Solaria. ‘I need to know everything.’ I said to Julian frantically.
‘I’d love to tell you more, but this is everything regarding the Bestia that we have here. I could tell you about the things I think I know, but I don’t want to confuse you in case I get it wrong.’

I nodded my head in acknowledgement, but was slightly bummed out that he didn’t know more. However, everything that he told me, is already enough of a lead. This is something and it might just lead me back home. This is only a beginning and a great one at that.

‘As for this sun,’ Julian started. ‘it’s actually a symbol for the entire kingdom signifying life and the family started by William and Solaria. Just look around this academy, you can see it on the wall behind you.’

Julian pointed at the wall behind me, above the front door, and I saw a giant sun made out of wood hanging there. I hadn’t noticed it when I walked in, but seeing it made me question if it was there this whole time, or if I was just not paying enough attention.

‘But why are you asking me this,’ Julian continued. ‘you should have learned this at some point in your life right?’

Julian didn’t know that I am from another world so I understood why he would question my asking. If this is basic knowledge in this world, then me not knowing would be a big outlyer.
While I think I could have told him the truth, I thought it was better if i didn’t. His attitude towards anything new and out of the ordinary was not something I wanted to unleash tenfold if I were to tell him about the existence of an entirely different world. So I decided to brush of his question.

‘Uhh yeah, uhm anyway, didn’t you say there were more Solarian Academies?’ I asked him. ‘And they all have information about the world and the Bestia?’ I asked out of curiosity.
‘Oh yes, there are and they do. Especially in the larger cities like William’s Rest. A small village like this, only has the bare minimum for what is needed. Mostly on agriculture, toolmaking and basic architecture, including a couple on agriculture we don’t fully understand yet. Just in case someone here figures something out, or makes a breakthrough. If you want to learn more about the Bestia, it’s best to go to the academies of other towns and cities. Mainly the one in William’s Rest. Since that’s the capital, it has a copy of every tome of the Bestia, including some about themselves.’
‘Really? And there wouldn’t be any problems if I just asked them?’
‘As long as you’re willing to learn, our doors are open for anyone.’ Julian said with a smile.

I nodded. Thanked him for lending me some of his time and started my walk towards Maya’s house.

---

I opened the front door to Maya’s house and saw that everyone was sitting at the dinner table, ready to eat what looked like fish soup. The strong fishy smell filled the small living room and it gave me a weird and strange homely feeling. My mother had never made me fish soup, but she did often make dishes using fish. Especially tuna, my favourite.

‘Welcome back Micheal.’ Maya said to me, while walking from the table towards me. ‘Say, did you find anything interesting?’
‘I guess you could say that.’ I said happily, and excited to tell her.

Maya lead me to the table and Iris would then hand me a dish of the still hot fish soup, the fish smelling and looking a lot like a carp. I sat down and told them about the things I had learned about Resilia, while we were eating. Of course, they probably knew about this as well, since they went to the academy themselves at some point, but I wanted to get the details out of the way to get to the stuff that caught my eye.

‘I think the Bestia are probably related with how I wound up in this world.’ I told them. ‘The suns on Solaria’s tail and in the background of her depiction look pretty much identical to the one on the mirror that brought me here. It’s not much, but it’s something. Something that could possibly bring me back home.’

If there is more information on the Bestia, then I need to know more. It’s the only lead I have at the moment and it’s quite a significant one at that. If there are indeed more academies in the other villages, towns and cities then I have to go there.

The four of them are staring at me with eyes of content. I can see that they are happy that I finally had an idea of where to go.

‘… So, that’s why I… I want to go to William’s Rest. I want to learn about the Bestia. I want to learn about the possible relation between the mirror and the Bestia. And as it stands, William’s Rest seems like my best bet.’ I finished, determined about my decision to soon go on a journey.

‘But… But why?’ Casper asked. He probably thought that I would stay for a while longer and he looked questioningly at me and his parents.
‘Come on Casper,’ Iris said. ‘you know Micheal can’t stay here forever. He has to go back to his own world. To his own family.’
‘… I’m sorry.’ Casper said with a pout. Probably bummed out that he was about to lose a roommate.

‘We understand Micheal.’ Richard said. ‘So, what’s your plan?’
‘I plan to get ready to travel in these next few days.’ I said to them. ‘I don’t know where William’s Rest is, so I probably need a map of Resilia and maybe a couple other things like food, or something to sleep in.’

I couldn’t ask them to lend, or even give me anything. They’ve already done so much for me, that that would be asking for way too much.

‘Well, when it comes to the map, you can ask Julian for that. Maybe ask him to make you a copy. As a professor, making copies of any tome or document is one of his jobs. So I think he’d help you with that. With everything else, I’m not too sure.’ Richard said.
‘I can ask Elize to help you with making some kind of blanket, that’s safe for travel. Ever since she tried some of that apple pie, she’s actually wanted to know more about you.’ Iris said.
‘Are you sure that’s okay?’ I asked.
‘Don’t worry about it. She likes to help others as much as she is a sweettooth. And if you do feel guilty, maybe make her something sweet in return. She would definitely appreciate that.’

I was happy that Iris wanted to ask Elize for me to help me. Happy that they all supported me in some way, but something felt… off. Almost like something should happen at this moment. But it didn’t.
Unconsciously, I turned to my right to look at Maya and I finally understood why I felt so uneasy. The usual jovial and easily excited Maya was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she stayed quiet and had a complicated look on her face. Similair to the lonely look she had, almost a week ago now.
I didn’t think too much of it, but it still nagged at me. Gnawed at me.
She clearly wasn’t feeling alright.

‘Maya?’ I asked her.
‘Hmm?’ She turned to look at me, her face looking happy again.
‘Oh, it- it’s nothing.’ I responded. Her sudden shift in mood, made me back away from asking.

I could see her eyes widening a little. She probably realized I noticed her look from before.
I made a mental note that I would ask her when we’re alone. Somehow I had the feeling it was best if I asked with just the two of us.

---

Maya, Casper and I are in Maya and Casper’s bedroom. We just finished dinner and were ready to go to bed. In fact Casper looked like he immediately fell asleep.
He really doesn’t have any troubles falling asleep huh?
Maya meanwhile, she still sat on her bed and looked uneasy. She had that complicated look on her face from before and was clearly struggling to put on a smile.

‘Maya? Are you alright?’ I asked her.
‘Oh, uh yeah. I’m… alright.’ She blatantly lied.
‘You don’t look that way to me.’
‘*Sigh*, I guess… I was a little saddened to hear that you were leaving. There aren’t that many villagers around my age in Emmerberk.’

Now that she mentioned it, from all times that we went through Emmerberk I hadn’t seen a single other person around our age. Maybe she was always looking for a friend. Someone that wasn’t so much younger, or older than her.
Probably since I said that I’d be leaving soon, she must have thought that she would lose her only friend without a big age gap.

‘I know there is so much more out there.’

That line she said to me before, suddenly jumped into my mind. I didn’t know why.
Would it be alright to ask…?

‘Then… why don’t we go together?’

Those words escaped my mouth before I even realized it.
She said to me that she wanted to travel and I want to leave to find some answers. Why shouldn’t we go together? It seems like such an obvious choice. But would she like the idea of travelling with me?
I could see a sparkle of hope in her eyes that quickly faded as she turned her head to look at Casper. To then look at me again with a soft expression.

‘I… Ever since I told you… that I wanted to see more places, I’ve been thinking about it a lot more. I want to travel Resilia, I really do. I just… I just care too much about the people here, my parents and my little brother. I don’t want to leave them. Not to mention the hunting that I do for them. They wouldn’t have anyone else to do that for them. So… I don’t think I can go with you.’

She had a determined look in her eyes, but she couldn’t hide the fact that she was clearly sad about her decision. Her ears gave it away, as they drooped more and more when she spoke.
But what am I supposed to say here. I wanted to go together, sure. Spending time with her in this village has been some of the most fun I had in years. It finally felt like I had a friend that I could share anything with.
But, I wasn’t going to force her, nor would I continue to push it. Saddened as I was at the fact that we might not see each other again after I leave, I still respected her decision.

‘I… understand.’ 

Maya then blew out the only lit candle in the room.
A loud snoring from both Casper and Maya eventually resounded through the room, but it wasn’t what kept me up for a while. A feeling of guilt, similair to when I stayed quiet about where I came from filled my mind until I also fell asleep from tiredness.
It’s been a long day.