II

---

━━━━━━┓༻❁༺┏━━━━━━

---

Arc II Chapter 1

---

━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━

---

 

12^th Anima Lunar 753 AAC

 

Morning dawned. The first rays of sunlight banished the cold with their warmth and the last rainy clouds. The sun rose on the horizon, and Aurora was glad that the rain had ceased. Temperatures rose again and her hair dried. She had enough of rain for the predictable future. Drenched from tip to toe, her clothes were soaked. It wouldn't surprise her if she caught a cold last night ...  

 

“Hachoo! Haaaachoooo! Haachoo!” Aurora sneezed, ignoring her running nose. “Stupid rain. Stupid cold. Stupid life.” Her night was terrible. A tree offered her a modicum of shelter against the elements, but still, sleeping outdoors in the wilderness was far from a pleasant experience.

 

Aurora passed the night in her ragged clothes. Covered in dried mud, filth, blood, they had clearly seen better days. Fortunately, a few helpful corpses gladly shared their coats with her. They didn't need them any more, and a lone freezing girl knew a better use for them. She also had her fire magic, which helped her over the night. A little bonfire warmed her frozen hands. 

 

So far, her dearest wish was a warm meal and a cosy, fluffy bed. She would even kill for them! But her wishes didn't come true. Wandering through the forest without purpose and direction, Aurora was searching in vain for the radiant light of civilisation, but her search yielded little success so far ...

 

“A carriage?” Aurora halted and furrowed her eyebrow.  

 

Amid all the trees, her eyes spotted a carriage, and a road, or rather a simple trail leading through the forest. A horse-drawn carriage stood before her, and human corpses and horse cadavers littered the ground. The soldiers didn't share her luck and didn't survive the previous night. Their wounds were fresh, and rot hadn't set in yet. Their deaths must have been recent.

 

The dead wore plate armour, while wielding swords and spears, which were both peculiar choices for her time and age, but her mind ignored the nagging feeling accompanying her. She had different priorities, namely looting and plundering. The dead didn't look like poor beggars, so they were surely holding onto some valuables to spare. Money, gold, shiny and sparkling thingies. Maybe even some food. Her stomach was hungry.

 

Her thieving fingers scavenged the battlefield. All the walking and crisping people made her really, really, really hungry. Her poor stomach rebelled. Her tummy demanded food.

 

On her search for nourishment, Aurora stumbled across a lovely dagger. Light and reliable, the dagger was quickly appropriated for personal use. In a dangerous world like this, little girls like her had to be well-armed. Dangerous predators lurked in the shadows of the forest, only waiting for an unsuspecting meal to pass by. She also acquired some money. Her search yielded several pouches full of copper and silver pieces. Probably coins.

 

Inspecting them under the sunlight, the pieces were without a doubt coins. They were round and minted. Their surface featured strange letters and symbols. The language was unknown to her, but the letters felt distressingly ... familiar. Her mind knew them from somewhere. Curious.

 

Aurora flipped the coin. The silver piece depicted a proud gryphon on the front, and an eagle on the reverse. The eagle caught her interest. She had seen the animal before. The resemblance was not a mere coincidence.

 

Her eyes fell on the carriage. It carried a coat of arms. The design betrayed it. A black eagle with silver lines on white ground spread its wings across the wooden frame. Without doubt, a coat of arms.

 

A smirk adorned her lips. Comparing them, the eagles were indeed the same. The differences were ... negligible.

 

Aurora approached the carriage, curious what find it harboured. Not only did a sizeable contingent of heavily armoured soldiers escort the carriage, but the carriage also bore a distinct coat of arms. The carriage must hide a secret, a secret waiting to be uncovered. It was attacked for a reason, ambushed in the middle of nowhere, far away from the prying eyes of civilisation.   

 

After opening the door, pure chaos greeted her. Luggage littered the ground. Books, paper, pens, ink, boxes, clothes everywhere, wildly thrown around.

 

Aurora picked up a blouse. Fate gifted her a fresh set of clothes, a new blouse. A vast improvement over her current rags. The blouse fit her perfectly. It was even her size ...

 

...

...

...

 

The blouse was her size ...

 

Shaking her head in denial, Aurora dismissed her stray thoughts and continued to explore the carriage. It couldn't be, could it? As suspected, the books were also written in gibberish. They used the same set of strange letters as the coins.

 

Her eyes studied the pages. Probably a phonetic alphabet, judging by the limited number of characters. 

 

Aurora clicked her tongue and discarded the useless book. Her search continued, with modest success.

 

Below all the luggage, Aurora found a series of sweets and happiness overcame the gluttonous girl, who quickly devoured her newly acquired sugary sins. The lovely flavour of sweet sugar made her smile. Next to them, she also found a strange casket, a simple wooden box, yet her mind was drawn to the mysterious chest. An irresistible force attracted her. 

 

Her hand caressed the dark cherry wood like a treasure. The casket contained something important, something very important to her.

 

The chest opened to reveal its secret, and what she found surprised her.

 

“A doll?” Aurora furrowed her eyebrow. A doll was stored inside the chest, bedded in fine silk, slumbering peacefully.

 

Disturbing her soft dreams, her hands removed the doll from her casket. The doll filled Aurora with a sense of nostalgia and inexplicable longing. The doll was a cute girl, lovely, adorable, sharing her appearance and her sense of fashion. A miniaturised version of her, an Aurora doll.

 

Aurora patted her newly acquired doll, as countless thoughts filled her mind. So many questions. So few answers. Her search yielded little information, but her failures didn't discourage her. She remained positive.

 

Her lips mustered a smile. “Tell me, what's your name? I am sure a lovely doll like you must have a name, don't you?”

 

---

━━━━━━┛༻❁༺┗━━━━━━

---