It was decided that for today Chloe will share her food with me and the chef will be instructed to change the menu for me too from tomorrow.

We did a chat a little, but I was not questioned about what happened. Apparently, the healer had asked my parents to just let me be for a couple of days.

On the day of the incident, Brother had already departed for the academy before it became known that both of us were injured.

Father and Mother decided that it’s not a good idea to tell him about our injuries as he will get worried over his journey.

After a bit of talk, we started eating but...

The food tasted really different... devoid of the usual flavours I am used to, it just didn’t suit my taste buds. For a moment, I considered switching back to my usual food.

“This isn’t half bad either though.”, Chloe remarked nonchalantly.

“Huh!!”, I got surprised by Chloe’s sudden remark and was staring at her.

She turned her face towards me and spoke

‘You looked as if you would through up eating this food.’
‘You know this food... last night it was way worse.’

It almost felt like she was mocking me for my resolve. I knew... knew that she wouldn’t do that... that she was just comforting me... that it will get better.... But it still stung.
And I... I wanted to get out of here... as fast as I can.

And so I lied,
‘Huh!! Oh, nothing like that. I just have little of an appetite today. So much happened today...’, I tried to get out of this situation and fumbled while getting up.

‘Well, I will go to my room to rest then.’, I got off from the chair and was walking out of the room when...

‘Let’s have a chat after dinner?’, Chloe said.

‘You know how worried Chloe was, you sure are a lucky brother’, interjected Mom teasingly.

‘Mommm’, Chloe was flustered.

Seeing this helped me ease my nerves.

‘Sure Chloe, let’s have a chat. I will be in my room resting.’

I was staring at the night sky in my room. It was a very relaxing experience. I had no idea how long I was staring at them.

When I turned around, I saw Chloe reading a book on my table. I was really surprised.

‘Chloe, when did you enter my room?’

It startled Chloe for a bit.

‘Ooh, I just forgot I was in your room.’ She laughed.
‘Well, I entered about 10 minutes before, when you were staring at the sky and singing.’ And she started to crazily laugh.
‘You know... it took a great deal of effort for me to not laugh then. But I thought I shouldn’t disturb you.’, she said teasingly.

{Ahh.. this girl}, I won’t be surprised if someone said I could be mistaken for a murderer right now.

‘Chloe! I have no idea whether I should thank you for not disturbing me or smack you for making fun. It’s not like you don’t sing at all!!’

‘Ohhh well well, don’t take it too personally. I was just having some fun. Anyway, this book is fun. [Fundamentals of Magic]. Our family hasn’t got the talent for magic till now, though... ‘

‘Ya, well, I just thought magic suited me better than the sword. Not to downplay sword, just that I thought maybe it might just work for me. Just an optimistic guess.’, I said, as if I was trying to defend myself.

‘Hey bro, you haven’t committed a crime... just relax.’

‘Well... please don’t tell anyone. Actually, I asked for magic books but grandparents said no...’, I requested her.

‘Ohh... So now we are partners in crime!!’, she exclaimed.

After that, she straightened herself and started talking seriously.

‘I had a dream. And I still remember a lot. It’s very weird. Did you have one too?’

I nodded my head. ‘Yes, I had a similar dream. In that, I saw a boy who cared about all life forms and it had a deep impact on me. Same for you?’

‘Well, for me it was different. I saw a girl, but yeah, she and her family also cared a lot about animals. That’s the same for me. So odd.’

Suddenly, we heard Mom’s voice. ‘Chloe, Anish. Go to sleep now. It’s already very late. Talk about the rest tomorrow.’

‘Okay Mom’, we both agreed.

I went to sleep but was very restless. When I finally slept, I entered another dream, but it was different, very different.

My sister was there with me. We were floating above the ground and many people were arguing about something.
But... but... were they even people? They seem so different. They were floating above the ground.
Their appearance was very abstract, almost fluid-like. All of them were of distinct colour, they didn’t seem to have mouths.
I think all of them were communicating telepathically. Still, it was hard for me to make sense out of the many voices which were overlapping each other.

Suddenly, a loud noise cut through all the chatter. Pure anger emitted out of that noise.

“I knew that [Dream and Nightmare] shouldn’t have been allotted a familiar at all. She is only 100 years old. Despite that, she got herself a familiar, legendary creature ‘Perko’ at that. I have no idea what our leader was thinking!!”

Another voice cut through. “Are you trying to question our leader? This is treason, you can be punished.”

The previous voice replied, ‘No... no way I am questioning him. But still, I have 500 years of experience, you have 700 years and despite that, we haven’t got a familiar, but she did. I think it should be.....’

And then suddenly a voice cut through them all. It had some sort of authority, I felt shivers on hearing it.

‘Quiet!! You idiots haven’t even noticed the humans are already here.’

And all the attention got focussed on me.... no us. It was a terrifying feeling.