"Are-are you sure this is ok? I mean, do you think she'll like it?"
"Luise, you could give her anything and she would like it since it's from you."
The person that Ms. May and I were talking about was Nicole. Today, it is her nameday, a celebration that we hold every two years on the day of someone's birth. Although since we have no idea on when everyone here was born seeing as how this is an orphanage, the person's respective nameday falls on the day the first arrived here. For Nicole, that day is today.
Currently Nicole is out with one of her friends, going around the town and buying Ms. May and I time to get things ready for the celebration later today, one of those things being her nameday gift. I’ve known her for two years now, and yet I still don’t feel like I know her well enough to get her something. I just hope she likes what I ended up going with.
“Here, can you help me with this? This banner is a bit hard to hang up by myself.”
“Oh sorry, yeah let me help you.”
Once we finished hanging up the banner I could hear two pairs of footsteps slowly approach the front door. Both Ms. May and I shared a moment of eye contact, hoping that we were ready.
Looking towards the front door, it opened as two familiar figures walked in.
– (From here on out the chapter is going to switch to Nicole’s perspective)
“You- you really are something else, you know that Nicole?”
I had just finished a game of tag with Gabbie, a game that I without a doubt won, and because it was starting to get a little late Gabbie and I were beginning to head back to the orphanage.
“Haha, I can go for another round. Maybe I should ask Luise if she can play when we get back!”
Despite being a human, Luise was the only one who could keep up with me. Sure, at the end of the day I was faster, but she had stamina that matched mine, not to mention that she would often use some interesting tricks to make up for that difference.
“Oh come on Nicole. She’s busy enough as is with the lessons from those two at the guild. Give her a break every once in a while. Give me a break too…”
Speaking of Luise, what was she doing today? I mean she told me that she would be busy but not much else. It's the weekend so she doesn’t have any lessons from Mr. Johnston or Ms. Witch, although she does like to visit them both outside of lessons.
I really wanted to spend my nameday with her too, I hope she didn’t forget…
Before I could finish my thought we were already at the door to the orphanage. As soon as I opened the door I saw Ms. May and Luise standing on top of two separate ladders, with a banner in the middle. On the banner was the phrase: Happy nameday Nicole!
“Happy nameday Nicole!”
“Happy nameday Ni-whoa!”
Thud
Before Luise could finish her sentence she seemed to lose her balance and fall off of the ladder.
“I’m fine!”
As Luise was slowly getting back up I couldn’t help but run over to her so I could give her a hug. Seems she didn’t forget after all!
“Ow ow Nicole, you are squeezing a little too hard…”
“Sorry sorry, I had thought you forgot and-”
“Nicole, how in the world could I forget.”
Hehe, being around Luise always made me feel happier for some reason, and whenever I hug her I felt even happier.
“Sorry to interrupt you two, but Nicole. Want your cake now or later?”
“Now please!”
Ms May, if you give someone a chance to have cake early, who in the world would wait? And after cake always comes presents, something I am looking forward to even more! I wonder what Luise and Gabbie got me?
Together we all made our way over to the dining hall, and I couldn’t help but feel so excited! I have gotten to see the nameday celebration for some of the other kids at the orphanage, and it is always so much fun. Seriously though, two years is so long! I know it's because of some old legend or something, but why couldn’t it be once a year instead?!
Once we all reached the dining hall I could see a simple but pretty white cake lying on the center table. There were flowers along the edge of it, probably picked from the nearby forest, and my name was written along the top. It was something that I had seen Ms. May and June use before. Apparently they place it on the cake first before baking it, although when they tried to explain it the whole thing kinda went over my head.
Slowly one by one everyone walked into the room and we all had our celebration. Alongside the cake there was also wolf and boar, some of which I was told was hunted by Luise herself! I’ve been told that she picked up on the whole hunting thing pretty quickly. I’m a little jealous that she gets to go out and do that, but I understand that it's dangerous.
Luise has been having me practice some simple defensive magic “in case something happens” but the chances of that are pretty low, right?
“Ugh… I’m full”
“Nicole, after what you ate? Not surprised.”
“Hey it's not my fault I like cake and meat, alright!? And you had plenty yourself!”
Luise and I were both sitting down next to each other, full from the feast. Just a couple minutes earlier. That was when Ms. May walked up to us, holding a box in her hand.
“Nicole, your present.”
Any sluggishness I had from eating so much instantly left me and was replaced with excitement. The second Ms. May handed me the present I immediately began to unravel the simple ribbon that tied it. Well, more like ripped it off rather than unravel…
As soon as the box was open I could see what was inside. A large sunhat, one that I was looking at during the harvest festival earlier in the year. The hat was perfect because it had room for my ears, something that wasn’t all that common with other hats.
Immediately I put the hat on my head and did a little twirl. It was a little big for being inside the dining hall, but I still wanted to wear it anyways.
“Nicole, that looks good on you!”
Behind Ms. May was Gabbie, and she too was holding a box. Upon opening that box there was what looked like a pair of catching gloves and a couple balls.
“Gabbie is this?”
“So we can play catch! I know how much you enjoy doing stuff like this so I thought you would like it.”
I hugged both Gabbie and Ms. May after thanking them for their gifts. I then turned to Luise, wondering if she had something as well.
When our gaze met she let out a little chuckle before grabbing a box from underneath her seat. Upon opening it I saw a bunch of random objects and a teddy bear. The teddy bear was really cute, but I was confused about the other objects.
“Nicole, if you don’t mind, may I have one of your hairs?”
“One of my hairs? Uhh… sure?”
I pulled a hair out of my head and gave it to her. She then took back the box from me and placed it on the table. Slowly she began pulling items from the box and started using them. Wait, was this magic?
First she grabbed a needle and used it to seemingly weave my hair into the doll. Then she slowly placed it on the floor and created a circle of what looked like salt around it.
One by one Luise began placing items around the doll and inside the circle. She closed her eyes as the doll began to glow a rich purple color before fading back to normal. Looking around I could see that almost everyone in the room had their eyes on what Luise was doing.
“Here you go Nicole.”
“Wait wait wait, what did you do? Was that magic!?”
Luise never showed me what she learned from Ms. Calliope aside from some simple defensive magic. If this really was magic then I want to learn more!
“This is a poppet Nicole. I tried to find a spell that had minimal downsides but it turns out that is harder than I thought. Anyways this poppet will keep you safe from a single physical hit. Something like scratching your knee won’t trigger it, but something like a knife or boar attack will. As soon as the poppet protects a hit, it will dissolve. Aside from that it's also just a regular cuddly teddy bear. I hope you’ll never had to use the poppet side of this thing but it is here jus- whoaa”
I didn’t let Luise finish what she was saying because I wanted to hug her so much. It was at this moment that I knew Luise and the others cared about me, and that feeling was better than any present I could have gotten.
That was cute.
Where are you author?
Author are you dead?
lilaschwei are you in hiatus?