Fantasy Once upon a time

[Wandering Grim Hollow]

Amelia Selk​

"Hm... What are you up to...?" Amelia muttered to herself as she stalked after Tomi. Her footfalls light and her breathing steady, she used all of the knowledge she learnt from both combat classes and a hunting story she once read. She found it odd that she had the idea to sneak around when she could simply ask Tomi if she could tag along... But where's the fun in that eh? Either way, it would be best to be as stealthy as possi- *Clack!*

"Kh...!" A careless step cause Amelia to kick over a small pebble. Thinking quickly, she flatted herself against a nearby tree. Peeking from her hiding place, she could see Tomi holding the shovel like a lance while growling.... Or rather an adorable attempt to growl. Amelia could barely stifle her giggles but she managed to do so. After letting Tomi widen the distance between them, Amelia continued her prowl. She soon found that she didn't need to worry about making too much noise as Tomi burst out into an adorable song.

"Oh my... How cute..." Amelia sighed as she listened to the little nursery rhyme Tomi was doing. It sounds cheerful but the more she listened to the lyrics, the more she was sure that an actual child would get nightmares from it. Still, it was kinda catchy and Amelia found herself humming along. But soon found that Tomi had reached her destination, a wide are full of freshly dug soil.

"So this is why you always end up dirty..." Amelia muttered as she watched Tomi busy herself by preparing something from her bag. Amelia took this chance and walked up in front of Tomi and waited for the small wolfish girl to look up. And she did, before turning a brilliant shade of red while demanding to know how did Amelia got there.

"Oh? Don't you remember, Tomi? I can do maaaaaagic~" Amelia said in a sing-song tone as she noted the tools Tomi was holding. "And I can see I found your dirty, not-so-little secret, hm?"

Idea

 

[Idea]

(Tomi´s POV)
It wasn´t really a secret. Yeah, I hadn´t told anyone, but if someone had asked, I would have plainly said it... with a followup statement that whatever I found was mine. Of course, the school had given me permission to dig there. Yet as the cowwoman stood above me in that fashion, I couldn´t help but feel like she shouldn´t have found. Most of all, I feared she might have heard me sing, that song in particular. I liked it, I often hummed it when I was alone at home, while hugging a stuffed animal, having a soft meal or just watching the view. But I would never sing it in front of someone else, or so I hoped. Now the spell was broken, my face felt like the skin could come off from how red and how boiling with embarassment it was. I stood up, stiff, and just stared for a moment. Then I quickly grabbed the digging tools and ran to the center of the hole with them, starting to pull out earth in the cowwoman´s direction as fast as I could.

"I´m gonna bury you there even if I have to dig down to the underworld! Stay still!" I barked out, continuing to throw earth behind me with the shovel. Bits of dirt would fall on me constantly as I did this, some even poking my nose and ears causing me to sneeze, some making my tail and my back itchy, my clothes and face getting tiny dots of dirty brown... There was a "splat" all of the sudden, dropping on my eye... it ran down, viscous, was that mud? A couple more splants, and big stains on my clothes proved it was, but I didn´t stop digging quickly until my shovel was flung out of my hands by a tiny column of water peaking out from the spot I was digging in, hitting my face and knocking me down.

I tilted my head, confused about what was happening... Then I felt the shaking, and saw the cracks start to form, more and more water getting poured out in the column... oh no...

"Help me momma!" I screamed instinctively, picking up my tools as fast as I could and just running away, as the cracks started to break, steaming hot water pouring out from behind me as if trying to chase me.


"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!"
was the last thing that came out of my mouth before I was caught by a huge wave of what felt like really hot, but also somehwat nice bath water.

.....

It took me a few minutes, but I managed to drag myself out, drenched and coughing. My skin was red, not from the heat of the embarassment anymore, but from that of the water. I coughed, slurping out some water, and even forgetting Amelia was there.

"Crap..." I turned around, seeing the water had pratically formed a lake in the crater I dug up... Was I gonna be in trouble? Though, the shape, and the water even, they seemed familiar. "Hot thing? Hot flings? What was it again? Ah, forget it, the real trouble is how I´m gonna explain this!"

Wandering Grim Hollow

 

[MinouMirrors]

“I suppose I am. It seems you were quite engrossed by your book.I hope you don’t mind me asking for your attention.”

Raz took a seat and twirled his apple for a second. He wanted to eat it but it seems impolite now to take a bite without at least continuing the conversation he had forced them into. He leaned back and let out a long sigh instead.His eyes staring up into the sky. Taking this peaceful moment to gather himself. He took his time, listening to the sounds of the courtyard. His thumbs rubbing the shiny smooth skin of his red apple. He was quickly getting lost in the atmosphere but he wouldn’t allow himself to. He was quiet long enough. Any longer and the princess may get annoyed with him.

“Princess Ariella, have you ever wondered...to what extent we shape your own destiny, and how much is down to fate?” His red eyes staring intently at her now as he goes ahead and bites his apple.

Lady Midnight

 

[Lady Midnight]

"It would seem unwise to say no if you're the one asking for attention..." Ariella spoke as she pondered on what Raz would want to ask her. To say that the question caught her off guard would be an understatement. Her lips stretched thin as he bit into his apple. Was he trying to see how she would answer? Was he testing her to see how she really thought?

"Indeed I have. Every time I look at my mark actually." She smiled halfheartedly as she bit into her own apple. After her second bite, she still felt his intense stare still on her as she swallowed her snack. "I believe that fate presents us with opportunities and scenarios. What we do in those scenarios are up to us." Ari elaborated on her answer, but still felt unsatisfied with it. Make no mistake about it, she believed in what she said but there was a part of her that felt trapped by fate. The very sight of the Chosen One reminded her of the one thing fate presented her that she couldn't change. "What are your thoughts on it? What brought about such a question?"


MinouMirrors

 

[Wandering Grim Hollow]

Amelia Selk​

"Oh dear, whatever did I do to deserve such a cruel fate?" Amelia jokingly said as Tomi began shoveling dirt in her general direction. Amelia simply took a couple of steps to the left and watched as dirt began piling up on the place she once stood, the occasional clod hitting her shoes. Amelia couldn't help but chuckle softly at the sight of a very embarressed and angry Tomi going all out to bury her. She even mentally compared Tomi to an energetic puppy, what not with the tail and the ears. Still, Amelia started to worry as she noted Tomi's uniform getting more and more soil on it.

"Tomi~ You are getting dirt all over yourself~!" Amelia attempted to grab Tomi's attention. She had half the mind to walk over and physically stop Tomi when something moist splattered onto the dirt pile, a small bit of it landing on Amelia's skirt. She ran a finger across the smear and rubbed the substance between her fingers.

"Mud? But that means...." Amelia wondered when she felt a very slight tremor in the ground. Amelia began thinking. Moisture within the soil. Tomi's digging within the area...

"Could it be...?" Amelia was about to come to a conclusion when she heard Tomi's loud cry, startling Amelia from her train of thought.

"TOMI GET AWAY FROM THERE!" Amelia cried out just as a small explosion of hot water erupted from the ground. The wonderfully warm wave of hot spring water washed over Amelia, knocking her off her feet.

"*Cough* Urgh... That was... not very nice... Perfect temperature for a bath though...." Amelia coughed, dragging herself out of the now filled crater. Although calling it a pool would be a much better way to describe it. After a moment of minor confusion, Amelia started to panic. Tomi was closest to the explosion!

"Tomi?!" Amelia gasped before catching sight of the girl staring at the hot spring with a worried expression. Amelia practically rushed over and grabbed Tomi by the shoulders.

"Are you alright?! Are there any burns or bruising?! Gods you are all red..." Amelia worriedly asked as she scrutinized Tomi's body for any injuries. Kinda like how a mother would.

Idea

 

[Idea]

(Tomi´s POV)
Everything looked so hazy. I was confused, my thoughts were spiraling about as much as my vision. I could hear a distant voice, fading into my ears, both pairs, and a dark quickly approaching cloud. Whatever it was, it asked me if I was bruised. Did I fall? Everything fell so hot, it had to do with the hot springs. My clothes were touched, my body as well, I couldn´t help myself from chuckling a little and squirming from her cold and hot fingertips.
"Ah, stop it, that tickles!" I complained with a huge grin. This reminded me of her, could she be, I blinked rapidly, the fogginess clearing just a bit. I couldn´t see very clearly yet, but I could tell who it was. A wave of disappointment led me to just stand end up in silence, no grin in my face anymore. I shook myself quickly, water getting thrown all over the place in my attempt to dry myself, then I rubbed my eyes. The air temperature was helping even if it was still quite hot. I bumbled my way to what was likely my bag, which I had somehow managed to save from that tsunami. I searched for a certain familiar stick. It was wooden, and had a small board. Good thing I prepared it ahead of time! I dragged the sign and as soon as I found a set of rocks that was just loose enough and just stiff enough, I shoved it in, pushing down as hard as I could, and then covered it with the rocks, to make it firm. I smiled proudly, although I could still barely see and my head really hurt. In the sign it said to everyone what this hotspring was: "Property of Tomi Dobutsu". I had found and dug up the hotspring, it was by right and law, my own. Not that there was much I could do with it as it was now...
In fact, I hoped I didn´t just place the sign backwards.

Wandering Grim Hollow

 

[MinouMirrors]

Raz continued to eat his apples as she spoke. His eyes dropping from her face to that of a distant spot in the courtyard. He pondered over her answer, she responded without much hesitation which was not as entertaining but at least insightful. More insightful than he expected to get.

"What are your thoughts on it? What brought about such a question?"

“Hmm,” He put down his half eaten apple. To answer or not to answer~ He continued to look out into the distance.

“I believe fate is a set course, Princess Ariella. A rushing twisting creek cutting through a tangled jungle of decisions and actions.” He felt himself grow more somber as old memories bubble up. “...and we are merely drowning in it. Taken along until death. Surely with enough strength we may escape but…” He sighed. He shouldn’t have answered.

“...we’ll get tangled up by twisted roots, and before you know it. Our actions had lead us falling back into that unforgiving creek.” He put on smile again, forcing a casual laugh to take away from the seriousness of his answer. “Or... I suppose. I just mean to say, Fate is inevitable.”

Feeling embarrassed, he didn’t want to show it and quickly got up. “I’ll excuse myself now, Princess. I should let you return to your book before I take anymore of your time.”

Lady Midnight

 

[Lady Midnight]

Raz's words had shaken the young princess, and she was fighting not to let him see it. Out of all the times to have such a conversation, why now? Was this life's way of telling her that no matter how hard she tried or fought back, she would still be swept away by the current of fate? Destined to drown in a fate that she had dedicated all of her life fighting to change? Ariella stared wide eyed at the ground as a faint breeze blew past her and the white haired male. Only Raz's sudden movement broke her from her trance and she stared up at him. To save face, she gave her classmate a soft grin and shook her head.

"Oh don't think you took up my time. I enjoyed the talk. It was...a nice change."

As Ari waved him off, his words still weighed heavily on her heart. He really was a mysterious individual. Just how much did he know that he was letting on? Ari would be a fool to ignore the signs that something was bound to happen. The sudden arrival of the Chosen One and the sudden conversation about fate were no mere coincidence. The princess' brows furrowed as her shocked expression transformed into that of pure focus. Her mood for reading had been spoiled replaced by the burning desire to prove herself. Turning to face the school, Ari left the courtyard to retrieve her weapon to train before class started.

 

[Wandering Grim Hollow]

Amelia Selk​

"It tickles? Ufufu~ At least you seem alright enough to feel ticklish but are you honestly alright, Tomi?" Amelia asked, her head tilted in mild confusion as she attempted to check Tomi's physical condition a little bit further. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that Tomi's vision cleared up slightly and her once amused expression seemed to turn into that of disappointment? Amelia was rather shocked by Tomi's sudden cold behavior and watched as she stood up suddenly and walked towards her bag. Amelia quietly knelt as she watched Tomi fiddle around her bag for something.

"My, my.... Ever the lively one, hm?" Amelia sighed before getting up, walking over to her own sodden bag and slinging it onto her shoulder. As Amelia turned around, she heard a loud thwack as Tomi drove something into a pile of rocks. Amelia walked over, curious as to what Tomi fixed into the ground.

"Ah. How adorable." Amelia said with a small smile forming as she saw the handmade sign with Tomi's handwriting declaring the Hot Spring Pool to be 'Property of Tomi Dobutsu'. A small chuckle escaped Amelia's lips as she reached out and straightened the slightly crooked sign before picking Tomi up by the back of her soggy uniform collar.

"Alright Miss Prospector. We should head back and change before our combat classes." Amelia said, walking over to Tomi's bag and picking it up before walking back towards the Academy. An odd sight indeed. Two girls, both sopping wet, and the bigger one carrying the smaller one like someone carrying a naughty kitten.

Idea