It wasn't a nightmare.
The closest thing to that experience was being awake for several days and fainting.
A false calm.
The relief that comes to the body when it wants to get rid of pain.
To Airys, the surroundings were a fleeting mist that would dissipate with the slightest touch.
It was curious.
Her mother had always stroked her hair when she combed it.
"My best friend had hair as beautiful as yours"
Her mind was lost in the clouds and a warmth indicates her dream every time she did that, the pleasure and security that it provided her was the product of a close relationship. Airys always believed that her hair was something special, that the celestial coloration infused her with a sacred aura, a message from the heavens that no matter what, she had an obligation to protect him.
Knowing where part of that mysticism comes from, it died, and another meaning was born from it embers.
Not knowing your real parents... is not easy.
She never lacked love, on the contrary, her parents and her brother gave her all the affection that she required in her childhood.
"Your hair is blue because you are an angel from heaven" It was the favorite phrase of her father when he pampered her.
But the truth is that her hair is blue because of her biological mother, because her mother also had hair like that and because her ancestry made that pact in the past.
A present from beyond.
It was impossible for her to think what they must have been like.
Were they good people?
Was her mother's hair just as beautiful?
What happened to them…?
It is not their fault that they died, living with Syria was a huge blessing, however, her life… could has been different.
Every time she tried to realize self-perception, her mind was trapped by these thoughts of her origin.
"What do you have, pretty?" she remembered her that time when she cried.
She was wearing the newest white dress Syria had baked for her, only it was covered in mud.
"I... I told my brother's friends what daddy tells me" Airys whimpered, even then she was a squeaky girl. "And, and... they said it wasn't true."
"Oh my life, you know your daddy doesn't lie."
"But they laughed at me and when I went to hit them I fell into a puddle and they left laughing at me"
"Airys look into my eyes" Little Airys stopped her drama. "Tell me what you see"
"I see you mommy."
"Yes," she giggled a little. "But focus on my eyes, what do you see?"
"Me…"
"Exactly," Syria picked her up in her arms and she was just as muddy with dirt as she was. "What I see with my little eyes is my little angel with light blue hair"
She tickled the tip of her nose on her forehead, Airys squirmed from her laughter.
It was fun watching her brother chase her friends too, yelling in revenge for his little sister.
That memory is unforgettable, that serenity of her mother is incomparable. She could see from her mother's shoulder that puddle as they walked away, she could visualize that reflection of little Airys.
Her face transformed into her current face and the question surrounded her soul.
"Tell me Airys, what do you see?"
———————————————————————————————————
Echsos felt a Shock. He opened his eyes and sat up and shook off the sudden rush of energy, however, he was greeted back by a sovereign hit on the forehead from Natsumi.
"You are a little idiot."
"And when did that matter?" Echsos rubbed his forehead.
The panorama in front of him consisted of that iconic cliff hidden behind his stepsister crouched in front of him and the small vent through which the smoke from the campfire that Layd must have in the hideout escaped. Meanwhile Seng pecked the Brat's face with a macabre and mocking laugh —he expected any pose except the test one—; although the joy on his face didn't last long because he wanted to wake her up.
"Wake up already!" he roared touching a lock of her hair, ready to tug it.
"Me!" Airys screamed instantly and reflexively slapped Seng's hand to remove it, then she resisted the urge to curse along with Seng's blow that knocked her face down on the floor.
"Any advance?" Seng questioned after looking from him to Echsos. "It goes with you too." He used a harsher tone and kicked Airys soft, by his standards.
"Well," Airys stood up with a dirty face of dirt. "If someone didn't interrupt me every time I'm going to make it" she replied with her bulging silver eyes.
"Excuses."
"Of course not!" she screeched at him.
Echsos was enraptured by the performance of both, it was something uncomfortable but beautiful to witness; like the nights at the orphanage before he found out about that reality. He doubted for a minute whether he should say it or not, because if it turned out to be false he would die of shame, he steeled himself and with the development of his potential resonance he told them:
"I saw the same thing you saw, Airys!" He almost blushed when he yelled it out.
Luckily for him, he wasn't the only one who was sorry. Airys stammered like crazy for a second, if he was referring to that dream she had, in which she was little, got dirty and cried because of a huge stupidity, that Echsos has seen it too is... well, Layd could help her get it eat by the earth.
"What are you talking about, Echsos?" Seng inquired.
"Do not tell him!" Airys covered her face. " I forbid you!"
Seng wrapped her in his shadow like a shawarma and sat on it to silence her.
"Pay no attention to her and tell me."
Echsos received the most flaming look of anger of her life from Airys, of course Seng sensed that murderous intention and pressed her cheeks with his right hand to push her away. After a deep sigh Echsos accurately told them about the dream from before, Airys's thoughts.
"Is that what you saw Brat?" Seng inquired while threatening her with shadow claws.
"Yes…"
Seriously what the heck? She was advancing in whatever she has to advance to discover her resonances and the first thing that happened to her was more compromising than Seng reading her diary.
"Privacy doesn't exist…" she stammered, letting go of the last bit of pride from her.
"Hm... I guess it's because they were close" Seng placed his index finger in front of him just above Echsos and measured the distance with one eye closed. "I think it's a good thing, your resonance is always present, maybe we should do tests instead of you wasting your time like this crybaby."
"What kind of tests?" Natsume said.
"I'll think of something, you'll think of something and we'll slowly drift away until Echsos receives nothing."
"You know I can't decide what information I receive" Echsos pointed out dismissively.
"I didn't say it would be fast." Seng released Airys. "Not a problem, or is it?" he asked to Natsume.
Natsume shook her head and approached him.
"The sooner we finish the better" she commented.
"What about me?" Airys mused.
"Go for lunch" Seng commanded.
Airys's poor aching back creaked and she reluctantly went off to hunt the first unfortunate animal that was no more dangerous than herself.
———————————————————————————————————
It is not a subject that many people are familiar with, however, with an increasingly productive society and facilities such as not having to get food for yourself, Airys was one of the first results of that kind of life.
Fishing? With what fishing pole? She had no choice but to hunt down a Cohjeag —long and straight like a lizard, white and soft like a rabbit, dangerous like both together —and that activity took him about four long and exhausting hours. Thanks to her pathetic inexperienced approaches:
She tried to throw the sword at it from a tree.
She missed, she's bad at aiming.
She tried to ambush it by predicting where it would go.
She didn't make it, because when she came out of her hiding place to scare the beast the Cohjeag screamed louder than her and scared her away.
"Damn you Seng! I hate your stupid rules!" she howled herself, if not because he forbade her to summon her creatures because: "You have to be independent." she remedied him in frustration.
Fed up with the Herculean task he sent her, she decided to bet on the results of her arduous training, so, she took her sword and aggressively pursued the beast. The Cohjeag got scared and used it legs to jump away from her much faster than Airys expected, luckily when it was going to leave her vision the beast fell into the same hole where she had fallen yesterday.
She saw the creature squirm to escape from there and felt solidarity and an intense desire to die for thinking that she looked like that too.
"Here I go..." she sighed, demoralized and threw herself into the hole to kill the animal.
That is the story of the fifth longest hunt of her life, a detail that she would never share with anyone.
Or at least that was what she was repeating in her mind after pulling the dead Cohjeag out of the hole with clothes soiled with blood and dirt alike.
"Hey, isn't that the girl that was with the other one?" Andra said.
"Damn it!" Airys exclaimed upon seeing Andra, Erena and Maryon.