Waking up was a terrifying and disorienting experience, my nerves were frayed and my body run ragged from the day before, the events of which hit me like a log as soon as I opened my eyes. My gaze bounced from corner to corner of this area that was disturbingly unfamiliar to me. Unbridled fear kept me rooted in my corner in what I remembered to be a tent. I unsuccessfully attempted to collect my tattered fear and piece it together to where I would at least be able to stand and wander around. I, instead, cowered on the ground, deciding to utilize my eyes rather than the rest of my body to survey my surroundings. A glance to my right brought me face to face with the dark space underneath a decently-sized bed, to my left a relatively tall nightstand that I had taken ample notice of in my blind panic the night before. Leveling my eyes straight forward I noticed the entrance to my space, the curtain hastily pulled closed. I cursed myself into a standing position and wobbled to my feet. A further glance past the nightstand brought me to gaze upon a sizable dresser sporting three drawers filled with absolutely nothing, kept company by it's taller, older brother named "a closet" settled directly to the left of the wooden storage unit.
A manufactured flap of the cloth door ripped my attention away from my observations and froze me in place. I shivered in my spot and another flap vied for my attention, this one accompanied by a foreign voice.
"Hey! My name is August! I heard you're new and I wanted to introduce myself." the voice was saturated in a kindness that I had not yet been familiarized with in my years of living.
The lack of malice thrown my way unstuck my feet from the ground and I managed to awkwardly hobble over the entrance. I pulled open the curtain and instead of talking I simply stood there and basked in the sunshine-like smile tossed my way.
"Sorry if I scared you! What's your name!?" she asked, gentle as a hug.
"Uh-um...T-Tenma." Was all I could stutter, my voice much less cloud-like.
My disaster of a speech pattern kindly mistaken for nervousness as the pretty woman in front of me startled the both of us with a gasp. Her hands shot up to guard her mouth and her eyes almost watered.
"Oh! My god! I'm so sorry! Am I actually like scaring you right now?!" she sputtered suddenly incomprehensibly ditzy.
Knowing my voice would betray me I simply shook my head, holding my hands up in front of me as if in surrender, and she breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"I know we just met but do you wanna come eat with my friends and me?" The sudden invitation startled me more than anything I had encountered so far.
My lack of a hasty answer was interpreted as an enthusiastic agreement as her eyes lit up. "I didn't hear a no!" she giggled and grasped my arm, springing a panic on me that caused me to almost angrily rip my thinning arm from her grasp, I yelped in pain when my wrist slapped me across the face with sharp pain. I whimpered and looked down at my misplaced hand. A scream startled me onto my ass and I wearily looked up at the frazzled golden-brunette.
"I-I'm so sorry Tenma!" she cried frantically glancing around for any prying eyes, when none were found she turned back to me and offered her hand this time. "L-let me take you to the infirmary." her eyes watered and her supplied hand shivering with restlessness.
Avoiding the offering, I rolled to the side and stumbled to my feet, keeping my eyes low, I allowed her to awkwardly guide me to a tent decorated with a handmade red cross. She held open the curtain and allowed me to slip past, cradling my dislocated joint. A chubby, yet muscular, red-headed woman jogged up to the two of us, she took one glance at me, and her eyes filled with pure sympathy.
"What's your name, sugar?" her honeyed voice questioned me and I froze on the spot, the ability to speak laughing in my face as it refused my request for an explanation. The woman's emerald eyes then turned to August who was happy to talk.
"I grabbed her arm and I think I really scared her cause she yanked her arm back and I accidentally dislocated her hand I think." she looked scared and at that moment I finally got a good look at her. Frizzy yet curly yellow-brown hair framed a light brown face and those that looked at her for the first time were bound to be dazzled by ocean-blue eyes. The kind-looking nurse lightly gestured me to an oddly pristine white cot and nodded for me to sit down. I followed her wordless orders like a dog, bathed in a new type of shame which went either unnoticed or avoided by the two females in front of me. The red-head held out her hands in silent question for me to offer her my damaged wrist. I glued my eyes to the laces of her right boot and offered her my limb as one would offer someone a prize. Turning my arm over in her hands and prodding around, tossing me an occasional "Does this hurt?' which would always be answered with a nod 'yes'. She eventually gave me my own arm back and told me that it was not only dislocated but fractured as well.
"This seems to have fractured fairly easily, you must have either untreated injuries or frail bones. Have you ever broken or sprained your wrist here?" She seemed sincere, yet untreated fear of everything around me shook my head no.
"No ma'am," I whispered a lie and her brow creased in confusion.
"Will she be okay?" August spoke up, eyes filled with a concern that could have easily been mistaken for fear.
The bold woman turned around and offered August a smile, "She's gonna be fine, just needs some meds and a splint and this should heal up fine." August signed my breath of relief for me until my own breath caught in my throat.
"Should I get Toya?" The brunette asked and I attempted to beg with my eyes to keep that terrifying woman out of this. My plea was, of course, ignored as August jogged out of the tent and the nurse spun back around towards my now shivering figure.
"Hey, it'll be okay, Toya has always been a real sweet girl." unconscious to my own brain, my body began to frantically shake its head. I pulled my ragged arm back to my body and shuttered till there were tears in my eyes. "Don't be a child, you'll be fine." Her sudden sugar-sweet demeanor being eaten alive by the words. My eyes widened in shock as the feeling of being unsafe rocketed back into my body with a new ferocity.
Run. That's the only word that took to my brain at that moment, where? I had no clue and the fact that I had no idea where exactly I was halted my plan in its tracks. All I knew was that I needed to get the hell out of there. My hazel eyes ran from one end of the tent to another. Mountains upon mountains of medical equipment, gauze, and casting equipment layered the tent in a way that wasn't quite messy but couldn't be considered organized at first glance. I watched carefully as the red-headed nurse turned around and rattled through her things until she came upon the tools needed to fix my wrist. I shook, as a lost child would, and every worn muscle and fiber in my body prepared for a pointless escape. I slid off the cot and like an idiot dashed towards the entrance to the tent, babying my arm. I raced as fast as my body would let me until my feet gave way beneath me and I began my trip to the ground, halted only by an iron grip on my good arm. I was yanked to my feet and brought face-to-face with the nurse who looked oddly angry. This all-too-familiar malice swimming around in her eyes oddly put me at a nervous ease. I was just about dragged back to my cot and roughly forced into a sitting position.
"I don't know what your problem is, but people don't usually run when they're being helped. Don't be ungrateful." The woman remarked, turning back to her task, yet keeping a wandering eye on my fragile body.
My eyes rocketed to the front of the tent as the entrance flapped open and in walked the superstar of the hour. Toya's eyes shot towards me and she just about grimaced, a less shiny August poked her head from behind her and jogged over to me.
"How do you feel?!" she cried and I flinched, causing her to jump back."I-I'm sorry!"
This made me shake my head so hard it almost hurt and I threw my hands in front of me in surrender, covering my shameful face.
"Do you ever talk?" Toya chuckled, seeming to almost enjoy my humiliation and I cowered as a response. "Guess that answers my question." she laughed again, this time, one of the most patronizing, ear-splitting laughs one could possibly muster.
"She does! She told me her name earlier!" August perked up and where one would've been grateful for the defense, I could only feel a deafening fear, why would Toya knowing I told this girl my name set me on another quest for an escape? Only the King himself could answer that. Toya, however, seemed to find this funny.
"You were probably just hearing things with your ditsy ass." The shiny red-head laughed again, filling my ears with a pain like no other, and this time, August joined her with a high-pitched one to match.
"You're probably right." she giggled, my eyes trailed to the ground in heated embarrassment, and the urge to cry wrapped me in a suffocating hug.
"Leave that sensitive ass girl alone, you see she's bout to cry." The nurse spoke, stepping towards me with her arms filled with equipment as the tent rumbled with the two girl's laughter.
"Isn't that her problem?" Toya cackled
"Yeah, isn't it?' August echoed and Toya's laugh came to a surprising halt.
"Shut up, dumbass." Toya jabbed in the girl's direction who immediately faltered in her amusement. Seeing how she had impeded in the brunette's laughter she began to giggle again, this time by herself. "Don't be so sensitive, damn, it was a joke." She seemed to be addressing the both of us now, August nodded and offered her a manufactured smile while I simply sat, much more interested in counting the number of cotton swabs on the ground than getting my feelings hurt once again.
Toya's voice once again frazzled me out of my trance, "Man, you really are sensitive, I told you it was a joke. August isn't acting butthurt about it." She threw her thumb towards the nodding girl who had thrown another plastic smile my way. I nodded this time, turning my attention to the nurse who had motioned for my arm and was now wrapping me up like a mummy.
Once she had finished she reached in her pocket and handed me a skinny black bottle, sporting a wordless white label. "They're pain meds, take them when the pain gets to be too much, alright?" Another nod confirmed my understanding and she shooed me out of the tent. "Come back in a week, so I can recheck you." she tossed behind her shoulder. I half-jogged out of the tent, followed lazily by Toya and August who were rallying a conversion about who-knows-what behind her.
"Hey," Toya called and I whipped around, startled, and she rolled her eyes in response to my reaction. "Stop being so fucking scared of everything, geez, but we're going to go eat, come with us, or starve." I couldn't tell if she was joking or not and her eyes carried none of the humor they did previously.
"Please come eat with us!" August chimed in earning a sideways glance from the girl next to her but no comment this time.
I glanced down at my mummified arm and studied the grass below me before meeting the eyes of the two under my hair. "S-sure." I stumbled and the two girls chuckled but said nothing further as they walked past me to what I could only assume to be the dining area, since neither checked to see if I was following, I hastily jogged toward them begging my legs to not betray me as they did earlier.
After what felt like a mile and a half of walking past giggling children and the adults hailing for their sporadic attention, we finally reached this massive, rectangular tent. Toya and August stepped inside without me and I followed, much more wary of my surroundings. I glanced around and took note of rows upon rows of benches filled with people of all shapes, sizes, and colors, talking, laughing and some merely sitting in silence enjoying the company of those around them.
I glanced forward and noticed that I had lost sight of the two I had come here with, panicked, I spazzed out, looking around frantically for anything familiar to me to no avail. My first instinct told me to crouch and cower on the ground with my arms over my head like a beaten dog and that's exactly what I did. My eyes watered as I began to draw the attention of those around me, they murmured and hissed most certainly about me currently making a fool of myself but I couldn't seem to unstick myself from the only thing I had begun to find safe. I cried out like a child when my good arm was trapped in an iron grip and I was effortlessly ripped from the ground and held up to face my captor. Toya gazed at me with a solution of disgust and almost childlike amazement.
"Jesus Christ, what the fuck are you doing? If you're gonna act like a dog then I might as well treat you like one." she spat.
I whimpered, cowering in the hands of the woman who I'm sure saw me as nothing more than a scared animal. She released my arm and I faltered on my feet to where I was finally standing without any assistance. I looked to the redhead's left to see August looking at me in confused humor, holding a tray of steaming food.
"I...I-Uh." I stuttered which somehow must have tickled the two girls in front of me cause the laughter that followed my broken speech startled me.
"I'm fucking with you dude, geez, come on the line starts over here." The unexpected kindness just about slapped me across the face with surprise, I only managed a nod and followed Toya like a shadow as August disappeared into the sea of people to locate an open place to sit.
Toya lead me over to the end of the line that stopped just behind the serving area, she reached behind her and handed me a metal tray that she must've grabbed from the stack in front of her and I gingerly accepted the offering as best I could with my one working hand, my other hanging awkwardly at my side sporting an uncomfortable angle. I shuffled down the line in tune with the people in front of me and simply either nodded or shook my head at the offerings directed my way. Once the last kind-looking man in a hairnet handed me a blueberry muffin I turned to face Toya who had already finished piecing together her meal. She nodded for me to follow and I dragged my feet behind the goddess who was tossing gentle greetings to almost everyone we passed, shivered under the eyes that passed over me, feeling as if they were attempting to bore an explanation as to who I was and where I came from out of me. Keeping my head down and my tray as steady as possible, I almost lost my progress as Toya just about skidded to an abrupt halt. I teetered back, dangerously close to falling yet somehow managed to regain my balance and sit next to the woman.
I picked over my rations as Toya and August dug into their own food, after nibbling on my muffin I declared that I was full and lightly pushed my tray forward where it caught the eye of August who had taken her seat directly across from us.
"No wonder you're so skinny, you don't eat shit." she giggled almost happily and Toya snorted from next to me, yet again, not saying a word. I attempted to sputter a defense that was only met with more howling laughter.
"Don't strain yourself there champ." Toya joked, and I could only respond with a reddening face, and she rolled her eyes. "Man, you really can't take a joke, can you?"
"I…." I started yet I stopped myself for no good reason, instead, going silent and Ignoring the confused, yet amused looks that were thrown my way.
"Oh shit! I forgot to ask, what are you?" August giggled and Toya chuckled along with her.
"Subtle." August giggled bashfully before turning back to me.
"Toya and I are magicians, your turn." She gifted me another sparkly smile causing me to freeze. How the hell do I tell them that I'm, well, nothing? I frowned, suddenly becoming the most expressive I've ever been in my life. My expression was almost painful and August turned her attention back to Toya, exchanging the same purely confused expression.
"I'm...um....p-power….um...powerless." My eyes never left the table and there was a suffocating moment of silence before loud and obnoxious laughter erupted like a volcano and drew eyes from every direction, some giggling along with the two accompanying me, others simply starring, curious as to what was so funny.
"Wait!" Toya choked through laughs, "You might actually be funny, holy shit!" she cackled along with August who was banging her fist on the table, wheezing.
I sat in silence, studying the two but remaining too scared to join the two in laughter. August was the first to notice that I wasn't hollering as she was and she wiped a tear from her eye before speaking. "You are joking, right?" she toppled back over into laughter and her question raised the eyebrow of the woman next to me who was beginning to catch her breath. A sudden pause in her amusement drew my attention to her and I came to face her sideways glance.
"You're….you're not joking?" Her face fell as her forehead began to crease. August hadn't seemed to catch on yet and continued in her uncontrollable giggling before being suddenly silenced by Toya.
"Shut up dude, it wasn't even that funny." She commanded and the girl fell silent, following her command like a dog, her face going beet red and her eyes falling to the table.
I shook my head, mirroring August who had perked back up and was boring a hole into me with her gaze. "Holy shit," she muttered and Toya's voice mimicked her surprise.
"I didn't even think that was fucking possible." the redhead's amazement was obvious, detectable by her tone alone.
Only silence followed her sentence and I could've choked on the tension that swam through the air around us, All I could think at the moment was that I seriously regret being born.