Celestial Saga: Exiled To Earth III 18 Stage Eighteen: A Peaceful Life

"Where are you going so early in the morning?" Freyja asked while rubbing her still sleepy eyes. "Fis.h.i.+ng. Then, I'll go to the factory to help."

"Wait! I'll go with you!"

"Well, I don't think it's a good idea to go around just yet. You've just recovered, you have to rest. I promise, I'll take you out next week, when you're fully recovered. For now, watch over the house for me, okay?"

"But is it alright? I mean, I'm a freeloader…."

"Umm… why don't you cook something for me? You see, I've never eaten someone else's cooking before. I'm looking forward to it!" He waved goodbye and left, with a bright smile as usual.

"Alright, first, I'll clean the house and then I'll cook. I can't do it as well as Alaric or Kirin, but I think I can make decent food." With that, Freyja began mopping the floors and wiping the windows. "Lenfiare, it is not appropriate for someone of your status to do the works of a peasant." Astrid reminded her. "Don't worry Astrid, I've done things like this back in my old world. Besides, this is the least I can do for freeloading."

"If you say so Lenfiare, please call upon us should you need help."

"Thanks Astrid! I will!" She hummed while wiping the windows clean, and mopping the wooden floor. In her free time, she mended Aluanthi's clothes and organized them. In the late afternoon, she began cooking dinner. Before she knew it, Aluanthi is back.

Welcome home! Freyja greeted with a proud smile. She managed to do all ch.o.r.es and even cooked decent food. "I made supper! But don't expect too much. I think it's edible." Aluanthi was taken aback. He almost forgot that he took in a young lady and she's waiting for him at home. "What's wrong?"

"NOTHING! I'm just not used to someone greeting me like that." Aluanthi laughed before sitting on the small wooden table. Freyja carefully observed him, as he ate. She was afraid that her stew didn't taste good, because Aluanthi fell silent for a couple of seconds after his first bite."

"Wow, it's good!"

"Really? I'm glad you liked it!" Freyja sighed in relief, sitting beside the young man and joined him for a meal.

Freyja washed the dishes afterwards while Aluanthi locked the doors and prepared the beds. Freyja could never get used to the idea of sharing a room with a total stranger, but she didn't have much of a choice since Aluanthi's home only has one room. Aluanthi slept on the floor while she slept on the small wooden bed.

For a week, this has been their daily routine. When Aluanthi comes home from work, Freyja greets him with a smile. Each pa.s.sing day, Aluanthi became more and more energetic, eagerly leaving early in the morning and happy to return at night. One night, Aluanthi couldn't sleep. He's just lying on the floor, with his eyes glued on the ceiling.

"Um… Finella." Aluanthi softly called, hoping that she's still awake.

"Yes?"

"I���m sorry if my house is so small. You must be pretty well off before and…. and I also made you cook and clean and…"

Aluanthi heard Freyja chuckle. "You know Aluanthi, its really nice here. It's quiet and peaceful, as if your worries drift away with the wind. Don't worry, I like it here! I'm sorry for freeloading here though."

"NO!" Aluanthi raised his voice, surprising her. "I've been living here alone for as long as I can remember. So, when you came, I was really happy. It's like the house became lively. So just feel free to stay here for as long as you want." Freyja could feel the familiar loneliness emanating from his words. It was so familiar, as if he too, suffered a thousand years of imprisonment and solitude just like what happened to her, Astrid, Aria and Avice. But unlike any of the stoic guardians, Aluanthi is br.i.m.m.i.n.g with emotion, with humanity. "Are you really leaving soon?" It was very soft, but she heard him whisper. His words made her chest ache. It stung her so deep, Freyja couldn't bring herself to answer him.

"Maybe, I shouldn't be so nice to him after all." She thought.

"Hey Aluanthi…" She finally spoke, after a brief moment of silence. "Are you sad, by yourself here?"

"Well, not really. I never knew how it feels like to have a companion until now."

"This is bad." Freyja felt guiltier, hearing Aluanthi's answer. "What hurts the most is to feel the warmth of a friend only to lose him afterwards." Freyja thought, remembering the pain she felt when she was sent back to her previous world, without Kirin, Alaric, or Keon.

"Then, when I finally meet my friends, do you want to go with us? Let's get out of this place and travel, Aluanthi! How's that sound?" Freyja heard him react, ever so slightly. "Aluanthi?"

He didn't answer. "I guess you're asleep. Goodnight."

~ o 0 o ~

Aluanthi got her a plain pink dress with a white ruffled ap.r.o.n. He bought it from a co-worker and excitedly gave it to Freyja. Seeing that she's fully recovered, Aluanthi offered to take her with him to work, and they can go around the town afterwards to look for her friends.

As they walked to Aluanthi's workplace, the almost perfectly peaceful village is a welcome break from her usual routine, fighting a.s.sa.s.sins and exhausting travels. As much as she enjoyed the adventure with her friends, Freyja admits that it can get too tiring sometimes. The almost picture-book life with Aluanthi was both extremely tempting and unnerving.

"Am I overthinking? Where is that Celestial guardian? What if Aluanthi and this town is really just a peaceful place and I'm suspicious for nothing?" Freyja's thought came one after another. "Is this life really that bad?"

"What's wrong Finella?"

"Nothing! I was just amazed at the view. It's so peaceful." She was partly telling the truth. Aluanthi seemed convinced, until the call of a young man from behind surprised him.

"Hey Aluanthi! Is she your 'fairy of the ocean?'" A young man, around Kirin's age came with his company. They were carrying construction tools with them. "Yeah! The girl you found on the sh.o.r.e?"

"SHUT UP! Don't listen to them Finella." Aluanthi shyly exclaimed, covering her years.

"Fairy of the ocean? What the h.e.l.l are these people talking about? Anyway, they look normal to me. The island is fine, its peaceful. The people are kind, especially Aluanthi, and they look so normal to me. It's so normal, that it's strange." Behind the smile, is Freyja's continuous doubts.

Freyja went to Aluanthi's workplace. It was a wooden s.h.i.+p under construction! Not as grand as the s.h.i.+ps she's used to, but seeing it made from scratch fascinated her. "WOW! Its huge!" She commented, with a smile. "Yeah, we're hired to build this s.h.i.+p. Listen Finella, when it's done, I'll take you onboard, okay?" Aluanthi excitedly promised, all pumped up for today's work.

"Wow Aluanthi! You really are quite something!" His friends teased him, and they all laughed. However, when their boss came out, Freyja was rendered speechless. "Hey! Quit stalling and work!" The boss had short black hair and black eyes, but his face looks so much like Astrid's! She excused herself and asked Aluanthi if she could explore around some more so she won't bother his work. After some reminders and words of caution, Aluanthi waved her goodbye.

Freyja tried to talking to the villagers, making it appear like she's asking about their way of living to better fit in. But secretly, she's carefully observing their features to confirm her suspicions. And yes, there was an even more striking thing she noticed: One of the farmers look so much like her mother and Aria, only with different hair color and the others were the teachers in her memories back in Celestia.

"s.h.i.+t. This is freaky!" Freyja felt gooseb.u.mps. "Some of them have familiar faces. It's just like me, when I try to mix up faces and people in a dream and…" And Freyja finally came up with a plausible conclusion. "It's as if someone's memory is jumbled and reshuffled and created this dream… WAIT! Don't tell me I am inside a dream!"

Immediately, she recalled the events in her previous world, and how they were able to recover the celestial guardian Avice. It was similar back then, they were trapped in a sub-dimension, a world of illusion created by something possessing the aura of a celestial guardian. Then, it is likely that right now, she is also inside a subdimension and everything in that village is just an illusion. Feeling gooseb.u.mps all over her skin, Freyja ran to the sh.o.r.e where Aluanthi found her for the first time.

The cold waves touched her feet, as she walked along the sh.o.r.e. Nothing. Not a nearby island in sight. "Kirin…" Freyja mumbled, feeling her heart race. "Where are you guys?"

~ o 0 o ~

"FREYJA! WHERE ARE YOU!? FREYJA!?" Kirin shouted, over and over, the moment he reached the sh.o.r.e on what seems to be an uninhabited island. Alaric almost died of exhaustion, they used his ice magic as floaters and managed to swim to a nearby island.

"This is strange Kirin, this island doesn't appear on the map. Aren't you suspicious?" They all have the same thoughts. "Of course, it is suspicious. But for now, we have to worry about Freyja. Not to mention, Keon disappeared too."

Just a few minutes of searching, and they spotted Keon, sitting by himself on the far end of the sh.o.r.e. The two ran to him. "Keon! Where is Freyja!?"

Keon sighed and shook his head. "I followed her. But I saw her fall and my rune beast was suddenly dispelled too. And, I ended up here." It was the same for Keon too. The only difference is that there is no village to shelter them. There's nothing but sand and trees and nothing more. "I've been a pirate for six years, these seas are practically my territory. But I've never been to this place before. And so, as any other traveler." Keon began.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Freyja was called by that strange strong force, her body subconsciously reacting, and the sudden disappearance of our s.h.i.+p. This island that's not supposed to exist. There is only one possible explanation here." Keon looked at his brother with eyes so certain. "We are in a different world. Just like how Freyja came to our world, how she traverses the dimensions. Whatever it is, we are no longer in our own world."

"What are you saying Keon? We don't have the power to do so. Only celestials can do that, right?" Alaric, unable to accept Keon's theory, argued. Kirin on the other hand, agreed to it quite easily. "Other world or not, what we are sure of is that we're somewhere not in the map and we have to find her and regroup as soon as possible."

~ o 0 o ~

After realizing eerie coincidences in that town, Freyja became scared, even of Aluanthi. She did everything to feign ignorance, but the unease just won't leave her. The next few days just proved her suspicions to be true. The more people she interacted with, the uncannier the entire setup became. Even so, she couldn't bring herself to hate Aluanthi. He was so kind to her, she didn't want to believe that he's an illusion, nor one with malicious intentions. She continued living with Aluanthi, going with him to his work, making him lunch and dinner, while desperately looking for a clue, an opening out of the 'dream world'.

One night, Aluanthi heard her talk in her dream. "Kirin…" she called.

"That name again…" Aluanthi thought, waking her up. "Finella, wake up. Are you having another nightmare?" Freyja rubber her eyes and shook her head. "Sort of. Thanks for waking me up."

I see that you like the night sky so much, Finella. You're almost always staring blankly at the sky. Aluanthi began, s.h.i.+fting his gaze to the starry sky through his room's window. Freyja did too.

"I used to hate the night sky, because it made me feel so small and powerless. But I guess I learned to love it." Freyja said, a smile on her face. "When I feel sad and alone, I just look at the sky and realize that the universe is so big, beyond those stars, beyond dimensions… there will be someone waiting for you, a place waiting for you." Freyja was thinking about Celestia, her mother and father, her friends back in her previous world, Keon, Alaric and Kirin.

"Do you feel sad? Do you hate it here?"

"That's not what I mean! Well you see, I… "

"Kirin. You were calling that name when I first saw you. Is he your friend? Your brother? Or perhaps… is he your—"

"Kirin is someone I can't live without."

"So, you're waiting for him? What if he doesn't come for you? What if he didn't even know you were here, what if…"

"Kirin will come. He will. I believe in him. He will come for me. And if he doesn't, then I'll go and find him. Just like what we always do. I'll find him till my very last breath."

"If… if this man comes here to get you, are you going to leave with him?"

Aluanthi's question caught her off guard, almost heartbreaking to listen to. "How about you? Are you going to stay here? Or are you going to leave with us?"

"What?"

"Listen, we travel around the world. It can be dangerous, but it's a lot of fun. If that's okay with you, we'll be happy to have you join us."

"I… I'd love to, Finella."

Freyja smiled, freed from her guilt. Aluanthi has been a good friend to her. Illusion or not, she'd hate for him to feel sad and abandoned. "Aluanthi," Freyja called, untying her pearl white hair ribbon she normally uses to put her hair up in a ponytail. She scooted to Aluanthi's side and took his right hand.

"This is a symbol of our friends.h.i.+p. Whatever happens, you will always be Aluanthi… remember that." She carefully tied a bow around his wrist.

"I am… Aluanthi…" He repeated, feeling a surge of warmth in his chest.

"I am taking you with me Aluanthi, we'll go on a journey!" Freyja said, before she turned her back and went back to sleep.