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02.1 ▌The Woman on the Shore

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A GROAN escaped from Elise's mouth from the sudden ache of her head and the searing sensation enveloping her body. She lay sideways to ease the pain but her eyes went saucers as soon as she gauged where she was.

Warm grainy sands laid beneath her, burning her body, and bolting her to her feet. The gentle rustle coming from trees could be heard together with the calm waves as it peacefully lulled the surroundings. A gentle breeze touched her skin as she stood frozen, a contrast to the scorching sun that was heating her like a furnace.

"Oh my god. Oh my god."

She was mumbling like a fool — completely dumbfounded at the scene. Her mind went haywire at all the conceivable reasons for how she ended up on a beach.

"What on earth happened? How did I even reach here? It takes a few hours to reach even the nearest beach! How can—" She paused. her eyes almost bulged out from her sockets. "What did I do!?"

The familiar weapon embedded with gems was just a few inches away from her. She was absolutely sure it was the sword at the museum. She tried recalling what happened. The last thing she remembered was touching the sword and the alarm ringing right after. She was prepared for the consequences since her dad was there and no doubt he would help her but now, her whole mind was in chaos.

"Holy mother of god!"

'Did I steal it? How did I even do it? What on earth is happening?'

The more she thought, the more baffled she was. Elise ran her life in a certain schedule and this was something she hadn't anticipated. Her plans were already ruined when she was forced to leave the house yet it got worse now that she ended up in an unknown beachside.

But the thing was, how did she get here in the first place? She breathed in and tried regaining her composure as she reiterated what happened at the museum all over again.

Muddled flashbacks replayed in her head but her mind was completely blank after she touched the sword. She had heard of cases like this before where some patients had lapses of memory and there was one possibility that stood out.

'Have I developed a split personality?'

But that could not be. She didn't experience any symptoms. She was not that stressed and she really didn't have any relationship problems either. Most of all, she had full control of her identity.

Several more assumptions formed in her brain and she tried to analyze the situation but it was to no avail. There was no logical explanation of how she woke up in the middle of nowhere.

It was strange that she did not even show indications of fainting or remembered herself covered with darkness. No signs that she was abducted, either. There was simply nothing.

'Must be a dream.'

She let out an exasperated breath before examining her surroundings. Tall and abundant trees filled her view. It was almost like she drifted on a shipwrecked island. Beauty coincides with eeriness as if at any moment, a wild animal would pounce on her. Worse, some cannibal tribe would eat her.

She could protect herself from one or two but if a whole tribe or pack would go after her that would result in her death. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to erase her stupid thoughts. Watching too many movies really could influence a person's mind in uncertain situations.

Her gaze darted to the weapon and picked it up before walking around. First, she needed to know where she was.

Squawk!

Her whole body flinched from the loud sound as her attention was fixed on the round thing soaring in the sky — that was clearly approaching her. As it went nearer, the round thing was not round after all. It was actually a blazing fireball coming directly at her with unbelievable speed!

She tried to escape but before she could, the creature invaded her vision.

'I'm absolutely dreaming!'

The ball — or the bird — landed right in front of her, stamping its giant claws and causing the sands to ripple under its weight. The wings spanned one last time, followed by a fierce gust as it tucked its wings that were painted to resemble the sky during sunset. The crown of its head down to its thigh had feathers appearing like blazing fire and those molten gold eyes concentrated on her.

It was beautiful, actually, if someone was looking at it as a photo but when it was standing right in front of her, that was certainly not the case. Elise was of average height at five feet and four inches but it was enormous from her standpoint. It must have been triple her size!

Her grip tightened on the sword as if her life depended on it. Her heart thumped at a fast pace as all unimaginable things this kind of creature could do to her crashed into her brain.

"Just what kind of dream is this?" The trepidation rising within her felt so real no matter how she convinced herself otherwise.

"Hey, are you alright?" a voice spoke.

"Oh my god! It talked! It's confirmed, I'm dreaming!" she exclaimed, sensing that she would definitely hyperventilate at any moment now. There was no way a bird could answer her, let alone understand.

A small chuckle reverberated and her eyes could not get any wider from the consecutive astonishments, eventually dropping the sword with a short thud from her shaking hands.

"It even laughs! What in the world? " Her breathing quickened as black spots intruded her vision. She strived to focus her senses and calm herself. No good would come if she lay there lifeless in front of a huge creature that could potentially eat her whole.

"I think you are mistaken, pretty miss," the voice said and suddenly, a man jumped from the side of the weird creature.

Relief washed through her, although a slight cringe aroused at how he addressed her. With close proximity between the huge bird and her, she was not able to notice the man that was presumably riding on its back earlier.

"Thank god! I thought I was going mad for a moment thinking that this creature can talk. Oh, wait, never mind, this is a dream anyway so it shouldn't matter whether it talks or not," Elise spoke to herself, a way of trying to ease herself in this uncertain situation.

The man studied her and so did she, especially with his eye-catching appearance. She had not seen any guy in person with such long hair like his, and it was even red. It was too silky — as it was softly blown by the wind — to be considered a wig. And there was more. He was wearing a leathered eyepatch on his left eye while the uncovered one was a vivid scarlet framed by tapered eyelids. It was a combination of features that should only exist in an imaginary world.

Nevertheless, he looked ruggedly handsome. The kind of bad boy charismatic type where all girls her age drooled on.

"You're strange," the man commented and gave her what may be supposed to be a charming smile. "...but beautiful."

Elise winced. She better start running away from this ridiculous situation. Not only this is crazy but he was obviously hitting on her. She subtly reached out for the sword but failed in a second.

"Stop!" the man yelled as their eyes locked. But, her eyes veered to his ears. The calmness was momentary as Elise began sweating all over again.

"Oh my god! Someone wake me up already!" 

"What are you talking about? You've been awake this whole moment," the man told her.

"As if! This is just a fantasy dream where guys have pointy ears and huge birds existed! So shut up, you, non-existent person!" she screamed, full of incredulity.

"You're... strange. Even your clothes, but it suits you nonetheless," the guy praised.

'Even his words are just as stupid.' Elise was truly bewildered how he could not make up his mind to insult or compliment her.

"You're the strange one! Why do you even like a character for RPG Games?" Aside from the eyepatch, he was wearing armor, donning it like a medieval knight.

Deep inside, she knew it suited him but she was well aware that no one would have such guts to wear it in public, especially at the beach.

'The man is weird. No, scratch that. Everything is weird.'

"I can't quite understand what you're saying," the guy said. His expression clearly showed confusion and she could positively relate.

She breathed in before speaking again. "I absolutely need to go. Can you tell me how to get out of here?"

"The carriage has just gone to the mainland and will return the next day and the only remaining way of transport here is these birds or you can fly." She did not expect him to answer but he did.

"Are you joking? As if I could ride that or even manage to fly," she replied to his utter nonsense.

"How did you even get here in the first place if you didn't do any of those?"

"That's it. I'm leaving! This is becoming impossible!" She grudgingly kicked the sand out of anger at the absurdity he was spouting.

Elise had the perfect exit but tripped. Worst of all, she landed on something sharp. It was as transparent as a glass but it already wiggled and disappeared through the sand.

"Ow dang it!" She looked at her knees and it was actually bleeding! Plus, that small scrape was bleeding madly!

The man quickly approached her and tried to see her wound. She should be afraid he might do something but she was too irritable at the moment.

"For god's sake! Why is it bleeding heavily? "

She sustained injuries before but she never did have this much blood loss. How could such a mere wound drip profusely? Red dots stained the sword and dyed the sand as her whole brain went into turmoil, too distracted to see the glowing symbols embedded on the sword before it disappeared.

"Calm down." The man hushed but she shrieked in panic with all this illogicality.

Anxiousness from all the peculiarities perturbed her whole being. This was too much even for a dream but there was no way it was otherwise. The large bird was the evidence itself for this fantasy.

"It will be since you were obviously bitten by a shard fish." Gone with the flirty smile he had, he even looked so concerned as he inspected her wound.

"A what?"

"Shard fish. A small cut could cause heavy loss of blood," he replied.

Elise swore she had never heard about something like that before. She almost wanted to applaud how rich her imagination was to be able to make something that didn't seem to exist in her world. Everything she had seen so far had no resemblance to what she knew.

While she was deep in contemplation, the man uttered unfamiliar words. His fingers grazed her skin and when he lift it up, her jaw dropped.

"This will temporarily stop the bleeding," he pointed out.

He kept talking but there was a buzzing sound in her head, staring at her unmarred flesh.

"Oh... my... god..." she muttered inaudibly as her body succumbed.

Finally, she gave in to the idea of fainting. 'Who knows? Maybe I can finally wake up from this crazy nightmare.'

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