Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Ocean Of Stars. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
A Bright Spot in Winter; CI: Annette / ISO: Kirika
Topic Started: Nov 30 2010, 10:53 PM (211 Views)
Lyse
Tea is a many-splendored thing~
[ *  *  * ]
Winter 10, Year 08
4:30 PM

It had been surprisingly easy to forget about this place, in the years that Annette had been away. She had visited it at least once a summer every year during her annual visit, but while it was always an enthralling place, it just wasn't as memorable in the summer. She hadn't forgotten it existed, exactly, but she'd shoved it away into the back of her mind and convinced herself that she was exaggerating its properties. Even though she'd known when she moved back onto her family's farm that Sapphire Glade was nearby, she hadn't thought much of it. As she'd settled back into the rhythms of life on Ocean of Stars, though, Annette slowly began to recall more details about the glade. And today, with so little to do on the snow-covered farm, she had decided to visit it.

Walking through the glade, Annette wondered how she could ever have forgotten the wonder of this place. When she stepped out of the chill wind, touched with the sharp scent of approaching snow, into the flower-scented spring warmth of Sapphire Glade, she shivered a little at the change in sensation. Taking her jacket off, Annette tied it around her waist while she wandered in her long-sleeved yellow tee-shirt among the flowing trees. This late in the year, with the sun going down so early, a few of the night-glowing flowers were beginning to luminesce slightly in the dimming light. Annette wasn't a person prone to philosophy or daydreams, but she had always believed in the Harvest Goddess, ever since she was a child, and this place was her hard evidence. There was just no other explanation.

What little work she could do today in the pasture and and field was done, and the chickens were tended and fed for the day. Annette tried to restrict her drinking to the weekends; she might like her beer, but she had no intentions of being an alcoholic. The Spring fields were planned out, and she couldn't balance her books until she went and bought more chicken feed. So, in short, there was nothing she had to do that would keep her from spending a while in this little pocket of Spring. She lamented not bringing her fiddle case, but since she had more or less forgotten that it wouldn't be as cold in here as it was outside the glade, she hadn't wanted to expose her instrument to too much harsh weather. Next time, she told herself, she would bring her fiddle, and scrape and screech away among the flowering trees. Tonight she simply strolled about, watching the few fireflies lucky enough to have found this place where they could survive the Winter.
Jerome Marshall - Felicia Soto Reyes - Annette Wood
Filing Cabinet - NPCs
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kirika
Member Avatar
Villager
[ *  * ]
{ Winter 10, Year 08 }
{4:30 PM }


It had been days now since her arrival in town and she still hadn’t gotten used to just how big it really was. This morning when she had left the inn she had planned on just finding a grocery store nearby and yet here she was traipsing through what seemed like a forest. Luckily she had gotten lost in full winter attire this time around. Her boots crunching in the snow the Raven haired girl pushed forward through the trees not really caring where she was headed now. After all it’s not like she hadn’t gotten lost before. She could only hope that she would run into someone that knew their way back. Coming to a halt she looked back behind her as a thought hit her,

‘…It’s snowing… Why aren’t I just following my tracks back?’ she told herself a she shook her head back and forth before letting out a sigh.

“Well, I’ve already come this far, might as well check this place out, right?’ she persuaded herself as she continued her journey until she came to something quite unusual in the beginning of winter. There in the center of the trees she had just passed was a land of green and blooming flowers. Her chocolate eyes enthralled by the warm scene before her. Turning around she stared at the winter snow to her left and then the green haven to her right. Her mind began to flood with questions on how something like this could even be slightly logical. Surely there was no place where spring could exist all the time... Then the realization hit her. Frowning a little she began to tremble a little out of fear.

“...Am I dead?” she mumbled out loud as she grew quite once again and tried to rethink what could have possibly happened between her short walk from town to wherever she was now. Pulling both of her hands up by her face, she rubbed her gloved hands together as she began to feel the winter chill on her cheeks.

‘No , I'm positive I'm still alive. I mean I didn’t feel anything and nothing bad happened to me, at least not what I can remember?’ she continued to question, just then she caught some movement up by the green paradise. Looking up at the figure she saw a women, who seemed a little older then her with black curly hair. Before she knew it her feet had gone into motion and the Karakain girl found herself across from the woman. Smiling brightly she gave a slight wave, as her shyness began to get the best of her.

“Um… hello.” She managed to utter as she looked up at the women, still trying to keep her pleasant smile on her face. However within seconds it was gone and before she could stop herself she took hold of the woman's sleeved arm and began to ramble

"Am I dead? I am aren't I. I mean that's the only choice right? There can't be spring in winter it just doesn't make sense. I have to be dead. I just have to be. Or maybe I'm dreaming. Dreaming...Yeah maybe that's it! But then... are you dreaming too?"
It's fact, not fiction. For the first time in years...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Lyse
Tea is a many-splendored thing~
[ *  *  * ]
Until Kirika spoke, Annette had thought she was alone in the glade, the soft grass and moss on the ground hiding the sound of the girl's footsteps. Kirika's mumbling question, however, drew Annette's attention, and she turned towards the sound, then started that way through the trees. She felt no sense of alarm or suspicion, not in this place, just a faint curiosity, as well as the feeling that it would be no bad thing to share the wonders of the glade with someone else. Rounding a tree, she came within sight of Kirika. As she took in the teenager's appearance, noting her evident confusion, Kirika spotted her and came closer. Annette gave her a friendly smile.

"Hi," she began, returning Kirika's greeting, and then watched in some astonishment as the girl's smile melted away and she grabbed Annette's arm. Her own smile slid into a small frown as Kirika began asking whether she was dead. Where had the girl gotten that sort of awful fancy from? She obviously wasn't a native islander, or even a long-time resident, if that was the first thought her mind leapt to upon entering a place like Sapphire Glade. Reaching out with the arm that Kikira wasn't clutching, she grabbed the girl's shoulder in a firm and hopefully reassuring grip. "Calm down," Annette said. "Stop babbling and breathe for a second." She squeezed Kirika's shoulder and then released it with a hefty pat.

Explaining the Sapphire Glade wasn't something that Annette had ever thought she would have to do. She didn't even explain it to herself, really, besides attributing it to a miracle of the Harvest Goddess--and she had never explained the Harvest Goddess to herself, except to reassure herself that obviously the Goddess existed if the Sapphire Glade did. (And if her uncle and mother both swore she was real, which they had.) Talking about religion wasn't Annette's strong point; she believed, and that was that. But at least some attempt at explanation was obviously called for. "It's not a dream, and you're not dead," she told Kirika. "This place is just blessed by the Harvest Goddess. Like Unmei's Gardens in town, but more of a secret." Really, the island was full of little things like that, gifts from the Goddess--the Gardens, the Glade, the crystal trees in the forest. It was one of the things that Annette loved about the island. There were no questions here, only those little, potent miracles.
Jerome Marshall - Felicia Soto Reyes - Annette Wood
Filing Cabinet - NPCs
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · Sapphire Glade · Next Topic »
Add Reply