Story of a Little Bird

Posted on February 23, 2016 Updated on February 28, 2016

“This dream… It always starts the same way…”

The somber crash of a church bell rang out in the distance, a portent so powerful in its arrival it resounded in the mind as if having stood next to the bell itself.  This fierce awakening jolted a young girl from her slumber to a sight so familiar, and yet so uncanny, that it played with her mind to entertaining the notion of questioning if what she saw before her eyes was truly real.

Was she dreaming?  It was certainly the same room she had always worked and slept in, within the same house she had lived in for years, but this world seemed dark, distorted, and disconnected, in a way that simply didn’t make sense to her.  It was as if she was viewing the world from a window, with irregular bursts of sound she couldn’t recognize, and flashes of images too fast for her to make sense of.  The air was heavy on her shoulders, and a deep sense of dread skulked its way through every facet of this world she was engulfed in, but she could consciously move and react as if never having gone to sleep at all. It took some time to make sense of this place, but she could finally come to the conclusion that this world couldn’t be real.  It was certainly a dream.  The same one she’d been having for some time.

Sitting up from her bed, she took a moment to look around at that this room which had become so familiar to her.  So familiar, it was almost as if it was routine.  She stood up and approached the door that exited her room.

“I wonder if I can find that place again,” she pondered as she opened the door from her room out into the living area of her house, her mind still getting used to filtering the chaos that continually toyed with her eyes and ears.  Looking out into the living area, she could see the mess of books, papers and unrecognizable contraptions that littered the floor in its own form of anarchy.  Her eyes, however, fell immediately to the center of the room, where a sword, as ominous as it was enchanting to gaze upon, stood as if suspended in the air, the tip of its blade just touching the floor.

She knew she didn’t have much time.  An instinctual will to survive overcame her as the menacing sound of a hundred screams cried out from outside the home, the walls beginning to tremble from being repeatedly pounded by an outside force.  She rushed for the sword, the screams becoming more violent as the whole house rumbled.  Just as her time was almost up, she reached the sword, grabbing it by its grip as the walls around her seemed like they would shatter into a thousand pieces.

“Enough!” She yelled as she swung the sword around, bringing its shining blade to bear with both hands.  Almost immediately, the house was still again as the screams faded away, scattering themselves amongst the chaos.

The toll of running to the sword in this strange world showed with her heavy breathing as she stood there, sword at the ready, as if waiting for an undefined assailant to come.  Having caught her breath a little bit, she lowered her guard and eased her stance.  She couldn’t explain it, but as she looked at the sword she held in her hands she felt not as if she was wielding a tool or a weapon, but as if she was standing within the presence of an old friend.  This friend spoke no words, but even without them she could sense its intent, as if the sword had a will of its own, carefully guiding her through the chaos like a parent would lead a child through a busy crowd.

As one, they turned their attention towards the front door, where a presence began to approach.  The girl anxiously raised the sword to a guard again as light began to show from the windows and the chaos was beginning to subside.  Church bells ringing, she felt she could only wait as the presence on the other side of the door came closer and closer.

“Kotori!  I know you’re in there, wake up!” a woman yelled while banging on the front door, waking Kotori from her dreamy state.  Sitting down at a table situated in the living area of her house, she lifted her head up from its surface.

“Oh, I must have fallen asleep while I was working,” Kotori said to herself as she looked around.  Drawings and schematics littered the table with her drafting tools.  Still sitting there, she looked down at the paper in front of her to the sight of a large smudge on a blueprint where her face was resting.

“My drawing!” A sense of panic washed over her face as she quickly tried to hopelessly work out the big smudge that obscured the central part of a new gadget she had been designing.  The light of daybreak could thinly pierce the curtains over the windows.  It would have been a quiet morning, with only the faint chirping of birds from outside, were it not for the banging at the door.

“Ok, ok, I’ll be right there.”

Kotori navigated the living room to the door and opened it, light from the sun greeting her behind the silhouette of a woman whose arms were crossed in front of her chest.

“Oh, good morning, Ferra.”

“You look like a mess.  You were up late again, weren’t you?” Ferra paused a moment to take a closer examination of Kotori and tried not to laugh, “…What happened to your face?  There’s a big smudge on it.”

Kotori’s nervousness showed in her voice as she rubbed the back of her neck, “Oh, uhh, you know, I’ve been busy as a bee, and… Uhh… Stuff… “

“Nevermind your face, what happened to your house!?”  Ferra exclaimed, swinging open the door with a strength that easily overcame Kotori’s grip of it, revealing a mess of books, papers and unrecognizable contraptions that littered the floor in its own form of anarchy.

“Last night I had this great idea for a way to safely fall from any height and I just wanted to try a few things out.”

“A few things?” Ferra sighed as the two presided over the complete mess that was Kotori’s home.  “Well, let’s hear what your great idea is.”

With Ferra’s words, Kotori’s eye lit up with the opportunity to show off what she had created.

“The principle is simple. I got the idea from watching how the cloth on the windmill catches the wind.” Kotori moved to the schematics on the table while Ferra began looking through the various machines and devices lying around. “If I tie up the ends of a large cloth with a rope and allow it to catch the wind as I fall, it will slow my descent and I’ll safely–don’t touch that!!”

Ferra froze for a second just as she was about to poke a strange device suspended from the ceiling.  For a brief moment, time seemed to stand still as no one moved.  Having stopped Ferra, Kotori then breathed a sigh of relief, “That was a close one.  I almost thought that was going to explode.”

“Explode!?”

A hint of frustration showed on Kotori’s face as Ferra carefully slid away from the strange hanging device, “Did you even hear anything I said?”

“Yeah, I heard you.  I think I get what you mean: it’s basically a device that can slow down your fall so you can safely land on the ground.  How are you going to test this device?”

“I don’t know… Jump off a building?”

“That doesn’t sound very safe…”

“Yeah… I haven’t gotten to that part yet.”

Ferra shrugged, “What would you even use this device for, anyways?  Anyone working on the roof of a tall building can simply tie themselves down with rope, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen someone use Arcana to fly.”

Ferra tried to talk some sense into her, but Kotori was already sifting through the papers on the table, “People will need it as safety precaution for that flying machine I’ve been telling you about.”

“Kotori.”

“You should see it, I’ve almost finished the preliminary draft and it really does look promising.”

“Kotori…”

“There are a few things I need to work out, such as power.  I never realized how much power is needed for one of those mages at the Ordo Arcana to fly, it’s pretty incredible!”

“Kotori!” A quick and decisive bop on the head successfully grabbed Kotori’s attention back as Ferra let out another sigh, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

A moment of silence passed as Ferra stared Kotori down, who could only offer a blank stare back.

“You said you were going to help me build the blast furnace today.”

“Oh, right, I completely forgot,” Kotori said quietly as she looked down at the floor, dejected for letting Ferra down, but a comforting hand reached out to her shoulder as she looked up to see Ferra smiling in front of her.

“You are so imaginative, and I know you’re going to do great things, but this city is about to make history and you have the opportunity to be a part of that.  So while you’re out dreaming about the future, just try not to forget about the people and places in front of you.”

Kotori smiled, “Ok, I won’t.”

Satisfied with her little speech, Ferra moved off to the door, “Well, I’ll be at the blast furnace.  Once you’re ready meet me down there.  There’s still a lot of work to do.”

Ferra closed the door behind her, leaving Kotori once again alone in her house.

“Dreaming about the future,” Kotori pondered as she sat back down at the table, looking at the schematics scattered across it.

“I wonder what kind of future waits for us.”