The next day Alice again woke up early in the morning. There was no nightmare and she was definitely still a bit tired but that was mainly because she went to sleep late. The nap she had taken yesterday had helped but she didn’t want to do that again today. She wanted to make sure that she would manage her day and night rhythm again. She remained in bed for a few more minutes before she grabbed a book and went to read the book that she had brought along with her, since she still hadn’t finished reading Women who run with the wolves. She yawned a few times and watched Ophelia, as the little pink companion woke up and went to get something to drink, there was a glass of water for her on the ground, and play with the toys that Alice got for her. Up till now it was only a sort of rattle and the teddy bear. She wasn’t sure if the little Cleffa needed other things but she seemed to be happy with the things she had. Alice yawned a few more times before she finished the chapter and put away the book. Back into the bookcase that she had in her room. Well she didn’t plan to stay too long in Marigold, it wasn’t that she didn’t like the city but there was barely interaction with others and apart from that: the people were too nice. They gave her the creeps.

She stretched her body by moving her belly forward and her arms to the back. You could hear some popping and cracks but it felt really nice to make sure her muscles and bones and everything were in place. She stepped into the bathroom, hearing Ophelia follow her and she untangled the braid that was in her hair. She brushed her hair a couple of times before she moved on to undress herself and step into the shower where she washed her body from the hard work from the night and wash her long orange coloured hair. She didn’t like showering in the morning but since she hadn’t done it last night, she had to do it now. She didn’t shower that long, tops fifteen minutes before she stepped away from the hot water and went to wrap a towel around her hair and dry off her body. She went to find clean underwear and socks before she removed the towel around her hair and went to dry the long orange strains with the towel before she moved on to the hairdryer. That took almost longer than showering. When her hair was dry at the ends and most of it in the middle and the top. But no dripping of wet hair was the most important. She moved on to put on the jeans that she was wearing yesterday. But went to find another coloured crop top, a minty coloured one and put on her leather jacket again. As long as it was nice weather in the south she was going to use that to stop wearing sweaters that made her hair all stand up because of the electricity it created, static hair was the worst. She fixed some of her make-up and headed out with her faithful blue bag and Ophelia to get some breakfast.

She felt into some sort of repeating system, ordering oatmeal with yoghurt and a muffin and feeding Ophelia little pieces of it. She was writing in her diary in this morning, since she was sitting in a corner, she could oversee the rest. She had to remember most parts of everything. She wrote down about the nightmare with the tower. She had to remember, maybe she could ask Selena or search for answers in an archive. She had no idea what it meant. But answers needed to be found if she didn’t want to have the nightmares all the time.

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Which made sense, who would want nightmares all the time. She was used to it, because most of the time when she woke up, she couldn’t remember. So the nightmares didn’t have that much impact on her but when she did remember, they were really taking a part of her usual thoughts away. It was eating on her. She made sure to feed Ophelia before she continued writing down what happened to her yesterday, the quests she did and the questions she had wondered in her mind. She didn’t want to forget a single detail, this was her way of handling her amnesia. She took this diary with her to everything. She was always very careful not to be hid on the head. What if she forgot what happened to her before, the fact that from before she didn’t have or couldn’t find a diary made her dependent on other people. Something she hated and besides that, many people didn’t know the answers. She got few information from the people in the Orphanage that she had lived in during the moment she got the amnesia. But the answers were vague as the people from the house didn’t understand why it happened either. As if from one moment onto the next she forgot. She wondered if that was the case and if that was the case, was there something that happened before that made her forget. She sighed as she finished writing, maybe an hour had passed? She couldn’t help it but thinking about her amnesia, surely made her depressed. Which was definitely something that she couldn’t use. Fine, she needed to do something that would distract her, so she paid for her breakfast and she and Ophelia headed out to find the request board again.

Right before she reached the board, she practically bumped into someone with really red hair. She apologized though she hadn’t really bumped into him yet. She had seen him before, he was the lord of the cities, which made it only more embarrassing that she had almost bumped into him. He turned to her with a smile and said he remembered her performance at his banquet and thanked her for it. She couldn’t help but blush, she wasn’t really used to compliments. This Lord de Syllas wasn’t stupid for he could put two and two together and asked if Alice was looking for a job to do today. She answered positive and he asked if she wouldn’t mind to help rebuilding parts of the city. She couldn’t help but ask what happened and he explained there was a storm, he even gave her the date which was a few days before she had arrived. She had been lucky because where she had been at that moment it wasn’t storming. She nodded and walked with him to the construction side. He seemed impressive and she got the feeling he was a mage himself but she didn’t know or couldn’t know what magic he would be able to use and she didn’t ask. She simply held on to her questions and Ophelia. He said it was quite much to do and she could see that but that wouldn’t stop her from helping and earning some jewels. Which was a nice bonus. She quickly brought Ophelia to a place where someone could keep an eye on her as well as Alice herself from a distance, imagine she needed something. She helped bringing wood from one place to another and it did remind her of the job she had done in Oak for Remy Martello but this were no dead bodies. This suited her fine. It sure made her tired but she kept on going for she had just started. She put down the wood and hurried to support someone who carried way too much but could laugh about it a few bits later. She helped that same person to hammer so planks together and carry some more wood. Someone offered her some water and she took it gladly and talked a bit. Many people came to ask her about Ophelia when she was resting and in her return she would ask about Marigold itself. It was actually more fun than she had expected. Mainly because the people were very nice and she didn’t get the shivers from them this moment anymore. They seemed to be genuine and even cared greatly for Ophelia when Alice was busy, climbing on roofs, helping hammering and holding wood or place roof tiles.
The sun was already setting and everyone seemed to be rather satisfied about the whole job. When Alice asked if there was something she could do, the men point her to the women. They were making food for everyone that helped rebuilding the city. Helped with the renovations and she was helping making some tables with some of the men. Most of the men went looking for tables and chairs. Alice was now carrying Ophelia on her back in the little blue backpack that she had kept with the companion. She didn’t have much to prepare. Most of the citizen took the work away from her simply because she had already done so much. She was rather happy when she could sit down and be done working. She only had to look for her leather jacket that she had dropped somewhere but before she could stand up again to look for it, someone just brought it to her. She thanked the young girl and waited for the food to come. Some guys joined her when they were done finding tables and chairs. They talked about things that she was going to do in the future and she said she didn’t know. They suggested a few things, one of them was becoming a knight. Ha they should have known that she had been a Phantom Lord member. She nodded though at the idea, it had showed up in her own brain as well, mainly because Selena was one but to herself that didn’t feel like a valid reason.

She stared off into the distant and daydreamed how it would be to be a knight. It sounded like something of a fairy tale. Some knight in shining armour saving her. She wasn’t made for that material, she wasn’t anyone their daydream. She sighed and noticed the prying eyes and smiled apologizing, ”You think people are waiting for me to be a knight?” and so the old guys explained to her, motivated her and she never thought about it. She could imagine fighting for good but she wasn’t sure if she was able to do that. She was always the one that took the easy way out, joining the knights would be a ridiculous stupid idea if she had just left Phantom Lord because the rules were bothering. She sighed again and explained that she left a guild because of the restrictions but people waved that away. They were sure she could handle that and she was strong. She still muttered a few words against the idea but no one seemed to pay attention to that and she could only laugh about it and play with Ophelia while listening. She didn’t only leave Phantom Lord because of the rules, that was an excuse. She left because Selena has asked her, it was easy to follow. Easier than she had thought for she had extended the decision for three months but here she was now, daydreaming about knights and what not. It was a glad distraction that the food came and that she could eat and enjoy the talk of the town. The curiosity about Marigold was already answered and she didn’t mind staying here a little longer but the rest of the world was still waiting to be visited. There were answers to be looked for and everything, maybe the only way to get answers was to find her mother, her sister but she didn’t dare. They left her with a reason, a reason Selena had told her more or less. She couldn’t completely remember the talk they had, which made her freak out for a few seconds but she knew it was just because she was tired, everything was written in her diary anyway. When she was done eating, someone who was in charge of the renovations came over to her to pay her, she had almost forgotten about that. But she thanked him and left the dishes and rest to the others, because she needed to rest to get back into shape.

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