Aniz shuffled along the streets anxiously, he was on his way out of Hargeon tonight, but someone had offered to give him a job before he left, a job that was harder than the ones he had taken before, obviously he'd end up getting paid more because of what he was doing, but the person wanted him to wait till morning to take the quest, so he had accepted, and was currently sleeping on someone's roof, not that he really cared about not sleeping in a bed tonight, it was like any other night when he was a kid and wandering around until he ended up reaching the sieghart mountains. Rolling over he closed his eyes and let whatever dreams would haunt him tonight claim him.

At first there was darkness, the dream was nothing, then there was a small girl floating in something that looked like water, but since everything was black, he couldn't tell. The girl seemed to be asleep, but when he got closer he saw there was blood pouring from a wound in her chest, she looked oddly happy to be dying. Smiling, she looked up at Aniz, reaching out for him he leaned down and grabbed her hand as if he knew her, which he didn't. The woman's hair was jet black and floated around her in the water-floor thing that they were standing on. Aniz began to cry, not knowing why, the tears poured out of his eyes uncontrollably, "I'm sorry." Was all he could say? The woman reached up and brushed the tear, "Don't worry, I'll be fine Alem." With the word Alem the scene shifted from black to a battlefield. Instead of the stereotypical burning buildings they were in a marshland, Aniz wasn't himself, he was a bigger broader man with a bear and blonde hair, the woman smiled again, she lay in a small puddle, "Calm down Alem, I won't be gone forever, I'll return, it'll just take a while, a long while." The woman raised her hand and stroked Aniz cheek. Then with the last bit of strength she pulled herself up and kissed him, as soon as their lips touched, the dream ended pulling Aniz back into reality, it was morning, and the cat sat on a chimney staring him down. Looking at the cat he put two-and-two together, "You're the woman in that dream, aren't you?" Aniz asked. The cat turned around, out of all the dreams she had given him, this was the most revealing, the deepest of them. He had never expected to see this from the cat, something so opening about their past, "What happened after the kiss?" He pushed, he needed to know more about this entity following him. The cat's head spun around, "What do you think happened human? I DIED!" The cat yelled. Aniz stepped back, "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed, I should thank you for letting me see this part of
you." The cat turned around and looked at him, "Your welcome, but if you'd just accept the dream that I've been wanting to give you, you'll understand more." Aniz shook his head and raised his hands at the cat’s demand. "I'm not ready, and why can't you just force it on me like the rest of you wacko memories?" He asked. The cat looked at him for a moment, choosing her words carefully, "well there are 2 reasons why I can't just make you fall into a slumber and have the dream, the first 1 is because I lack the power, you know this isn't my real form, this is merely a simple form with some powers that took me centuries to conjure, and secondly, even if I was myself, if I tried to push it on you, I would fail, the dream needs to be accepted by you, otherwise it won't work." The cat looked at Aniz, waiting for a response from him, "So, basically you're waiting for me to finally give in? That seems like a waste of time, why not just go find someone else to do it?" He asked. The cat rolled its eyes, it certainly was capable of many human reactions, and “You humans are really bad at putting things together. In the beginning of the dream, you were you, then you were Alem, Alem was my lover, Alem was also your seven times great grandfather, I promised him we'd meet again, and when I found you when you were a child after the Illumine killed everyone in your family, I understood that now was the time to show myself again and help Aniz once more." The cat looked a little broken, like the dream had removed painful memories. "So, if I'm getting this right, you were in love with my ancestor, but then during a battle you were killed and the last thing you promised was to return to him, but it took you awhile to recreate a inhabitable body, so when you finally did, you went searching for his descendants, and you found me on the night of the massacre, and you knew you could help me now?" He asked, trying to get a grip on what was happening. The cat shook its head,
"Yes, though it was simply put, that is correct, it’s a shame I wasn't able to make a body fast enough to return to Alem's embrace though. “The cat looked sad, and Aniz decide it was time to stop. Standing up, he packed his stuff into the small pack he carried, this was his last thing how was doing before he left. Though he doubted this deep moment with the cat would last, he hoped it would and that it would back off for a little and not be creepy and keep trying to make him pass out. Walking over to the edge he judged the distance to the ground and lept off the edge, as he hit the ground he moved into a roll to avoid injury. The cat just materialized next to him, "See if you accepted the dream, you wouldn't have to jump all over the place, you could do what I do.” The cat looked at him and licked its paw at the same time. Aniz rolled his eyes and moved towards the beach where he was to meet the person for his quest.

The cat followed behind him, materializing from trash can to trash can, obviously flaunting her abilities to make him jealous of it, but he hoped the cat was getting the message that he wasn't interested, at least not yet. Strolling up to the beach he saw a small girl next to Rein Valystasia, her hair was strawberry blonde, and she stood at about waist height of Rein Valystasia, she wore a fancy green dress with white flowers sown along the bottom hemline dress. Her hair was pulled up into pigtails, which she clearly disliked, as she pulled on them every other second. The only clearly noble thing on her was a royal necklace decorating her neck, the same one Rein wore. She pulled on his hand and clearly yelled, "REIN! I DON'T WANT TO BE TAKEN CARE OF BY A STRANGER." Rein flinched and got down at face level, "Asseylum, don't worry, I know this man personally, and if he ever does anything bad to you, I’ll have the combined forces of hargeon arrest him." Rein gave his niece a smile and turned back towards Aniz, "thank you for doing this, you have no idea how much work I have to do today," Then he leaned closer and whispered, "I'm sorry if she causes you trouble, there no doubt she will, but no one ever did anything about it. Just make sure behaves, and has an okay time." He leaned back away and gave Asseylum one more hug, "I'll see you tonight Asseylum." He smiled and let go of her hand and walked back towards the castle. Looking down and the little girl, she crossed her arms and huffed, “I want uncle Vas, I won't talk to you." She turned around and Aniz laughed, he remembered dealing with his sister, the thought of his sitter panged him in the chest, but he was on a job, he couldn't let memories overtake him, sighing he stood next to her and bent down, " Is there anything you want to do?" He asked. Alem looked away at first, then light came to her eyes, "go get me EVERY seashell on the beach. Then maybe I'll talk you." With that she huffed. Aniz groaned,
turning and looking around, he was able to judge the amount of seashells on the beach. Taking in a deep breath he ran around and began to place them in a pile in front of her feet.

After an hour or so later a huge pile sat in front of an astonished Asseylum, quickly she covered up her amazement and looked at Aniz, "You took so long that now I'm hot, stand in front of me and be shade." She crossed her arms and pouted some more, sighing he stood in front of her and blocked the sun, a small smile crept along her face, "Give me a seashell to admire while I cool down." She demanded. Aniz reached behind himself and grabbed the first one he touched from the big pile of shells. He handed it kindly to Asseylum who quickly dropped it into the sand, "I'm cold now, I’m going to explore the woods and pick flowers." She stated promptly, then with unnaturally speed she stood up and ran into the woods, giggling all the way, from behind him the cat snickered. Running after her, he was surprisingly unable to catch up to her, even with his longer legs. Inside the forest she disappeared, Aniz groaned, Rein would kill him. "ASSEYLUM, PLEASE COME BACK, REIN SAID HE'D SEE YOU AGAIN." Running through the underbrush, grabbing flowers to make her happy, "I GOT THE FLOWERS YOU WANTED!!" he yelled. Looking around he still didn't see her. Sighing he turned around and continued to search.

After about half an hour of Asseylum being lost, he found her curled up on the ground sobbing, suddenly something parental consumed Aniz, leaning down he scooped her up, "shhh, shhh I've got you know." He whispered in her ear, she leaned up closer against him. “Thank you, you're one of the nicest people I’ve met." She wrapped her hands around him and silently held on to him as they walked back towards the castle.

Once back at her castle he put her down and she was even polite to the maid, she ran in to the castle to play with her toys, the maid looked at him, "well...you certainly...had an effect." She smiled and handed him his reward, "thanks, Lord Valystasia thanks you."

Walking out the door he sighed, the day had been pretty stressful but he felt relieved that it was over. The cat materialized next to him, "y'know, you could have found her more easily if you had just accepted the dream this morning." she said. Aniz groaned, "Not yet catso." The cat gave him the death glare, "I was once a feared wizard, and how dare you disrespect me." Aniz laughed and ignored the cat, who gave a disgruntled meow and materialized onto a nearby roof to watch from afar. Aniz stuck out his tongue and continued towards the edge of hargeon, he was leaing, and this wasn't like when he left Dahlia, then returned back to it, he was truly leaving now and he meant it. The edge of Hargeon was pretty, it had an untamed beauty the rest of Hargeon didn't. Everything was still untouched and just a little wild, bits of the road were being reclaimed, and it was nice to see nature wasn't being left behind in the scheme of things, sighing he took his first step out of Hargeon in a very long time. Life had been long, but now it was for a new beginning, and he was beyond ready.


2016/2000