I looked around the snow. Inside of it I saw all of the faces of the sad people who were waiting for a new chapter...No, that’s not right, I was yawning. Yes, I was yawning not because I was particularly tired.
It was because the fluffy snow looked like a giant pillow from inside the carriage. Though the fact that the people fell asleep around was a bit of a problem. They were snoring away, likely sleepy from the snow castle gas.
“I wonder if snow castle gas would catch on?” I looked over at the only other awake person, Mary. “What do you think?”
“Hey! Do you think this is a ti for gas? They didn’t fall asleep because they wanted to. The only reason I am still awake right now is because of my authority.”
“Authority? Are you the manager at a company over here?”
“Stop joking around! Look around us! The people in this city are asleep. The people of our party are asleep. This snow...It’s what I ntioned before. The Languorous Winter. It forces people to forget reason and succumb to sleep.”
I set Sine down as I hopped out of the carriage. The blizzard had begun raging around the settlent. Most villager’s faces were planted in the snow with glazed over eyes.
My mana spread into the snow. “Yes, this is definitely not natural.”
“Eerie! This has to be the work of Sloth.”
Mary pointed towards the darkening skies. The blanket of the blizzard covered everything above. It seed to extend towards the horizons. And at the center of the storm, it was like an eye.
Only at this spot did the sky part. When mine and Mary’s eyes gazed upon it, we knew it was the caster.
Four frost trolls stood at the corner of a golden-frad, red bed. Sleeping there was a kitten. No, not a real cat. It was only a woman with pale skin. White cat ears ford on her head, and a thin white tail curled behind her. The woman was covered in a thin white veil that left little of her underwear to the imagination.
From a distance, we could hear her purrs rumbling on the cold breeze. The trolls stopped at the edge of the city, and they lightly sat their master’s bed down on the snow. She flinched, but she never opened her eyes. In fact, her purring snore beca louder and louder.
///
Sine looked around a void of darkness. Her eyes scanned left and right, but it seed to be endless. All around her was like pitch, but there were no stars. She had not suddenly beco an astronaut.
She didn’t even rember how she ended up here. How long had she been there?
Did I fall asleep? It was a realization that made the little girl happy. She was lucid dreaming! In this world anything was possible. The enlightennt brought about a spark. Like flas, the light spread in her dreaming world.
The pitch had beco a white plane like a canvas. It didn’t take long for Sine to start painting. She painted a beautiful street. Towering buildings were painted next. They stretched into the horizon, and she found herself in the center of a sprawling city.
Once she felt like sothing was missing, but voices began to enter her ears. People were walking on the sidewalks. Cars drove at the intersection ahead. A large building was painted with a cute pink chibi ani bear. She was in Tokyo.
She looked up, and the blue sky appeared. The sun ward her skin with a gentle touch, filling her body with much needed vitamin D. Vitamins?
Sine realized her stomach was rumbling. She was starving. She turned another corner and entered a market square. Stands of food had already been set up for early morning traffic. The little girl was glad when she saw a ran stand free of any lines.
She quickly ran up to the old man and his wife running the shop. “Tonkatsu please.”
“Sure, thing. That’ll be 100 yen.”
Yen? What...She reached into her pocket, and the bill seed to appear. She pulled it out and handed it over.
She turned around for only a second, but soon, a bell above her was rung. She turned and found a steaming bowl of ran.
Sine grabbed the chopsticks and placed her hands together. “Itadakimasu!”
The elderly couple smiled at the small girl’s eagerness.
Sine slurped down the soup with glee. She relished in the broth and thin cuts of pork. The noodles were neither too squishy or hard. They were just right, and the taste was phenonal.
It was then that the old man asked, “say, where are your parents little girl?”
Sine’s eyes widened as she gazed up at the old man. Parents? What are…
A new scene greeted her eyes. The cityscape had vanished. Around her, Sine felt the cool breeze of the ocean. A sandy beach supported rolling waves of blue. As they collided gently with the shore, white bubbles ford. She looked down, and her feet felt so soft in the sand.
Not so far away from her, there were little shovels and buckets. She rushed over and sat down in the sand. She held the yellow handle of a little blue shovel. She pushed it down.
She frowned. “Sothing is wrong…What is it?”
Her brain struggled to make sense of it. Logically there was no problem. This was how things were supposed to be, but when she kept building the castle higher and higher, she felt an even deeper feeling of wrongness.
What is it? What is it? What is it? Wrongness in all directions while everything was right. She only started to make sense of it when two castles ford below her in the sand.
On one castle, she planted a blue flag. On the other castle, she planted a red flag.
In that instant, things started to make sense. She’d seen these two castles before.
She rembered the old man. “Parents? No...But I have Eerie, The Witch!”
Everything in her surroundings fell away like bricks in a certain mining ga. It was like she detonated TNT all around her.
The light was blinding, but when she opened her eyes, she felt the cold winds.
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