He reached the front entrance and vanished to the outside world of the castle, leaving April gawking and wide-eyed. She looked down at her hands. She still held onto her journal and that gray crystal ball the size of a golf ball.
April looked at herself and the royal blue dress with golden accents she was in, her black and yellow hair flowing down her shoulders. She didn't recognize the girl she supposedly was. It was the same body but everything felt different, including the two tails stuck on her butt.
She had been with him for a second and he vanished in the blink of an eye. And this was right after she woke up from what could have been a week-long slumber, something April was not used to. It was now certain; she was alone on the island. She looked around and the dirt beneath her feet stretched for a good ten meters in radius. The lake was approximately a good one hundred meters in radius as well.
"I am stranded," she mumbled, only realizing for the first time that her words were in English.
She squinted and stared at the far entrance, briefly thinking about the language reversal.
"This is not the end of the weirdness, I tell ya. While Saka and the other kids are busy chatting with the… Elf Council, I'll be here…"
She craned her neck up and noticed a beautiful, sturdy tree. It had fruits that resembled mangos, the same fruit that woman Akka had given her a time back.
"...Talking to trees."
She sighed and faced the entrance again. She could feel the sunlight warmly shining down on her from a high window stories above. Not long until sunset came.
She sighed again, this time heavily and leaned against the tree, taking a good look at the dull glow ball in her hand. It was still gray and warm. And she could see, as she continued to stare at it, the face engraved deep in its glass becoming clearer. More defined.
Saka. There he was with that deadpan look and the beautiful, soulless eyes staring back at her from the depths of the ball.
"Did he happen to see himself in this thing?"
The girl wondered, turning the object from side to side and observed as the eyes followed her. It sent a shiver up her spine.
"I mean, he wouldn't tell me even if he did, right? No, doesn't seem like the type to care."
April placed the ball at the root of the tree and sighed for what felt like the millionth time, setting the book comfortably in her lap.
"Okay, let's see what they saw in my journal."
She had nothing to do on that small island so she might as well try to revisit her old writings. The first few pages were torn out; that time when Semacoar called it a diary. And then the rest were complaints about how she feared she was losing her talents and how life hated her, whether she was cut out for the New York life back then. She snorted.
"Well, we got bigger fish to fry now, girl."
She pulled out the attached pen and wrote down:
Stranded on Calypso's island.
She looked around the little pile of dirt and chuckled, scribbling more gibberish on the next page.
"What could be so terrifying about a pond? Unless… Loch Ness monster?"
She glanced at the edge of the island. That room was silent. The water was barely rippling. It was just a glassy surface surrounding a spec of dust.
'I'm the spec of dust in this life. I am no better than the ant that crawls up the tree bark and no more significant than the amoeba that lives in the water.'
She paused and read the words again inside her head. Pouting and nodding in approval, she shrugged.
"It's a start. Let's resurrect my dead talent. I was resurrected so anything's possible."
She began scribbling her ideas on a fresh page, describing her appearance before amd comparing it to the present. The hair was still excessively long and crowded on her head, the eyes were still green, she was still short – five foot three, to be precise – she now had two, touch-sensitive tails dangling from her behind, her ears were ten centimeters longer with pointy ends, she felt light on her feet and she was now soul-bound to someone… a really handsome but unpleasant someone.
She glanced aside to listen and check if the person had heard that thought so when nothing happened, she continued writing. That soul tie enabled her to feel what Saka felt, physically.
"During that time of the month, will he feel it too?"
She felt a devilish grin tug at the corners of her lips before destroying it and shaking her head.
"Moving on!"
Either Eon or Akka had said something about her First Death being the factor to activate her Aura…
"My very own superpower?"
The thought only made her tingle. What was it going to be?
"Normally, I'd settle for breathing fire but shooting poisonous spikes out of the palm of my hands would be better."
She bit her lower lip and quietly chuckled at her absurdity. She would settle for invisibility at best. As in, her body, her scent and her whole presence just disappearing at her will. It would have made her life easier, especially in those crowds.
She glanced around.
"What a crowd."
Her sarcasm did nothing to hide the fact that she was feeling a bit lonely on the island. It allowed her complete freedom of speech but it made her feel somewhat embarrassed and self-aware, talking to herself.
"Whatever!"
She pouted and began tearing out the pages one by one, crumpling and tossing them aside.
What was the point of all that writing? She probably wasn't going to survive a day of loneliness on that island.
"Maybe I can write a letter so Saka can find it along with my caucus tonight."
She pouted and continued desecrating her journal. As Akka had said, the First Death had been forced upon her. That meant it was about two years early… She slowly raised her head. She was a defect!
"What? Pfft! No!"
She laughed awkwardly, purposelessly moving her eyes around.
"That just makes me more… special." She mumbled and looked at her tails. "Mom and Dad, is it your fault or a curse?"
She shot her eyes to the silvery lake and saw a bunch of crumpled papers floating on the silvery surface and her breath changed as she gasped.
"Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no no no no no!"
She scrambled to her feet and crawled to the edge of the water.
"Water… pollution! How dare you, April?"
She reached out and started fishing the papers out. Not in another dimension. The habits of her former world had better not come here. She snatched them out as quickly as possible, taking care not to fall in the water.
A paper ball floated a bit far from her reach and she stretched her arm to reach it. There was no escaping her!
"I will make it clean!"
She declared before a head popped out of the water, carrying the paper ball with it. April stared for a second, registering that, before she screamed and shot back, landing on her butt.
There was someone in the lake. A face half-exposed, red hair almost merging with the shiny water. April clutched onto one of her tails, her eyes wide and focused on the person.
The black seal-like eyes stared up at the petrified girl, silent, that stupid piece of paper still settled on the person's head like a pyramid.
April didn't feel like her body wanted to move, nor did she want to break eye contact. But the person moved, raising their hand out of the water and picking the paper off their head and setting it on the water surface. They nudged the paper to April and watched.
April, like a cat given food by a stranger, snatched the paper away and scrambled back, still keeping her eyes on the beady-eyed person. What sort of sea monster was that? With dark red hair and powder pink skin.
"Are you… dangerous?"
It was a question from the terrified girl. Like, oh, maybe it spoke English like a normal person!
A bubble popped beside the person's head and as April waited anxiously, the person's face fully emerged from the water and April's eyes circled.
"Wow… you're… very pretty… and pink!"
April trembled as she looked at the half submerged figure of the woman in the water; pink skin, dark red hair, seal-like eyes, a delicate rounded chest and a humanoid face.
"Ah…"
The girl in the water pushed another paper ball forward but what April saw pushing it was not a hand. It was rather a fluke, spiked with needles and bluish. She nodded enthusiastically at April, a grin on her mouth.
April felt her whole body tingle. Whether that was a mermaid or a siren, it was freaky!
The creature tilted its head at the girl, a curious look on its face. She was frozen still, her eyes wide. The aquatic woman frowned and pouted.
April's mind was buzzing with thoughts when cold blades hit her face. She yelled and after a moment, realized it was just the cool water from the lake that had splashed her face. She looked at the fish woman in the lake who was flicking her thick tail, as if trying to attract April's attention. She nodded at more floating paper balls and grinned at April.
"Oh, no." April shook her finger at the mermaid. "Mermaids and sirens may snatch men for their food but you might as well call me a pigeon right now because I'm not falling for that. I have more testosterone than most."
The mermaid slowly eyed April up and down, sizing her up before a grin showed her sharp teeth.
That was enough to tell April that the creature understood her and was mocking her.
"Hey, don't laugh!" She growled, pointing.
The mermaid perked up to the finger and grabbed the hand. April was just registering the wet and slimy feeling around her hand when she saw silver and fell through, the splash getting absorbed by the background. She opened her eyes wide and felt the sting of water. And she panicked, screamed and flailed. That thing had pulled her underwater!
"It eats girls too!" April's panicked screams tore through the recesses of her mind, right before she saw the thick tail passing by her arm and the pink woman stopped her face millimeters away from April's, grinning, freezing April for a moment.
"AaaArRHhHHHhHhH!!" One could hear the scream out of her air bubbles as she went berserk.
She managed to kick herself around, turning and helplessly splashing around.
The now confused mermaid watched as she struggled. She reached forward, extending her clawed hand when April glanced back and yelled some more, and gently nudged the girl toward shore. April saw herself reaching dry land and she heaved herself up, not bothering to pick up her wet dress and ran to the tree, scaled it in the blink of an eye and hid up there, shivering.
The mermaid watched the tree, her black and beady eyes wide. She glanced aside and back before submerging all but her eyes, keeping a watchful eye on the tree.
Up top, April fought with her escalating heartbeat, pressing her trembling hands over her chest.
She almost got eaten by a woman!