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Dream World Mirau by Josephina Mari
Day Eleven of NaNoWriMo

I must have fallen asleep along the way to Coasta Bleu since I found myself back in my room of the real world once again with tears still rolling down my cheeks still. I still didn’t understand why so many lives were taken. “What did the Akuen hope to achieve through this mindless destruction?” I thought to myself as I felt a dull pounding pain in my head gradually getting sharper as I slowly walked downstairs one step at a time. “Mari dear hurry up and get ready for church or we will be late.” I heard my mother’s voice, be she sounded so far away even though she stood only a few feet away from me now. “I’m sorry, I don’t feel well today. I think I’ll stay home and rest as much as I can so hopefully I’ll be able to go to school tomorrow. My essay is due so I can’t miss or I’ll get points taken off my final grade.” I said as I stood at the bottom of the stairs holding on to the railing with my face still a little red from crying in my sleep. “Alright kiddo, I hope you feel better soon. We better get going so we can beat the traffic and get a good parking spot.” I heard my father say and then he, my mother, and my younger sister all piled into the car and drove off to church. I felt bad that I didn’t go along with them, like I usually did, but if I was getting a cold I didn’t want to risk making anyone else sick. I walked over to the kitchen cabinet where my mother kept all of the medicine at and took down a bottle of NyQuil. I measured out the proper medicine dose for my age into the plastic cup and then I swiftly swallowed the gross tasting liquid trying not to let it hit my tongue on the way down. I knew it would help me in the long run. I rinsed off the medicine cup in the kitchen sink then I put the cap back on the NyQuil bottle followed by the inverted medicine cup before I returned it back to its proper place in the kitchen cabinet. I closed the cabinet door and then I went straight to my room where I swore I heard my bed calling my name as I walked through the doorway. Then again that could be the cold medicine talking. I climbed into my bed and pulled the blankets up over my head waiting for sleep to finally over take me.

My eyes fluttered open as the world around me slowly came into focus. Everything was rushing past me at an incredible speed that it was hard to tell what things were and for a moment it felt as though I was flying as a fast wind rushed past me. Suddenly I felt long hair brush against my hands so I looked down at them to investigate. I was holding onto Nodin’s mane with both my hands, which made me suddenly worried where Karou was to leave me to steer Nodin when I didn’t know much about riding horses and even less on where we were going. The panic that was building up inside me suddenly vanished as I heard Karou’s voice from behind me say “Glad you’re awake now Mari. We almost lost you back there. I’m not exactly sure when you fell asleep, but sometime after you almost fell of Nodin as well. I switched places with you to make sure you wouldn’t fall off.” Karou had one hand around my waist and in the other hand he held onto Nodin’s reins. “We were going to make camp until you woke up again, but Karou insisted that we keep moving. He said something about your last nap took two days. Not exactly sure what he meant by that, but I’m glad we didn’t stop since we are almost at Coasta Bleu.” Baer said as he flew along side us on his giant white owl.

My face blushed bright red as I heard Baer speak in a matter of fact tone rather then a mocking tone that I expected Karou probably had when he told Baer about it the first time. “My name isn’t Aurora or sleeping beauty, it’s Mariam! I’ll have you know that I had a good reason for sleeping that long. I was traumatized after some giant wolves attacked me.” I said as if I was trying to rebuttal something I didn’t agree with in a debate. “Oh you mean Claria’s boyfriend...Ben’s group right? Karou told me that was all a big misunderstand, but he got things cleared up for now. I thought you knew about that though.” Baer said looking at me surprised. “Great there are even more secrets that Karou isn’t telling me about. Why did he tell Baer before me?” I thought to myself as a little frustration began to show in the frown that was forming on my face. I heard Karou clear his throat with a brief quiet coughing sound and then he said to Baer “Silende Baer. Hie solen mer den.” (Be quiet Baer. She doesn’t need to know now.) Karou offered no translation for me this time, but I could tell whatever was said was probably bad by the tone of Karou’s voice and the creepy silence that filled the air around us for the first time since we left Aloen. I guessed that Karou probably filled Baer in our journey progress so far while I was asleep. Though it seemed like Baer knew a little bit more then I did.

“We are here! Port city Coasta Bleu. This city is known for its sea food and wine. It’s also a popular vacation spot since it’s on the coast line. In the warmer months this city holds fishing, swimming, and surfing contests and gives out prizes to those who do well.” Karou said sounding like this was a place he had wanted to come visit for a long time. It made me wonder if he purposely planned this to be our next destination, but Baer seemed to think that his Master might be somewhere in town so it wouldn’t hurt to take a look around as long as things didn’t get out of hand. This place reminded me the trip to Hawaii I took with my family a few years past. Once we defeat the Akuen I defiantly want to come back to Coasta Bleu and swim in the ocean. I giggled to myself as I pictured Karou in his animal form trying to dog paddle his way through the water only to emerge out of it all sopping wet with his fur in disarray. That would be a sight worth seeing indeed. I was taken out of my daydream as I heard Karou calling out to me “Mari...Mari! Come on or we will leave you behind.” I noticed Karou had already dismounted and he looked like he was getting impatient waiting for me to do the same. Karou held Nodin’s reins in one hand while the other he held out to me to offer to help me down. Karou always seemed to be helping me with everything lately, and I wanted to prove to him that I could do things on my own once in awhile. I didn’t want to rely on him for everything and surely I wouldn’t learn very much from my training lesions if I did. I felt a little courageous and decided I would jump down from the saddle instead of Karou lifting me down. I swung my left leg over the saddle so that I was sitting sideways in it now facing Karou and then I carefully slid down over the edge of the saddle. Amazingly I managed to get both feet on the ground safely below me without falling or hurting myself. I smiled as I looked over at Karou who slightly rolled his eyes at me and then he started to walk leading Nodin into the city.

I could tell things would be different here since Nodin didn’t resist going into town at all and instead he just followed Karou curiously as if he wanted to see where Karou was going and for what reason. Baer dismounted his owl and then he said “Hiken” (Return) and then the white owl turned into the three orbs of light again and then they returned to Baer and disappeared. “We are here...we are finally here! I’m going straight to the Alchemy shop. I’ll catch up to you guys later.” Baer said looking like he was in complete bliss as he dashed off into town. I guessed the Baer was one of those people that loved his job and so that it was he could get excited over it. Those kinds of people seemed rare, so the chances of meeting one seemed slim as well. “Mari I’m going to go look for an inn for us to rest in tonight. After we are settled into a room we can go check out the weapon and armory for the supplies you will need tomorrow. Don’t worry I have some money with me to pay for whatever you need. You can pay be back later once you start taking on missions. I’ll tell you about that later on once your basic training is complete.” Karou said to me as we walked along one of the roads of Coasta Bleu looking for an inn. Usually bigger towns would have several inns to accommodate the larger amount of people coming through, but this town didn’t seem very big so it only had one inn towards the center of town along with a few vendors setup to sell basic needs goods like food and clothing. “The weapons and armor must be sold somewhere else...gives me an excuse to see more of the city.” I thought to myself as I followed Karou into the inn.

“Hello sir. We would like to check in for one night. There are three of us total. Our friend is still in town buying supplies. We will need two rooms please, one of the rooms with two beds and the other room with a single bed. Also I need boarding for my house as well.” Karou said to the inn keeper who was a young looking man with straight blond hair and green eyes. “Yes of course sir. That would be seven thousand four hundred and twenty cero for one nights stay. Your rooms will be twenty-seven and twenty-eight down the right hand hallway. For your stallion please take him to stables B stall twelve. If you need anything else please come ask me.” Karou nodded to the innkeeper as he paid the room fee in advance then he handed the key to the single bed room to me and said “I’m going to take Nodin out to the stalls. You can head over to the room and take it easy for a bit. I’m going to bring our supplies into the room and then we can go look for the weapon shop and armory. Of course we have to find Baer too and make sure he doesn’t buy out the Alchemy shop. Whatever he buys he has to carry...make sure he doesn’t forget that.” Karou said sighing as he took Nodin’s reins in his hand again and then he lead him back to where the stables were behind the inn.

Karou noticed a man was wandering around the stalls tending to the other animals being boarded there. “Hello, my name is Karou and this is Nodin. We have reserved stall twelve for the night.” Karou said to the man causing him to stop what he was doing and introduce himself. “Ah yes the master has told me about you. My name is Alex and I tend to the horses for the master. I promise to take good care of your friend for you.” The man with dark brown scruffy looking hair and dark brown eyes said. He wore a long sleeve plaid shirt under a pair of worn overalls and work boots and work gloves. “Thanks a lot Alex. I’m going to take the saddle packs in with me if that’s alright. They can be heave sometimes and I want to give Nodin a break from carrying them for awhile.” Karou said as he lead Nodin into the stall then he unbuckled the straps for the saddle bags then he lifted the saddle bags up onto one of his shoulders and gave a quick wave to Alex and Nodin before he walked over to his room. Karou opened the door labeled twenty-eight with his room key then he carefully put the saddle bags down on the floor before he put his room key in his pocket then he exited the room and then he went over and knocked on Mari’s door and said “Hey Mari are you ready to go? I think we should try to find Baer as soon as possible before he gets into trouble.”