~Day of the Awakening~
Walking at a slow pace, Marissa stared ahead of her, having passed over the border between Keigwin and Forsythe.
‘Mmm… The world seems much different now... more cold. But I won’t get anywhere thinking on it for long. I made the decision to leave and find my own way in the world and… well… it’s time to take responsibility for that decision! Still… it’s a little unnerving not to have a home to go to… I suppose I should find a spot to display the necklaces I have, and use that time to make more.’ The umbrella at her side sounds off at each tap against the ground, sending a chill through her chest, and making the ache in her right leg renew itself with each step. Even the sensation of the smooth stones against the scarred flesh on her thigh and shin, though soothing in quality, brings a heightened sense of irritation to the ruined skin.
Finding a courtyard amidst the city streets, Marissa smiles at seeing a circular fountain with a wide lip and sits down slowly on the edge of it. Opening her white backpack, she pulls out a bundle of dark purple velvet cloth, and lays it against the stone. Setting out a few necklaces, simple ones made of black cord with a few brightly colored beads to either side of a wire-wrapped stone, polished and smooth, though a few quartz crystals appear in her work. Setting them out carefully, Marissa leans her umbrella next to her while a couple of people stop to stare at her work. Shy as she is, she does not speak to them, but watches them carefully, while choosing beads to make a few more necklaces as she waits, taking her time in wrapping a few choice stones.
The day passes with not more than a couple of people purchasing her jewelry at a meager cost. Packing her wares away at sunset, she gives a soft sigh.
’Now all I have to do is find a place to stay… I suppose I should have thought this through better… Perhaps I should simply look for work gardening tomorrow? Or… it’s better not to think on such things for too long… a walk away from these buildings might help ease the stress.’ Gathering up her back and standing, stretching her left leg once, she moves onward through the streets in search of a grassy area to recline and look up at the night sky, stomach rumbling harshly.
’Oh, hush now stomach… we’ll get something later.’Finding at last a place covered with grass, rather than pavement, Marissa pales a little to notice the incline of a low hill throughout the patch of green. “Oh my… Well… I’ve come this far… “ she murmurs softly to herself, a few small beads of sweat clinging to her brow as she walks to this incline, and slowly makes her way upward. Stopping to stand still and rest several times on her way up, Marissa collapses to the ground upon reaching the top, panting and dripping with sweat.
Rolling slowly onto her back while shaking the straps of her backpack from her shoulders, she lays looking upward into the now dark sky, smiling faintly at the twinkling stars above her. “I… I made it,” she whispers, a feeling of pride washing through her while her fatigue overwhelms her aching body, particularly her right leg, being stabbed through repeatedly with sharp pain, coursing through the scars and even, seemingly, through her bones themselves. Her vision blurs and her eyes close, leaving her in a deep sleep before long.
~Midnight/The Awakening~
Shaken suddenly from her dreamless sleep, Marissa throws her eyes open wide, finding the world quite still, despite being convinced that a tremor had just moved the ground beneath her. “W-what… where am I…” she whispers, her voice sharp with panic as she sits, head reeling. Putting a hand to her forehead she focuses on calming the pounding in her head, imagining a clockwise spiral as her mother had told her to do, slowly moving to ease the pain. Opening her eyes, she gives a gasp when she sees around her several small pebbles and loose clumps of dirt raised into the air, most close to the ground, though some as high as the level of her eye, all moving in a clockwise circle around her. “A-ahh…!”
A strange feeling seems to waft through her, moving from the ground beneath her through to her head, a sort of humming and then the presentation of thought. Unlike anything she’d ever experienced before, a notion presented itself in her mind. Hard to understand at first, the feeling frightened Marissa, inspiring within her the desire to stand. With a burst of motion, the ground beneath her bottom raises itself into a hill, throwing her upward onto her feet, and jarring her injured leg with intense pain. “N-NO..!” she screams, both startled and angered by these strange occurrences, whirling around to see the raised ground that had been beneath her before. Her eyes widen in shock, and she reaches out to touch the mound where a smattering of grass still clung to the dirt.
The moment her fingertips touch the uprooted soil, her body feels almost immobile, almost as though it were a part of the ground itself. A thought presents itself in her mind as she sees the back of her hand illuminated, finding this odd, but almost natural.
’My body feels so different… like I’m filled with… no… that’s not right… like I’m made of rock… so heavy… hard… but I… I need to focus… will myself to move… I… I will you to move…! Move!’ With a sudden jerk, the feeling fades, though the ground around her, the soil and rock beneath her feet seems almost a part of her, like a large, usually immobile body part. Standing still, she focuses on the soil to her left, focusing on lifting it upward, like lifting her arm. After a moment, like a numbed limb, the dirt raises into a small mound. Pleased, if confused, she focuses on the dirt to her right, gaining a similar result with a little less trouble.
Looking at the three small hills in front of and beside her, Marissa furrows her brow upward. “I… I didn’t mean to make such things happen. Perhaps… I should fix it… oh, I hope I can…” Closing her eyes and focusing on the piles one at a time, she imagines each of them flattening back into the hill, smoothing the ground as it had been before. When her eyes open, no evidence of the unnaturally raised ground remained, though the grass seemed ruffled. Opening her mind to the strange feeling more fully now, an understanding floods her mind. “… I have to move. There isn’t time to waste.”
Grabbing her bag, she flips it onto her back, feeding her arms quickly through the shoulder straps, and grips her umbrella’s handle. Making her way down the incline of the hill to the streets, she winces at the pain in her leg, and the lethargic feel to the muscles there. The stones rubbing against her scars, however, incite a new sensation. Using her mind to focus on the pebbles that she’d wrapped into her fragile brace, she imagined them as though they were a part of her leg, moving in the same way that she needed her leg to move. When the movements themselves seem to become easier to make, though the pain doesn’t fade in the least, the improvement causes Marissa to breathe a sigh of relief as she heads steadily into the streets of Forsythe.