Chapter Text
The last thing you could remember was, well, nothing. Just pitch black surrounding you as you fell through what you could only assume was the void. Who were you? Were you dead? Is this heaven, or hell? Purgatory perhaps? You felt every feeling, and yet none of them all at once. You felt detached from your body, like you were looking at yourself from somebody else's eyes. And yet, you couldn't see yourself. At least, you thought you couldn't. Where were you?
All of a sudden, you felt something soft and cotton-like. You opened your eyes and looked at your surroundings. You were sitting in the clouds. The rising sun was shining into your eyes. You squinted and used your hand to shield your eyes. You looked down at yourself, you were wearing something a prince/princess would wear (whichever you prefer). Was this a dream? You hoped not. It was the most beautiful dream you had ever been in. You looked around at the clouds.
“How peculiar. There are stars in the clouds.” You said. You looked down at the ground and saw that there was an endless field beneath you. It was all that you could see. But as you looked down, you saw someone down below. They were wearing some sort of princely-type outfit, they were stunning.
You blushed slightly at the person below. They seemed to be calling out to someone, trying to find someone. You screamed at them as loud as you could, but no matter how loudly you called out to them, they didn't notice you. Until they looked up at the clouds. They seemed to be staring right at you, using one hand to shield their eyes from the sun.
You screamed as loudly as you could at them, but they just looked back down at the field, like they never even saw you. You felt hurt, confused, and extremely light headed from how loudly you were yelling. You weren't leaning very far out of the cloud, so you decided to take the chance and try to see them better. But you slid too far out, and began to fall to the ground at an astounding speed.
Just as you were about to hit the ground, you woke up.
You jolted out of bed in a cold sweat and hyperventilating. You’d been having that same dream for as long as you could remember. But when you fell asleep, you had no recollection of ever having a dream like it.
Despite your young age (15), you lived alone in a small cottage by a stream. (Did I just pull the “Y/N’s parents are dead” trope? Yes. Yes I did. Cry about it.) The outside was covered with vines and flowers, and you had a small vegetable garden and apple tree. Everyday you went into town to sell different flowers and herbs you find every morning, but kept some for yourself. You didn't really need the money for food, it was more for clothes and different trinkets that piqued your interest.
You lived a simple life, with not much variety to it. But you were happy nonetheless.
This morning’s walk into town was strange. You lived outside the walls of Corona, so it took a while for you to get there. You noticed these weird black rocks sprouting out of the ground and destroying some of your plants.
“Pesky rocks.” You said while trying to pull it out of the ground. Your hands spilled as you fell flat on the ground, cursing under your breath. You decided to deal with them when you got back home, figuring it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
The closer you got to Old Corona, the more the rocks grew. It was almost like they were following you. You thought you saw them grow out of the corner of your eye, but when you turned around, it looked as if it was already there to begin with.
You swiftly turned on you heel and kept walking into Corona, basket in hand. You saw a flower that you could sell, but when you went over to grab it, one of those damned rocks sprouted up out of the ground and crushed the flower. Your shoulders sagged and you groaned in frustration, moving on to another flower you saw.
But the same thing happened again, and again, and again. Your anger bubbled and boiled, until it all became too much to bear and you kicked a newly sprouted rock as hard as you could.
But, that turned out to be a mistake.
Because it hurt.
A lot.
You screamed in agony, tears slowly streaming down your face. You grasped your definitely broken foot as gently and yet as hard as you could.
You sat there, on the forest floor for the longest thirty minutes of your life. After you were done writhing in pain, you looked around for something to help you walk. You spotted a stick that looked like it could support your body weight.
You crawled over to it, getting dirt and leaves on your clothes. You were in too much pain to care. You propped up the stick with one arm, and firmly grasped it with the other. You slowly stood up and started walking. It took a hot second, but you eventually figured out how to walk. Sorry, hop. You hopped on one foot and used the stick to keep yourself from falling.
You were too far away from your cottage to walk back, and you were pretty sure you had already passed Old Corona, so you figured you would just find an inn and tend to your foot then.
It was an agonizingly slow walk to the bridge, and you dreaded the idea of having to cross it. You never liked being stared at for any reason, so this was gonna be hell. You just had to remind yourself not to give a fuck. Let people stare. Be a public menace. After thoroughly hyping yourself up, you took a deep breath, and began to cross the bridge.
As you got closer to the end, there were more and more people. Great. You were hoping that people would just move on and ignore your fucked up foot, but people just kept looking.
Okay, this is fine. So long as nobody talks to me, I’ll be fine. This is fine. Everything is fine-
“Hey, is your leg okay?”
You slowly turned to meet the person who was talking to you.
The first thing you noticed was their hair. Black, short, a bit messy, and it had a blue streak in it.
They seemed oddly familiar. They almost looked like the stranger from your dreams.
…
Nahh, it's just a coincidence, you thought.
“Hm? Oh, yeah no I'm good.”
OH MY GOD. WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT??? Y/N, YOUR FOOT IS DEFINITELY BROKEN AND IF YOU DON’T GET HELP SOON, IT’LL PROBABLY STAY LIKE THIS FOREVER, you mentally yelled at yourself.
They stared at you with a look that said ‘how are you so calm about this??’
“Are you sure? I could take you to a doctor or something.”
“Pfff, nah I’ll be fine. This is fine.”
YOU’RE DOING THIS TO YOURSELF. WHEN YOU HAVE TO GET YOUR FOOT AMPUTATED, DON’T COMPLAIN ABOUT IT.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself??”
“Yeah, I’ve got everything under control.” You said, smiling to cover up the excruciating amounts of pain you were in.
Okay, I give up. I’m done trying to reason with you.
“Uhm, alright. Good luck with.. that.” They said, with an expression of clear concern on their face.
“Thanks. I’m gonna need it.” You muttered under your breath.
You slowly hobbled the rest of the way into town.