It had been a difficult few days for Odette. She had gotten orders wrong - something she never did. She was struggling to make ends meet with the rent. She had been late to several of her shifts. All of it was starting to wear on her confidence. In fact, she was so absorbed in beating herself up about all her mishaps that week that she didn’t notice the faint smell of smoke until it was too late.

Odette sniffed the air and froze. Something was burning. She dropped the knife and grabbed a rag to pull the dish out of the oven, nearly burning herself in the process, only to realize that it was burnt beyond the point of saving. She had just wasted a perfectly good dish.

Letting the pan clatter onto the counter, frustrated tears started welling up in the corners of her eyes. Cooking was something she was good at, so why was she having such a hard time with it?

The sound of a bell tinkling caught her attention. She wiped her eyes furiously and headed toward the front, hoping the customer wouldn’t notice her strange mood.

Selena sat against a large rock on the beach, staring out into the inky water, flecked with starlight. Her fingers lazily but confidently strummed over the strings of a ukulele she had bought in some foreign land. She played a nostalgic tune laced with sad memories of a life she left behind long ago. Her parents had taught her the melody...

Try as she might, Selena had a hard time keeping memories of her homeland at bay. Selena hated being sad. It was an emotion she was well acquainted with, which only made her hatred burn brighter.

When she was young, the Captain often caught her crying on deck long after the rest of the crew had retired. He would hoist her up in his arms and tell her to put her emotion into something worthwhile. That way, instead of crying, she might improve herself in some way, whether it be in combat or in the arts. From that day, if she ever felt melancholy creeping up on her, she practiced something she enjoyed.

@melodyofwonder

The pain from the steel wouldn’t go away this time. It hurt a lot. Mariel wasn’t used to this sort of thing at all...

Flying away in a lesser form took more energy than she thought as well, it seemed that everything was moving in slow motion, and that each wing flap was like trying to swim through sand.

“You know this isn’t a whole lot of homework, right?” Lillian stated as she sifted through the small pile of papers on the dining room table. “I can help you get through this in no-time gingersnap~”

She picked up one of the English papers and read through the instructions on what the teacher wanted Doug to do. “Oh, this is easy, it’s just finding key terms in the one book you guys are going to be working on and then just figuring out if you know what they mean. If you don’t then we just gotta dictionary it! It’s like high school again.” She let out a giggle, remembering how long ago it seemed that she had to do stuff like this. It was nostalgic, and working on homework again with Doug made her feel like she was 16 again.

“Once we get all this done, do you want to go celebrate the Lantern Festival with me?”

Claire jumped over another patch of slippery snow on the sidewalk, staring after it once she was clear. Looking up to the overcast skies, she wondered how many feet would fall before it stopped. No blizzards were on track so far, but the snow was dusting the paths she normally walked already. Despite her worry of slipping on her way home, she gave a shy smile to the flakes and caught one on her nose, sensing it melt before she got a chance to appreciate it.

She had figured she’d pick up a few things for the horses at the farm -- her new boss kept it well stocked of course, but she wanted to get a few of her things, as well! Such as... a stool, to reach the top of horses -- and maybe even a couple of carrots. She kept her eyes on the sidewalk, but movement caught her eye from the other side of the path, and her head shot over. 

Claire took a deep breath, wiping the sweat from her brow that had already formed despite the nasty chill that rung through the air. Focusing her mind, she held her hand up, forcefully pointing her palm to the opening of a cave she’d wondered upon. 

The islands getting colder and the holidays getting closer, Lillian was pretty confident in what she was getting everyone. At least, she thought she was. She still had to finish wrapping a couple of things, put the finishing touches on something else and then she’d truly be done.

But...There was something she still needed to do. And to do that, she’d have to make her way over to the Dragon Shrine.

Approaching the old building she smiled as she walked inside. It didn’t seem like there was anyone there...How weird...

The care taker at Daybreak Orphanage had let the children go outside to play for the day. Cain was called away to help with something since he was older and more responsible. He had told her not to worry about him and he’d meet up with her later.

Lillian hated being alone. It always gave the other children a chance to pick on her. She was always told that if she ignored them, they would stop and leave her alone.

They didn’t.

Thankfully those jerks didn’t push her out of her wheelchair this time. The 6 year old sighed and looked at her dirty clothes, they had thrown mud at her this time. When she didn’t cry they called her names and then went away once they got bored.

Lillian heard footsteps behind her, she looked over hoping it was her ‘brother’, eyes wide in excitement, it was someone else.