NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: PTSD
"Please, don't do that! I can go with you. Please don't get me in trouble!" It felt pretty wrong to manipulate such a sweet lady, but I did what I had to. I'm sure she will forgive me once I make amends.
"Alright! I won't get you in trouble if you can help me find my mommies and possibly get them out of trouble, pwease?" It wasn't pleasing to abuse my cuteness against someone like this, but could I avoid using these methods if it worked? Was there a better way? Maybe.
In the end, Eris and I got to talk for a bit before we headed to the jail, and I helped her pack some of her stuff up at her shop since she didn't want to get "robbed." I doubt anyone would rob someone like her aside from me. Of course, I had already robbed her time.
Getting to know Eris a little closer showed me how much she cared about her craft. While I helped her close shop, I stumbled upon a large bag of unfinished metal swords, which she called "trash." They didn't look so bad for the untrained eye, but she explained the blades wouldn't hold if she kept working on them, so she scrapped them entirely.
I couldn't believe she would just scrap that much work because she felt like the blades would be inferior if she kept going. Back in my homeland, an engineer would've popped to use the "trash" anyway. But then I began to wonder, what kind of magic does a blacksmith use?
"Can I ask you a question, Miss Eris?" I ask her while I clean up the floors from her shop as we are about to leave.
"Yeah, go for it."
"What kind of magic do you use? You have many manual tools but haven't seen any magical things." Eris smiles as I finish my question. I wonder what she uses to make her blades, and the answer catches me off guard.
"I use enhancement magic. Since I'm not strong, I enhance my strength to hit the metal harder." Enhancement magic? Like steroids? I didn't quite catch what she meant by that. Weren't the magic types in the world bound to the four elements, then? Uh?
"So you're not using magic from the four elements?" I was curious and had to know how this magic ordeal worked, so I figured asking more questions wouldn't hurt. I would eventually have to figure out how to use my power alone, so the faster I got the hang of it, the better.
"Oh, no. Believe it or not, most magic is not tied to the four elements. That's just a myth people created to justify their lack of power." There it was again. The implication that magic users were rare outside this forest was almost unthinkable.
I have only seen people inside the forest able to use all sorts of weird magic, so assuming this ambiance wasn't standard to everyone else frightened me. While I don't know much about human nature, I have read books where people get scared and panic when some other culture pops up that's entirely different from theirs.
I can even say the same for my country. Back in Germany, my life used to be leisurely until it wasn't. While I don't understand why the world was so angry with us, I could understand how we would be considered different. Our engineering was top-notch compared to the rest of the world, perhaps too good and different or at least distinct enough to grant a war.
Would the regular people of this world view us in the same light? I could only speculate. Yet I could see myself hating someone else because they are born with an advantage I didn't get, even if that advantage was hard to understand or control.
In that light, I have even more reason to be grateful for this second chance. I not only got another shot at life in a better place but I also got put into a privileged class of people that automatically get granted magical power while regular people didn't. If that is not a blessing from god, then I don't know what is.
"Are you ready?" Miss Eris woke me as I lost myself in my train of thought for a second.
"Yes. Let's go!"
With things settled at her shop and a new conviction to be grateful, we walk toward the supposed "jail." If I had to describe the walk to the jail with one word, that would be "Grim." The trees decorating the landscape became increasingly crooked the further we walked, sending slight chills down my spine.
The scene slowly began to drill deeper into me as my past memories began to link the path with another forest I had to run through once before. Things did not get any better when I turned to see Miss Eris as I saw my mother's face on her, triggering my past trauma in a heartbeat.
My body stopped moving when my trauma hit, worrying Miss Eris, who tried to make me snap out of it, but it was too late. I was already seeing things. I could see and hear the gunshots, the bombshells landing near us while we ran through the forest, and people getting blown up because of random mines on the floor.
"AHHHHH! MY FUCKING LEG!" I remembered it all: the panic screams of some people as their limbs got blown off or shot. The blazing warmth of a nearby explosion and the following ring on my ears whenever one came near. I couldn't escape it even though I knew it wasn't happening.
The illusions and memories felt too real, which made me react in an unusual way in the new world. I always had to push forward when all those events occurred, but in this world, since I was tired of running, I simply sat down and curled into a ball to cry.
I couldn't do anything to get out of the memory recall other than to surrender and let the supposed scene have me killed to let me back into reality. Once I recovered from my triggered trauma, I could finally feel Miss Eris's arms violently shaking me while she screamed at me, trying to wake me up.
{Gasp} "Can you stop?" I ask Eris, and she stops while looking at me, confused about what happened. I didn't know myself, but I couldn't reveal the truth, so I would have to tell another lie.
"What happened? You just stopped walking and began to cry while curling like an armadillo." Should I tell her? No, letting them know I'm not who they see is not a good idea. So, I once again have to lie.
"I began to think what would be of me if my mothers would be in jail forever. I think I went too far into that fantasy. I'm sorry." My answer did not help at all. I sounded even more suspicious. How would a child my age even think like that? I only look around five in this world.