From the Vast

Chapter 13: Strangers

Where did all these items come from?

Anne stared at the couple bags in the corner for a hot minute, colorful plastic and the assorted goods inside it refusing to make themselves any clearer for her aching mind. She recognized the coat that laid on top of one of the bags as belonging to Mrs. Graham, and the title of the book Cypress had been reading tingled something deep inside her brain, but... Did that mean what she thought it could mean? Did Mrs. Graham give her some of her stuff and books? That much Anne wasn't even all that surprised by, the old librarian has always been great to her, but rather the logistics of it all. How did these end up here? Did Mrs. Graham know about this forest wonderland she ended up in? Did- did someone just steal these from Mrs. Graham?

So many questions, and exactly nothing for answers.

It was all immensely confusing, but maybe taking a closer look at the exact selection of items would clarify anything about the situation? Anne doubted, but at the same time, it's not like she had much else to do while she waited for Aria's family. That whole idea still made her a bit uncertain. She wanted to trust Aria and everyone else that she'd be alright and her kids would end up liking her, but her experiences with others in her age group haven't been particularly... positive. Add to that the unavoidable personality clash between herself and anyone more outgoing than her, which was... basically everyone, and to the best of her worried mind's ability to make out, it would only end up being a disaster.

And by disaster she meant just very awkward and unpleasant.

Hopefully.

Let's take a closer look at everything in her room in the meantime.

Anne still didn't feel particularly strong, and the increasingly returning aching didn't help one bit, but it was a night and day difference compared to the utter exhaustion of yesterday. Enough so to at least let her scramble over to the edge of the bed and let her legs dangle off it. Not before giving the Braixen a bit more affection though, to help her power though the terrible vastness of a few minutes without her human beside her. Alright, ready, let's-

The sheer confusion filling her thoughts had managed to push the Mismagius' presence in the room out of her immediate attention up until now, his sudden reappearance in front of her making her jump a bit. She remembered something about them feeding on some sort of emotions, and the faint flicker of a glow inside the red gem on Cypress' front appeared to confirm that. Anne's attention was focused more so on his confused expression, however, especially as it was accompanied with a few more non-magical whispers.

Could he understand her? Anne had no idea, but there was no hurt in giving it a stab-

"~I-I just wanna t-take a look at the- at the bags.~"

She had no idea whether the words themselves ended up accomplishing anything, but the pointing gesture that accompanied them did the trick in either case. Cypress continued his ghostly mumbles as he glanced back and forth between the girl and her possessions, eventually settling on granting that particular request and floating off to the side.

"~Th-thank you, Mr. Cypress.~"

A deeper nod of his brimmed head, warm reassurance inside her. Let's try-

Ow, ow, ow.

Her legs weren't quite as weak as she had expected them to be, but they weren't much better either. Even just standing still had them shake a bit underneath her, the slight change in elevation enough to make the pain coming from her arm spark right back to life, both those sensations accompanied by a louder wince. Right before Anne clenched her eyes, she caught a brief glimpse of the Mismagius floating in front of her again, fully expecting herself to be shoved back a bit and ushered right into the protective cocoon of her bedding-