The Tales of Knight Waffuru

Welcome

4

A child opened her heavy eyelids.

She layed on a snuggly bed that seems more like a cloud. Close to laying above the sky itself, it was easy for thoughts to drift away along with the gentle breeze that softly caressed her skin. The balmy blanket that caressed her lower body served as the summery sunlight that gives her warmth.

Through the window, she spotted a sunrise with a sky the same red as autumn leaves. It is those times when it feels too early to wake up.

The door creaked. Her senses jolt.

"Oh, you're finally awake," a middle-aged woman, who looks more like a typical maid, said while carrying a tray of fragrant food. "You were asleep for more than a week. I was getting worried."

She stiffly sat up. Her body is a tree. Like tree roots, her joints are attached to the bed, and it ached as she moves them.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"You're in an orphanage. I saw you right outside of the gate—awfully injured. Thankfully, a doctor happened to be there at the time."

"Oh,"

She felt something tight that wraps around her body. There were bandages all over her limbs, chest, and even on her forehead.

"What happened to me?" she asked.

"I was going to ask the same! For a child to be injured like that." The woman sighed.

Her heart ached as if stabbed with sharp hail, enough to swell her up in tears.

"Do you remember anything?" The woman asked.

She couldn't say anything. There was nothing.

Akin to the empty sky, to the deep dark of the new moon, and to the fog that obscures landscapes, her mind is void. Everything is foreign and aimless. No names, no home, no reason, no purpose.

If she were to eat the food in front of her, it would only phase through her. She's nothing but a ghost, an empty husk.

Just as her lips were about to quiver, the woman asked.

"Do you at least remember your name?"

It will be another pointless question, she thought. But rather, like a flash of lightning, something clicked inside her mind.

"M-My name..." She stuttered, her eyes start to widen, and hope fills her eyes like tears.

There's something, something.

"is..."

There's definitely something.

The empty sky is filled with unseen particles, the moon never disappeared in a new moon, and the fog merely covered the large mountains. Nothing can disappear or drift away. There were names, a home, a reason, and a purpose.

"My name is..."

Her heart was just dark. It needs light. She just needs light to see what's hidden.

"My name is Waffuru! I'm Waffuru!"

There was something she needed to remember. The task the person called Waffuru needs to do.

"Woah, there." The woman chuckled. "My name is Sister Evelyn."

She gave Waffuru a light head pat. "I'll go back when you're finished eating. I'll introduce you to the other children, see ya!"

.  .  .