“Hello? Hello?” Amanda cried out, swinging her head to search for anyone near her. Her fear of the day ending was increasing as the sun went down. What should I do, what should I do? She thought to herself, panicking. Eventually, probably sitting on her legs for hours, they became numb and Amanda struggled to control her body, like a baby learning how to walk. After much effort, Amanda started to stand up right, like a first time a toddler manages to stand with assist. It then struck Amanda that, she could not walk.
Amanda stood there for minutes, stunned and wrecked her brain, how does a person walk? She stared blankly at the dirt path in front of her. Her mind was nothing. No record, no memory like she did not know the world. However, she knew her name is Amanda. Just Amanda. Amanda remained firm. She knew that she had to walk down the path. It would certainly lead to somewhere safe for her.
However, she did not get what she expected.
~*~
At the end of the dirt track was a village. It was bustling with life, celebrating some festival. Stalls were set up selling masks, fireworks, firecrackers, costumes and fans. Amanda stumbled through the crowd, hearing an unknown language to her. She could not recognize any of the words written or printed. In fact, the words that came out of her mouth, she thought she would not be able to write out. A language halting, very bad, she automatically sensed that. It was a naturally respond. She grabbed the closest man to her and asked,” Help? Help? Please help me.”
The man stared at her, bewildered at a child clinging onto his lose baggy pants. He mumbled some words Amanda could not catch when his eyes grew bigger.
“FARINA!” he yelled. “Farina!”
Everyone around him came to a stop instantly. Everyone, even the young children, turned their eyes to the direction of Amanda, who is still clinging onto his pants. Spontaneously, they started screaming, words came out. Amanda could not understand what was going on but she did identify that there is something disturbing called ‘Farina’. It sounded familiar. However, other things were inside Amanda’s head that were more important. Why why, why isn’t the man helping me? Why?
She felt herself, deep inside, something was cracking. Something cold was breaking apart in her body. A blue glow appeared around her but she was oblivious about it. The glow grew stronger as she became more and more frustrated. She felt herself becoming stronger, powerful.
“Damn you all!” she yelled and released her clenched fist. Out came out ice, forming ice pillars. The pillars twisted themselves, following the direction of the horrified villagers. They started to run on fear, villagers, taking fire to withstand the menacing ice pillars growing at a rapid pace. Suddenly, a reassuring hand tapped Amanda’s shoulder.
A voice came, like a soft father’s voice, “Hey little girl, relax. No one’s gonna harm you, okay?”
Amanda spun around and saw a man, probably in his forties with long blond hair. His eyes are stunning blue and he gave a smile in such a way Amanda felt like he was her father. The ice pillars started to melt and vanished. Amanda felt drowsy and her eyes started to close. She felt tired, like she has not slept in days. The man scooped her arm and carried her like a father would carry his child. He played around with Amanda’s hair and started to walk back to his office
She woke up in a startle. Amanda felt like she was in a dream. With the mysterious man appearing and an unknown village that she entered, she told herself it must be a dream. She rubbed her eyes and looked around. There was a cup of water beside the bed she was lying on. She reached out to grab the cup when the same hand grabbed firmly onto her wrist. Amanda screamed, and leaned back. She looked up, terrified, to see the man with a soft expression on his face.
“Hey, my name’s Darren. I am the leader of this village. May I know your name?” Darren asked.
Amanda looked around, stuttering, “I only know my name’s Amanda. I don’t know how old I am.” Darren chuckled to himself.
“Do you have any memories?”
“What are memories Mr. Darren?”
Darren was dumbfounded, flabbergasted. A worrying face grew on his face. There was a knock on the door. A lady entered.
She was the most beautiful lady she has ever seen. The lady had chocolate brown hair with streaks of orange. Her eyes were a beautiful green shade. She was quite tall. Her eyes darted around the dimly-lit room and approached Darren. She talked to Darren in the same language Amanda had heard at the festival. The lady shook her head and left the room in a hurry. Amanda felt that the lady seems to be quite frustrated.
“Oh don’t mind her. She’s called Janelle. She’s my awesome sister. Well then, you speak Farina. That’s a rather rare language spoken here.”
Amanda nodded her head.
“Okay then. Let me introduce you to this Realm. We speak a language that’s called Noiimish. But, to survive this Realm, you have to learn it. My Farina is limited, you see. Jan’s is bringing in the tele for you to watch and learn.”
Amanda nodded her head more vigorously like a child getting instruction from her parents. Janelle entered the room with an object that is called “tele”. It was rectangular in shape with a black paper, no screen, on it.
~*~
Amanda was eventually enrolled into the nearest ninja school near Darren’s office. According to the shows on the “tele” or television or t.v, the world she is in right now is populated by habitants called “Ninjas”. The schools that populate the whole Realm are Ninja schools, with everyone, from beggars to the rich to mothers to even toddlers, everyone’s learning the way of aninja. In the previous year, Darren decided to adopt Amanda as his own child, seeing how pitiful Amanda was, having no memories in her head. How she could not speak their language and speaking a language flawlessly that is still very rare to their world. At least she has learnt how to understand their language.
Amanda had a great advantage in school. Ever since she was identified having a rare nature, she was placed in the top class instantly. However, Amanda always hated it. She felt like she was not meant to be in the school. She felt like she should be the one going to a school without ninjas. However, one person always cheered her up. She made a friend after many attempts. Melissa, her friend was called. Melissa was always kind to her, defending Amanda whenever a boy tried to bully or tease Amanda. Melissa would always comfort Amanda when she cried during class.
One day, Amanda disappeared from class.
“Amanda! What are you doing!” Melissa yelled in horror running towards Amanda when she found her. Amanda turned around. Her eyes going all light blue instead of her icy blue eyes.
“Do you have a problem Melissa? Want me to kill you is it?” hissed Amanda. However, Melissa realised that that was not the Amanda she knew. She knew everything about Amanda. Melissa placed her hand in front of herself. She muttered a soft apology before cracking up the ground.
Melissa made signs and yelled, “Revered Earth, show the truth behind this girl!”
Amanda stared in horror as she saw herself cracking, like a porcelain being broken. “Ahhh!” Amanda yelled in despair as she felt something coming out of her. The light blue glow finally went away and Amanda collapsed. Melissa ran towards her.
Amanda hugged Melissa tightly, saying ever so softly, “I am sorry… I’m sorry…” Amanda cried into her friend’s uniform. “It’s okay. It’s okay, Amanda,” Melissa assured Amanda. She helped her friend up and they both started to limp back to their classroom.
Behind the two grieving friends were two dead, cold bodies frozen in ice. The expressions on the two bodies showed that they died painfully, being stabbed continuously and dying from hypothermia. They were frozen so fast that the blood coming out of their wounds were stalled in the way they flowed out.
