A New World

Chapter 2 - Rouge

What started as a speed-walk turned into a jog as Hayato realized he was 10 minutes late. Although the distance from his house to the nearest transport terminals in the city was a mere 15 minute walk, his impromptu nap derailed his initial plans. "Rouge isn't going to let this slide", he thought as he saw the transport terminals come to view. He excused himself as he darted through surprised pedestrians and busy shoppers. It was just his luck that despite this part of the city having relatively few shops in the area, it was unusually crowded today.

"Wow, it took ya. You're not supposed to keep a lady waiting," Rouge said sarcastically. Waiting for Hayato was his childhood friend Rouge, an outspoken and adventurous tomboy who's known Hayato since they were kids. Their families have had close ties for decades making it only natural for the two to become inseparable.

Hayato rested his hands on his knees as he caught his breath from his impromptu exercise. "A lady? His face quickly changed to match his bewilderment. "You see one around here?" Hayato teased, pretending to search the surrounding area.

She crossed her arms to feign a look of annoyance. "Very funny. I didn't know you could tell jokes," Rouge playfully retorted. Her expression quickly changed to one of concern once she got a closer look at Hayato. "Doesn't look like you've been getting too much sleep recently. Are those dreams taking that much of a toll on you?" She gently went through his hair to fix what she could. "I would've brought a comb to fix your hair up too if you asked. You're not the kind of person to ignore your appearance."

Hayato couldn't help but crack a smile as he sensed the concern in Rouge's voice and actions. She wasn't the type of person to reveal her emotions to those she didn't know well, and even then, instances like these weren't common. "Thanks. I should've messaged you but wasn't really thinking after waking up from my nap."

"What's with the big smirk?" she asked, noticing Hayato's change in mood.

"I just thought about how lucky of a guy I am to have a lady such as yourself fix my hair," Hayato joked.

"Ya, ya. It'll be the first and last time. So what'd you end up telling your mom about what we're doing today?" She asked tying her long brown and red tinted hair into a ponytail before putting on a white hat and sunglasses to match. Although Hayato saw Rouge as one of the guys he had to admit that the girl he called his best friend usually turned heads wherever she went. She had a soft piercing gaze with her hazel eyes and a great sense of style, something her mom instilled into her and her two siblings.

"I told her we'll be shopping. I couldn't let her know the truth or she'd definitely lecture me."

Hayato's only shared his dreams with Rouge due to their closeness and Rouge's giftings when it came to spiritual matters. He has no problem studying information and regurgitating it when needed, but this was beyond normal human intelligence, which is precisely where Rouge came into the picture. She's always been able to interpret dreams and their meanings.

The two have been investigating the truth behind the dreams for the past few months without much success. The few books they've been able to get their hands on mainly focused on examining a person's psychological makeup that could be a factor to the origin of certain dreams but never provided the right information pertaining to their specific situation.

Even for Rouge, this has been a challenging experience for her. For the first time in her life she's hit a wall with her own ability. However, she's not one to back down from an interesting challenge no matter how frustrating. Her family is one that focuses on the importance of prayer in one's life, but despite this she's never thought of praying for an answer to Hayato's dreams - until recently.

Her prayer was not only answered, but she discovered a new gift she never knew she had - visions. Last week she received a vision which she believed could lead them in the right direction: a mental image of a forest and a huge tree. Standing at the trunk of the tree was a figure she wasn't able to distinguish but had a shimmering aura. As the vision ended she heard the words "The keys to the past lies at Mori forest".

Upon further investigation into the forest, Rouge picked up on an interesting rumor concerning a strange old man living there. Was the figure she saw in her vision and the old man from the rumors the same person? They've been interested in seeking him out in hopes of getting their questions answered concerning Hayato's dreams. "Rumor has it that this old man's lived in the forest even before the founding of Everstay Falls a thousand years ago!" Rouge exclaimed.

Hayato was a bit more skeptical when it came to the rumors. "I don't know about these rumors...everyone knows the average human lifespan is about seven hundred years. The history of this era is roughly a thousand years though so if that was true...he would either be ancient or not human? You think he could be a radiant being? That would mean he knows about how things started!" Hayato said.

"Exactly! Now you're seeing the big picture. How awesome do you think it'd be to get to talk to one of them for the first time?" Rouge's eyes sparkled with glee. As they began formulating a plan, an airbus to Everstay Falls descended on the transport terminal.

"There's our airbus. Let's get on quick before it leaves!" Rouge said. They hurriedly jumped on and found some open seats.

"You guys have driven to Everstay Falls a couple times before right? It's so weird your dad drives in a car all the time. No one travels using ground transportation anymore."

"Ya, it's about a 7 hour drive, and that's the same thing I told him. Since the creation of high speed aircrafts 300 years ago, there hasn't really been a need for non-air methods of transport such as regular cars."

"You're such a nerd," Rouge said jokingly.

"You think this is the real deal Rouge?"

"I dont know. It's worth a look, plus we don't have much to do today anyways. Might as well go on an adventure."

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'm Jack and will serve as your airbus pilot today. Please fasten your seat belts and remain seated until we arrive in Everstay Falls in approximately 30 minutes.

"Hey Rouge..." Hayato said hesitantly.

"What's up?"

"I had the same dream again last night. What do you think all of this means?" he asked.

"Besides the little brainstorming we've done these past few months, I'm not sure. What do we know so far?"

Hayato took out his tablet to reference back to notes he's made. "They started about a year ago without any warning. Since then I've had seven dreams in total, including today." He paused, recollecting the occurence of each dream.

"Each of these dreams have more or less been about the same thing: rampant evil, wars, death and destruction on a global scale, basically everything opposite of this world. At first they would happen every two months which wasn't a big deal. However, I've had three thus far in June, which is unusual and we can see the effects its having on me."

"And we're only half way through the month." Rouge added.

"Also, when I first started getting the dreams I thought they were kind of random and brushed them off for the first several months-."

"-But then I discovered these dreams were all pointing to the same time period and world which brought us to the conclusion there had to be more to it right?" Rouge asked.

"Right." Hayato sighed. "That's why I'm doing my best to try to figure this out."

"I don't believe these are just random dreams," she said resting her hand on Hayato's shoulder to reassure him. The sooner we can get to the bottom of this, the better."

Hayato still couldn't help but wonder if they were following baseless rumors despite Rouge's vision. He glanced at her as she gazed outside the window. He could tell without her saying a word that she was deep in thought.

Although Rouge wasn't getting any dreams and only had one vision, it was still more than enough to puzzle the average person. He had resolved long ago to go down this path for answers despite what he may find and Rouge joined him without a second thought. However, his three latest dreams quickly showed him that things weren't slowing down or getting better. Would he be dragging Rouge into a similar situation without knowing it?

As he dwelt on what the future may hold, in the background was the sound of the engine as it roared to life, taking off to the two friend's appointed destination.