A Tranquil Life..... Almost....

Any other day....

   Any other day would have been shitty as usual, any other day I would have stepped of the edge of a cliff, but today , I had meaning. And all it took was the simple words, " Ha~ Tangyuan is here~ You must be Master Attendant!" Those little words in that exact moment made the joy that had hidden away from me so long bubble up in tears....

                        Two hours ago....

        " Dammit, dammit, dammit.." I said wiping away the tears that had started to flow like waterfalls, swift and powerful. The many people who had looked down on me my entire life looked down on me again, vicious words stabbing like knives.  This time they went for my soft spot, my first and only food soul. 

   He had been a wonderful thing, he was short and quirky , but often very serious around mean people. He had this hint of salt behind all his sweetness , a chocolate shell over his tender heart.  He had always been an idiot, but he'd sacrifice himself for me, and he did. I lost my sweetness to a vile beast. Poor Caramel, I will never forget you.

  " So , are you gonna kill another one?" The most awful boy asked, " Will the gods even give you another food soul after you wasted the first one you ever got, I doubt it." He snickered as his lackeys slung insults and slurs like balls. The worse part was, they never even met him, or he would have drowned them in sugar. 

   " Shut up..." I whispered, finally snapping. Caramel was too precious to let his memory be wasted.

" What was that? I didn't hear you rat." He said mockingly putting a hand to his ear. He had called me that for so long, and yet he had never gotten to know me, not once did he ask about my loss . 

 " I said," My hands had become tight, angry fists, the small amount of muscle in my arms flexing, " SHUT UP!"

    My fist slammed into his jaw. For the first time, my grief became anger.  My usual slouch was broken into a stiff stance of pure rage. Three more times I got in good solid punches before someone realized I would have killed him. One in his throat , and two , each to his stomach. That was the first time I had gotten into a fight since I had started going to this place. I was not taken to an office, I was put in a dark room, all alone, with water dripping and rats scampering. 

        " I don't regret what I did." I whispered to myself, knowing it wasn't true at all. I regretted everything about it, from the blood to the anger. Inside I was a frozen boiling mess, melting like goop before turning solid from the cold of grief.   So , I sat there, wondering whether or not to leave this stupid academy. The only reason I had even been accepted was because I could summon food souls and even then, I had failed to do so since Caramel died on the first day.

    While I wondered and waited I pulled a small piece of chalk and the mini-light I kept in my pocket. For the next hour and a half , I drew. I put my heart and soul into every stroke and line, thinking of warmth , and light, and hope. I thought of how Caramel made me feel when he protected me countless times. His embrace when it thundered , his smile when the sun shone.  Every happy moment I had ever had was put in this work of art until I had a huge circle, lines of everything from runes to poetry written in it in circled layers. 

  " Look , I'm not hoping for a godsend , I'm not hoping for someone to battle with and destroy opponents, I just want a small blessing ok." I said to the circle as I finished it with a forbidden ingredient. One was never supposed to do this, but it was all I could think of, so I bit down hard into the soft flesh on my finger pads, drawing a small dribble of blood. I wrote the final ruins and sent a prayer to the gods, draining my accumulated soul energy. 

    I felt it as it all went wrong. The pool was taking all the sad, worn , broken times.  It drained all the negativity, leaving me with a warm fuzzy feeling, but cursing my new soul.  I felt a shiver of dread and a wave of tired nausea.   

 When the food soul came through the twisting portal I nearly fainted at all the black negativity swirling all of it my own emotions. Until I saw the soul.  She wore a huge smile as she sat on a black stone spoon. Her brown almost black hair was just like her eyes, which greatly contrasted her pale skin and small frame. She was so cute,  a ray of sunlight light on my darkest hours. 

     " Ha~ Tangyuan is here~ you must be Mater Attendant!" She laughed with a smile, floating over to me on her spoon. She smiled warmer than a summer day as she gave me a leaping hug. She was so amazing I started crying again. 

     I couldn't even imagine being sad around her..... Caramel would have loved this little cinnamon roll. Even that thought couldn't get me down as the little girl giggled on and on. She talked about everything from the food Tangyuan to blessings .  When the person who came to get me asked what I was laughing about , Tangyuan couldn't help but making him smile and giggle too. 

    All the way back to the dorm people gawked at Tangyuan and I as we laughed an played.  She was way better at runes and artifact identification than I was. She was a savior at cooking, no one in the boys dorm had a food soul that could do that, in fact she was so amazing , that when the my bully came, she threw dumplings at him.

    " Tangy, I want you to know, that right now, I love you more than anything!" I said as we ran away from the fuming boys, who were covered in sesame filling and glutinous rice. 

  She smiled and went, "Tangyuan's favorite feeling is closeness; emotional, physical, you can always feel the warmth." 

And with that we dashed back to my room, slipping into an easy sleep with her in my room. And for a day or two , life was great until....

- Cliff hanger, wait for part two! Much love burnt_crispy!