The planet Orbis

Chapter 2 : The day it happened

Chapter 2 : The day it happened

The light was shining through the window, it was morning already. Ashe slowly opened her, almost afraid to see what was before her. "Ah... of course. I must be going crazy." She was in her usual room, the same bed as always, the same celling as ever. Ashe thought it was a dream after all, there isn't a magic world anywhere. "It felt so real." She rubbed the back of her head, the pain she felt in the dream wasn't gone, if anything it was worst. She slowly sat up, the dizziness was still there too. She felt sick during the dream, cause that's how her body was feeling. It wasn't the 1st time, she dreamt she was injured somewhere during a dream or felt a sharp pain and in the next morning she was shore or had a headache.

Finally, able to stand up, Ashe went to the bathroom to prepare herself for work. "I look like shit today, maybe I should take the day off." She said as she looked at her horrendous face on the mirror. Her eyes were red, as if she's been crying, dark puffy circles under them, her skin yellow as of a corpse, matching her expression. "Clients will run away from the restaurant if they see me like this." She tried her best to hide her face with make up and after eating a small breakfast she left for work.

Today wasn't a normal day, Ashe thought she was going crazy. She was remembering events that never happened to her. As if she was seeing someone's else memories, the headache was particularly strong whenever that happened. "I really should have stayed at home, I'm hallucinating now." These hallucinations didn't even make any sense to her, otherworldly. They weren't messy, like in dream or when you are high/drunk, they seemed from other time somewhere far. Those memories kept pooping up, more frequently every minute that passed. By lunch break Ashe was exhausted, finished, almost dead.

"Oh my! You look like a walking corpse, dear." One of Ashe's coworkers commented. "More than usually, I mean..."

"You flattered me as always... I don't just look like one, I actually feel like one today." She answered with a sigh. She just wanted to crawl back into her bed. "I have this horrible headache and I feel dizzy from time to time."

"Why didn't you stay home, dear? The winter break is over, we don't get as much customers now, we would have managed without you." Linda was the nicest of all of Ashe's coworkers, she had a warm smile and a gentle voice. She gave a motherly vibe, but one wouldn't want to get on her bad side.

"I don't know." The truth is Ashe didn't want to stay home, she felt if she did, she would actually die. She had a feeling staying at home would just make her dream about that weird place again. It wasn't a nightmare, the dream was rather peaceful but she couldn't shake the feeling of unease that it gave her. It was hard to explain so she went with the easy answer.

"I will talk to the boss about sending you home. Lunch time is over and there won't be much people coming by until the end of your shift." Linda smiled, gently panting Ashe on the head as she walked to the boss.

Hearing from Linda, their boss sent Ashe home. "Damage control!" that was what he yelled to Ashe. If she stayed any longer, she could make other coworkers sick and customers too, beside getting worst herself and ending up taking a few sick days off. "That obsoletely cannot happen." He said, but he was just as nice as Linda but was too professional to show it, he was also genuinely concern with Ashe, thus she left early from work.

Ashe was walking in the middle of "the always" busy people in the station but somehow, she felt she was alone, not even noticing the noises around. Memories that weren't hers kept coming to her mind, she felt dizzy and in some kind of trance. Absent minded she walked into someone and lost balance. She was expecting hitting the hard floor and get some scratches on her knees, instead she tripped on the short stone wall that separated the sidewalk and the river, falling in it. The water was ice cold, upon touching the water she woke up from her trance, she could hear the people talking and calling for help on the surface.

This is the part where the people falling into the water would, lose all their will to live or lose the ability to swim and just let themselves drown and be reincarnated into a new world. "Hell no" Ashe thought as she regained her focus, she felt into the water and it was freezing but she didn't want to die. She started to swim upwards, the water didn't feel as cold as before. Her body wasn't shivering anymore and she could see the light from outside the water. Getting out of water didn't mean she was saved, it was winter and the weather was freezing thus dying of hypotropia was an option but Ashe believed that bystanders had called an ambulance already. "I just need to hold on for little longer."

Once she surfaced her soul left her body, at least that's how she felt. In front of her wasn't the stone wall she had tripped over, bystanders or the ambulance. She supported herself on the ice floor using her hands and lifted herself from the water. Her wet cloths and hair soon started to freeze thanks to the bellow 0 temperature. She looked around with horror on her face. "Did I actually die? This can't be" Her knees failed her, making her knell on the cold floor. "It's the same scenery from my dream, is this the after live?"

After compose herself, Ashe started walking around the place. It was bigger than she expected. It was the 1st time walking here but it wasn't unfamiliar, she had seen this place on those memories. The room from the dream was just one of the many in this mansion. She stopped in front of a big ice blue door, this one was made of thicker ice than the others. If the memories were right, behind it was the only warm place in this cold mansion, a bathroom. Inside the room was a big bathtub, big enough to be considerate a pool. It seems warm water naturally comes from the ground. Everything was made of ice thus the water wasn't particularly hot, enough to unfreeze Ashe's hair.

Taking a good look at herself now, Ashe realized she wasn't herself anymore. Long snow-white hair, slender figure, pale skin and features of a porcelain doll. She was also wearing a fancy white and light blue dress. The only thing remaining was her green eyes. "No matter how you look, I have the appearance of a beautiful girl now." But that wasn't everything she realized. With the memories she obtained and the scenery she saw, an aggressive winter could be seen from the winddowns, there was no doubt.

She had read it many times, it was her favorite book after all. Ashe had come to realize she was in the planet Orbis. She thought herself to be crazy, but maybe she did die and this is the afterworld for her, she always thought living there would be fun. "But am I being punished or what? Was I really a bad girl?" She snickers to herself. "Being able to be part of this world, but not as some extra or main character, instead the villain. Tsk... Not even the main villain, just a minor one that helped the main character being introduced as a hero."

Ashe was now in the body of Rose de Nix, daughter of the Duke of Nix. Rose was a beautiful girl but she had to hide her magic powers, growing cold and distant from everyone and ending up alone. When the love of her life betrayed her, in a fit of rage she froze the Dukedom of Nix, beginning a never-ending winter. Rose ran into the floret where she created an ice mansion for herself, where she lived her life alone. People called her Ice Queen because no one knew her real identity beside the Duke and Duchess, they wouldn't dare tell anyone thought. Doing so would implicate staining their name for having a magic user as their daughter.

Due to the cold temperature growing crops was nearly impossible. Animals that hibernated ended up dying, people starved and froze to death thus some started leaving the region looking for food and better living conditions. The Dukedom of Nix was dying, getting poor. This went on for 5 years until the main character of the book appear, he defeated the Ice queen ending the winter. The fate of Rose wasn't clear, if she was imprisoned, executed or exile to Tera is unknow.

"As much as I like the story, I don't pretend stay here giving everyone a hard time waiting to be defeated." Ashe had change dresses, was now sitting on the ice throne she saw the other time and left a long sigh.