Lilia's Tale

Chapter 16: Back Home

The ride took the entire day, and we arrived in front of the familiar forest right before dusk. We hopped off the carriage and Kyo lead it to town while Father and I went into the forest. I hadn't seen it in a long time, so it felt almost marvelous, just like the first time.

We eventually arrived at our house, which had a few plant problems but was in a rather good condition. I was quite exhausted from the ride so I went to take a bath and sleep, deciding to handle the cleaning tomorrow.

The bathroom felt almost nostalgic, allowing me to relax while washing myself. Similarly, the bedroom was just like I remembered it. As a result, I had one of the best sleep I've had in a long time.

The next morning, when I woke up, I felt out of place. Having been in the room of an inn for so long, I was taken aback by the difference in rooms, until I realized I was back home. I stretched, dressed up, and went to the living room. As there wasn't anybody else up yet, I opened the door to take a breather. It was still night.

I noticed a table and two chairs on the patio, so I went to sit down and remember what had been happening. As per usual, when I first woke up in the morning I had mostly forgotten the events of the past day. I tried remembering what has happened, which wasn't hard.

As I recalled the events with the Elder Hydra, named Jormungandr, I wondered why I felt oddly happy to think of them. As I looked at the night sky, lost in my thoughts, I noticed a shooting star, which took me back to reality. Another shooting star, followed by a large quantity of them in quick succession.

I observed the meteor shower, mesmerized by the unusual beauty of the movement in an otherwise static display. Despite its short duration, it made me relax enough that I felt comfortable in this home again. It was odd that such an event would have such an unrelated impact on me, but I didn't want to think too much about it.

I went back inside and noticed the kitchen, bringing back memories alongside a sudden urge to cook. I went to it and noticed the old wooden plank I used as a stool. I was weirdly scared of using matter manipulation magic on it, but I pushed myself and tried it. It moved without any problem nor pain. Now more confident, I stepped on it and tried to move it up.

To my surprise, its ascendancy was stable enough that I didn't need to hold onto enough. However, I went too high and had to make it go lower, nearly throwing me off balance. After I had found the proper height, I looked at what supplies we had that weren't rotten and prepared a rather simple breakfast to get back into cooking.

By the time Father woke up, I had almost finished preparing breakfast. He noticed and laughed.

"You sure love cooking, don't you?"

"I somehow really wanted to cook when I saw the kitchen, so I'm cooking. The meteor shower earlier really helped me relax from the tension of coming back to a house I hadn't been to in months."

"A meteor shower?" he asked with a confused and scared tone.

"Yeah. It's a rapid succession of a large amount of shooting stars. Do you not know what it is?"

"I thought it was some fire-earth spell that you cast, so I was worried something happened. It's just shooting stars, right?"

"Yeah. Shooting stars are actually just small rocks going through the atmosphere and burning up."

"Atmosphere? What is that?"

"Well, it's... Wait, you don't have any astronomy knowledge?"

"I'm not sure on what even 'astronomy' means either."