Visions
He looked at her with a smile. “The gold suits you more.”
She chuckled while staring at herself in the mirror. “Of course it does my love. Melanin and gold complement each other well.”
The man hugged her from behind and gave her a small peck on her cheek.
“I wish we could stay like this forever.”
She smiled at the reflection of the two of them and placed her hands above his as she allowed herself to be swallowed by the hug.
“Darling,” he said, ” Where’s your ring?”
She quickly scanned her hands and found her ring to be missing.
“Oh I left it in my....”
“In your what? Did you forget?”
“No of course not! I know where it is. It’s in....”
“Darling you have to remember”
She felt her heart racing and the room began to spin. Where exactly did she put the ring. She never took it off. Where was it?
“Darling, remember. Please remember!”
The scene started to dissolve and the man slowly disappeared but the word remember echoed through her head.
Ama woke up in a cold sweat. Why did those words echo in her head? What did they mean?
By the time the sun began to rise, she had already fetched the water from the river, boiled and prepared breakfast. Her mother had just woken up. She looked at her with knowing eyes and a sympathetic smile. ” You had that dream again, didn’t you?“.
“Sixth time this month.” She was barely getting any sleep ever since the dreams started.
“If you just let me look into your dreams then this wouldn’t be an issue any more”
“How many times do I have to tell you that they’re just dreams?” She dished up for her mother quickly and sat down with a thud.
Her mother sighed. “Ama , this is more than a dream. Dreams happen once. Visions on the other hand-”
She dropped her spoon loudly on the table. “What about visions? How can I have visions? I’m not a seer like you!” At this point she had grown tired of having the same conversation every morning. She understood her mother’s concerns. However, she couldn’t bear the thought of showing another person those dreams. They just felt too intimate to share with anyone else.
She quickly stood up with her hands still resting on the dining table and eyes looking down. “I promised Nia I would accompany her to the market. ”
Before her mother could say anything else, she was already out the door. She stomped her feet as she realized that she’d left her umbrella but by the time she realized it she was too far and too angry to return home.
Nia was waiting for her by the fruit kiosk. They quickly hugged and began their shopping.
Nia looked around with a slight frown. “I swear ever since it started the population in this town just keeps growing and growing. It’s starting to feel suffocating. ”
“What do you expect? People don’t know what life is like without magic. Magic is their livelihood. How else can the dwarves make their powerful tools without magic? Who’s going to protect us if the warrior mages are without magic? They need it. We need it.”
Nia shook her head and clicked her tongue. “Still there’s plenty of places with magic where they could’ve gone. Now our small peaceful coastal town has rich nobles and bandits swarming in from the territories. What’s so hard about living without magic?”
They walked in silence for a bit. Each lost in thought.
“I do miss the smell of fish in the morning.” Ama said.
Nia giggled. “Ew,” she continued, “I miss it too. To be honest, I don’t mind the people being here. I just miss the peace. The small community where everyone knew everyone and we said good morning to each other. Now it just feels like everyone is a stranger.”
Ama sighed. ” This is so depressing. Change of topic. How are you feeling about the academy?”
“I’m shocked it’s even happening this year. I thought they’d cancel it.” They took a turn.
" Fresh fish! Come get fresh fish!” shouted one of the sellers.
“Come grab a crab!” shouted another.
Crayfish, hake, lobsters, squid. The fish market had everything.
The girls stood for a moment and took it all in then quickly exchanged looks and laughed.
- Smiling ear to ear, Ama hooked her arm around her friend’s as they walked. ” I think it’s important now more than ever to find mages with working magic. Our world is weak without it so we need people to protect it.”
“You’re right. Still I can’t bear leaving my family and my best friend.” She said as she hugged Ama tightly.
Ama giggled. “Stop, you’re gonna squeeze the life out of me if you keep this up”. Ama had never had any magic. It was extremely rare for anyone to be born without magic but even then they always had something to make up for it. Like heroic strength or intelligence. Ama felt average in both.
