1 A Girl Named Valera

It's dark... Everything is in a black shade…

She felt her body laid down while the wind blows on her back…

Falling through the endless abyss…

This sensation…

A vision...? Déjà vu...?

Valera didn't know which, for she have felt it from both the past and future events…

Eventually, the falling stopped, slowly putting the tangerine-haired girl on a flat surface.

She opened her eyes, blinded by the bright colors of the light-blue sky while also feeling a soft sensation on her back. A white petal reaches to her nose, letting out a gentle sneeze. She gently lifts herself to sit on a soft bed of flowers.

She looks around to familiarize herself with this mystical land.

A field of green grass, decorated with beds of white flowers. Some are separated. Some are united. The area is nearly flat due to its narrow hills elevated from the earth. Not too erected, for it is only a small bump with a flat surface that Valera can see the other side without standing up.

But the only thing out of the ordinary is the giant tree in the east.

It is the only tree she could find in this vast land, and it is on a bigger, higher hill than the other ones.

Full of curiosity, she stood from the bed of flowers and proceeded to walk to the giant tree on her right.

She got close to the tree, shocked by its size, for it was bigger than she anticipated. It could be taller than a ten-story building and as wide as a basketball court. The trunk is slightly bent, but can still carry its whole. Its roots are invisible near the tree. Although, it could be that it dug deep underground as it supports this gigantic plant.

As the trunk reached the top, it separated itself as branches of the tree. Their sizes are similar to the logs of a giant sequoia, or twice its size, connecting to the others while they grew their leaves.

There are so many leaves in this tree. So much that even a ray of light can't get through—a perfect shade. At the end of the branches reach, due to the heaviness of countless leaves, its weight pulls them down. However, its load is not enough for the branches to break.

Valera notices a leaf falling from the tree. As she watched the falling green blade, the size of this is compatible with the scope of this tree, for it is bigger than the palm of her hand.

She looks up again to see its leave, leaving her hypnotized by the mesmerizing movements of the dancing leaves, enough to make her feel drowsy. Valera's body felt weak, but she also feels calm.

"Hey! Valera!"

Hearing someone shout, she escapes from the world of dreams and goes back to her senses.

Someone was here in this dreamlike place? And a stranger knows her name?

Valera felt suspicious, but she somehow met this person before…

"Up here!"

She follows the stranger's call, only to see its appearance.

As she looks above her, she notices a transparent entity submerging from the top, approaching her at speed similar to a leaf.

She thought that it's a human that called her, but it's just a floating ball of green flame. There was nothing inside that flame.

No interior, no core, nothing. Just a floating living blaze. A spirit.

"Going out with your own again? You know you should've told me beforehand. I'm worried about your wellbeing, you know?"

The spirit's voice has a deep but rather soft tone, sounding like a male narrator of a children's story. His tone and his way of words are calming.

"..." However, Valera stares at the spirit with a bit of confusion on her mind. She has no idea who this is.

Even if she felt strange as it appeared before her, he looked like a stranger in her eyes.

Not only she's unfamiliar with this being, but this is also the only mystical thing she has ever seen in this near-realistic world. A strange entity that she can only see in fantasy.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"...

who are you again?"

"..." The spirit went silent, dumbfounded by her response.

"... I don't know what's on your mind, Valera. But if you're playing with me, I don't know what to react."

"I'm sorry if it's rude...

...but I really don't remember who you are."

Valera had a sense of honesty on her face. The spirit notices it and knows that she's telling the truth.

The spirit follows with a sigh."...It looks like you've lost your memories again…"

'Again?' She thought to herself. To think that she's been in this state of forgetfulness numerous times questions her existence in this world.

"You looked discombobulated…" The entity said while he circles to Valera. "Not to worry. I'll try my best to clarify what this place is, as well as myself."

After he did a lap around her, he stopped and presented himself in front of her.

"As you can already tell, I am a spirit. We met a few days ago in this green terrain, and you've lost your memories thrice as of now."

"How about you, Spirit? Are you the only company I have in this land?" Valera questions him.

"Indeed, I am. To be frank, I've also been in your shoes before you landed here. I've lost so much of my memories that I couldn't count how many days, weeks, months, maybe even years I've existed here."

Valera's body relaxed and looked at the spirit with eyes of empathy as she hears his life before she came here. Without knowing his time in this world alone, the near never-ending solitude had his sanity broken if it weren't for his memory loss.

She reaches her hand to the spirit's translucent body with pity.

"It must've been lonely…"

Spirit's color turned from his usual green to yellow. As an entity with no facial expressions, it's a good addition for him to let Valera know his emotions indirectly.

"... It's nice to hear such fine words from you, Valera. Did your personality changed in your third memory loss?"

Valera responds with laughter with his odd sense of humor. His response is what she needed to make herself feel proud of herself as a human.

After a brief moment, she notices the warmth emitting from Spirit. It's temperate and calm—a considerable temperature for the day of spring.

It somehow reminded her of someone, remembering a gentle caress from her hand.

This sensation has her emotions in disarray like she had felt different affections in this soothing touch.

She's in anguish; while also in delight.

In a state of guilt; but still in satisfaction.

Suicidal; yet grasping for life.

Completely different sensations; merged into one.

Why did she felt such complex emotions before? Valera knows for a fact that these feelings did not come from this world, for these emotions are more realistic.

Soon after, she hears a soft, inaudible voice resonate in her head. A voice that created an unforgettable sentence in her broken memories, later to be mended as she promptly hears the voice clearer and better.

"I will never leave by your side, Valera…"

A statement without context, while also her driving force towards something.

As she hears this statement left by a foreign stranger, she is in full understanding that this world is not the place she originated.

Without knowing how, she needs to remember the fractions of her memories to cure her curiosity while leaving in this mystique land of fantasies.

Spirit, who was being touched by Valera, was going to say a word to her. But it was later interrupted by a beam of light behind her, reaching through the heavens.

The orange beacon grows bigger and brighter to the point that its orange shade nearly devours the olive fields. After a few seconds, the beacon slowly shrinks, eventually disappeared.

To him, this strange phenomenon may have come to a predicament for both of them.

Valera, however, had a different mindset. This anomaly could be a clue, a lead for the answers she needs.

She lifts her foot past the other as she starts to walk towards the direction of the orange beacon, calling her to its presence.

"Valera?" Spirit has his suspicions, telling himself not to approach the area of the orange beacon for safety precaution.

But Valera doesn't have to reconsider her choice. She has to go there. However, she's wise enough to think that she cannot last by herself for the unforeseen dangers in her wanders.

She turns her head to Spirit while placing her hand in her chest to show her determination in her quest.

"Spirit…

Would you mind if I share this Journey with you?"

Spirit sees her perseverance in her choice. Whatever the reason Valera has, he has no indication of what her intentions might be. All he can see in her is the resolve to reach her aim. And her resolve has gained interest to him.

He is curious about how this journey will end for the both of them.

He chuckles; and floats towards her as he answers her request.

"I have no reason to deny but to abide by your appeal. I, myself, am curious about this rare occurrence."

Valera responded with a smile and continued to walk alongside Spirit.

They left at the tree's shade and let the sun shines them as they feel the season of spring's warmth. A fresh gust of wind blows them to smell the very subtle soft, sweet, musky, and floral fragrance around them.

The temperature is intermediate, as the heat of the sun and the breezy wind are compatible with each other.

Feeling the sensations of spring, Valera's mind is calm and collective, ready to start her pious pilgrimage.