Change

I'm not the kind of person who complains. I never have. Not even once. Ok, maybe that's not technically true, but I wouldn't count the years where I wasn't walking or talking in an understandable speech. Not counting those embarrassing years, I was never one to complain.

I've always done what I was told, even when I disliked it.

"Hiro, make sure you study plenty for school."

Yes mother.

"Hiro, how about you try playing an instrument? Like the piano, or the violin?"

Yes father.

"Hiro, please be careful with who you befriend in school. You never know what kind of dangerous things they do."

Yes mother.

"Hiro, these grades are amazing! "Keep up the good work!"

Yes father.

This was my life. I never complained. I never disobeyed. I always listened. I always did whatever I could to make them proud, so that one day I could have my own life.

I never liked it. In fact, I hated it. I hated my joke of a life. Some days I felt like I wanted to explode at them, but I knew if I did that I would never have my own life. I just sucked it up and obeyed.

We grew up in the countryside, away from the cities. Away from the populous. In a small town, where secrets are rarely ever kept between people. Where everyone's like a brother or a sister to each other.

Everyone knew about me. They saw me as a representative. A hero even. My parents were proud. My teachers were proud. Some of my classmates were proud. And the entire town was proud.

What would they think of me if I stopped?

———

Here I am now, twenty years old and wishing I could restart everything. The city was overwhelming, my apartment neighbors were terrible, college was uneventful and boring. Nothing about this was fun. I moved here in hopes of finding adventure, but all I found was an endless stream of stress that I hate having to bear.

'Everyone back home is cheering for me though. I just…have to keep going.'

But I don't want to keep going. I never did. Everyday, I wonder what would happened if I had just told them what I wanted to do. I guess that doesn't matter now. All the potential and opportunities I have are too great for me to be honest now. I'm just gonna have to deal with it…

It was a cold morning in the middle of November. Walking to the university was like walking into my own funeral. If anything, a funeral sounded better. I got to the entrance, but I suddenly stopped dead at my tracks. I didn't see anything strange but I felt a weird chill crawling up my spine. I started to feel lightheaded. My vision started to get groggy, but I was more worried about my head than my eyes. This headache was something else. I've never experienced this much pain in my head ever. This pain could even rival a flu that I had a few months ago. My vision was to the point where I couldn't see anything at all. Nothing was visible. Nothing...except for a small glow of light. Wait, light? Was my vision coming back?

The light kept getting bigger and bigger. It was to the point where it was like looking directly at the sun. Maybe even brighter than that; I closed my eyes to avoid going blind and just decided to wait until whatever it was faded away. Eventually, it started to fade. I could tell the light was fading from just staring at the inside of my eyelids.

When the light was completely gone, I opened my eyes slowly. I was expecting to be standing at the entrance of the university, but my prediction was wrong. What I saw was a starry night sky...and a bright and colorful town.

There I was, right in the middle of it. Eyes stinging from lack of sleep, legs sore from biking, and hair damp from the cold shower. Standing there in the middle of a crowd of people. Lizard people, dog people, cat people, snake people. So many various types of people all just striding along, minding their own business.

"Hey, you ok?" One of them from the crowd asked.

She was about a few inches shorter than me and she had light red eyes, light red hair, and her ears and tail were colored a blood red with black stripes. She had a petite figure and a cute little fang appearing out of the bottom of her lip.

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"You've…got a tear coming down you face."

I wiped my eyes with my forearm and sure enough, it was wet.

"You're in a place called 'The City of Color,'"the cat girl said as if reading my mind. "This place is where most people get summoned into."

'The City of Color. Hmm…simple.'

"Are you saying that I just got teleported into another world?" I asked.

"Pretty much. I've met a couple of Summons in my life," she said. "This kind of ritual has been happening for Galleries."

The cat girl suddenly started walking off and I quickly followed.

"So…were you summoned here to?" I asked as I caught up to her.

"Nah, I was born here," she said, crossing her arms behind her head. "I'm not as special as you are."

"Says the one with ears on the top of her head and a moving tail."

"Is that not normal in your world?"

"Unless it's used for a costume, a kink, or on an animal, then it's most definitely not normal."

"Your world sounds odd."

"I could say the same about yours."

As we walked, I made sure to take in all the sights, sounds, and scents around me. Every building and little structure was made of brick, wood, and steel with bright and colorful fires lit on tiny candles covered with glass that were strung up all over the place. They looked like Christmas lights. In the center of the town, there was a giant, three layer fountain with crystal clear water spewing out of three kettles that were held by what looked like angels on the bottom layer, two mouths of what looked like weird looking plants on the second layer, and from both hands of what looked like an angel on the top layer.

"I used to always sit by this fountain," the cat girl said. "The water flowing and splashing was always therapeutic for me."

I can see where she was coming from. Whenever I got really angry about something, I would just look at a sunset while eating an apple over the back porch of my parents house. That always put me in a good mood.

That's a little harder to do whenever you're living in a big city though…

"You ok?" The girl asked me.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "I just came from a depressing moment. I'm fine though, really."

"Well, if you say so. Anyways, you should follow me."

"Where?"

"To the palace. You're going to meet face to face with your summoner."