The Dream

Starla sat in the carriage sandwiched, in between Hayes and Rylan with an angry scowl on her face. Her stomach grumbled as she had not eaten but she ignored it. She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

Starla opened her eyes and found herself in a garden with lush trees.

A little girl of barely six years ran through the garden. Her silver hair was down and flowers of different colours littered her hair. Her small pink lips was

set in a happy smile.

Following behind her was a red haired boy with black eyes. He seemed of the same age as the girl.

The red haired boy was soon followed by a frail looking girl of the same age of the boy and girl from before. She had black eyes and jet black hair.

When all three of them got to the mulberry trees, they all fell onto the soft grass, panting heavily.

"I'm first! I won!" The silver haired girl said happily after she caught her breath.

"What you did is not fair, you know!" The red haired boy said unhappily.

"You mean pushing you down? That was part of the race." The silver haired girl replied.

"You not knowing the rules of the game doesn't mean it's not a fair game." She continued with a mischievous smile on her lips.

The silent black haired spoke up,

"No rules were mentioned before the race so the race is not fair." She spoke softly.

Silver haired turned to look at black haired, "Since you said there were no in the race, what I did is accepted right?

In fact why do you care so much?" Silver haired looked at black haired suspiciously.

All three were quiet for a moment. Silver haired narrowed her eyes and exclaimed, " Ah! You were last!"

Silver haired burst into laughter. Black haired turned red from anger and embarrassment.

"But at least I did not play dirty like someone here."

She said wrinkling her nose at her silver haired. Silver haired got the unspoken message and retorted back at black haired.

"Being dirty is better than being a loser."

She stuck her tongue out at black haired.

"Who are you calling a loser! Know your place!"

The enraged black haired shouted and pushed silver haired to the ground. Silver haired fell on her butt.

Angry at black haired's action, silver haired got up and pushed black haired down with all her might. Black haired fell down hard.

The red haired boy who was on black haired side pushed silver haired down.

"There's going to be a rematch and there'll be no pushing. You can't say no to that." Red haired boy told the silver haired girl.

"No way I'll agree to that!" Silver haired got up and pushed red haired down.

Black haired got up and pushed silver haired down again.

"Rematch!" she shouted.

"Children, enough fighting." A female silhouette with silver hair and white flowing robe walked towards the children.

Her voice sounded like jingle bells in Starla's ears. Her face was obscured under the blinding sun rays.

Starla focused on the woman's face.

The more she focused on her face, the blurrier her face became.

"What's going on? Why are you fighting?" The woman's voice sounded again.

"They're bullying me, mother. They said they won't play with me anymore!" Silver haired cried.

At that moment, Starla had a feeling of déjà vu. When she tried to remember where she saw this occurrence, she groaned as she suddenly had a splitting headache. She felt herself falling into a dark abyss. She started screaming as the pain got unbearable.

Starla felt cold droplets of water hit her face and she fluttered her eyes open. When she opened her eyes her vision was hazy. She saw Callum's worried face through the haziness.

"Are you okay?"

Starla shook her head as she felt like her head was about to explode.

"Master Callum, please excuse us."

Starla heard a voice filled with suppressed amusement.

She saw her father move away from her just as she was carried by a two pairs of strong hands and thrown away in a rough manner.

She braced herself for the hard ground but she hit something cold and soft.

She then felt herself sinking. She could not breathe. She was in water so cold that it froze her bones. She could feel the water rushing into her lungs.

Her vision became clearer and she pushed herself to the surface of the water.

Starla gasped for air as she reached the surface of the water. The splitting headache she experienced was nowhere to be felt.

She realized that she was a good twenty meters away from the bank of the river.She shivered from the cold and swam to the bank of the river.

She saw her father glaring at Rylan and Hayes at the bank of the river. It seemed that Callum really got mad at them for throwing her into the river.

Remembering what they did to her, Starla's eyes blazed with anger. Ignoring the chill of the water, Starla increased her speed and got out of the river.

Pointing her finger at both Rylan and Hayes, Starla cursed them in her heart.

"How dare you! Are you mad? How can you do that to me!" Starla screamed and realized that her voice sounded hoarse.

She raised her fist to hit Hayes face.

"Starla, are you okay?" Callum's voice sounded, stopping Starla in her tracks.

"Huh?" Starla turned her head to look at Callum's bewildered face, her wet braid of hair splashing water on Hayes face.

"Of course, I'm fine. The headache is gone." Starla responded, averting her eyes from her father.

"Master Callum, Starla just had a bad dream. No need to worry." Hayes said to Callum while he wiped his face with his hand.

"Well, a dream can't shake the almighty Starla Flammia, right?" Rylan said.

Starla tried to grit her teeth at Hayes' and Rylan's mockery but realized that her teeth were clattering from the cold.

"What was your dream about?" Callum asked with concern.

"Father, can't you ask that later? I'm cold here." Starla mumbled.

She didn't want to talk about the dream because she knew the silver haired girl was her at a young age.

The silver haired woman whose face she couldn't see was probably her mother. Callum always gave her the cold shoulder when she talks about her mother. He never told her about her mother. She did not even know what she looked like. Bringing up this matter now did not look like a good idea.

"Well a dream which made the great Starla scream in pain, sweat and have a fever is no ordinary dream. It's a nightmare." Rylan said, trying to sound scary.

"Perhaps, she dreamed about a herd of elephants trampling on her." Hayes said, smirking.

"Or falling down a cliff. Ha! You should have seen your face. Ahhh!" Rylan screamed, opening his mouth and widening his eyes, his face turning pale.

He put his hands on his cheeks. He looked like he had seen a ghost.

"That's more like it!" Hayes said, slapping Rylan on the back.

They both burst into a rowdy laughter.

Starla rolled her eyes at them and entered into the carriage to change her wet clothes while Callum looked at her back with a complex look on his face.