• The Eve of Eternity: Chapter 2 - Tracing the Past

    —2 Years Earlier—

    "Haaaaaaa!!" Estellise yells as she swings down her wooden sword at Deckard who parries with his own. The two wooden swords are locked tightly together for a moment as the two of them try to overpower each other. Realizing she couldn't overpower her best friend, she raises her leg and kicks him in the side, causing him to become off-balance and stumble down to the ground. "H-hey! That's not fair!" he says as jumps back up to his feet quickly. "All's fair in love and war, Decks!" she yells at him as she swings again, this time from the side. Deckard is caught off guard by it and ends up taking the full brunt of the blow. "Oww! Geez, if you were really serious that would've hurt Estelle!" he sighs for a moment and then chuckles. "But hey, you've definitely gotten better that's for sure."

    "Isn't that normally something you'd say to someone that you didn't LOSE to?" she starts laughing hysterically. "Yeah, I suppose so. But it's true though, even if your methods are a bit crude." Estellise stops laughing and grins, "Really? You have no idea how hard it is to fight in this stupid dress! It's almost unbearable!" Deckard laughs for a moment, "If you hate them so much why wear them?" She pushes him hard, knocking him down. "You know why I wear these, sheesh. Why do you have to tease me about it all the time you jerk!" she turns away for a moment. "It's getting late, so I'm going to head home, okay?" she says as she starts running quickly to head home.

    Estellise's parents made her wear dresses daily, because they believed she should be raised to be a 'proper' lady. But she wasn't just an ordinary girl like all the others in town that was certain. Estellise lacked a lot of the 'girlish' demeanor of most of the other girls. For instance, bugs, animals, and most other things didn't scare her at all. She wasn't even afraid to get dirty while playing around. In fact, there wasn't a single day that went by where she didn't come home wearing a dirty dress. While most of the time, she would watch Deckard practice with his wooden sword, sometimes she also did the same thing. Then there was times when she would challenge him, in order to prove she wasn't an ordinary girl. Most of the time she would lose, but occasionally she'd win.

    Deckard, always forgetting the time of day during his practicing, looks up at the night sky. Realizing that it was already dark he began to quickly hurry home. It was the same routine every single day of his life, and it was a wonder how he could never keep track of time. After about 30 minutes, he finally made his way back to the farm where he and his parents lived at. The moment he walked into the door, he was bombarded by his father who would yell about how he was late again. But his father knew that nothing he said could change what Deckard did everyday with his free time. After all, Deckard just recently turned 18, so he was a man. After eating his dinner, he quickly turned in for the night, falling asleep quite quickly as usual. Deckard always seemed to work himself the best that he could, which ended up making him so tired at the end of the day that he'd simply fall asleep just by laying in his bed.

    The next morning, Deckard wakes up and remembers the importance of the day. It was the day of the Festival. The festival only happened once every 3 years, so everyone in the village would be there. Well, almost everyone at least. To actually be able to participate in the festival, you had to be at least 18. That meant that this year would be his first time to attend it. And that wasn't all. It also meant that Estellise would be attending for the first time too. As Deckard makes his way into the kitchen, he is quickly shooed out by his mother. "Breakfast isn't ready yet, it'll be awhile. Why not go get your chores done first?" With a sigh, Deckard nods and heads outside to begin the daily chores.

    "Baron! Baron where are you?" he calls out. After a short while, a black Peruvian Paso makes its way over to him. "There you are, come on Baron; it's time to get our chores done." Baron, Deckard’s loyal horse, was a purebred with an extraordinarily soft mane. Although, it was easy to tell that Baron was not a horse that was local to the region. Ganon, Deckard's father, actually began raising the horse when Deckard was only 13. The horse originally belonged to a travelling merchant, which at that time it was only a baby still. The merchant was, however, a bit unfortunate and died of a sickness before he could return home. Baron wasn't quite as strong or as large as the other farm horses, but he was still quite helpful nonetheless. For some strange reason, Baron also was very loyal to Deckard even from the first moment they met.

    After the two of them completed their morning chores, Deckard took Baron back to the stables to make sure there was enough food and water for all the horses for the day. "Baron, I don't know what I'd do without you my friend." Deckard smiles and hugs the horse tightly for a moment. Baron responds by pushing him away and turning towards him, ready to charge in a moment. "H-hey! W-wait Baron! Alright alright I get it!" Deckard quickly turns and bolts out of the stables, with Baron right behind him. "S-stop! B-baron!" The horse ignores him and easily catches up, ramming him from behind and sending him flying a good 10 feet face down into a puddle of mud.

    "Ugh... you're so evil sometimes you know." he says with a groan as he stands up and brushes himself off. The horse snuffs at Deckard and turns away to head back into stables, after kicking a rock into Deckard's chest. "Owww! Baron!" Deckard shouts at the horse's fleeting back. Baron was a rather unusual horse, as he didn't seem to care for sentimental moments and did just about anything to get out of them. Baron only lived for the moment, and always seemed to want things to be cheerful instead of dramatic or sad.

    Deckard slowly makes his way back into the house, where he is confronted by his mother. "Did Baron rough you up again?" she laughs fruitlessly at her son who was still rubbing his chest where the rock had hit. "Yes, I don't know why, but he still doesn't seem to like me getting all sentimental about him being with us." he smiles. "Guess he'd rather act tough and hide emotion than show any, hahaha." Deckard laughs with his mother. "Well, breakfast is ready so have your fill. Today is a big day for you." Deckard nodded with a smile and the proceeded to head into the kitchen to eat. After eating and cleaning up, he started to prepare for the festival tonight.

    "Deckard." his father says as he makes his way into his son’s room. "That looks really good on you." Deckard, who still looking into a mirror to examine him in it, slowly nods. "Yeah. It does look pretty good." His father nods slowly also, "Did Estellise make it?" Deckard slowly turns toward his father. "Yeah, she did. I was actually pretty surprised by it too. She said she'd been working on it for the past 2 years or so. It almost fits me perfectly too! It's a bit bigger, but I guess she expects me to grow a bit more." His father laughs, "Well, you're still young, so it's possible. So, are you going to come and drink with me tonight? You're 18 now and all. You can do whatever you want at the festival." Deckard slowly shakes his head. "Nah, I'm not sure what tonight's plan will entail for me so I'll pass on that. But maybe if I have some free time near the end." he grins. His father laughs once more, "I was only kidding. I wouldn't want you to end up like me you know, drinking the entire festival away like you have nothing better to do. Well, have fun tonight." his father says proudly as he leaves the room. Deckard puts on his coat and starts heading outside.

    His entire outfit, from the shoes, shirt, coat, pants, and just about everything else, was designed and created by Estellise. All of it was made from pure silk at that. The pants were white but the bottoms were covered up by the boots he wore with the outfit. The laces of the boots were purple, and the rest of the boots were white. The shirt was white also, but it was purple in the center. The coat was rather long, with the end tips of each going down below his knees and the back center area was about a foot shorter. The coat was entirely white and was quite thick, but the buttons looks as if they were made of gold themselves. Throughout the entire outfit there were golden frills that were easily noticeable, although a few weren't noticeable at all. The frills appeared at the bottom of the pant legs, at the top of the boots near the opening, on the end of the sleeves of the shirt, in the center of the shirt vertically where most of the purple color was at, and lastly, on the top of the coat where the shoulders were at.

    Deckard makes his way outside and slowly looks up at the sky for a moment, to prepare for what might come later that night. After the moment was over with, he began to head on his way to where Estellise told him to meet up at. As he made his way up the hill to meet her, he was stopped short in his tracks as she came into view. He opened his mouth as he made his way closer to where she was waiting, trying to come up with something to say. He kept thinking and thinking of the words to say to describe how she looked, but in the end he was unable to come up with anything right away.

    Estellise was wearing a dress that matched the same outfit he was wearing, which was to be expected since she made both of them. Her dress was almost completely white except in a few areas. For shoes, she was wearing pure white slippers with a frilly golden flower on the top in the center of the foot area. The bottom of the dress went down to about 4 inches above her feet, which made it hard to see her feet. The bottom of the dress had several layers looked like each layer of it was fairly thin. She was wearing white sleeves the chest was just like Deckard's shirt. It was purple in the center, but the golden frills were horizontal instead of vertical. The top of the dress went up about to her neck, and there were also straps on the shoulders. In addition to the golden frills on the chest portion of the dress, there were also some on the shoulder straps, the ends of the sleeves near her upper arm, on the top of the slippers where the opening was at, and lastly there were several layers of the golden frills on the bottom of the dress. Her back was turned away from Deckard as she looked at the fountain next to her. She kept her hands locked together and her arms went straight down almost, being only slightly bent inwards towards each other. She almost looked as if she was a Princess, and anyone who didn't know her would think that she was one. She had decided to let her long hair fall down, instead of keeping it in a bun behind her head like she always did.

    "Wow... just.. Amazing." She looks up and turns around with a smile, a genuine smile she never wore before on her face. "Really?! So I look good right?" she giggled a bit as she twirled around in a circle to show off her dress. Deckard nods, "I... almost didn't recognize you right away." he scratches his head. "Well, my hair is down... so that is only natural. So, are you ready to escort me around the festival?" she holds out her hand. Deckard slowly walks forward to her to take her hand and nods. "Yep, let's go Estelle, our first festival!"