DISCONTINUING - Fairytale Dreams [Diluc x Reader x Kaeya]

ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ４

Her heart fluttered for a split second. It was small, the softness of the feeling made her chest feel warm however until she heard him ask in a gruff voice of surprise and slight (although maybe unintentionally) irritation.

"You... What are you doing here?"

[name] had read a book once: The Fox in the Dandelion Sea. [1]

She held a soft spot for the story deep within her, fawning over it even as others had no interest as always for the books she read. The man in that tale had always been searching and in the end, he parted.

She was like that man一 searching for that someone, wishing in her heart, somewhere, some place, she would meet that person to call her home. To call her without a lack of sincerity, and guide her by the hand even for just a little. But very much like that man, she had quickly lost that person with the whisk of the wind, lost into the crowds of painted white melancholy.

For her, that wind was reality.

This was not the man that she was looking for; all of these years living, sweeping and wiping the dust off of the marble floor, white walls and dirt beneath four individual feet of who she called as her 'family' in name一 The man with his abnormal red hair holding his blazing blade in hand, was not the one.

He had a fierce look in his eyes apart from the gentle ones she had imagined in her dreams.

He was not donned in the armor of a knight nor did he carry a chivalrous sword that would not burn the now dead grass around her.

And, most certainly, he would not speak in a tasteless, rough tone full of imparting carelessness for her well being!

"Are you deaf or what?" He asked, intent more than ever that he didn't really want to idle on small talk.

[name]'s lips curled into a deep frown. The dream person she had wished to meet in her own Dandelion Sea, had been crushed by a foul, impatient nature of a man.

Although her hands were violently shaking after being ambushed by a hilichurl just now, she took the initiative to politely answer him back despite the growing fire igniting from within her chest, screaming to let her pride lunge at him. "I'm fine, thank you."

He casually swung the sword back into into it's proper place, close and right back at his side, not bothering to ask furthermore. Her sixth sense tingled at the sound of the nearby brush, not so far from her just now, her breathing halted to a ragged stop knowing what was there. She clung tightly into the hem of her sleeves, tight enough to make small marks from her nails on the piece of her ruffled clothes.

Even though she knew what made the bush rustle, she still couldn't help feeling fearful for what laid beyond that. 'Please don't, please don't.' She begged to the Archon of Mondstadt, pleading for her life.

To her unfortunate assumption, another hilichurl popped out of the bush, swinging their wooden bats high in the air.

What made her freeze up in spot again was the more imposing, taller shadow standing behind the trees. Each step he took was a stomp that made the trees tremble, and leaves rustle around her. It was the giants of the Hilichurl tribe, a Mitachurl.

Her breathing fastened, heartbeat racing at a quick pace. Her vision blurred all around her and the screaming that suddenly began to echo in her head grew louder by the second. It was not her voice there, but the screaming of another woman.

"Not again, please..." She whispered in prayer struggling to accept her situation. "For the love of Barbatos, please."

She couldn't believe it. To meet face to face with one in the middle of the Whispering Woods was enough of a nightmare.