[fieldbox=Agatha, Brown, solid]
13 years ago...
Being young didn't mean one couldn't have a thirst for exciting adventures, as proven by one Agatha Nightingale, the Heiress to the Nightingale merchant family. The eleven-years old girl already went on multiple trips together with her father, see the world, explore foreign lands, and encounter interesting people over the years.
However, with the increasing tension from the Jeualian Empire up North, Lance Nightingale decided to postpone future trips with his daughter and focused on forming plans with the other families and Illserevian government to prepare in case all-out war broke out. Right now, he was in visiting the estate of his most prized client, the Mauritania family, bringing his daughter along with him. He wanted to have a talk with them and at the same time, Agatha could visit her best friend, Lyra Mauritania, both Heiresses to their respective families.
"Hm hm hm~" A happy upbeat hum rang from the little brunette's lips as she skipped along the corridor heading into the estate's library, escorted by a maid. Agatha figured Lyra would be there, knowing the lilac-haired girl loved to bury herself in books. On the way, she passed other maids whom all greeted her, already familiar with this particular close friend of young mistress Lyra.
Arriving at the Library's entrance, the maid opened the door for Agatha as the girl excused herself... then immediately ran inside which drew a sigh from the servant. "Lilyyyy~!" The Nightingale Heiress shouted, breaking the solemn silence of the library, her high-pitched voice echoing. "Lily~ it's me, Aggie! Where are you? I know you're here!"
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[fieldbox=Lyra, Purple, solid]
Within the confines of the Mauritania estate library, the eight-year old Lyra was, for once, not pouring over a book or academic text of some sort. Instead, under the streaming light of a set of bay windows that overlooked a courtyard of the estate, the young scholar-to-be was practicing a bit of magic. It was an art that she had only began to experience several seasons ago.
Indeed, continuing and escalating prospects of war had trickled down a sense of duty and interest in even the youngest and wealthiest of the children in Illiserev. Lyra was no exception, despite how out of touch she seemed; while her family was gearing up the company escorts and offensively arming their ships, she had been learning the art nearly by herself, reading old tomes and manuscripts neatly arranged on the bookshelves of the quaint wood-paneled room. Today, she stood in front of the window, watching and focusing on balancing a set of books atop a small blue ball of aether, nudging it around the library floor like a plaything.
She was deeply concentrating… so when Agatha appeared and shouted in the library, the only immediate response from the far end of the library was the clunks of a series of books falling down, and then a much louder thunk, probably the sound of an eight-year old girl tripping and falling over the aforementioned books. If Agatha rushed over after hearing the cacophony of sound, she would have found Lyra crumpled on the carpet headfirst, with a mess of books by her feet and a glowing blue ball rolling away down the library halls.
Quickly enough though, she recovered, sitting up sideways and pouting at Agatha while rubbing her face. "A-Aggie… My ears and my forehead… No shouting in the library! Bad things happen."
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[fieldbox=Agatha, Brown, solid]
As Agatha ran deeper into the library, the maid closed the doors and left the two best buddies for their reunion. This act alone already showed how close the two families were.
The library was big, alright, but! Aggie was a skilled tracker, she could find Lily easily. Using her almighty sharp senses, she heard the thunks and thuds coming from one corner of the library. Yep, not even an elf could heard those subtle sounds, Aggie was just that good.
Making her way there with pattering feet, she skidded to a halt at the sight of books strew on the floor, a younger girl, and-... oh! Shiny ball! Like an excited puppy with short attention span, Agatha chased after the ball first before even thinking of helping Lyra to her feet. With her supreme agility and lightning reflexes, "Gotcha!" she recovered the ancient azure artifact.
Turning around on her feet, Agatha came back to Lyra's previous location, now greeted by a girl with pouted cheeks rubbing her forehead. "Awww~ Sorry, Lily!" She looked so adorable that way. she knelt in front of her friend then offered the sphere back, "Here, I got your ball for ya~" then she'd help the shorter girl up, "What were you doing? Reading books while playing throw ball with the wall?"
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[fieldbox=Lyra, Purple, solid]
It took a few seconds for the purple haired girl to react to her own utterly shameful collapse. By the time she'd recovered from her spill, she had seen Agatha running away from her, chasing after the small glowing orb instead of helping her up, making her pout even more than she would have originally.
Her immature displeasure gradually faded away as Aggie finally helped her up and offered the blue ball back. Taking the odd artifact back, she brought it up her face, inspecting it for damage before setting it back aside, satisfied that they hadn't completely destroyed it. Taking a book that had been cast aside in the mess, she bopped Aggie on the head with it, lightly chiding the older girl. "Bad Aggie."
Tidying up the fallen books, Lyra neatly stacked the leather-bound volumes on a nearby end table. Picking up the bright round contraption, she offered the ball again for the auburn-haired girl to look at, offering an explanation in a matter-of-fact manner that was common for her. "It's a magic gyroscope,"she explained. "Father says it came from the Empire, and was supposed to be used in their big war robots. I was trying to balance my books on it. Aggie, want to try?"
It was an expensive piece of engineering tech, unfortunately reduced to the use of a common toy for Lyra. If a maid were still looking on, she would be questioning why it wasn't on the desk of her father or locked up in some high tech development facility somewhere…
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[fieldbox=Agatha, Brown, solid]
"Ouch~" The older girl playfully rubbed her forehead, "Sorry..." while her tone was still very much jesting, there was a tinge of genuine apology coating it. To make up for choosing the blue orb over her best friends, Agatha helped Lyra in gathering the books, moving noticeably faster and dextereous compared to her bookworm buddy. She gathered most of the books then handed them over for Lyra to tidy up.
Agatha's eyes perked as she noticed Lyra casting her beloved books aside in favor for the azure sphere, she knew it! There must be something about the ball if it could make Lyra abandon one of her most favorite object in the world, going by this logic, the brunette wasn't at fault when she decided to mind the ball first before Agatha. Yep, a legitimate excuse. "Oooh..." Her dark amber eyes closely examined the orb, its azure glow reflected in both of the girls' irises. "What is this thing really?"
Now, someone like Agatha would be stereotypically seen as... 'dumb', all brawns and energy, but no brain. For her case, they couldn't be more wrong. Her father would obviously give Agatha the best education money could offer, her being his eldest daughter and heir and all. The brunette may not be focusing her studies on arcane arts, but she could understand big words. "Oh, gyroscope, I see! It's used to... balance stuffs then." Her curiosity was perked,"I wonder how it works exactly, a ball to balance war-bots?" Now this was beyond her, but one more thing for her to discover!
"Hehehe~ so that's what you were doing, huh?" She made a cat-like smile then moved to pick up the stacked books on the end table, "Of course~ In fact, let's try more things with it, Lily!" She'd follow wherever Lyra took them, walking beside her, humming a song. "You know~ it's good to see you again, I..." Agatha paused a bit,a small blush creeping at her cheeks, "I missed you... hehe."
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[fieldbox=Lyra, Purple, solid]
It was about this time that the double doors to the library opened once again, quickly showing a maid with a disapproving face to the two. Hushing up a bit, Lyra turned to Agatha rather expeditiously. "Maybe we should go out to the courtyard or the grass…"
On her own cue, they made their retreat from the library with the orb in hand; after all, it wouldn't due if the maids got angry and made a mess of things! Nodding and smiling as Aggie spoke, Lyra held her hand as she pulled her along to the estate gardens. "Oh yes. It's been like a couple months, right? I guess you're back from traveling because everybody's scared of the empire…" Pausing for a moment, she continued. "I missed you too!"
Walking along the rosebushes and cherry trees that adorned the enclosed garden, she tried tossing the ball into the air a few times, a bit awkwardly but managing to catch it each time. Making it to a grassy area, she let it roll onto the ground before stepped atop it, trying to balance herself on it and channel mana into it to transport herself around… for science, of course! In the end, she wasn't very good at it, and instead offered Agatha a try.
"So, what do you think? Maybe we can make something nice with this."
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[fieldbox=Agatha, Brown, solid]
Oops, someone was angry~ Seriously, these maids were so uptight, they were no fun at all! She was just having fun with her friend and one of them had to ruin the fun, maids should be called 'Anti-Fun Brigades' instead. Fortunately, she didn't need to mind them with Lyra around, "Great idea, let's g-!"she cut herself off, "I mean... yeah, let's go~" then continued with a hushed voice.
Nothing could beat travelling in big ships and exploring new places, but... this simple walk in the garden with Lyra came really close to it. "Uhm..." The normally talkative girl became rather quiet when Lyra held her hand, soft and warm, a fuzzy feeling washed over her; such a strange thing... but she welcomed it. "O-oh! Y... yeah... haha... Few months, maybe more." Damn it! Snap out of it Aggie, Lyra was talking to you! Hopefully the shorter girl didn't notice she was being odd, that'd be embarrassing. "Mhm~" She nodded, "Big bad empire people want to cause trouble from what I've heard, don't worry though, we'll kick their asses!"
While Lyra was busy with playing with her glowing toy, Agatha couldn't help but stare at her friend's face, finding her features rather... captivating. Curse this, what was wrong with her? She wanted to ask, but she's afraid Lyra or anyone else would think of her as some kind of weirdo. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts (again), the brunette - rather begrudgingly - let Lyra's hand go so the girl could go on with her... strange, but cool, activity.
"Wow..." Balancing oneself on a ball was one thing, riding a rolling ball was on a whole another level. Agatha was used to keep her feet on rocking ship decks, but she wasn't sure she could do this. "T... that looks fun! Weird... but fun, yes!" Agatha accepted the offer, hopping on top of the ball then let tried her best to keep balanced. "W-... woah, woaaah?!" She fell a couple of times, ruining her hair with dried leaves and grasses, but the laughs and glee were worth it.
Dusting herself off, Agatha skipped back to Lyra, holding the orb in her hands. "Hmmm... what can we do with this...?" She pondered for a moment then her eyes perked up, "Hey, hey~ I have an idea, why don't we get someplace dark then... hang this up as a lamp, I want to tell you a story~"
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[fieldbox=Lyra, Purple, solid]
Having taken a tumble several times now and with Agatha doing the same, Lyra giggled. Honestly, the idea seemed easy, but in practice, it was quite troublesome to stay on top of the thing even with a healthy dose of magic to the magical orb's functions.
When everything was all said and done, Lyra tried to clean and tidy herself up, and helped Aggie do the same, plucking off leaves and bits of plant material from her hair and clothes. Thankfully, there wasn't too much of a mess; even though it was fall and the trees were turning amber and losing their leaves, the caretakers of the estate had done a great job in keeping the place looking pristine.
"Huh, a story?" Lyra was curious what kind of tale Agatha had in store for her. Lyra was surprised, though, when her friend suggested going somewhere dark. She had to rack her brain to consider a place in the area that was truly dark even in the daytime and wouldn't be quickly found by the maids… But she remembered that there was a small cave above a stream nearby that fit the bill. It wasn't too small and she'd used it several times, maybe once or twice with Aggie, and it was fitted out enough that it was quite cozy for a cave. "I know, let's go to the cave down by the stream then."
The little expedition to the little rocky alcove was only about fifteen minutes at a fast pace of walking, at least for Lyra. It was probably easy stuff for Agatha. Nested between two trees and on a ledge above a gently gurgling stream was the cave. It had a few wooden chairs and a table or so, clearly a bit weather-worn. There was a slightly rusty oil lamp on one of the tables, the innards of which Lyra replaced with the orb, on suggestion of Agatha.
"So, what's the tale about, Aggie?"
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[fieldbox=Agatha, Brown, solid]
"Oh, that cave?!" The older girl perked up in enthusiasm, it was a little hideout Lyra made for herself; the lilac-haired girl had taken Agatha a few times there before. A quaint little heaven, that'll place would be perfect! "Sure! Let's go there!" The Brunette jumped up and down once in excitement, even the prospect of traversing down the riverbank was compelling for Agatha, as long as she could spend more time with Lyra... nothing could be boring really.
"Come on, come on! We're almost there, right?" Along the way, the active girl motivated her bookworm friend to keep up with her, not that Lyra was sickly but she could use a little more stamina in her. Of course, Agatha had no intention of forcing Lyra let alone accidentally hurting her; the brunette would slow down to let her friend catch up and stop each time Lyra wanted rest. After about fifteen chimes, they arrived at the Lyracave. A small cave snuggled by two trees and watching over the small river.
They went inside the cave, Agatha took the time to examine the contents while Lyra set up their little storytelling session. "Wow....!" The orb worked beautifully as expected, the cavern was now lit with its mystical azure glow. "Okay, okay, you can't wait, can you"? Me too!" Sitting on one chair while Lyra on the other across from each other, Agatha put both hands on the table. "This one is called... 'The Girl Who Soared Across The Sky!'" She opened her arms as if mimicking a bird spreading its wings.
"There's this brave curious girl called Aga-.... uhm.... eh... er..." The brunette made a big awkward big grin, "Agnes! Yes! She's called 'Agnes'! You see... Agnes likes travelling, see the world, explore new exciting places!" Agatha leaned forward, seemingly a bit too eagre to mind personal spaces between them, "Carriages, boats, big ships, she rode them all!" Her grin grew wider, revealing all of her teeth, "At one time, she looked up at the sky and wondered... what if one day, ships can fly? Imagine, flying ships! How cool will that be? Clouds instead of water, birds instead of fishes, and mountains instead of reefs!"
Agatha reached her pocket then took out a piece of folded canvas. She put it on the table then opened it, revealing a crude drawing of a red ship flying through the clouds. "Look! This is what she drew, she calls this... an... uhm... Airship! See, see?" The girl went around the table, standing beside Lyra, "She'd take all of her friends, especially Ly-... uhm... Lucy~ her best friend who likes to read books."
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[fieldbox=Lyra, Purple, solid]
Taking a seat on the chair on the farthest end of the table, Lyra listened to Aggie's story, having readied and cleared the table of debris. Motioning for her friend to sit down, the purple-haired girl listened intently to Agatha's story.
It was a rather odd story for Lyra, and several times, she tilted her at the girl in either confusion or some sort of suspicion… because it sounded very familiar to two characters in a grand story that she knew all too well! The names were slightly different… but Lyra was almost positive that she was talking about themselves.
Naturally, she was going to point this out, but in the end became distracted by what she initially thought was a piece of paper. After Agatha opened the 'document', she realized that it was a piece of canvas with a colorful drawing of a ship sailing through the sky. Being a bright and curious young lady, she gazed at the picture in deep thought. Taking the orb again, she raised up between Lyra and Agatha, unintendedly creating a dramatic lighting effect and grinned at Aggie.
"Shall we create a flying boat, then?"
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[fieldbox=Agatha, Brown, solid]
"Hehe~" Little Agatha giggled in actual pride, she managed to spin her lifelong dream into an exciting tale of adventure! Surely not even Lyra could notice that, yep, she was sure of it. "Isn't that exciting?!" Agatha hugged her younger friend's shoulders from behind, swaying their bodies slightly from side to side. "They went on many adventures! Reaching places no one had ever reached before! Ha~" Sighing dreamily, Agatha released Lyra then went back to her seat.
The brunette was about to continue the next chapter of her thinly-veiled attempt at 'recruiting' Lyra into her trips when the lilac-haired aspiring mage raised the glowing orb between them, looking quite ominous, the grin fitted perfectly with the pose. "Wha-...?" Upon hearing the idea, Agatha was dumbfounded for a second before.... "Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!!!" Her loud shrieking voice violently shook in the small cave.
"W-we can do that?! We can actually do that?!" She jumped up and down like a hyperactive brown-furred rabbit, "How, how, how how?!!"
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[fieldbox=Lyra, Purple, solid]
"Wha? Woah!" Lyra was taken completely by surprise as Agatha embraced her in a bear hug, nearly flying completely off the chair before she could right herself into a properly balanced position. Breathing a sigh of relief when her friend returned to her seat, she smiled awkwardly at her friend.
Watching Aggie bubble up in excitement, Lyra had to plug her own ears as Agatha shrieked in disbelief, leading Lyra to second guess herself on whether or not she should have mentioned anything at all. Regardless, she answered somewhat positively.
"Well… it will be a very, very long time… But the basic idea to make things float exist, right?" A good example of this was putting a flame under hot air… Or using something lighter than air, if Lyra read her books correctly. "If our families worked hard together, we could create new ideas to make your dream come true!"
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