Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Tiamat: The Other World ❯ Chapter One: Secret? ( Chapter 1 )

AUTHOR'S NOTE!~ ~ ~ Alright. Before I really begin this story, a few things about me and the story itself. 

        

1.) There are some terms and/or basic concepts that I've borrowed from videogames, anime, tv shows, etc., but they are not the same as in the works that they are from, so don't think, “Oh, that's dumb,” when you notice them throughout the story. 

4.) This story takes place in some unspecified locations in the very beginning, but I've mixed and matched some Japanese and American names, traditions, and such.

5.) It takes me a long time to type this stuff up.  Between high school senior classes and Beauty College, I have almost no life.  And it's difficult for me to look at the computer screen for long periods of time or type a whole lot at once.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this obnoxiously long author's note.

Please enjoy this new story.

 

 

Tiamat(?!)

The Otherworld

CHAPTER ONE: Secret?



When Rune** woke up that morning, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.  Over the years, she'd been taught to follow her intuition, and it wasn't the kind of thing that she'd usually ignore, since her “bad feelings” were almost always right, but today was a big day. 

“Rune? Ruuuuune!” called her guardian. “Get up, quickly, or you'll be late!”
“Hai, Okaasan!**” Rune called back to her.

Rune threw her legs over the side of the bed lazily, still lying down. She lay there for a few more moments, rubbing her eyes to wake herself up.

“Well, as much as I'd like to follow your advice, gut, I've got a mission today.” She sat up and steadied herself, sitting on the very edge of her bed.

“It's my first day at public school today and I'm going to have fun and make a lot of new friends!” She looked down at her stomach. “And there's nothing you can do to stop me, darnit.”

Rune looked up to see her guardian, Azumi**, standing in the doorway. “…Rune-chan**…What are you doing…?” she said.
“Uhhh…”
“Nevermind. Just get ready. Hurry up!”
“Right!”

“Talking to her stomach… so strange…” Azumi said as she left the doorway. Rune smiled and stood up. She stretched a bit more and walked over to her closet.

“Alright,” she thought, “I need an outfit that says `I have NOT been home-schooled all my life...' Or at least the part of my life I remember, anyway…” She looked through her shirts and found a white shirt with light blue raindrops outlined in black and a grayscale rainbow in the background. It was her favorite t-shirt.  “Alrighty,” she thought. “I just need a cool bottom to match,” and she walked to her dresser.

She opened the drawer and shuffled through her stuff.  She tossed a couple of pairs of pants over her shoulder and dug deeper and deeper into the seemingly endless pit of clothes.  She was so purposeful in her important quest to find a decent pair of pants that she didn't notice her other guardian standing in her doorway.

“Uh… Rune?” He said

Flop.  A pair of jeans landed on his head.  “Oy…”

“Oh!  Sorry Tadashi-san**!!!” She pulled the pair of pants away from him and went back to her “mission.” 
“I just need the perfect outfit.  I'm really excited!”

“Okay, but is this… necessary?”  He gestured at the havoc Rune had wreaked on her room. 
“Don't worry.  I'll clean up when I get home.  Oh!  There it is!” 

She picked up a pair of black jeans that had a zipper going up the length of each leg.  At the top of each zipper was a small blue ribbon.  And there was a single white “X” on the right knee.

“Okay!” She looked at Tadashi.  “Out, please,” she said as she pushed him out the door.


Five minutes later, they were all at the kitchen table. 

 

Azumi and Tadashi had been taking care of Rune since she was ten.  She couldn't remember why, or even anything before she woke up in their house the next morning.  According to them, she was left on their doorstep.  Rune didn't actually believe them, of course.  Who would leave an unconscious ten-year-old on someone's doorstep in the middle of nowhere?  It was a poorly constructed lie.  But nonetheless, Rune was happy with them.  It had been five years since then, and she didn't think about it too much anymore…

Azumi and Tadashi had gotten used to Rune's odd behavior over the few years that she'd been staying with them, but too often, they seemed to be at a loss for words when she acted strangely.  Or at least that's what Rune thought as she noticed her guardians watching her as she carefully constructed a mansion out of French toast, cinnamon sticks and an orange.  She just guessed that they didn't really care enough about her strangeness to say much.

“Rune… you're supposed to eat the French toast and orange, and use the cinnamon stick in your tea.”

“Who says?”

“What?”

“Why can't they be used to build mansions of yummy-smelling goodness?”

* Hooonk *

“That's the bus!”   Rune hugged Azumi and Tadashi, grabbed a cinnamon stick, and ran out the door.

“She… took the cinnamon stick…” said Tadashi.
“…And left the food…” finished Azumi. “Think she'll be okay?”
“I'm sure she'll be fine.  She's stronger than she looks, stronger than even she knows.”

“She thinks she's just going to school… I'm really going to miss her.”

“Don't worry.  We'll see her again someday, in Tiamat.”

 

Tadashi put his arm around Azumi's shoulders and smiled as Rune's school bus pulled away. 

 

Rune waved to them. 

They waved back.

 

When the bus was gone, Azumi and Tadashi took one last look around the house where they'd lived together and raised Rune for what seemed to them like a very short time.  Too short.

 

The clothes Rune owned: Azumi and Tadashi packed them.  Rune's favorite jewelry, Rune's favorite soft, blue blanket: they packed it.

 

They packed until all of Rune's favorite things were packed in several bags.  Then they took the bags, and left. 

 

The morning sun was bright in their eyes.  The light that shone down from above was even brighter as they stepped into it, and disappeared.



*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~ ~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*



When Rune got to school, people stared at her.  It was one of the reasons she'd been homeschooled all this time by her overprotective guardians.  Her wavy white-silver, hair and bright blue-green eyes weren't exactly commonplace, so she'd prepared herself for this.

 

She'd known they would stare at her.

 

She'd felt self-conscious about her looks for a long time.  Whenever she went out in public, she'd wear a hat and sunglasses, and no matter what she did, she just didn't tan.  But one day, she got tired of hiding all the things that made her different. 

 

She walked in long, confident strides toward the front doors of her new school.  She heard whispers, she felt eyes on the back of her head.  But most of all, she felt a small smile creep across her face, and she felt her eyes grow slightly wider in excitement as she reached for the handle of the double doors.

 

She had already realized by now that it wasn't so bad that people were looking at her like this.  At least she was a memorable-looking person, she thought.  But she was still uncomfortable when people looked at her. It wasn't quite the same as self-consciousness… It was more like stage fright, except there was no stage, and no actors. 

 

As she stepped inside the school, the bell rang.

 

***************************************************************** *******

 

 

Rune had registered late to enter this public school, so she was told to stop in the main office before going to class.

 

She opened the door, slightly, and peeked around the room.  She didn't see anyone inside.

 

“Anou**…” she opened the door all the way, and looked around.  Trophies and plaques lines the walls.  The room had several couches for students to sit while they waited to be helped.  From all of the awards, she guessed they had some good extra-curricular programs.  She made a mental note of it and decided she'd ask about them later.

 

Just as she was about to step inside the office, someone walked through another door across the room.

 

“Oh.  I'm sorry, I was in the back room filing some papers.”

 

The small, kindly woman walked quickly to the desk where she probably served as a receptionist.  She smiled a polite smile at Rune.  “Were you waiting long?”

 

“Uh… no.  Not at all.”  Rune smiled back at the woman.

 

“Oh, good.”  The woman got situated at the desk and moved some papers around in front of her.

 

“Now,” she said as she finished, “how can I help you?”

 

Rune smiled again.  “I'm Rune Yamagishi.  I was home-schooled until now.  I guess I registered to come to this school late, and I was told to come here first thing…”

 

“Oh, that's right.  We don't have your schedule yet, but your homeroom has been assigned.  I'll take you there, and you'll have your schedule before next period.”  The woman stood up and walked out from behind the desk.  “I'm Lisa, by the way.”  She held out her hand.

 

Rune took Lisa's hand and shook it enthusiastically. 

 

“If you'll just follow me, your first class is right around the corner.”

 

Rune followed Lisa out the door and a little ways down the hall, turned the corner, and found what would be her homeroom class for the whole year.

 

“This is it,” said Lisa.  “If you have any questions, feel free to stop by the office.” 

 

With that, Lisa left.

 

Rune watched her walk away, then turned to the door and reached for the doorknob.

 

Even though she was technically a freshman**, she would be taking junior classes this year because she was a year ahead in homeschooling.

 

She walked into the classroom and found that class hadn't even started yet.  The teacher walked over to greet her.

 

“Are you Rune?”

“Yeah, sorry I'm late.”

“Oh, it's all right.  I just found out yesterday that you'd be in my class.  I'm Wakanabe Haya.  Sit anywhere you like.  There's no seating chart and there are plenty of open seats.”

 

Rune turned to see the other students either staring straight at her or watching her out of the corners of their eyes.  As if I'm not going to notice, she thought.

 

She took a deep breath, and bowed a polite bow.

 

“Hey, everyone.” She stood up straight and looked around the room for an empty seat.  There were several.

 

“Hey, sit here!” a girl with bright red hair called from across the room.

 

Rune looked over at her and smiled, and walked to the empty desk near the red-head.

 

“Hey,” said the girl, “I love your hair!”

 

Rune blushed a little and pulled a strand of her white hair down in front of her face.

 

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said the redhead.  She shifted in her seat to completely face Rune.  “I'm Adel,” she said.  “You're Rune, right?”

“Mmhm.  This is my first year in public school… I'm a little nervous.”

“I can tell,” laughed Adel.  “Alright then.  Just stick with me.  I'll show you around and help you out until you get used to this place.”  She leaned in toward Rune.  “And don't worry; Wakanabe-sensei is a real pushover, so don't stress about getting along with her.  Really, this is the best homeroom you could have gotten into.”

 

Rune looked around the room at all the kids. Some were playing with their Gameboys, others were talking about friends and the new school year.  Gosh it was loud in that room.  “Huh,” she said, “I guess she doesn't really care too much what we do in here.”

 

“Yeah, this class is really just supposed to be for studying first thing in the morning before tests and stuff.   But Wakanabe-sensei says that it's up to us to study or not.  And if we fail, then `she told us so.'”  Adel smiled a big smile, “I study.”

Rune laughed.  “Well, that's good.  But we don't really have anything to study for today, do we?”

“Nope.  It's only the first day of school, after all.”

“So what should we do, then?”

“Well, tell me about yourself.  Did you bleach your hair yourself?”

“Uhhh…”

“Don't tell me it's natural?”

“Actually… it… is.”

“Wow… that's really interesting… it's so light… it's white!”

“Yeah… I used to get really self-conscious about it, but my guardians wouldn't let me dye it a different color…”

“Well, that's good!  It's cool!  And it sets you apart from other people.  That's not a bad thing.”

Rune smiled a small smile. 

“You shouldn't care what other people think, Rune.”

“It's not that I care what other people think anymore… I just get uncomfortable when people stare at me.”

“Y'know, I get a lot of attention because of my crazy red hair.  It's natural, believe it or not.”

“I believe it.” Rune looked at Adel's curly bright red hair.  It did look unnatural, but then again, so did her white hair.  She wasn't one to criticize.

“So yeah, people will look at you, but that's just because people think it's interesting.  Crazy hair colors like ours are just fun to look at, y'know?  And if they think we dye or bleach our hair, they probably think of us as crazy and fun.”

“Hmm.  First impressions based on hair color?” Rune laughed again.

“Hey, why not?  People judge others on more ridiculous things.  Like cars or clothes.”

 

Adel was pretty cool.  She had a lot to say to Rune, even though they'd just met, and Rune answered her questions and asked questions in turn. They learned a lot about each other in that class period. 

 

Adel's family was very well-off.  In fact, her name meant “wealth.”  Her parents were wealthy owners of a company, and were out of town a lot of the time.  But she had a maid named Keara who looked after the house and would go shopping with her and hang out when Adel was lonely.

 

Rune told Adel about her guardians and her memory-loss.  And about her homeschooling and how she was a grade ahead of other students her age.

 

“So you don't remember anything from before you were ten?”

“No…”

“That sucks…”

“But I don't remember it, so I don't really know what I'm missing… It's weird, but I really prefer to just live in the present instead of thinking about what my life was like before.”

 

Just then, Lisa entered the room with Rune's class schedule.

 

The bell rang.

 

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~ ~*

 

 

After school, Rune and Adel decided to go out to an arcade not far from the school. 

 

“Hang on, let me call Azumi and Tadashi and tell them I won't be home till later.”

 

She dialed the number. 

 

“We're sorry.  The number you have dialedis not in service. Please checkthe numberanddialagain.”

 

She redialed the number and double-checked to make sure it was right.

 

“We're sorry.  The number you have dialed is not in service.  Please check the number and dial again.”

 

“…"

 

 

“What's up?” asked Adel, when she saw a worried expression beginning to creep across Rune's face.

“I know this is the right number, but it says it's not in service.” Rune snapped her phone closed.

“It's probably no big deal,” said Adel reassuringly. “Technology can be finicky, sometimes.”

“Yeah, but…”

“How about I go with you to your house, and we can chill there instead of the arcade.”

“O…okay.”

 

Again, the gut feeling was back, and stronger than ever. In all likelihood, Adel was right. If it weren't for her intuition, Rune wouldn't be worried over something like a disconnected phone. But that growing sickening sensation nagging at the back of her mind and manifesting in the pit of her stomach was enough for her to realize that something was wrong. Her intuition was usually right.

 

She wished it wasn't.

 

*~*~*

 

When they near Rune's home, Adel spoke up. “I don't get it,” she said.

 

Rune looked around, confused, and realized that she should have listened to her stupid little gut feeling sooner. She was standing exactly where her house should have been… but there was nothing there. There was no house. No cars. Not even a cement foundation. Rune walked slowly around the lot where her house should have been. She stopped when she was standing in the spot where she was sure the couch in her living room had once been. “My house should be RIGHT HERE!” She stamped her foot in exasperation.

 

All of a sudden, it was as if she had been suddenly been hit in the face by the reality of what was happening. “Azumi-san!!?? Tadashi-san!!??” She turned in a circle, looking to see if there was anyone else nearby to hear her, hopefully her guardians.

 

No reply. No one was there with them.

 

Not only was her house gone, but the only family she knew had disappeared with it.

 

As she and Adel stood there in the open field, she felt tears begin to trickle down her face.

 

“What the heck is going on?!” she yelled up at the sky.

 

Adel walked toward Rune, not knowing exactly what was going on. “Are you sure this is where your house was? It looks like no one has ever lived here. I'm surprised that the bus would even come out here to pick you up…”

“Yeah, I know this is it. I've lived here for five years! I know where my house is! …Or at least, should be…”

 

The sun wasn't setting yet, but it was getting awfully close. The sky was beginning to wrap itself up in oranges and pinks. The blue of the sky was slowly fading into black.

 

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~ ~~~~~~*

 

 

End Note and Other Such Things~ ~ ~
I know that it's going kinda slow now, but the next chapter is much more exciting!  Hurrayyyy! I tried to make Rune, the main character, not too feminine and girly.  That girl's a little weird, huh?  Yes.  Yes, she is.
I'm proud of my characters for this story.  I spent forever coming up with names and backgrounds for them.  I'm especially happy with the names I chose for everyone.  I didn't simply pull the names out of a hat.  I chose these names for a reason and after each chapter I will post name meanings and Japanese vocabulary sections for those who don't know about all that stuff.


/~/Name Meanings/~/
Rune- “Secret” 
Azumi- “Protected Residence”
Tadashi- “Loyal; Righteous”

Adel- “Wealthy”

/~/Vocab/~/
Hai- Yes (formal)
*Okaasan- Mother (formal)
*~chan- a suffix used after the name of a person younger than yourself (also a cuter form of -san that younger children use to refer to friends)
*~san- an honorific used to convey respect

*Anou...- Umm…

*freshman- Japanese school system (6 yrs. elementary, 3 yrs. middle school, 3 yrs. high school)
*Sensei- teacher, instructor, or doctor