Origins Chapter 1: A Bright, Windy Day

Meanwhile, in another part of town, a blonde girl has awoken. She has amber eyes and a frilled, yellow shirt on that has lighter and lighter tints the lower it goes, and black pants. She yawns lazily, having woken up for the afternoon. Despite this, she gets up, ready for her day.

After her morning routine and wrapping her hair into a long ponytail, the girl goes to her phone within her yellow-coated, well-decorated room and dials a number for one of her friends. After a bit, the person on the other end of the phone picks up. “Hey, Aria!” The friend calls out.

“Hey, Fiamma!” Aria says to her friend. “How’s your day so far?”

“It’s going well. I’m just cooking some lunch for Dad and me,” Fiamma replies, a sizzling sound coming out of the phone to support her claim. “Trying out some new sauce for this pasta I’m making.”

“That’s good! I… just woke up!” Aria jokes.

Aria’s friend lets out a small sigh. “I’m not surprised. Our damn work’s been making us work so late, man.”

Aria leans on the nightstand next to her bed. “I mean, hey, we did pick the nightshifts for the Flying Chicken!”

“True, but we then work during the evenings all of a sudden. I blame the damn lack of workers at the place,” Fiamma groans, frustration sprinkled in her voice.

“Yeah… It’s not like we’re getting much attention these days to gain workers. That stupid taco place is out-competing us.”

“I know, right? I don’t get how their chicken tacos are so popular. It’s almost greater than their beef tacos! There must be some sort of addictive spice they put in those things.”

“Well…” Aria gets off her nightstand. “I’m gonna start my day. I don’t wanna starve now!”

“Alright, see you. It’s not easy cooking while calling at the same time, anyway.”

The blonde girl hangs up on her friend and enjoys a simple sandwich to kickstart her body. After her meal, she begins to decide on what to do today. Not in the mood to waste her day on something like television, she heads outside to figure out what to do.

Despite being out and about in the suburban, large, yellow apartments Aria lives in, she’s drawing a blank on what activities to do. Working a small job has given her the consequence of not having much in her house, nor much money to spend on the fly.  She just stands still for a moment, the only sounds to add to her thoughts being the sound of birds chirping and cars going past.

But a muse hits Aria all of a sudden, quite literally. A gentle breeze grazes her, giving her an idea. Whenever she’s bored, Aria will sometimes just follow the wind. After all, the wind had brought her to interesting places before; perhaps it will bring her to something this time.

The blonde starts to walk for a good hour or so, letting the wind guide her to some kind of destination. As she works through Ayres City, she sees the numerous buildings and houses that are near her area. Notably, as she gets closer to the heart of the metropolis, the buildings begin to transform into skyscrapers, and small businesses become large companies. At the very least, she is enjoying her walk and sightseeing.

Eventually, Aria reaches a large, glassy place in Ayres City. A large sign in front of the building gives away what it is: Stargazer Library. She can tell that the inside of the building is colored purple.

This’ll do. Aria thinks, at least expecting to find some book that will chip away at the large amount of free time she has. Inside, the library smells of old books and hints of coffee, likely from the cups of people studying.

At the desk at the front of the library, the librarian has her attention diverted to a book she is reading. A purple hoodie conceals most of her appearance, though Aria can tell she has dark, faded violet hair. Aria’s eyes can’t help but look at her curiously, considering her strange looks.

“Hi! What’s up with that get up?” Aria asks the librarian.

The librarian glances up at the blonde girl. “I’m not sure if you heard me.” Aria continues. “What’s up with your outfit?”

The librarian doesn’t respond for a little while. She eventually answers in a monotone voice. “I’m just a bit sick today.”

“Really? That’s it? You don’t sound so sick.”

“I’m healing up.” The librarian replies, before pausing again. “That's… why I’m working today.”

Unsure if she fully believes the librarian, Aria answers her with an okay before leaving her alone. She isn’t sure if pressing her will result in anything good. Instead, she focuses her energy on finding an interesting book and giving it a good read.

The book that Aria particularly finds is about a girl looking to find some spice in her life. She eventually becomes a witch after joining a magic academy to hone her skills. These magic skills were important, as an evil king was attempting to invade the kingdom where the witch lived.

Despite the book being a decent read for Aria, she eventually loses interest halfway through and puts the book back where she found it. At the very least, however, the book gave her some food for thought about her current life at the moment. Sure, she was in a pretty stable state when it came to living, but said state was quite… bland.

This thought keeps nagging at the blonde girl even when she leaves the library and goes somewhere else to spend her day. She realizes that things have been quite uninteresting for her lately, and something new has to happen to satiate her boredom. Not just some sort of fun event, but something that could potentially be life-changing.

Lost in her thoughts, Aria finds herself walking with the wind again. She soon finds herself at her other friend’s, Tierra’s, house. She giggles for a moment, wondering if it was the wind that brought her here or her subconscious that decided that instead.

Aria gives the green house’s front door a knock. Soon enough, a girl with brown hair, green eyes, and a green shirt and green skirt comes out. “Ah, hey, Aria,” Tierra greets her friend.”

“Hi, Tierra!”

“What brought you here?” The brown-haired girl asks.

Aria shrugs. “Honestly, I don’t really know. I’m just kinda bored today.”

“Heh, we all get that sometimes, huh? Having nothing to do all of a sudden.” Tierra replies with a small chuckle. “My soccer team’s been a bit inactive lately, and training’s been sparser than usual. I’ve at least been tending to my garden to pass the time.”

“That’s good, Tierra.”

Tierra looks at her friend with some curiosity. “Say, since you are here, want some dinner? I was about to cook something.”

Aria beams at the offer. “Sure, why not? I haven’t had much to eat today, so I might as well eat at your place.”

“Alright, then come on in,” Tierra tells Aria. The two enter Tierra’s home. The inside of the house is colored in shades of brown and cream, with some simple furniture and an image of a soccer team on one of the walls. Aria plops herself on the couch, which is colored similar to wood.

Aria awaits the dinner Tierra planned. Tierra eventually comes out and plops down a blue bowl of stew for her. Tierra herself has a green bowl of stew to consume herself. “Hm, this looks good,” Aria comments before she consumes the meal.

Once Aria eats the stew, she makes a happy hum at the earthy, meaty taste. “This is pretty good stuff!” Aria compliments her friend. “You’re no Fiamma, but I take it that this has some of your veggies inside?”

“Yep, some of my homegrown vegetables are in here,” Tierra confirms, eating a spoonful of the stew herself. “On top of the beef and broth, there’s some carrots, celery, onions, and the like. There’s a special ingredient in here, too.”

“Really, huh?” Aria questions, her curiosity piqued. “What is it?”

“It’s mostly just some ginger. It gives the stew a bit of a kick.”

Aria takes another bite of the stew, trying to get that sweet and spicy flavor that ginger is known to have. “Ah, that’s what I’m tasting. I knew there was something off. You’re a lot more experimental than Fiamma, you know?”

“Hey, sometimes you gotta try something new. I recently began to grow ginger, and it's actually some good stuff. I’m not sure how your coworker would feel about it being in stew, but at least I find it to be good.”

Tierra’s comment about the exotically flavored dish gives Aria an idea that begins to guide her mind. Try something new. Aria thinks.

A smile appears on Aria as she takes another sip of the stew. “You’re right. You need that now and then. I know these past few days have been nothing but grinding away at work. You know my other friend, Marina?”

“Yeah?”

“She’s been doing the same thing. It’s been nothing but work for Marina, and she hasn’t been responding much to me. I hope she isn’t stressed out or questioning her life choices.”

Tierra gives out a small chuckle. “Ah, I’m sure that even Marina has her series of hobbies. You said she fished, right? Do you have anything to eat in your free time?”

“Well…”

Aria pauses for a good moment, trying to think of what she does outside of work. “I… walk around the city and compliment people. I… erm… make jokes. And I also dance to music.”

“There’s your issue,” Tierra answers with a piece of beef in her mouth. She swallows. “What I think you need to do is make a big change or shift to some hobby to spice things up. It’s like the spice in this dish.”

“True. That’s what I need, I need to find the ginger in my life! The only issue is trying to discover it,” Aria sighs, clearly frustrated and confused.

Aria’s friend places down her fork. “Well, I can’t really help you there. Maybe you’ll find it via trial and error, maybe it’ll appear in your head one day, or, heck, it might even fly towards you out of the blue.”

The blonde giggles at the thought of a random drone dropping a box of activities in her front yard, thanks to Tierra’s last bit. “You know, knowing me, that might just happen.”

“Hope it doesn’t get kicked into your face like what happened to me last week,”

The two women share a chuckle with each other as they finish up their meals. Aria eventually leaves her friend and is now out on the road yet again. The gusts graze against Aria, signaling her next destination. Just as she talked about with Tierra, the blonde soon begins locating a new hobby using wind as a guide.

As Aria strolls on the sidewalk, she hears the loud whir of a jet engine from above. She gazes up into the sky, finding an airplane far up in the air as the source of the sound. Something she hasn’t really spoken about before is the small fascination she has about flight and flying in general. Of course, she wouldn’t be that good of a pilot due to being a bit too unattentive for the job of arming an airplane, but the thought of soaring still hasn’t left her brain.

“Hey!”

Aria pauses when she hears a husky, out-of-breath voice. Near her is a disheveled-looking, overweight man with a blue hat, cyan shirt, and blue shorts. His beard and hair are the same color as cardboard. “Hey, did you see the UFO?” The man asks Aria, now that he has her focus.

“UFO?” Aria questions the man. “I’m pretty sure I just saw an airplane flying above us.”

“I don’t mean that airplane,” The man clarifies. “There was a UFO that was flying around the city doing some surveying or some other kind of scheme! I was really trying to chase it, but it was too fast for me to keep up with!”

The blonde looks at the man, thinking he’s insane. “Well, I saw nothing like a UFO,” Aria tells the man.

The man sighs. “Of course… I swear, though, something fishy’s going on around here!”

As Aria looks at the man, she slowly begins to recognize him. “Hey, wait a second, aren’t you that Conspiracy Carl guy who popped up in my video feed on InterVision?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Carl confirms. “I post videos regarding the secrets of this world and how things aren’t always as they seem.”

“Ah. Well, I’m pretty sure there’s no aliens invading the city. We may have kitsunes, but we don’t have aliens!” Aria tries to reassure Carl.

“I swear, I saw it! You’ll have to watch my videos to see what I mean!” Carl tries to convince the blonde.

“Uh, I may check them out,” Aria lies, not believing Carl’s claim whatsoever.

“Either way, see you. Remember to not believe everything at first sight and that not everything is as it seems,” Carl tells Aria before walking away, presumably to his home.

What a weirdo. Aria thinks to herself. If aliens were invading this planet, we probably would’ve known that by now.

Despite her encounter with the strange man, Aria continues her way, still unsure about what to do for the day. She looks at the sky and takes notice of how it’s starting to change color from the sun setting. It’s a beautiful sight, but it gives Aria a realization now that day is changing to night.

Ah crap, I gotta get ready for work soon!

Aria stops focusing on the wind and instead focuses on trying to get home as fast as she can. Not only will she need to get to work, but she’ll have to dress up for the Flying Chicken and make sure she’s presentable enough, at least presentable enough for a fast food cashier.

As the wind blasts Aria again, the direction causes it to aim towards a yellow bird that has landed on a nearby tree. Aria didn’t catch the bird noticing her, but the bird had certainly noticed her. As the pudgy avian observes Arua, it notices her tall form, relatively fit and youthful-looking body, and lack of things to do despite her newfound goal to get to work on time.

As Aria disappears over the horizon, a gut feeling appears within the yellow bird. While he has barely seen Aria, there is something about her that strikes the bird’s fancy. The bird begins to think. She seems to be nice and easy fodder without much that she’ll lose. She’ll give plenty of morale and potential strength to the team, wouldn’t she?

After a bit of contemplation, the bird finally comes to a choice regarding Aria.

Yes, yes. She is the one.

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