'Fresh blood drips from my nose'

She hits it hard. The backspace key rapidly move as Yooa practically jabs it with her finger. She stares at her laptop overly bright screen in silence as the clock ticks every second in the background.

Any sane person would want to go to sleep when they're stressed out, any sane person would turn on the lights and do their work with a clean environment.

But to Yooa, that's exactly a phsycopath move.

Who can be stressed out, and go to sleep right away without overthinking more? Who can do their work when everything just seems bright and happy in your room? Who can even BE happy, after failing to excel your law trials for the TENTH time?

Yooa stops to rub her eyes. She then came to realize how stupid it is to even came up with an idea to write novels at 3 AM. An activity once could calm her down, is now stressing her out.

Before she could comprehend on what to do, her door flies open.

"What the-?!" she fumbles on her chair and it creaks before the handle snapped and made her fall dramatically on the ground. Head first.

Everything just went into a blur for a few seconds, before she saw the devil at the door. It's Eugeneia. Yooa's roomate.

"Why are you on the ground? Pilates on a chair?" she said not realizing her presence caused this.

"My door could literally break at any point now--could you just-knock once?" Yooa examines her chair which is totally miserable at this point and beyond helping, then scowls at Eugeneia. "Great."

"I mean.. at least you can have a better chair now. That's old junk anyway." Eugeneia shares light. "And lead my budget hanging by a thread? Nope."

Eugeneia winces and finally realized what she's done, so she carefully make her way to comfort her. She reaches to her and massages Yooa's shoulders. Yooa just shakes her head and let it.

"Wanna talk-"

"No. I'm fine. I just-" Yooa sighs. "I just need time to heal. And I'll be my happy go lucky self again."

The both of them shared a moment of silence for a long while. Then as time passes they settle into several comfortable talks.

"Wait-why are you here again?" Yooa asked.

"Oh." Eugeneia sits on the floor comfortably ,legs crossed. "So I went to poop awhile ago. "

A strange start. Yooa was intrigued.

"I didn't think much of it so I just barge in the women bathroom because nature was calling me so freaking hard. I got into a stall, and sat down. So as I was sitting-" Eugeneia crouches and mimics a sitting position. She points to her bottom. "I release the entire thing without holding back. It felt like I gained an ab and might've lose 3 kilos of weight." Eugenia even mimics the way she did it. Yooa was unfazed because she was used to her weirdness. Thats what happened when you live together for 2 years.

"But as I get up-" she stands, "I was like 'Oh whats this?" because the thing that was used to close the toilet hole was sticking to my butt." Yooa raised an eyebrow. "It's exactly what you think. I didn't open the thing and-- just shit myself. And the worst part is that shit was holding onto my butt incredibly strong for god knows how, so when I forcibly stands it was already broken and sliding off the ground, and guess what? It landed right on the next stall's person's foot. Like..how the hell can that even happened? Is this like..a normal embarassing story to you like--how can my shit stick the thing to-u know--that strong?"

"No!" Yooa closes her mouth in disbelief. Eugenia regretfully nod her head indicating yes.

Yooa slowly, quirk up a smile, and eventually laughed. As much as she hates how fast and quick Eugeneia's story could light up her mood, she cant help but feel relieved that she came in in the first place. Eugeneia follows right after.

"Tell me you didn't try to take it back and stay quiet till the person next to you left." Yooa teases. Eugeneia shrugs and gave a knowing look with a grin. "The rest is history I guess." she said and just like that they moved on from it.

"Anyway why are you glooming in the dark. It's almost new year which also means break time. Foodtime. Happy hours time. You name it."

Yooa ponders. It's almost 'breaktime', is the term used by all colleagues in her school to indicate that they can finally get 8 hours of sleep. Which rarely happens if anyone were to take the path of going to law school. Excelling trials to become a lawyer feels nearly impossible as years passed. So Yooa came to a conclusion way back that in order to survive law school mentally, one must be fearless, optimistic, and basically experienced in time management. Yooa is all that but one. Time management is basically a 'who is she' to Yooa. She's incredibly bad at managing time and the worst at being ON time. Which is one of the reason why shes grateful to have a friend who exactly knows how to deal with that. Although Eugeneia is much more worst than her in trials, she's the best when it comes to being on time. That's one thing that Yooa envied about her and also the fact that she doesnt worry too much about her results. For Yooa, succeeding is the best for her family.

Almost everyone will be going back to their hometown when its breaktime. Yooa havent gone home for nearly 3 years now. It's all because excelling, is the only thing she could think everyday. For the whole year, for the whole time. Still, things dont go the way she wants them to be.

"I dont know. I haven't thought about breaktime for awhile." Yooa said.

She reaches over her desk and took her laptop and place it on her lap. "I cant waste time. Next year is our last semester, and I haven't even read half of the legal cases, let alone memorize them." She starts opening documents shared by law professors and presses to enlarge screen and starts to go through it.

"Okay. No. Stop that." Eugeneia who has been watching her with concern closes the laptop without a warning and the room goes dark without a single light source. "You're draining yourself. This is basically suicide."

Yooa forced the laptop to open "Eugene-" but Eugeneia puts force to it.

Yooa smiles weakly to show she's fine even though she knows Eugeneia cant see it. "It's okay , I'll take a rest right after I'm finished. You dont have to worry."

Silence. For a few seconds. Before Eugeneia lets go and Yooa opens the laptop lid back up.

"Why are you like this. Even Ennard that flying colours guy is sleeping right now! I mean.. well look at me! I nearly failed but Im happy. "

Yooa smiles. "Sucks to be an over thinker like me I guess."

Eugeneia scowls. "You're smiling? Your eyes look dead inside and your body feels extremely hot and you're smiling?"

Yooa looks at Eugeneia and begins to touch her arm and face. "I'm not feeling hot though." Eugeneia cringes and she gets even more concerned.

"You dont even realize you're sick."

"I'm not sick."

As if it was summoned, Yooa nose starts to feel itchy. And then she made a mistake to rub it which causes her to sneeze all over Eugeneia who darts the attack like a ninja.

"Aish! You sprayed it all over me! You know what?" she takes the laptop and hit the off button. Yooa scrambles to take it back but was too late. "I was reading through that!"

Eugeneia held the laptop on her side and her other hand rests on her hip. She looks at Yooa straight in the eye. "Answer me, and if you get them right. I'll trust you to destroy yourself more with this."

"What the hell Eugene?"

Ignoring Yooa's rage, Eugeneia ask away "What date was our recent trial?" The date clicks to Yooa immediately and she joins in. "20th October" she reaches over the laptop but Eugeneia darts it back.

"What day is our next trial?"

Yooa sighed in defeat, "Next month, 12th January. "

She proceeds to ask several more important questions to which Yooa got all of them right.

"Okay can I have that back now. This is ridiculous."

Eugeneia held up a finger indicating one more. Yooa slouches.

"What's happening tomorrow? "

Yooa was about to answer but stops herself. She tries to recall all the important events that possibly could be happening tomorrow. But nothing came up.

"Uh, Professor Kingsfield visit?"

Eugeneia's eyes soften so Yooa was thinking she got it right, and she smiles proudly.

"No." Eugeneia shakes her head wearily.

So Yooa proceeds to try again. "A ceremony? Graduation for the seniors? New skills to learn? Bake sales? Winter decoration in the main hall? Oh uhm, Ennard's special teaching day!"

"It's your birthday Yooa. " Eugeneia says out of frustration.

Like been hit by a bullet, Yooa go still.

"It's your brithday, and you forgot about it."

Just like that, Yooa dropped her smile.

Birthdays are a special time of year.

They remind us that we’re growing older, but they also symbolize how far we’ve come. They’re a cause for celebration and a great excuse to show someone how much you appreciate them. When we celebrate someone’s birthday we’re not only celebrating the length of their life, but we celebrate how much they’ve grown in the past year. It's a day to feel special, to have fun, and a day one should live to never forget.

Out of all fun things Yooa could forget, never could she ever predicted that it would be her own born day. Yooa was always the type to drop hints about presents that she wants and even keeping people in tabs about her upcoming celebration. 28th november has always been the day that she would wait. Because the whole day, as it has always been, she would plan family trips, family picnics, movie time, baking together, strolling around town, all kinds of things and lastly of course, exchanging gifts. It sounds simple and rather decent, but to Yooa, who rarely got time to spend almost everyday with her family due to part time jobs after school, it was enough.Though it's pretty hard for her to do it for the last 3 years because of their distance , she still manages to do an alternate family time plan virtually through her phone.

It's morning, and Yooa is blankly staring at her cappuccino at the Yous And Mes cafe. She swiggles the spoon around , and took a sip. Yooa has been sitting there for nearly 50 minutes and she haven't even touched her mug. Eventually, minutes turns to hours and Yooa left with her drink half finished and a tip for the waiter, as an apology.

People stop by and wishes her on her birthday constantly to which Yooa replied jovialy, or, tried to, with a thank you. She's known to be the optimistic girl, the happy go lucky chick, and she's trying her best to keep it that way. So its a game of when someone passes by, smile.

Her stomach churns ever since this morning, and Yooa is starting to believe that she got food poisoning from awhile ago. It's been happening for a few days. Yooa hasn't eaten that much for weeks now. So naturally she accepts that that's the reason.

Yooa walks down the main hall, to get to her class which was about to start in 5 minutes. She scurries over her bag to make sure everything is there while walking in a fast pace and when all is checked she races down the hall.

The students seem to all have gathered at the hall and a seat next to Ennard is empty. Like always.

There are other empty seats but something about seeing Ennard, makes Yooa think about the possibility of them becoming work buddies and he might help her excel. So she jogs towards him and took the seat.

"Hi Ennard!" Yooa greets while fixing her hair.

"What do you want browny." Ennard said as he focus on his book without looking up. Yooa clenched her teeth and calms herself down. She steadies herself and breathe before continuing. For some reason she felt more angry than usual these days.

"Aw common! We could get along. Differences doesn't matter they say amirite? HAHA." Yooa nudge him twice on the arm and he ignores her.

Seeing that she's failing, Yooa tried other ways. Compliments.

"You're like literally the best student our school could have at this moment. So I choose wisely when it comes to finding teachers and Im good at it. So here I am! sitting next to the braniac."

He closes the book with a sigh and turns his head at her.

"Yeah, because you don't have any."

Yooa jaw practically dropped to the ground and her arm naturally swings up, in a defensive mode. Ennard flinches like he tries to dodge but recovered and coughs when nothing happened.

Controlling all her inner rage and holding back to swing a jab on Ennard large forehead, Yooa said with gritted teeth, "What the hell is your problem with me huh? How come I'm always treated worst than anyone else here! "

Ennard looks at her like he finally got the chance to say something he's been keeping for a long time. And its about to go out. He comes closer in a flash.

"I have my reasons to treat others like this and for the question of why you're WORST is because of the fact that you tell almost everyone here that I read porn more than I read law books! Now everyone makes fun of me because of you." He points at her accusingly with heated eyes.

Yooa scoffs, "For the record I was not the one who spread those rumours, it was my roomate. And FYI I dont care! AND FYI if your brain is bombarded with all your lewd fantasies and now it couldn't fit a single thing inside , YOU were the one who talks shit about my family with others first just because I said your essay was DECENT."

"I did not do that!" He defended. Ennard's ego has always been the one trait that blocks him from ever getting a friend that actually liked him and not only for his intelligence. Which also explains the empty seats next to him all the time.

"You. Did. " Yooa said with gritted teeth.

Then her stomach churns, and Yooa yelps. She places her palm on her stomach instantly as it gets worse. Combining all the symptoms she's having this day, she finally came to a conclusion that its that time of the month.

The lecturer got in as time hits 12:30. Without wasting time, Yooa reaches over her bag and snatch up a tampon. The wrappers scrunch and Yooa got up--but Ennard called out.

"Seriously? Candy? You're going out to eat candy?" He made a pfft sound and shakes his head. Yooa eye him in disbelief. She ignores him and starts to move.

"If you're going to do so.. might as well share it with others. Do it, or I'll just call you out." He snickers like he won the little argument they both had just now.

Yooa who has been standing, and is now losing patience, cracks her head side to side, and turns around. She glares at him and hold eye contact, she raise the tampon and shove it to his face. Ennard staggers backwards.

"Wanna share?"

Audience who has been hearing their arguments at the back let out a small approval as Yooa pins Ennard down with two simple words.

Ennard looks at the tampon in horror, as Yooa walks out from the room feeling better than ever.

In the evening, Eugeneia invited several of her friends to the birthday party she planned for Yooa at their place. Several always mean 'a lot' when it comes to Eugeneia. Their small apartment was packed with students and every corner lies a person who is at least drunk or a group of them just chatting about classes. The birthday cake were wiped out as soon as its dinner time. Not a single left for the hostess and the birthday girl. Everyone is having the time of their life and basically sweeping off the floor. Since practically everything that is important for a birthday celebration has been done, Yooa spends her time in her room, with the loud music and cheering in the background, while having a virtual face time with her brother.

Yooa's parents are asleep and only Gogon, her brother stays up late at a time like this.

"How's life." Gogon asked, and Yooa shrugs.

"Meh."

"Same here then." He sips on his milk while sitting on his bed with crossed legs, looking like an adult. Which he is aware of doing. Gogon tends to act like an adult, even calling people his age 'kids' because he likes to feel old. And having a 13 year old do that is dramatic to Yooa.

"I like you with brown hair. Suits you a lot." Gogon said in a monotone voice.

"Really?"

"No" He answers. Yooa rolls her eyes but deep down she knows he meant it. The kid is just not the type to express feelings, she thought.

"Do I need to ask about your grades?"

He shakes his head as he sips on his milk. To Yooa that's a ridiculous question. Gogon has always been a child prodigy, and he always scores even though Yooa would witness him slacking off at the living room watching Net Geo.

"Sorry I couldn't facetime with you this past few days. I participated in a science competition. Teacher said extra points goes to the one who sends their invention early. So I did what I had to do. I'd rather it was a solo project. My partners were slacking off anyway. They even got credits for my work. Cih! Kids these days."

Yooa sighs with a smile "You're a kid too dumb dumb."

Gogon gave Yooa a stoned face and shakes his head.

"I'd like to think I'm capable of a higher knowledge than kids my age. Therefore, I'm not one of them."

Yooa laughs at her little brother's demeanor. She has always find him annoyingly adorable. But most times, annoying of course.

"That's not the only reason though."

"Sokay, you don't have to tell me."

"No." He places his mug on his desk. "Mom is incredibly sick."

Yooa who has been resting her head on her palm sits up. "What." Her voice sounded strained.

"Her body feels very hot everytime I tend to her. It's hard for her to walk since she complained that her legs just wont move. She vomits a lot too."

"Gon listen, have you tried taking her to a clinic at least?" Yooa desperately plead.

"Yooa." Gon called. Yooa's face a few millimeters away from her phone.

"She hears voices at night."

"Cerullia."

The sky is a blue-grey brindle with the softest accents of white. Houses made with bamboos as their roof looked the more stunning as ray of sun blindly adds more beauty to it. The texture of it popped off shiny as it can be. The sound of Waterfall coming all the way from Blue Creek road echoes through the Palace. The blue crystal lake that naturally flows from 'Ellecrest' forest all the way down Blue Creek and spreads across and below the Palace is a sight still pure and fresh to his Majesty's sight. Cerullia, shines all the more in Lucien's eyes.

"Your Majesty." Yael called from behind. A short and slighty chubby woman with long dark hair approaches. Lucien turns around and Yael bows. "A cup of tea brewed from the fresh Nymphs Pom trees. Your favourite your majesty."

"Ah. Thank you, Yael. A wonderful gift to greet a wonderful day." Yael handed the tea to Lucien carefully and just like that, he continues his observation. "I came all the way to the top to watch such grace upon my eyes." Lucien gestures over the sights of his kingdom.

"It is indeed beautiful, your majesty." Yael joins in but kept her distance.

Feeling elated , Lucien hums as he eyes the sky up above. The day is brighter and joyful than usual. Lucien ponders and wonders if the angels are all having the time of their life up there. Did God announced something? Is he in trouble?

Just like that, everything is suspicious again. Lucien sips on his tea and sighs. "Never a dull day for me." He shakes his head and groans trying to relieve tension.

"Are you alright? Do you need me to make you herbal tea?" Yael said as she is already at the door. Lucien shakes his head and gestures her it's alright. There's never a day where Lucien could possibly have the thought to rest. Instead, there's always going to be days filled with 'What shall I say in this meeting' or 'who is planning to plot treason againts me' and like recently, 'what are the angels up to"." Because the angels are the most likely to plan something beyond safe, againts him. But Lucien knows, as long as Cerullia is safe, they wont barge in.

Lucien looks over to Yael and smiles. "You're different, Yael. I enjoy your company ." To which Yael blushes and simply bows "Thank you, your majesty."

"Will today be a busy day? Do I have any letters?"

Yael reaches under layers of her robe and took out one letter. It's pink and it smells of rose and in the middle of it is a heart made with flower petals. Lucien looks at it with disinterest. Yael gave him a knowing look and is trying to hide a smile.

"So far, none planned your majesty. But there's one letter for you to read." Lucien nods wearily and takes it. He opens the letter--only to have dust of pink and yellow burst out from it! Lucien closes his eyes, small shining particles all over his face, and stood there still for a few seconds. He spits some of them out of his mouth.

The letters from the paper starts to float and it hovers over its surface. A voice that sounded little and jovial speaks. It follows exactly what was written on the letter.

"Your Majesty,

Words are limited to describe you whole.

For you are so much more than just, words. Your eyes, they're as red as the fire burning inside me whenever I see you. Your hair long and dark defeats the purpose of its original colour, for the beauty of colours serves the purpose to lead us into a bright and colourful life, but yours brings also the joy of wonders and satisfaction towards all creatures. Your body sculpted into perfection. Your jaw sharp and shaped into a perfect line accompanied by your plump lips kissable for--"

BAK.

Lucien closes it. The voice cuts off. "I am more scared than honored to receive such.. such compliments. To the store this goes." he handed it to Yael.

"Why is my people, so brave and confident upon sending me these kinds of letters. The store might be overloaded with them and defeats the purpose of its original use to store confidentials." Lucien said to himself. He sighs in defeat. At least he knows, that they adore him and appreciate his work as King. At least most females do.

Night falls and Lucien's childhoodfriend, Weller who is a Sea serpent had just invited him to a diner located right down a bridge hosted by a famous chef Centaur who runs by the name of Gullivan. As they both expected, the place is crowded with creatures. Area beneath the bridge is a good idea to run a diner for it has a lakeview on the side of it, but if one were to be famous, its going to be packed. Lucien had to squeeze into the crowd and made sure not to hit on any of the Centaurs bottom. These half human and half horse creatures are invading quite the space. So they both had to take a seat right below the bridge, which doesn't promise any view. They take their orders and settle in with the crowd.

"You know, I've been meaning to say this. You look incredibly ridiculous wearing a Sea Serpent robe." Weller snickers. He combs his blue middle cut hair and proceeds to laugh. Lucien is wearing Weller's robe to hide his identity from the others. He thought that a King should not be seen going around town having fun when there's a Kingdom to tend to.

"Do I? I thought I looked great on it." Lucien defends. Weller raised an eyebrow at him. "Your majesty, your shoulders are too wide for sea serpents robe. It makes your body looks ten times bigger than your head. Which is ridiculous if you were to ask me. Our shoulders are naturally lean and less wider than your types."

"My types could wear anything and still look overly dashing." He said with a slight tone raise. "Aw golly! You already looked like a perfect sculpted man, people compliment your looks everyday. I tease you a bit and now you're mad?" Weller teases.

"I'm not mad. I just dont like the feeling of being outside. I'm supposed to be a 'King' remember." Lucien looks left and right to catch prying eyes or ears. "Why are you even planning all of this, your shedding season is about to come not any longer."

Weller smiles and looks down. "It takes nearly 3 months for me to fully shed. It gets lonely during those times, you cant always move and it needs muscle control and its incredibly boring." Weller points at Lucien "That's why you need to spend time with me more than ever, Your majesty. Or I'll die of boredom."

Shedding is a part of process for Sea Serpents to undergo as they progress in life. The older the owner of the body ages, the bigger the Sea Serpents are going to grow. Skin does not grow so hence the shedding. Roomier skin layer is generated, and the old layer is discarded. Secondly, shedding, or sloughing of the skin, removes scars and wounded parts of a Sea Serpents body.

"Then that I do." Lucien agrees. Not long after, their dishes came and both of them started to dine.

"Ah." Lucien places his wooden spoon on the plate. "How's your father doing after retiring?"

Weller slurps on his Rose Water pudding before answering. "Oh that lad is doing great. For more details he looks happier than when he was our leader."

Lucien smiles, relieved that the leader of All sea serpents is doing fine. "Well, retiring sure does the job." He observes Weller for awhile who is now munching and slurping over all the food without withdrawing. His face is covered with pink stains and petals.

"And.. you're the new leader now I suppose." He said, trying his best not to sound dissapointed.

Weller nods clumsily and Lucien scoffs.

"Right."

The both of them finished their meals and decided to stroll down along the street of Blue Creek before parting ways. He makes sure to give Weller his robe back before turning back towards the palace.

Lucien looks up towards his palace. He sighs as he thinks back to the promise he promised himself. "Dont use powers unless its important." he mumbles to himself. He looks up again. And then pouts.

"But I do not want to use stairs." he groans. After seconds, minutes, Lucien gave up and took a few step back. "Just this time." He crouches, run a few steps and launch himself to the air. There was a rush of wind, that feathery sound you hear when a flock of doves rush above your head. Wings sprouted from his back like branches from a tree. Delicate yet powerful, each detail was distinctly marked, each feather as black as ink. They spread wide and rose above his head, the tips sharply defined, something from a fairytale.

As he was near to the window of the royal bedroom, Lucien hovers in the air with his wings supporting him. Then he dives towards it with a spin, got into the room in milli seconds and landed on the red carpet. His wings dissolves into his body.

Lucien felt a rush of adrenaline once using his powers again since it has been a while. He stretches his back before he took out a red dark robe from his wardrobe and wears it. The clothes worn this morning and during the night, he folded properly and places it on the night desk to be picked up by Yale early in the morning.

But surprise, suprise, Yale is standing right on the doorway at the moment. Her presence so faint Lucien didn't notice her arrival.

"Yale. Is there a problem?" Lucien is standing beside the royal bed, ready to sleep.

Her eyebrows, they're scrunched so hard they almost meet. Lucien slowly strides away from the bed and approach her.

"Yale.. Is there a problem." He repeats.

Yale slightly nod, she reaches under her robe and pulled out a white letter.

"It's a letter from Aurora, Your Majesty."

"Aurora?"

A letter from Aurora is always a letter important or rather urgent to anyone. Aurora foretells the future. She has the ability to see what will come ahead. A lot of creatures came to her to find out about their fate, and some even fall into depression once knowing their own deaths. And the only words she can say, was that it was fated, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Fate is what God gave to all creatures he has created. For no one, can defeat the original purpose of God's plan.

But a letter from the Queen of all fairy Nymphs , is also a rare occurence. For she only sends letters with two cause. A great cause, to congratulate someone for a big upcoming positive change in their life. And a bad cause, for deaths, threats and future attacks.

But then again, they come in yellow and black coloured letters.

"A white letter?"

He took the letter from Yael, and starts going through it.

The words starts to hover over the letter and a soft spoken voice of a woman almost like a whisper speaks. Though it's not a whisper, it's much more similar to the voice you'd hear coming from women who are on their late age.

"Your Majesty,

be prepared for what is coming. For I see dark, black mist with unpredictable sources that I'm afraid is beyond powerful-appearing once again."