A Call to Home (Solo) [Finished]

Her pen scratched viciously against the unsupported paper Yuko was holding against her knee. Beside the soothing sounds of the Aniwa river in Cherry Forest, Yuko sat alone, writing another letter to her dad. Her fingers were sore and her chest hurt at the pain of every word written on the limited space of paper she had. After about every four words, the pen would fail to exhale more ink, causing her to shake the pen anxiously to finish the letter. The last three words were the hardest to write without getting tears to manipulate the words that have been murderously written down.

“Dear Daddy,

I miss you so much and I’m so sorry for leaving you. I have no idea what happened, but I was traveled to another world when I took a bath that one night. The water changed colors, then before I knew it, I was in a forest with a river next to me. Actually, I’m sitting at that very river right now, right where I woke up. I still remember everything like it was yesterday. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I am safe and I’m doing great. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say “safe” because I was fighting dragons the other day. Haha, now I just sound crazy, don’t I? But I am having a lot of fun here. Even if I do want to go back home to see you again, I’m happy here. I just wish I could see you again. I love you.

- Yuko”

The letter was folded in half with both sides crammed with her words. It was a very vague letter, but going into detail would just fill up space. Her main goal was to just tell her dad that she was ok and he didn’t have to worry about her. She took a deep breath with her throat all choked up, leaving her breath to be shaken. She lowered her arm with the folded letter in her shaking hand. The water touched the corner of the letter and the little amount of water that touched it soaked about half the paper. She filled with anger to the water, but forgot about it and dropped the paper into the river.

She watched the sad note wander off into the slow river. It was moving along like a child finally grown up and ready to move out. An emptiness filled her as her goal was met. What else was there for her? People thrive for goals all the time but once they reach them, there is an emptiness. Instantly, she couldn’t help but want the note back. She wasn’t ready to let go of her goal. Her legs wobbled as she stood up. Leaving everything behind her, she ran towards the note in the river, frantically chasing it. A hopelessness mind kept her foolish. A sudden stop came upon her traveling feet while subtle tears rolled off her face. It’s no use. She thought.

Without much of a distance, she walked back to her bag and sword laying there helpless. The atmosphere made the inanimate objects look lonely. Herself being lonely, hugged the bag, then rapped it around her back. Then she took her fighting companion, and set off. Her march while she left the river was triumphant, but her soul was gloomy. “I should have taken a bath while I was back there.” she spoke to herself. But she sighed. “I just need to get away from it for now. I’ll just go find Daichi and bring him back with me so I have company.” Her eyes became blurred while she looked at the path ahead of her, but she had no reason to act against it.

Her eyes began to wander off into and in between the dark chocolate branches of the cherry blossoms. The thought of nature was more pleasing than towering cities of skyscrapers. She didn’t want to go back home, she just wanted to see her dad again. Being one with nature made herself feel free. The thought of people using the word “wild” disgusted her. There was nothing wild about this land. It looked beautiful in her eyes. It killed her to think that she would choose Masami over Earth, but it was the truth.

For a long time, her slow pace kept her trudging through the Cherry Forest, on her way to the creature village. Her body created a shadow in the trees as she grew closer to the village. Soon after, her body emerged from the trunks and she saw the joyful faces of the creatures living together in their families. She let out a weak smile towards them, then instantly went to go find Daichi.

She found a young kid who was always quite fond of Daichi. He would always ride of Daichi’s back if he got the chance, but Daichi has been stingy with his rides lately. “Excuse me! Do you know where Daichi is?” She spoke to them, with the slight hint of their accent. After half of a year, she was starting to grow their rough accent, but it was extremely faint. Her soft voice was still very present.

The young creature was startled by her presence, but without a word, he pointed a single finger in the direction of where Daichi was. He was helping drag a couple baskets from one side of the village to the other. Yuko smiled then began to sprint towards him. Daichi has always been stingy, but to watch him help out brought joy to her. “Daichi!” She shouted with her long arms waving widely, cutting the air she ran past.

Daichi quickly looked over with the pile of baskets on a wagon behind him. There was plenty room in the wagon for a human to fit in and Yuko was small so she would fit in nicely. She jumped with joy into the wagon. Daichi let out a grunt with a stern look in her direction, but couldn’t get over her innocent look on her face. ‘What do you want?”

Yuko hugged her knees then with a smile, she looked at her wiggling toes. “Well, I just wanted to take a walk with you when you were done.” She looked back up to him, hoping he was paying attention, but he kept looking forward. Her heart sank a little, but it wasn’t much of a bother. “When do you think you’ll be done?” Her face lit up with a fake smile that Daichi saw right through.

He looked back again and noticed the river smell radiating off her body and the damp stains on her boots. “Were you by the river again?” His careful eyes noticed a couple twigs underneath him, then dodged them with his clunky hooves. “You know your dad won’t get those letters.” He said to her softly. The creatures were at a safe distance from them but Daichi kept his voice low.

Yuko looked back up, disappointed in him. An anger grew in her and her voice escalated. “I came through that river some how! I can’t believe that it would be impossible for letters to travel back.” An awkward pause stunned the entire village with stares so cold. Yuko coughed, then proceeded to speak softly. “I have to believe they made it some how!.”

Daichi let out one more grunt, then stopped in his pace. His eyes stared back. “Listen, you can’t be sure that it will go back to the same place on Earth. Some random person could have found it! Or it could have just been washed away past the edge of the mountain anyway.” He continued to walk along, ignoring the last few curious stared from the creatures. “We can talk about this later when we go for a walk after I’m done.” Yuko hugged her knees again, but her chest was burning.

Yuko’s eyes began to slumber as the soothing ride in the wagon rocked her to sleep As frustrated as she was, she always got tures when she was upset Her eyes felt like the zippers of a jacket that was being playes with my a bored child Every slight bump disturbed her. For once, the road began to stable out and the wagon wasn’t rocking in desperate need for balance Her eyes were relieved to get a break as she once again fell to sleep.

She wasn’t sure how long she was out, but when the wagon came to an abrupt stop, it felt like she only got a chance to close her eyes for only a moment. The world around her was hazy and she like the blurry faces around her were unrecognizable. Her clenched fist with her weak joins viciously rubbed against her dusty eyes. An open mouth yawn rushed through her mouth as if desperate for air Her mind was slowly regaining memory as the world around became clearer.

Her thoughts where still wondering when suddenly a basket was pushed right into her. She was greatly started and she turned around quickly to see who was attacking her. Much to her surprise, it was only a creature taking out the basket in the wagon. “Sorry Yuko! Didn’t mean to run into you there” the creature smiles a large smile, then continued to work on his duties

All Yuko could do was nod. Her heart was still pounding slightly. Then an awkward late reaction stumbled out of her mouth. “I..it’s alright. You didn’t mean to.” She quickly looked up from her awkward conversation to see Daichi standing over her. “Oh hey, Daichi!” The thought of Daichi helped her regain her memory completely. She stood up quickly, but the lack of oxygen in her head caused her to be light headed She wobbled a bit while she felt her head pounding. Daichi reached out his nose and Yuko hugged it for balance.

She continued to hold his nose until the light headedness calmed down. Once she was better, she let out a “phew!” then flashed a smile to Daichi. “Are we leaving then?” She looked at him hopeful, then she noticed all the creatures unpacking the wagon She felt like a bother in the way so she jumped over the wall of the wagon and landed perfectly on her feet. She walked off the jump in a coy manner around Daichi.

He let out a short giggle then followed his eyes around her path “I wanna stay with the creatures to make sure they have nothing else for me to do.” He was finally able to speak. He looked back to the creatures, but one of them was shooing him away. “Welp! Looks like they don’t need me. We can go now!”

The walk back to Cherry Forest was quite a long walk. Without even thinking about it, Yuko jumped herself onto Daichi’s back because his legs were stronger than her own. They continues to walk past the lonely faces of the creatures. Normally, Yuko would stop by to keep them company, but Yuko had something on her mind still. She grew anxious with the walk they were on due to the silence among them. Once they would get to Cherry Forest, the bombs would start dropping.

Night was starting to fall and they finally make it to the entrance of Cherry Forest. Yuko slid off the back of Daichi and decided to talk on her own. “So, what did you want to talk about?” Daichi spoke softly, being careful of any animals over hearing their conversation.

Yuko shrugged while looking at the dark ground below her. “I just wanted to take a bath and I needed company.” she nervously swayed her shoulders to calm herself. Her arms flailed awkwardly along to the pace of her stepping. She refused to look into Daichi’s eyes.

“So you took all that time to go from here, all the way back to the village to get me, then come back here just to take a bath?!” He was growing slightly angry.

“I never feel like I waste time here. I don’t have a clock to enslave me.” She said sternly.

“A…clock?” Daichi looked up and wondered for a moment.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Silence was poured from a bucked onto the two walking. No eye contact was made between them. Instead, they both watched their feet drag on the dirt but slightly grassy ground. Suddenly Daichi broke the silence with a strong question. “Why did you write another letter to your dad?” Yuko was shocked and stared at him for a moment. Once she thought about it, she looked back to the ground.

“I just miss him. I just want him to get the letters.”

Yuko and Daichi finally reached the river and the large sun’s rays hugged the land and the trees kept the sun set dark. Yuko started to strip her clothes as each armor piece slipped off of her tired body. Emotionally and physically, she was drained. Her nimble fingers unknotted the ties that held her armor together and with each drop of armor, she felt relieved when the weight would just melt off. Considering that they were on the top of the mountain and the air was very cold up there, the river stayed very warm and was perfect for a bath.

Her nude body stepped into the river. The warmth first reached her feet, but then it escalated as she continued to sit in the river. The river was deep enough to fit her in up to her shoulders, so her head stayed safely above the water. Bugs and lizard like creatures slithered away to respect her privacy in the river. “Ok Daichi, you can look now.” She was completely emerged in the water and the sun set was too dark to let anyone or anything to see through it.

She sighed then leaned her head on the ground where it meets the river. She had used the part of the ground so much that it served as a pillow for her. The warmth of the river was growing warmer as it sensed a being in need of a relaxation. It was almost as though the water had a mind of it’s own. The water was still so no interruptions would bother her. Her heavy eyes closed and her head begged for sleep.

Daichi watched her for a moment, but then tried not to stare. He decided he could use a lay down as well. His large body thumped as it gathered onto the ground. He shuffled for a bit to get into a comfortable position. He glanced again at her, then felt relieved to her silence.

The water suddenly became hot and thick. It was soon uncomfortable to Yuko. She opened her eyes in confusion only to see the blood in the river like she saw in the tub way back when she first traveled to Masami. “Daichi!” She screamed in attempts to wake Daichi up. “Dachi!” She repeated. Her heart was pounding and her thoughts were moving so fast, they felt like the credits to the end of a movie. She felt awkward in the river, unable to move in fear of being sucked back in to Earth. “I’m not ready to leave!”

Daichi quickly got up, but he only got so far to stand over the edge of the water. He saw it too, she wasn’t going crazy. “Yuko!” he gasped through his voice. “What’s going on?” He was anxious, but he felt he couldn’t do anything to help. He paced a few steps back and forth, then shook his head, but the blood was still there. “Did you hurt yourself?” he yelled in a panic. “Did something bite you?” he couldn’t stop asking questions.

Yuko interrupted his bother. “No!” the blood illuminated a shine of pink. “No! No! NO!” she started crying. “This is exactly what happened when I came here.” She shrugged her shoulders with a frustrated look on her face. She felt like she couldn’t get out of the river. Something was grabbing onto her ankles, feet, arms, body. “Daichi! I don’t want to leave yet!” The river was now completely pink. It was shining an overwhelming light on them and the rest of the forest.

As she continued to struggle. The pink light began to settle. It became like a window instantly. “What?” She looked closer to the water. She saw her note floating in a jelly water. She wanted to grab it, but the paper looked nothing more than a picture. She just watched the paper dangle there in the aqua green jelly. “Where’s it going?” Daichi then was distracted by the note as well.

A very blurry image of a man appeared in the picture. “Da--” She was stunned for a moment. The face became more clear to her. “Daddy?!” He was in the bath, trying to relax as well. “Daddy!” Yuko wasn’t sure if he could hear her, but to see his maturing face filled her with joy. She couldn’t help but smile through her tears. Her tears hurt so much to her, but she smiled through them. She had no pictures of him on her, only in her memories. But her memories had been slipping lately. Imaging her dad or her friend’s faces were hard.

Her dad looked down in the tub to see a note appear in the water. “Uh?” He picked it up, and it wasn’t wet. Even his wet fingers wouldn’t dampen the paper. He carefully unfolded the paper in confusion. Tears rolled down as he noticed Yuko’s hand writing. Not only was it just her hand writing, but her vicious hand writing. Whenever she needed to get her feelings out to him, she would write it down, then give it to him. She knew this hand writing. The tears rolled down before he even got a chance to read any of it.

Quotes from the letter echoed through his brain, trying to remember her voice, but he couldn’t quite get it right. He kept failing, but he was anxious to read the rest of the letter. Every word didn’t make sense. Nothing was real. He still had to reread it, but non of it was forming together. “Dragons” and “Another world” was the most shocking thing to him. But he trusted Yuko, and believed her. For whatever reason, he believed in her.

As each word on the letter began to make sense to him, the tears had finally hit it’s climax. The tears rolled off his cheek, off his neck, then into the shallow water of the bath tub. The salty water of his tears seeped into the tub slowly, without even the sound of the drop as it hit. When the tears had made it through, a white light has shined in the water. The shine was quick. After the white had gone, he heard the words “Daddy!”. He looked down as fast as he could and he saw Yuko’s face in the water.

“Daddy! Can you hear me?” Yuko yelled.

“Yes, Yuko! I can!” He couldn’t stop laughing, crying, and yelling for joy. “Yuko! How have you been?”

Yuko choked up, then covered her mouth with her hands before she spoke. “I’ve been doing well! Daichi has been taking care of me!” Daichi looked over her and into the river to see the beautifully sculptured face of her dad. He looked nothing like her though. He looked at Yuko confused, but decided not to bother at all asking about it till after the conversation between the two lost family members were over.

Her dad noticed the ferocious beast behind Yuko’s head, but didn’t show a reaction. Everything in the letter, she believed. She never mentioned Daichi, but if she mentioned dragons, what wouldn’t make him believe in Daichi. Without noticing, he then ignored the presence of Daichi and continued on the precious conversation that may never happen again. “Yuko, there was a big new report about you, and a few other people who have gone missing with no traces of there existences. Where did you all go?”

“We’re here on Mount Masami.” She giggled, then continued on. “It’s this giant mountain that floats in the air.” her arms waved around as she spoke with excitement. “There are a group of people here and they are all very nice in their own way.” She got excited again. “Oh, and Daddy! There are tons of animals and creatures that never existed on Earth! Magic exists! And I have a sword!” She reached behind her to show off her short sword with blood stain on the edge of the blade.

He was concerned for a moment, but Yuko let out an awkward giggle and rinsed it in the water then showed it for a moment for him. “Sorry about that! Like I said, I fought dragons the other day, I might have fought something else too.” She was ashamed and a little embarrassed for a moment. “Sorry, this is just really awkward to talk about this stuff to you.”

He shook his head in disagreement then smiled to her beautiful crying face. “No! It’s not awkward. It’s exciting. I’m so happy you’re living the dream every man wants to live. Earth is so boring.” He laughed then just stared at the precious image of her for a long time. She stared back then they both shed the same tears.

“Daddy, I miss you so much.” She felt selfish then tried to reach out for her dad for a hug. The image became blurry as her shaking fingers rippled at the delicate water. She pulled her fingers away quickly in fear of this moment to be gone already. The image was still fading.

“I miss you too Yuko. I love you.” His image was gone.

Yuko was crying again, but it was a mixture of emptiness and joy. To be able to see her dad again and to have a conversation with him was more than enough for her. But she felt like she was the cause for his image to be gone once more due to her selfishness. She wept in the river and hugged her knees to hide her shameful face. “Why’d I have to reach for him.” As she slapped the water, she angrily yelled out “It’s only water!”

Daichi looked at her for a moment, and tried to help her out by remembering the past. “Why do you and your father look nothing alike?” Yuko looked up in a bit of relief. She had never told Daichi about her past. He only knew the person who had just gotten to Masami. He had never taken the time to ask about her past. Yuko never told him either because she thought he never cared. It was also hard to spit out.

“Um well.” She wiped the snot and tears off her face. Her voice was still nasally and her nose was bright red. “He adopted me. When I was a young kid, my mother had gone crazy, killed my father, and threatened to kill me and my brother.” The flashbacks from that night were seeping through her brain. Every thought happened in flashes and she could remember it all like it was yesterday. “My brother and I were running away. But then my brother fell down. He told me to keep going so I did. When I got to the park, I met my new dad who was still in high school at the time. He was 18.” She took a long breath as she remembered his face again the very first night she met him. “He cleaned me up and adopted me. He’s been very nice and the closest person to me.”

When Yuko finished her story, Daichi just stared at her in awe. “I’m sorry Yuko, I didn’t know.” He looked away from her and stared at his awkward hooves for comfort. “What were you like back on Earth?” He looked back up at her blood shot eyes, but felt no need to look away. Her story was so interesting to him.

“I was outgoing and always the leader just like here. But because of my past, I had trouble keeping friends. I couldn’t trust anyone.” She remembered the night of her transport to Mount Masami. “Oh that’s right! A guy had just broken up with me because I couldn’t trust him. I took a bath that night to relax myself, and then I transported here. And to be honest, I’m glad I did.”

Daichi gave her the most judgmental look. “How could you say that? You just talked to your dad and it sounded like you were desperate to see him again! Why would you not want to go back?”

Yuko stood up and the water rolled off her nipples and was heavy in her dangling hair. She heavily stepped out of the river and grabbed an old shirt on her bag. She used it to dry herself off then used it to ring out her hair. As she assembled her under armor back on, she spoke quietly. “I miss my dad, I do, but I hate it on Earth. People have corrupted something that was so beautiful. Animals don’t have a voice there, so humans believe they are the primary beings there.” She looked up the Daichi and smiled at his intelligence. “You, and many others, have a voice of their own to keep this place beautiful!”

Her armor was back on, and she stood up tall and looked back into Daichi’s eyes. “You asked what a clock is earlier, right?” Daichi nodded and was intensely listening to her. “A clock tells time. Much like the sun and the moon do, but more specifically. We have jobs and school that we must attend to. We follow the clock’s language and do whatever we must do at a specific time. We have no freedom. We’re slaves to the clock.” She laughed at her deep meaning to a clock, then picked up her bag. “Let’s go.”

They started walking around with no destination. “Who was your leader at Earth? Did you lead?” Yuko laughed and couldn’t stop laughing. Daichi felt embarrassed for a moment. “Oh, sorry, did I say something funny?” He looked away from her to prevent awkward eye contact.

“No sorry.” Yuko took a deep breath to calm down. “It’s the government of some sort. Depends on where you live.” He looked at her after that confused. “We obviously didn’t live on a floating mountain. Much like the main land, it was a giant sphere. On Earth, there are these giant lands called continents. They are much bigger than this mountain, here. In each continent, there are loads of countries. They are run by their own power of government.”

“Oh, alright. I think.” It was hard to understand this, but he wanted to know more. “Where countries nice to each other?”

“Depends.” It’s been almost a year and it was hard for her to remember each country. Life style on Masami had erased plenty of memories. “Some had wars against each other, which is another reason why I hate Earth.”

“Where did you live?”

“Japan. But I was born in---- uh---” Images of the countries were running through her. “Oh! America!” She looked up at the trees and pointed to them. “We had these trees in Japan! It was always amazing to have Cherry Blossom season. It’s more than amazing that these stay up all the time.” She looked down from the trees, then looked over at Daichi. “Enough about me, what about you? I mean, you’ve told me some things before, but not enough!”

“Oh well--” He became uneasy to be put on the spotlight like that. “After I was born, everyone wanted to go see the main land. Others also wanted to see the other mountains. I was left with Grandpa until everyone got back. It was a long wait, so long, Grandpa had passed away. No one ever came back so I was left as the only Pegasus to exist on Mount Masmai.”

“Not much else the story, huh?”

“No, not really.”

The night was on the two and memories of the night were just so precious, but it felt as though everything had happened in a short second. “Daddy, I miss you.” Yuko held her backpack strap tightly then closed her eyes to think of his face. It was clearer now and she was sure she would never forget it this time.