CHAPTER 5 - Arteria Blaze and The Magician

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Elaina couldn't believe that this had happened, but it did.

She kept staring at the young face of her story's heroine in the clear watery reflection in a shocking silent moment before she snapped out of it and stood up to look at her new body more in stunned alarm.

She found that she's somehow reborn in the body of the story's main character herself but younger judging from the body shape and youthly appearance.

She wondered where and when she is at that time and place since she now realizes that the unfamiliar surroundings she's in, it is the fictional world known as Eden of her story.

She tries to remember what kind of place of the area she is in where she heard noises coming from rustling bushes by the edges of the forest the clearing is near to.

She gasped and tried to look around for a weapon when the sources of the noises came out, and it was just a simple beggar couple of an elderly man and woman who seemed to be finding her.

"Oh, Arty! There you are!" the woman cried, instantly engulfing her in a hug which startled her.

"You had us worried! What did I tell you about running off, child?!" the old man scolded her, but not too sternly as he joined in the hug.

Elaina, also known as 'Arty', to them just played along when these two old people hugged her affectionately as if she's their daughter or something and said meekly, "I'm sorry?"

"Sorry is not going to cut it, young lady. You realize that we're going to ground you for sneaking off like that," the woman scolded her firmly as she breaks the hug and stares down at her with a stern look on her face.

She didn't know what she's in for but she decided to take it like a man and have the punishment before they make it worse.

She gave the elderly couple the show that she's ashamed of what she's done and put dramatic tears in her eyes to show that she's really apologetic. "I'm sorry. I promise I won't do it again."

'I will need to figure out more where and when I'm in here in this place before I find out what's going on.' Elaina/Arty thought deeply in her mind.

The couple seemed satisfied at her behavior and then ushered her to go with them to return to whatever home they live in.

It didn't take long for them to go back as it's a small simple cottage in the woods and they had company as an adult woman came rushing out the door when she saw them approaching.

She seemed to be dressed up in what looked to be magical robe clothes and she even had a pointed witch's hat to add with the clothing wear as the woman cried out. "Oh, there you are! I was so worried! I'm glad you found her!"

Then there was a sudden little blur and a little girl almost wearing the similar get-up the adult is wearing is hiding behind the woman's side.

Elaina got a feeling that she could recognize who the little girl might be but she focused her attention with the elders talking with the robed woman.

Though they tried to lower their voices so that the young children wouldn't hear them, Elaina was the only one who could hear them clearly with her sharp hearing despite her youthly child's state.

She can hear them discussing that she 'Arty' was found safely by the pond of the clearing and wasn't anywhere nearby in the forest where a sudden blaze of fire had happened.

They had thought when they found out that she was gone, she must have been somewhere near there but they were glad to find that she isn't when the robed woman went to put out the fire.

Elaina felt like that there's something strange about this and the way they behaved towards her but she'll have to put it off for another day because the adults were ushering her and the little robed girl back into the cottage so that they'll have an early dinner and go to sleep for the night.

Once they did, with Elaina sleeping beside the robed girl within one-bedroom, already changed into their sleep-wear, and then Elaina slept deeply into dreamland and felt like she's hoping that everything was all a dream.

But when Elaina woke up, her hopes were dashed as she realized that everywhere and everything she looked around her is all reality.

Elaina--now calling herself Arteria from now on--started the first of the days of her new life, somehow reborn into the future heroine of her story.

She woke up very early in the morning, then looked at her sleeping companion before she changed clothes quickly into a simple beggar shirt and small pants and she went straight to the library.

To find out more information, the best place to start with is the very place where there are books.

The cottage she's in seemed to be small from outside but larger on the inside. And it was fortunate and lucky for Arteria, or nickname is 'Arty', to find that there is a library, even with the few books she could see that were there in the room and the other shelves and bookcases are barely empty.

Arty could take whatever she could get and she started to grab for the first book she could find and reach and started reading on it.

When she reads them, she was also glad to find that she could understand the foreign language in the books and read them clearly.

She didn't notice that she had company until she put the first book down and turned to get another one.

She almost jumped startled on seeing the little girl, already dressed in the same robes she wore the day before and was looking up at her curiously like she's a new toy to play with or something.

Upon being close with this female child, Arty finally realized and recognized who this young girl is.

The little girl smiled brightly to Arty/Arteria as if she didn't notice the strange way she's staring down at her with a stunned look on her face.

"Hello! I'm Emyrie Skylight! It's nice to meet you!" she greeted cutely.

'Wow... Perky little mage isn't she?' She thought as she looked at her heroine's partner dubiously.

This little girl is another character in the story and the partner and best friend of the main female lead, who is known as Emyrie Skylight, the magical magician.

Arteria had wondered why she made her character, the magician into the similar likeness of her best friend back in the real world.

But she figured that she would be useful and a good companion throughout her journey and adventures, even if this one is only a character in her story.

And so, her story begins in her new life, with herself being mysteriously reborn and having an instant first new friend, who is Emyrie Skylight.

She wondered what kind of adventures she and her friend will be going through in the future of the story world she's in, as Arteria Blaze and the magician.

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