The State Of Oblivion

It was mumbling she could hear, she wasn't quite sure if she was still in her dream state or she had transitioned into the real world. The voices she heard were familiar ones further cementing her idea of being in a dream state. She accepted her fate, for she believed she hasn't transitioned yet, taking in a deep breath and releasing it at a slow pace, she began letting go until...

"Nya! If there was another, we would've known. This is an undisputable fact."

"You think I do not know that? You should not feed the less ignorant with words they know of." Isabelle could tell whose voices those were, she wasn't in dream land at all, and she had only been subconscious. But then, why would they be in her bedroom while she was asleep? She didn't approve neither was she aware of such.

Her eyes jolted open, while sitting upright she said;

"There is no another...

"Isabelle!" Nya exclaimed breathlessly, startled by her voice.

"Jia only likes Cassandra." Isabelle finished her sentence rubbing her right eye with the back of her left hand.

Nya held Isabelle's right hand. "I am so sorry we woke you up and I promise we are not like this, we don't usually go into people's rooms to hold conversations." Nya spoke softly.

"Oh! I believe you Nya. But, you might as well replace the 'we' with an 'I' in your sentence. I'm sure you don't but he does." Isabelle's gaze turned to Jia when she made mention of he and Nya followed her gaze.

"H...h..he? Y..you mean Jia? .

"Yes! His majesty in flesh and blood and I bow." Isabelle bowed her head in a joking manner failing to see how only she found it to be funny. Nya, seeing Jia today had thought this was the first time he would be acting in such a way only for Isabelle to say otherwise which makes her wonder how many more times this has happened and at what time of the day.

"Well." Nya paused for a second and then continued. "I came to see how you were doing and I see that you are doing fine."

"I am." Isabelle responded with a smile on her face.

"I'm glad, I'll be leaving now. Excuse me." Nya unwrapped Isabelle's hand with hers and left the room but not without sparing a glance at Jia.

Left alone, not a single exchange of words were made. Isabelle, in sudden realization immediately placed her hands on her head, her hair was a mess and she knew it. Now he's seen it as well.

"I urge you to excuse yourself right now." With her hands still on her head, for some reason she felt she could protect her shabby looking hair from his sight. Seeing she received no response or body movement from him, she sighed.

'Always wanting to do what he wants whenever he wants.' Isabelle muttered underneath her breath, her eyes now on her cover cloth still not taking her hands off her head.

"It seems like you do not care for why I am here." He finally spoke.

"I am sleeping fine Jia, the potions have been working and I've been able to rest well." Isabelle assumed his reasons for being here, truthfully she couldn't come up with any other reasons for his presence other than to see how well the potion was working.

Jia wasn't here to inspect the workings of the potion and its effect on Isabelle, he already knew she was fine, he was here for a whole different reason.

"There is a bake fair ongoing at the town square today, thought you might be interested." Slowly putting her hands down she uttered.

"Oh! A bake fair seems nice, the four of us are...

"Four?"

"Yes! Me, you, Kia and Nya." She responded while counting her fingers to indicate they were four.

"Well kia and Nya will not be making it to the bake fair so get dressed." He arose, making his way to the door, he paused and turned. "Next time you cover your hair before you sleep." Isabelle had mixed feelings about Jia giving her hair advice.

"You should have worn boots instead." Jia commented staring at Isabelle's footwear as they both got down the carriage.

"Well you didn't tell me to." She paused and looked at his feet to confirm if it was boots he had on but it wasn't. "I do not see boots on your feet either."

"Well..." He paused. "Let's get the proper footwear for the occasion". He suggested and started approaching the town market. A lot of shops were closed due to their entry in the bake fair and were already at the town square while other shops had apprentices to keep watch as the owners had gone to enjoy the bake fair.

Stanley's foot store had both the owner and the apprentices in check, the apprentices were up and down the place with scraps, measuring tapes, pencils and half-done shoes in their hands. They were too busy to attend the bake fair this year. Isabelle heard from the conversation Jia had with the owner of the shop.

"Isabelle, this is Stanley von Crope." Jia introduced and she turned to see a young man in small glasses wearing a brown tailored suit with a pocket watch sticking out.

"Stanley, this is Isabelle."

"How do you do miss?" Stanley stretch forth his hands.

"This is the owner of the shop?" Isabelle asked with a surprised look on her face, she wasn't expecting a young man to run a cobbler shop with so much apprentices under his wing, it seemed like something old men loved to do.

"Yes Isabelle and shake his hand for goodness sake." Jia pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Oh! Sorry, I just wasn't used to seeing young men run cobbler shops."

"Well, as the saying goes...

"There's a first time for everything." They both say at the exact same time.

"We came here for boots and as you already know the reason why." Jia said while staring at the collection of shoes stacked in the shop.

"Because of the bake fair sir." Isabelle said.

"Call me Stanley please, sir makes me feel a bit old." Stanley, being quite the gentleman that he is took a bow mid-sentence. "And I do not think it is because of the bake fair you need boots Lady Isabelle, your footwear are perfect for the occasion."

"So then why do we need boots?" Isabelle looked at Jia.

"The lord that they worship and praise so much failed to perform his duties." Jia collected a brown boot held out by one of the apprentices.

"Lord Cyrene is yet to fix the pot holes in the roads so whenever it's rainy or just a slight downpour, the streets are muddy." Stanley took the liberty to explain what Jia had said.

"Isabelle, remind me to take you to the eye doctor later on this week I think your obliviousness is getting worse." Jia tried on the boots and really liked how it suited him.

Isabelle was stunned by his statement. It was her turn to try out boots and Stanley hand-picked them. While helping her put them on Jia commented.

"You suddenly run out of apprentices Stanley?"

"Why do you ask such?"

"Well you didn't help me try on my boots, you had your apprentice do it and now you've become short staffed when it's Isabelle's turn to try on boots." Jia was on to something and both men knew what he was talking about.

"Unlike you, he was being a gentleman." Isabelle retorted. Seeing Stanley rise to his feet, Isabelle knew he was all done and she thanked him.

"The color of boots I'm used to seeing are black or brown but blue?" Isabelle looked at her boots and said.

"They match the color of your eyes." Stanley commented with a small smile.

"You didn't tell me they were back to its original state." Isabelle looked at Jia remembering when her eyes had changed colors because of the drink she had at the shack.

"We would be leaving now. Your payment is with your apprentice." Jia's mood had turned sour.