Ra Side Story (3/13)

While Aria and I were walking away from Ronaldo with the intentions of finding Solstice, she looked up to me and poked me with the red staff.

"Want to race down this street, starting from here?" She asked me.

From my frontal view of the street, it looked like a twenty second sprint would get me to the end. I knew I had more muscle in my legs that could propel me forward than Aria did, so the challenge would be an obvious win.

The street had various elevation changes throughout it. Some had stairs that led up to doorways of houses on the very edge of the street. With the houses on the edge of the street, lines of laundry were hung up between both ends, which created a makeshift umbrella of washed clothing. 

"Alright, we'll race. Do you want a handicap? I can start five seconds after you do." I offered. I was attempting to be nice to Aria, but she scoffed again, almost as harshly as she did with Ronaldo.

"How about I take that handicap?" She asked me in return. I felt chills when she asked that question. Perhaps it was a good time to teach her a lesson?

"Go ahead, but don't be mad when I beat you!" I yelled out to her.

I broke out into a spring, jumping between the crowds of people in the street to propel myself forward. I went up the slopes and ran down the slopes, keeping as much speed as possible. After my five second handicap was up, I turned back to see Aria beginning to move.

She darted forward, moving so fast her eyes shut from the burst of wind. Aria slammed the butt of the staff into the road and launched her body skyward over twenty feet above the street. She easily latched to the shingles of the roof above, and made it far past me as I was stuck on the ground.

Something about the way she moved at her young age freaked me out. She was like a walking powerhouse of muscle and technique. I had to admit, she was quite the strong opponent.

Aria crossed the finish line about only ten seconds into the total allotted time. She cockily waited for me at the end of the street, blowing on her nails.

"So, what did you think? Was I super cool out there?!" Aria asked me. Even as cocky as she was, she was still a child at heart.

"Yeah, really cool. You'll have to teach me some of that stuff one day!" 

Aria and I continued on the path, curving down a few more streets while taking in the scenery. Aria seemed familiar with the strange technology I saw while walking down. Many foods that weren't familiar to me had special names coming from Aria's knowledge.

Cotton candy, a weird, string like food that seemed fluffy when put together was apparently really sweet. Unfortunately, I didn't have any money to purchase it, but the process in making it was weird. They put a stick inside of a rolling wheel, and out came the string that eventually turned fluffy. I had never seen such a thing before.

In addition to cotton candy, a weird crunchy item was being created in a bakers pan. Powdered sugar was sprinkled on top of the baked confection. I lost myself in the look of the weird, ear-like candy.

As we crossed a certain point, small food stands outside turned to the inside of buildings through large glass windows we could see through. The street was much cleaner, and had operating lights that guided the flow of traffic across walkways. I had never seen such a thing before, but even if I didn't, Aria was still unimpressed with everything I saw.

"What was the day the last time you checked, Aria?"

"January fifth! Um... Ten years A.E.D."

"Huh?"

"A.E.D... I actually don't know what it stands for," Aria lightly scratched her face. I noticed that she recited it, as if it came from memory. Perhaps they track years differently where she's from.

"Today is January fifth, I just don't know the end. Well, whatever. Solstice is right around the corner, we should think about what to do when we find the source of the blacksmith of that weapon."

After some light planning with Aria, we discussed that the best plan of actions was to have her be honest with him and locate the origin of the weapon so I could bring her back home. I had a little bit of time before the meeting, so if I couldn't find her home by then, I would just bring her with me.

We finally made it to the corner of a street by a large window with a sign hanging on the outside of the building. At the very top of the window stood the symbol we were looking for that was on the weapon.

I carefully entered the building my sidling my body through the gap in the front door and the wall to my left hand side. Aria walked in normally and set the red staff on the counter while a man with iron limbs walked out from the back.

"It's nice to meet you!" He said. His orange hair, similar to mine, fluttered on his way to the counter, settling down once he made eye contact with Aria.

"And how may I help you today, Miss?"

"I'm looking for the person you made this staff for. Your symbol is on it." Aria said. 

I realized halfway through her explanation that we couldn't have known who it belonged to from the mark alone, but with the expanded explanation of who it was made for. Just who was this girl?

"Hm...I can tell you right now, I don't believe this to be my work. It does have my insignia on it, you're right, but I don't remember making it at all..." Solstice muttered.

Huh...