Serendipity [FINISHED]

[Felicia Lisger]

[if no one updates this soon, I'll make it a narrative]

It was with both a heavy weight in her heart and a light feeling of relief that Felicia stepped seemingly from nowhere into the busy streets of Barcelona, Spain. She was not very familiar with the surrounding area, and even though she didn't know anyone she was still very comforted by the various dialects of spanish that her ears picked up. The bricked streets were very busy, with people rushing about, and no one seemed to notice her. That was good.

She was surprised that she had ended up somewhere not too far from home. While she knew that her home with her sister and the Devil Saints had been in the States, a place she also knew was very far away at the moment, she was in reasonable proximity to Madrid, her birthplace. Her parents were there, and even if she didn't want to see them, if she had been away for the amount of time she suspected that she had, they would be glad to see her. Perhaps they would even be nicer to her than usual.

After stepping out the Path of Gates, everything seemed a little brighter. The vast hallway with all of its doors was very white, very...loud, and it was also easy on the eyes to finally see colors again, besides those that made up herself and Sunset, her sprite.

She struggled to balance on her feet for quite a few minutes. The bright atmosphere of the Path of Gates had really left her unprepared for seeing the world that she had been raised in once more. Despite the fact that she was glad to see color, it burned her eyes, and she shielded her eyes to protect them, especially from the burning hot Barcelona sun.

Do you need help? Should I...get help? Sunset asked her. Felicia just shook her head, stumbling toward the steps of an old building, which offered shade. People began rushing by the stairs in droves, and it was with sudden alarm that Runa realized that she did not like touching people. She had gone so long without having to worry about it that she had almost fallen prone to it. It was nice, being in the Path of Gates and not having to worry about visions; but as much as she liked being there, it was completely isolated. There was no life, no vibrance. There was nothing. It was a completely neutral area.

While she had been there, however, Felicia had at least figured out how the place worked. A little. Sunset hadn't really known anything about the place, either, so she hadn't been very much help in giving her information beforehand, when they had first arrived. Sunset had never ventured out of the Mortal Realm, and had only seen the Path of Gates in visions and such; nothing with her own two eyes.

It had started with those people that Felicia had seen first; the woman and man with the blue skin, and the deer-woman with the faerie and the man with armor that gave Felicia a funny feeling. The man with the blue skin and the woman with him had passed through in a matter of seconds, but the larger party had stayed, having a full conversation in the hall before continuing on to their destination.

Felicia found it easier to understand if she compared the Path of Gates to her visions. Some people know that they exist, others don't, and some know of and experience them. Those who didn't know about the Path of Gates traveled fastest--they didn't know that they were going the the hall to go anywhere. Then there were people who knew about the place enough to know how to control precisely where they were going; people who were familiar with how it worked but didn't stop to examine it. Then there were the people who made an adventure out of traveling there; people who manually walked through the hall themselves, like the group with the faerie woman. They had walked through because that was the only way that the three of them could travel collectively.

Many people had passed through the hall since those people, and they had helped her and Sunset piece things together along the way about her theory of the place. Sunset had a better grasp of magic than Felicia herself did, since the sprite was made of magic.

It was not too long after she had begun to enjoy the solace of the place that she started thinking about her sister. She was sure that no one on earth had missed her like Runa, and it was not very fair to ask her sister to live without her, not knowing where she had gone or why. She was sure that Runa had freaked out fairly badly about it. Runa was the type to freak out about things. Hopefully, she hadn't told their parents yet that she was missing. Knowing Runa, she would try to get someone to professionally find her first.

And so, huddled on the stairs of a building in Barcelona, Felicia pondered her next move; or, at the very least, was waiting for the streets to clear so that she could make it.

[Nagoyaka Rajah]

[This takes place sometime after "A Breath of Fresh Air."]

Rajah walked the streets of Barcelona in his hooded guise, bypassing the food stalls. With a basket in his hand and money in his pocket, Rajah entered the marketplace with joy in his heart and a smile on his face, regardless if any human could see it or not. He walked to a stall selling fresh fish, being overtaken by the arousing aroma of his favorite food. There, he saw Trout, Salmon, Mackeral, Sea Bass; all of his favorites. At the sight, Rajah became as giddy as a schoolboy.

"Excuse me, kind sir," he said to the stall operator. "How much for about two pounds of the Trout and Salmon?"

The stall vendor turned around and stared at Rajah's disguised self. He smiled as he approached the fish.

"Well, given your size sir," he started, "I'll give it to you for about 12 pesos."

Rajah happily paid the man as he grabbed his desired amount of fish. "Thank you so much, good sir," he thanked as he walked away from the stall with a wave.

As the day progressed, Rajah visited most of the vendors, leaving no stall without buying at least one item. By the end of his shopping day, he had a backpack filled with food and a giftwrapped cookbook that he held in his left paw. He looked at it and smiled.

"Zeshin is going to love this," he said to himself.

Soon, Rajah started his way back to his temporary housing with Zeshin's family. But as he started down a street in Barcelona, he saw a small girl sitting on the steps of a nearby building. By his observation, it was seeing her spectacles and the way her hair was arranged that told him that she hadn't been around this area of the world if not lately, then in a while.

Now being the kind of being Rajah was, he just couldn't walk away from this situation. This girl was clearly troubled and in distrought; he just had to help her. He walked up to the girl and sat on the steps next to her. A smile graced his face that he knew she couldn't see, but Rajah kept the hood on in case she scared easily.

"Why hello there, young one," he greeted. "Is everything alright?"

[Felicia Lisger]

A large man approached her, his shadow covering her before he came into her vision. It was not something that she was used to from a stranger, but she hadn't gotten a foreboding feeling from this guy, so she supposed that it was alright.

Although she was in her invisible form, Sunset moved to situate herself right in front of her, as a barrier to any physical contact that might happen. She did not want anyone touching her Felicia. She was already causing Felicia enough grief as is; she didn't need anyone walking along and making it worse.

That being said, Felicia, from what Sunset could feel right now, did not have anything to worry about. She couldn't feel anything malicious coming from her right now...

"I'm fine," Felicia said. Honestly, the shade that he had brought with him was making her feel better than when she had sat down. She just needed a while to cope with the view of this Realm again, and after that she would be fine. It was, however, taking a lot longer than she had originally thought.

[Nagoyaka Rajah]

Rajah didn't like the look on her face at all; it was so depressing, it almost made him pout a bit. Knowing that the situation was of some kind of importance, Rajah blinked is eyes once. When he did, they were a green color. He used his spirit magic to see a special kind of aura around the girl. As a matter of fact there were two kinds: one coming from inside of her, and another around her, like she was being protected from the outside world. This told Rajah one thing and one thing alone.

This young girl was lost.

Rajah couldn't just leave her here on the steps of Barcelona to fend for herself; he just had to do something. But, he knew that one could not trust someone when they have no idea what they look like. So, along with the fact that the Spanish sun was cooking the inside of his hood like Zeshin's stove, he grabbed the reins of his hood.

"Please don't be alarmed," he said as he took off his hood. When he did, he smiled tenderly at the young one with glasses.

"My name is Rajah," he introduced. "What's yours?"

[Felicia Lisger]

Felicia was pleasantly surprised to see that this stranger was related to the feline family. She was sure that it was a personal reason regarding why he had been able to take this form; she had never seen anything like it--not in the slightest. However, all things considered, he was being nice to her. She knew that it wasn't quite right to go off with strangers, but at the same time, it wasn't quite wrong to introduce herself, was it? Where she came from, almost all cats were accepted. And if he was comfortable revealing himself to look this way while all of these people were about, she wasn't going to mind being a bit revealing about herself, too.

"Felicia," was all that she said and in the blink of an eye, she changed herself to the very small form of a black cat, meowing and looking up at Rajah expectantly.

[Nagoyaka Rajah]

Rajah's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the girl named Felicia transform into a small black cat. At first, he tried to question how a human being had the ability to do this, but when he saw her look into his eyes, followed by a sudden meow, his heart instantly melted. His eyes turned gold, physically illustrating how the child immediately won his heart as he smiled at her.

Aww, he thought to himself. She's so cute. How could she have possibly ended up in a place like this?

Rajah immediately reached out to pet her out of instinct. But when he did, an invisible barrier knocked his hand out of the way. Rajah instantly retreated his paw back, rubbing it with the one that was unaffected by the barrier.

Ow, he thought to himself. I forgot that was there...

Rajah brought his face down to Felicia's level, resting his head on his paws with a smile on his face.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Felicia," he said to the cat. "How did you get here?"

[Felicia Lisger]

Felicia felt a lot safer now that she was in her neko form. In this way, she didn't have to deal with her usual consequence of touching people--and it was for this reason that she swatted at Sunset playfully with her paws. There were no visions while she was in her neko form, and she could be much more friendly to Rajah.

She meowed sweetly again at his question, winding herself around his legs in apology for her sprite hurting him. She hadn't done it on purpose. The meow hadn't meant anything at all; it was just playful, and she hoped that he would understand that she wasn't going to hurt him anymore.

[Nagoyaka Rajah]

Rajah couldn't help but smile as he watched the feline Felicia wind around his legs, meowing sweetly. It was evident that the child already stole his heart, but the fact that she was able to transform herself into a cat just gave his curious mind one more addition to think upon. It was already a very refreshing revelation to Rajah that others like himself existed when he first met Issac, but with this new knowledge of humans that can transform into animals, Rajah became overwhelmed with curiosity.

Rajah picked up the feline Felicia he could sense was apologizing for what happened to his paw earlier. Overwhelmed with an ocean of sensitivity, he placed her on his shoulder and nuzzled his nose with hers, releasing a soft purr.

"A treasure like you has no business on the streets of Barcelona," he cooed to her. "How would you like to come with me?"

[Felicia Lisger]

Rajah was just a sweetheart, one of the few types of people that Felicia had had the fortune of meeting in this life. He picked her up, placing her on his shoulder, and he touched his nose to hers, a sign of affection in any animal kingdom. He purred softly, and to answer, she gave a purr as loud and loving as she felt. She had been lonely, on her own, and it gave her great joy that the first person she met was as nice as Rajah.

"A treasure like you has no business on the streets of Barcelona," he said to her. "How would you like to come with me?"

Felicia's immediate answer was a nod, and she leaned forward, licking the fur on his cheek and then going back to purring.

[Nagoyaka Rajah]

Rajah giggled lightly when Felicia licked the fur on his face, finding the spot a bit ticklish. He heard her purr as the smile stayed on his face, finding it comforting to his ear. His smile turned more tender and warming as ever, as he looked the child that could turn into a cat.

"I guess I can take that as a yes," he said with a chuckle, using one of his retracted claws to scratch underneath her chin a bit.

[Felicia Lisger]

Felicia really missed the life of a cat. It was carefree, without having to be concerned with magic or anything else. She liked it, and the fact that she could think for herself while in this form without having to worry about suddenly suffering from a vision was very comforting. She saw her gift as a curse, and while she knew that it would help others, she didn't think that it was very fair to have to deal with that at the expense of her own life. It was just...not fair at all.

Leaping off of Rajah's shoulder and landing on the brick road, she began to walk forward, leading the way in the direction of her home city, Madrid.

[Nagoyaka Rajah]

Rajah watched Felicia as she jumped off his shoulder, landing on the brick road ahead of them. Smiling and adjusting the backpack filled with food on his back, he eagerly followed the small cat happily.

"Hey!" he said to her playfully. "Wait for me!"