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Ｇｏｌｄ
Ｋａｌｌｉｍａ
Ｆｅｍａｌｅ
Ａｇｅ １７
╘═══Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ═══╛
Ｇｏｌｄ
Ｋａｌｌｉｍａ
Ｆｅｍａｌｅ
Ａｇｅ １７
╘═══Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ═══╛
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Many years ago, a young toddler aged only two or three, would repeatedly walk across the top of the monkey bars, stopping only to hang upside down and scare other kids who walked past. Her parents, fearing a detrimental fall, had repeatedly plucked her from the monkey bars to set her in front of a slide or seesaw. She was determined, however. Every time she was placed back on the ground, her white face turned red with anger and her black teardrop markings were matted down by a stream of tears. Her screams pierced the ears of every park-goer.xxx
Observing the scene was a school aged child by the name Mikael. He looked up from the strangely large and old book he had been reading, clearly it was far beyond the reading level for a six-year-old. His pointer finger still marking his place in the book, he glanced up in time to see the girl’s mother place her on a bench across from him. xxx
“Kallima, you’re in time-out for disobeying our requests to stay off the monkey bars. Stay here until we come back for you and think about what you’ve done.” The girl’s mother said before stepping away to give her some space to cool off. Mikael watched as the child’s head fell into the palms of her hands in defeat. Feeling terrible for young Kallima, he wanted only to cheer her up. xxx
The book he had been reading was something he had stumbled upon in the park only earlier that day. The “poems,” as he called them, were not written in his mother tongue, but all he knew was that fun magic tricks happened when he read them out loud. Earlier that day he had tried to read the book aloud to practice sounding out his words, when a squirrel ran across his table halfway through the poem. Just like the description at the top of the page, it caused the squirrel’s feet to magically grow to twice their normal size. The squirrel walked away in a fashion similar to a cat being forced into little booties, and Mikael had a good laugh about it. Because the poem had not been completed, his feet returned to normal size only a few minutes later; but Mikael didn’t yet realize the inner workings of this book. He wanted to be a magician, he thought the harmless little “pranks” were just that, magical pranks. xxx
Glancing back down to the page he was on, the description at the top spoke of butterflies. Looking up at the little girl whose markings resembled just that, he thought it was perfect. He would send a few butterflies to play with her while she was on time out to cheer her up. He read from the book, struggling to pronounce the terms in a language he did not yet understand. Spirits low? Lift your spirits with this spell. Butterflies have long been a symbol of life milestones from larvae to cocoon to adult. Winged butterflies, the original vessel for souls, have always been great for raising spirits.
As she flitters through her days,
Wings of paper will follow always.
Should one catch her gaze,
She will relay to hell's gateways
xxx
Looking up, he saw small origami butterflies flittering around her. He giggled as he anticipated the moment she raised her head. A black one landed on her shoulder, startling little Kallima. As her head turned to her left shoulder, her eyes landed on the black origami butterfly. Mikael watched in horror as his prank backfired on him. Her red eyes turned black and the whites of her eyes disappeared. It was almost as though the little girl in her had disappeared, to be replaced by an entirely new personality. She rose from the bench, looking around, and casually walked away from the playground. xxx
His mouth agape, unsure what he had just done, Mikael watched as the parents ran after her. Unaware of what had just happened, they tried to stop their daughter, thinking she was running away. “Kallima! Get back here right this instant! You’re still in time out little missy!” The father called after her, attempting to step in front of his toddler. She glanced up at them with a look of disdain, and continued walking towards the neighboring woods. As the parents followed her into the woods, Mikael’s heart sunk into his stomach. He closed the book and clutched it close to his chest, fleeing the scene to return home and figure out what he had just done.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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As she grew older, her parents were oblivious to the connection between her transformation and butterfly sightings, but were nonetheless terrified of her. Kallima never knew a life before she became triggered by butterflies. She thought she just experienced a bit of lightheadedness and sleepwalking, as that was all her parents had the heart to tell their little girl. The triggers were constant, from little keychains on her classmate’s backpacks to photos online and even her own reflection, Kallima would often experience multiple “blackouts,” as she called them, daily. xxx
Kallima’s “blackouts” caused a lot of stress on the once-happy family. Her parents could hardly stand to see her forced to live this way, and tried their hardest to give her as normal of a childhood as they could. However, the arguments over how to help her slowly became more and more intensive, nearly leading to a split in the family. In a final attempt to mend the family and bring peace to their daughter’s lives, her parents called in a child psychologist.xxx
The psychologist ruled out mental disorder after mental disorder, and in the end had little explanation for Kallima’s blackouts. To wrap up their meeting, she pulled out a few Rorschach ink blot test cards. She explained to Kallima, “I’m going to hold up a series of abstract images now, and I need you to tell me what you believe they most resemble. Don’t think too much into it, just say the first thing that comes to your mind.”xxx
Watching as the strange woman held up a card, Kallima rested her head in her paws, and half-heartedly participated in the frivolous activity. Watching as the woman pulled up the first card, she replied “A frog.”xxx
“Great job! How about this next one?” She said, placing the card on the table next to her, fingers fumbling to pick up the card from the stack.xxx
“Uhm,,, a rocket ship.” Kallima muttered through gritted teeth, clearly getting frustrated by this entire ordeal.xxx
“Alright, just a few more. Make sure you’re saying what immediately comes to mind and not thinking too much into it, okay?”xxx
Kallima rolled her eyes and sunk a little bit deeper into her chair, her annoyance growing with the creaking of the old living chair springs as she did so. She watched as the woman placed the card face-down on top of the other, and glanced up at the next card. The black markings were symmetrical with drips pointing in four directions similar to that of the letter “X.” She sat up a bit, but not by her own command. Her face felt a little warm and she could feel a slight ringing in her ears. She tried to reply as her vision went dark, “A bu—“xxx
She woke up hours later in an abandoned house in the woods. The sun was beginning to set, so she decided to set up camp here for the night. The house came with a fully made bed, plenty of kitchen supplies, cleaning supplies, and firewood. Looking around, young Kallima decided she would find her own home here, in hopes that her disappearance would finally allow her parents the peace to find the happiness they once had. She hoped they could finally stop spending every moment of their days worrying for her.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Dust specks danced across the thin beam of light that came through a small knob in the boards on her window. “Dammit” she exclaimed, “This place gathers dust so quickly!” Wiping her pointer finger across the kitchen counter, her red paw pads are turned black from the dust. “Look at this, Rue, the years have really taken a toll on this place.” Rue, a small white field mouse, looked up at her, her large ears tilting back, wishing she could do something to help. In an attempt to cheer her up, Rue runs over to her mouse hole to bring in her scavenge of the day. With the stem in her mouth, she slowly drug a large apple across the dusty floor and over to Kallima. Squeaking proudly, she stopped at Kallima’s feet. “Oh, thank you Rue!” She said, using her clean paw to wipe the dust off of the apple’s surface. “These are my favorite, where did you find them around here?” she asked, slightly muffled as she chewed on her apple.xxx
“Hmmft, sometimes I wish I could go outside and grow a garden of apple trees, we could have red ones, and green ones, and maybe we could even plant some berries for you! Then we’d never have to worry about where our food would come from. Doesn’t that sound splendid?” She asked, as Rue made her way up to Kallima’s shoulder. She put her front paws up on her neck and her nose twitched with excitement at the idea. “Sadly I cannot risk another sighting. I feel like a prisoner in my own home” Rue slowly lowered her paws and snuggled up on top of Kallima’s shoulder, as if to tell her “It’s okay, you’ll always have me”xxx
“Thank you Rue, you’ve been a lifesaver.” She said, taking Rue in her paws and lowering her onto the counter. “Let’s chop this up so you can try! How’s that sound?” She said, reaching into the top drawer for a cutting knife. Slicing right into it, the juice fell to the counter and mixed with the dust, creating a thick, sticky mixture. Kallima’s shoulders lowered and she bowed her head in defeat. “I can’t do this anymore.” She said, swiping her paw across the counter in frustration, knocking all of the dirt and dust to the floor. She raised the knife once more and chopped with all her might, letting out a bit of frustration along the way. Rue jumped back a bit in surprise, she’s never seen Kallima express much emotion before. Just then, a knock came at the door. This startled Rue into jumping back towards Kallima again. A final chop of Kallima’s knife startled her back once more. A bit shaken, Rue watched as Kallima made her way towards the door, fists clenched, knife still in her left hand. xxx
She first peered through the small knot in the boards of an adjacent window, and to her surprise, she saw a kalon standing at her door. She had never had visitors before, what could he possibly want? She looked him up and down carefully. He didn’t seem to be much of a threat, his stance was a bit nervous but not defensive, and his build was far too slender to offer a physical threat. His brown hair was disheveled, he’d clearly had a long journey t end up here. His green eyes grew increasingly impatient with every passing moment, until he finally exclaimed “I know you’re in there, Kallima.” Taken aback, Kallima motioned for Rue to hide in her hole and walked closer to the door, preparing herself in the case that she would need to defend herself.xxx
“Who are you?” She yelled through the doorxxx
A slight giggle could just barely be heard through the door. Kallima could just imagine his brown tufts of hair bouncing up and down as he laughed at her. She was infuriated, who did this man think he was to come and disturb the one place she had finally found peace? “My name is Mikael. I did this to you. I mean no harm” Confused, her stance was loosened, and she walked towards the door, cautiously considering allowing this man in. She clenched her knife just a bit tighter and turned the knob to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, she had nothing more to lose.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
