Your Eyes Are The Window

This reminded her of home.

Of the serenity of the Okanagan lakeside, of the cool and calming inland breeze, but with the taste of the sea salt in the air and the therapeutic crashing of the waves against the shore. The waves brought back the memories - of elated giggles of the playful happy back home, up to what she had grown to call the Okanagan Shenanigans. Of the days at the beach with Nate. That one time they buried him up to his shoulders in the sand while the waves crashed against his helpless face. Except this was not a place that she had grown to know. It was a place she knew nothing about. Every step a new experience, every breath a new assault on the senses. This had to take some getting used to.

The local avian wildlife made themselves comfortable along the shoreline. Waiting patiently for the few to abandon the measly scraps they had left over from their afternoon picnic. Waiting patiently, albeit opportunistically, for unfortunate marine wildlife to wash themselves up on the treacherous sands of the Pacific. She had been in the area, but it was opportunity - complete chance - that she stayed for this long. She had never seen an oceanic horizon, let alone an oceanic sunset. And almost everyone had decided of a better use of their time, save one - evidently savouring the colours of the sunset, the wash of the ocean, and the aural nirvana of the seaside tides. Much like Sarah herself. Treading barefoot towards company, her breezy beach dress fluttering in the wind, the sands shifted through between her toes and left themselves her fleeting imprint on the shore.

'Simply amazing, isn't it?' She smiled, albeit wistfully.

The viewing of a seaside sunset was a unique experience to say the very least. Back at the Okanagan, the sunsets were always obscured beyond the cover of the mountains, so the most she could see was the evening sun mirrored in the lake, never afforded the chance to meld in a pool of crimson velvet. To see the sun meld with its mirror was something that Sarah could never have expected to witness, where she grew up.

'I never had the chance to witness this, growing up,' Sarah commented. 'It's my first time. I came here expecting nothing - haven't been disappointed yet. A feast for the eyes.' The subtle reference there was fairly unnecessary, but whatever.

The girl's smile and her voice were both alluring. Her smile a soft tenderness, her voice smooth and demure. With a refined air she carried herself, her gesture of politeness not lost on the seemingly-Asian Sarah. 'It's hard for me to feel that way - given a proper angle, you could obscure it with your thumb. The ocean, however, brings everything into perspective for me. Endless, even with a proper vantage.' The girl's soft giggle let Sarah feel more at ease - it gave her no reason to feel guarded. They were just two girls, sitting together, watching on at the sunset.

'It's always nice to have company.' Sarah beamed, as she made herself comfortable beside her. The sand was wet and stuck to her dress, no doubt, but what were a few grains of sand when you've always done the laundry?

'I assume you've been here for a while? It looks like you've been here often enough.' Sarah queried. Not prying too much, she hoped, at least not with that implication. 'It's actually my first week here. I haven't explored as much of this place as I'd have liked...'

Turning to face the other girl, Sarah gave her trademark bright smile and introduced herself. 'My name's Sarah. Nice to meet you!~'

'Yes, fairly new.' Sarah replied. 'Came here right after receiving my letter. And it's great to meet you too, Flayace. It's a beautiful name.'

'I'm still trying to settle down here, but I'll take you up on that offer in the near future.'

Sarah spent the next few moments staring absently at the sands that were thrown around her feet by the ocean wash - an evident sign of her wandering mind. 'Got shown around the academy, the island, and the places of interest,' she mumbled. 'Still found myself lost. Never cared enough to keep much of the geography in my memory.'

'To be honest, my initial impression was that I could care less about this place. Nothing incredibly special, other than the people here.' Sarah had to mull over that thought for a moment. 'I'm still deliberating whether coming here in the first place was a good idea at all. I have no gifts of note - just my own personal circumstances.'

'And being so isolated from the rest of the world takes a long time to get used to. The feeling of an unusual scenery. The feeling of a surrounding surreal. To be alone in an arguably strange place I admittedly feel wholly inadequate.'

'But everyone here has their own gift. No matter their consequence, no matter their repute. That's what they told me. I've been struggling to figure out why they've decided I'd fit in with them. Rescued from a sticky family situation and airdropped here for no apparent reason.'

Sarah turned to look at the girl Flayace yet again, and paid special attention to look her right in the eyes. An earnest question to say the least. 'What about you?'

'Have you a wonderful gift? What led you here?'

'It would be wrong to say I wasn't curious in the very least,' Sarah concurred, as Flayace considered her reasons for being here. It was very much unlike Sarah's own, and the girl's circumstances were very much different from her own.

'The people here are saying I have my own gift, but it's hard to convince even me about that. I'm just a regular Canadian girl - if someone actually did the old "Yer a wizard Harry", you'd stuff a sock in their mouth and get back to whatever you were doing.'

'Mood changing eye colours - that's... really unique,' Sarah commented, piqued at the notion of the other girl's ability.

'I'm guessing if you're angry, you literally see red, huh?'

Oh my god no. If Sarah wasn't going to hell before, she would be now.

'Seeing things from far away and being able to teleport is really convenient as well. It's not hard to think of so many ways it could be used for nefarious purposes, though...'

Sarah's gaze momentarily changed into a suspicious look at the other girl. The girl definitely had much more in store than what she was letting on about.

'But it's funny you mentioned that.'

... more than 5 seconds of direct eye contact had passed.

The other girl would hear a familiar voice, not coming from anywhere in particular, but rather the back of her own mind.

This is a little bit of what I can do.

... seven seconds now.

The other girl would feel a warm feeling inside of her - a somewhat-foreign innate contentment of meeting someone that wasn't anywhere near as depressingly different from her as others. An inner delight in realising that she wasn't alone. A feeling that this place might not be too bad after all.

This is all from me. Thank you for spending this time with me, Flayace.

Sarah herself broke eye contact after that last thought to watch as the sun fully hid itself beyond the horizon. A beautiful sight, bathed in crimson and flair.

Sarah giggled. This was the first time anyone had had that kind of reaction to her using her own power - slightly taken back, and taking it in stride. The last time she ever did that, that guy landed himself in the mental hospital for a while before spending life behind bars.

'It really sucks that I'm short, though - it's hard for me to look right into the eyes of just anyone consciously,' Sarah grumbled a little, knowing just enough about the limitations of her own power. 'If only I were taller - it'd be way easier, and I could bend down for the shorter people...' Sarah's expression betrayed a slight sulk.

'But yes, I'm glad you liked it,' her look of annoyance shifted to a bright and innocent smile. 'I haven't had the best of experiences using it before this - one did end up being what brought me here, though.'

'It's always special to be around others, in my opinion,' Sarah agreed, continuing. 'But why 'again'?'

The sun had fully sunk beyond the horizon and the darkness had started setting in. Sarah rose to her feet. 'By the way, we should totally head back - it's getting dark, and we don't have enough light here.'