May Your Dreams Come True: Cinderella's Journal

[Kara Winters]

March 16th My Home

Mommy says that I should start writing in my journal by myself now. She says that I will learn more about writing if I practice a lot. I live in an inn with my Mommy, and my two brothers, and the cats. We use to live in a cafe, but we had to leave. I also have an auntie, her name is Kyoko and she has a girl who is like my brother Triton. She does not live in the inn with us, but she has her own room. There is also my auntie Miyuki, but I do not know if she is staying or not. Triton and I hope so.

There are also Mommy's many friends. There is Mit, Wish says that he helped Mommy a lot, and gave her things to help her fight off bad people. There is Creek, I think he loves Auntie Kyoko.... I do not know much about him. There is also Vincent.

Vincent is really cool, my room upstairs (my whole family lives on the top floor) is really special. It is also very pretty, see:



You see that bed, on the platform near the window? That bed was made by Vincent.... well... not really. Wish says that Vincent cutted down the tree that made my bed. That he cut it down and into boards all in seconds. He has to be pretty strong to do that. Mommy put it near a window, so I can always have moonlight on me.

Then there is Talin, he's my Mommy's very close friend, but really. I do not think friend is the right word....  

[Kara Winters]

March 17th I Am Going To Have a Daddy?

Today a lot and lot of things happened. Triton and Treyz got into another fight, again. They always fight now, but I think that's because they are boys. But I hope they get along, since they are both my brothers.

But the most interesting thing, happened right before I went to bed. Sasame visited us again today (she's Roselite-san's daughter), and Talin was there too. He stays since he is recovering from his hurts. He asked Mommy to marry him, and she said yes.

So I guess that makes him my daddy soon. I do not think Triton can believe what he saw. Then again, I can't neither.  

[Kara Winters]

March 22nd, 2006 Mommy's Trip

On Friday Mommy had to go away on a trip somewhere. She said she had to go visit a school and then she had to go and help the Neko Koneko at the old school house. So she left us wtih Wish and Lily. Talin was not there because he had to go with mommy. I am still not sure about having Talin around, but he seems to make her happy. Triton seems happy about it too, but he said that if anything went wrong he would do something about it.

A lot of things happened while Mommy was gone. The pink box that Roselite-san sent us opened. Out crawled this little man like doll, but with black wings on his head. He calls himself Raven. Mommy was surprised, but not as surprised as seeing Wish.

Wish went away yesterday, she said she had to... meditate she called it. She said she had to redeem herself, and when she came back she was huge. This big big cat and her wings are big too, but she's very pretty. All glowy and everything like a real angel.  

[Kara Winters]

March 26th, 2006 Potion Lesson

Today Mommy started me on my very first potion lesson. Mommy makes potion sometimes to keep her safe from the big bad monsters that are out there. She wants me to learn it so I could help keep myself safe too. She told me all about the elements and how they could do different things. Here are a few bottles she gave me to use.



These are kind of like what Mommy uses only Mommy says they are weaker than normal. Once I get older and get better I can use more powerful ones. I really do hope I get better so I better study really hard.  

[Kara Winters]

March 27th, 2006 Sweeping the Feathers

A few days ago Mommy brought a vase home from another world. Yesterday the vase began to spit up feathers which flooded the display case. So Mommy had to take it out before the planets drowned.

(Triton has a planet surprise, I envy him)

Today Triton and I helped Mommy clean up the feathers that piled on the floor. Mommy told us that she would use the feathers to make pillows with. I hope she makes a pillow just for me.

Mommy also went to the market late last night and when she came back she gave me a purple fan with white flowers on it. She told me that it fit just for someone my size, and when I got bigger then maybe I could get an adult fan.



Once we were finished cleaning up Mommy offered us some chocolate cake that she brought from the market too, she said a shop was giving them away. She also said she saw some nice journals there too.

 

[Kara Winters]

April 1st, 2006 My First Potions Book!

Mommy says I am ready to really learn potions now, which is the coolest really. She gave me this pretty book with a moon on it, she says it suits me because I grow by moonlight, and she gave me a white quill to write with.

This is very serious stuffs. I am suppose to write down any discoveries I make while learning potions, so maybe I could come up with something on my own one day.



See? It is a very pretty book and I hope I do well and become just as good as Mommy is. Not everyone is learning potions, Treyz isn't (I wonder why) and Triton says he doesn't want to do any of that stuffs. He's already in school learning how to fight.  

[Kara Winters]

~First Potion Lesson 1~

There were few places in the inn that Cinderella, otherwise known among her family as Cindy, was afraid to go into. A few places except for one exception, and that was the workroom. The workroom or workshop as it is called, was Kara's own place. Kara, before being an innkeeper, and sometime during in which she had Treyz had been a maker of potions. The kind of potions created by unreal items with the ability to do amazing things. Though Kara's specialty had always been in potions of the healing sort, she had taken other types to learn as a means of defense.

Cindy for a long time had been learning about the elements that could go into potions. Kara had been teaching her for quite a while yet, However it was mainly in the living area on the ground floor. None of what Kara had gave her previously needed to be kept up in the workroom until now. Kara didn't use spells often, she didn't like spells and really had no use for them personally. It did not mean though she did not take precautions and spell the room against invaders, people who'd do harm or against the potion gone awary. With that said, it was felt by Kara that Cindy was ready to at least get a feel for the other types of potions that she could be handling.

Which was why Cindy now found herself outside the door of her mother's workroom, with runes etched into them to keep in the potions and keep them out of the rest of the inn. The most noticable part was the flaming golden butterfly that was carved (or perhaps laid) on the door. Her mother had seen that sign once during her times travelling in a shop once. She liked the sign so much that she used it as her personal sign to ward off any harm. Perhaps the few times Kara ever dabbled in that kind of thing.

Inside the workroom was clean, not damp or musty like some might imagine, but it did look old or out of place somehow. Perhaps because it was impossibly bigger than what the location would allow, or perhaps because of the door that also would lead to Kara's room, which shouldn't be able to exist. Kara was already there, sitting upon a workstool, with another smaller one beside her.

"Ready Cinderella?" Kara asks, using her full name for once.
"I guess...."

Cindy crawls up onto the stool, looking out at the colour bottles and the clear jars that held elements or ingredients. Kara hands the girl a motar and sprinkles in some sweet smelling leaves into it.

"Crush this for me please," Kara says handing Cindy a pestal.
"What kind of potion are we making?"
"The non-magical kind."

Cinderella looked at Kara puzzled, how could a potion not be magical, but Kara was already going over to the shelves to pick off a jar of some thick leaves. Knowing what was expected of her Cindy began to crush the leaves, which gave off a minty smell. She couldn't understand how a potion could not be magical. Wasn't healing people magical? What about making rain or thunder?

She watches as Kara comes back, taking the thick leaves out one by one, she cuts them into little bits. While carefully tending to a fire in the stove over in the corner that looked to be boiling some type of oil.

"What are these?" Cindy points to the motar.
"Mint leaves."
"What are they for?"
"To make it smell nice."

This only served to make Cindy more confused, if the mint leaves were there just to make it smell nice then what was the point? What were they making that it would need to smell nice? If it wasn't magical why would they need to make it at all? There was a moment of silence, with only the sounds of oil boiling and the cutting of leaves.

"Not every potion has to be magical in order to help a person," Kara finally says after a great length of silence, she continues to cut, "Nature itself is sometimes all the magic we need, and we forget that when we dabble too much in what nature cannot normally do."

The sounds around them were almost soothing, another unusual thing about the room. There were no other sounds, not even the bustling of the activities going on, on the ground floor. Only the gently thumping of the knife hitting the cutting board.

"This plant I'm cutting is an aloe plant. It's juices sooths irritated skin and is good for when you get burned. Mint makes it smell good, but it also cools too, so it makes a very good burn balm, or just any type of balm if you need soothing on your skin. There are no special elements involved, or unusual ingredients. Just things you find in nature, and naturally it'll let the person heal over time with less pain than they normally would have."

Still Cindy couldn't understand, what good was balm if it still took a long time to heal. Sure it got rid of the symptoms, but people wouldn't want that.

"Why are we making this?" Cindy finally asks, "It's no good, no one will want it. They want the other kind of potions why do we bother making something so silly?"
"It's not silly Cindy, after all Triton doesn't like the magical healing potions."

Cinderella thought about that for a minute. She liked her brother Triton, and looked up to him even though he was the younger, because he always wanted to try his best to be strong.

"But he doesn't like them because he wants to be tough," Cindy answers back.
Kara shakes her head absently, "No, because he wants to be strong."

There was silence again, and once more only the sounds of work decended upon the workroom. The scraping of the knife as Kara pushed all of the leaves off the board and into the boiling pot. Finally Cindy couldn't take it anymore.

"What's the difference?! It's the same thing!"
Kara turns, "Actually it isn't, you see in order for Triton to get stronger he needs to heal naturally. Calluses, injuried bone or muscle grows back stronger than before once healed, that is nature's way of making us stronger. But healing through potions isn't natural, so what the strengthening we get through healing does not happen when you use a potion. If Triton uses healing potions, he won't get stronger."

For the first time since they started the lesson a dawn of understanding comes over Cindy, as if she finally understood the need for the kind of things they were making.

Kara smiles at Cindy, "Sometimes magic even magical potions are not the answer to everything. We cannot be dependent on them, we must in the end depend on what skills we have and what nature gives us. If we forget that, then in truth we become weak because we depend too much on what we don't naturally have."

Sometimes the best lessons were the ones that weren't just dictated as if in lecture. Sometimes the best lessons were ones that people could apply to. To Cindy, she understood now why Kara tried her best not to depend on magic or potions, because inner strength was just as important.  

[Kara Winters]

April 12th, 2006 My Other Room

We moved again today, Mommy says as soon as she sets up the portals back to the inn we can go and stay there, but right now she doesn't want to leave us alone. Mommy decided to try and set up a school for a while and see how that turns out, if it doesn't then Mommy says she'll try something for Triton, but wants to to work really bad.

Mommy is always busy now ever since Treyz was gone, but not busy enough to forget us, but she is always busy. Mommy also started going away to this place. I forgot what it's called, but there is this griffin named Tao that Mommy is looking after. Unlike the rest of us Tao cannot live at the inn and we cannot visit Tao. Mommy says that once Tao get's bigger then maybe Tao can come for a while, but she and Tao will be busy fighting bad scary things that go out and hurt people.

So I also have a room now at the school, which is kind of cool. I'm not a student there though Mommy still teaches me in her spare time. Mommy isn't sure if she wants me to go to the school or not. She's been waiting for me to get older still.  

[Kara Winters]

April 21st, 2006 Mit

A man has beginning to visit the inn just to see Mommy for a while now. I know him, he was there when I was still a feather, and he was there the night I grew. His name is Mit, and he smiles a lot a Mommy, he's gentle with her and gives her pretty things.

But I don't want him to be that close to Mommy, but I can't say that. He's never mean to her, he's always nice like I said, but.... We agreed, it would just be us, Mommy doesn't need others, we won't leave her.

Besides why show up now? Why all of a sudden does he come here? I want... Mommy to be happy, and how can we trust him to keep her happy?  

[Kara Winters]

May 2nd, 2006 I Did It!

I did my first potion which actually helped someone, and it was really hard to do. Normally I'm not suppose to be making dangerous things like that, but Mommy said since I didn't grow yet and I'm suppose to be older she's going to let me make them anyways.

Anyhow, I was making the Fireeater Potion, it doesn't really let you eat fire you know. It just eats away at something like it was on fire, or at least that's what the book said. Anyhow, I was working on the potion when Wish came in and said that Triton and his friend Were-Ah were in trouble. So I hurried as fast as I could and got to use it on the bad thing that was holding Were captive!

Kind of like a prince, only I'm not a prince. Would that make me a princess then? It was the coolest thing ever, at least until the scary thing tried to grab me. But I'm fine.

Now I just hope Triton is alright....  

[Kara Winters]

The Small Eldest Sister

It was an odd position to be in as far as Cinderella (Cindy to most) was considered. Stranger because she could not find the words to express her feelings quite right with paper and pen. Part of that problem had to do with the fact that Cindy was slowly no longer becoming a child... mentally that is, though physically she still looked to be nothing more than a child. That is where perhaps the fustration begins.

If anyone who had read the inkings within this journal would know, Cinderella was the first of all the Winters Children to be adopted. Wish was still a teen when she was adopted, and Triton had arrived only days before she became a child. Then.. the others came, Trisha, Yue, Yukito, Ryu, Feng, and of course Mia and Helen. The problem then, was not the fact she had such a growing family, in fact she enjoyed the endless playmates she had, but rather.... she felt a bit dishearted.

For no one's fault but fate's the fact she was the oldest, and yet the small sibling, and not because she lacked height. Cindy, had not gained her growth since her becoming a child. While her 'younger' siblings were already growing up and older. Not that staying little and cute was a bad thing, it was just her mental capabilities did not match up with her body.... or at times with her speech too. Yet Cindy was not a child within her own mind.

She had been taught from the moment she could understand by Kara the use of potions and how to best create them. Despite the fact she looked like nothing more than a child to the eyes of many, she was the few (if not the only one) who was allowed full access to the workshop for potions. The ingredients that were normally considered too dangerous she was allowed to use, and why not? She was techically by the understanding of her growths and appearance within the family the second oldest child.

Still, she would have to accept the fact that she was not yet 'old' enough like the others. Cinderella though secretly longed for the day when she could be physically old enough to match her mental skills, and perhaps help her mother the way her siblings did around the school. Who knew? Maybe even attend school like the others.  

[Kara Winters]

May 25th, 2006 Where Are You?

Mommy hasn't come home yet, she went away and didn't go to any of her classes. Wish says it's because Mommy has the need to visit other places, that's how she found me! That's also how she found my two sisters Helen and Mia. I don't know about Helen though... she doesn't talk a lot, but he smiles very prettily.

It's not weird, that Mommy would go away sometimes, Triton said that Mommy just needs to find herself. I don't know what that really means though because she always seemed quite here. Trisha says it's hard on Mommy because we're all growing up and finding our way in life.

There are times... I think Mommy is just looking for that something. But I don't know what she's looking for. I don't think Mommy knows what she's looking for.

I do hope Mommy comes back soon.  

[Kara Winters]

June 3rd, 2006 Lan.....

Mommy finally came back, and she came back with a strange man... well I guess he isn't so strange, since I haven't met him yet and Mommy says you cannot judge a person without talking to them and being nice first. They say he's gonna stay around the school to help students who have problems.

Even though I haven't met him, I don't really like him, not because I think he's bad or anything, but because I think Mommy will get me to talk to him. She's like that, Mommy is always worried about us and always worried she can't talk to all of us at once.

I don't see what's the big deal... so what if Mommy spends a lot of time with my other siblings they need it. (Poor Mia and Helen, but they're good sisters).