skepticism soup

My eyes were blurry and I could just make out a brown ceiling.

"I asked if you were hungry. Are you?" the kind voice of a young girl asked me. From the distance of her voice I could tell that she was in the same room as me.

I sat up with a start, looking around. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. I reached to a bedside table that I could make out through my terrible vision.

Nothing was there.

"Excuse me?" I asked, I could see the young lady’s dress twirl as she looked over to me.

"Yes?"

"Is there a possibility you have my glasses?"

"No sir, I'm sorry. You're lucky I even found you. There was some strange man with a strange accent that ran as I saw you. You were completely out."

"Great." I muttered.

Now he's gone, all because I didn't listen to my own apprentice.

"What is this town?" I asked, standing up and attempting to make the bed, though it was hard to do because the sheets looked blurred together.

"Wish I knew." she said in a bit of a beautifully haunting way.

"Isn't this your home?" I gave up on making the bed because it was useless, I sat down onto the soft sheets.

"It's someone that you don't know's home, and I'm someone you don't know. Doesn't that count for something? Are you hungry?" She turned back to her little kitchen area where she was stirring something in a thing that I figured was a pot. When she wasn't, she was waving the ladle in the air like a gentle maniac.

"No, must get on going home. My daughter should be waiting for me." I always say no, I used to believe most people are good but when you have my job it reveals more and more dirt on the earth's crust. I also always referred to my apprentice as my daughter. Can't let anyone know what I do, even if they aren't crazy.

"Please, sir. I really want to know how this tastes."

"Can't you taste it yourself?"

"I want it described without bias."

"Can't you describe it?"

"I know I'm incredible, you have no clue what I've done."

"Well I'm not taking it, I must get going."

There was a little shift in her tone, like she dropped her little gentle maniac personality for a moment, "I know the man you're running from personally, try my new soup or I'll sell you out."

I was terrified to tell you the truth, he was much more powerful than I. I couldn't let her know that though. I smiled an arrogant smile, "My life is worth soup? It's poisoned, I know it is."

She then put one hand free of the big ladle on her hip, her voice went back to how it was before, "This is what I don't like about you people, you're all skeptical. Maybe I just want to give you soup?" she turned to her pot of soup again, "Not everyone's out to get you, you know. Don't flatter yourself."

Was the young lady crazy? Of course. Did she have a point? Absolutely.

In the Ambrosia, where I grew up, everyone practically is out to get everyone. Yes, there’s love and everything but it’s an alternate universe compared to Kalea. In the Ambrosia, there’s so much death, crime, scam, and hurt. In Kalea, they truly believed in the good in people.

We always called the Kalieans fools. They always followed the belief that there is good in all of us.

“Are you from Kalea? Are we in Kalea?” I asked, wishing for answers from the lady I couldn't even see in front of me. This lady currently held my life in her hands, unless she was lying to me just so I would try her soup.

She stopped, “Yes sir, I am from Kalea. But no, we currently aren’t in there.”

That explains the weird maniac-ish acting, she’s from Kalea. I thought.

She turned back to me once again, I still couldn’t even make out her face, it was like my vision was getting worse and worse, “I left Kalea. I loved it there, but I left because of people like you. This place we’re in right now, needs people from Kalea. They need the people with good in their hearts to give them hope. I also was tired of people from this place being so corrupt that when they see someone kind, they think they’re crazy, ignorant, childish. Maybe, just maybe, we’re just good people.”

I wasn’t ready for that speech. Like at all. 

It didn’t matter anyway, she was a Kaliean. Kalieans are dumb crazy maniacs that are absolute fools, this lady has no clue what she’s talking about.

“So we’re in the Ambrosia?” I asked, stone faced.

She threw her hands up in the air, “No matter what I say, you people will never listen. I could easily kill you right now, you were afraid of me before you realized I was Kaliean. Now you have absolutely no fear. We’re in the Ambrosia, your hometown. Now taste my soup and leave.

I stood up and looked around as she walked to me, holding the ladle in her hand, full of (I think) beige soup. “So you are trying to kill me?” I smiled.

“No, I’m just angry. I just want to share my soup. Lucky for you, this’ll help you a lot on your way back to your daughter. Also known as Caspian Armani.

My apprentice’s name. How does she know my apprentice’s name?

“Yes sir, I know your apprentice’s name. I know your name. I know what you do. I know things about you that nobody else knows. I am from Kalea. I have vowed to never attempt to hurt anybody, to use my ability for good. Now will you take the soup?” she pleaded.

I stayed there standing, too afraid to move and then trip on something due to my vision. I wanted her to know I had more power, and tripping over a plant or something would not make that seem very so.

She turned around to the counter in the kitchen area and poured the pot into some sort of tupperware, I couldn’t tell what it was made out of though. It just looked green.

She walked over to me and held out the tupperware, “Good luck.” she then walked over to the door and opened it, “The sooner you drink a little bit of that the easier it will be to your home.”

I walked out, saw my horse standing right there. My little Buttercup.

I sat on Buttercup and started riding, once I was far away from the home I took a little sip of the soup. My vision instantly came back. Then I noticed a little note on the top of the tupperware lid.

Not everyone’s out to get you. Don’t flatter yourself.

-Former Head Physic of Kalea, Aurora Elis.