Chapter Text
Rain splattered onto her brown boots, creating a splash in the puddle on the stone bridge. Her eyes observed the pebbled ground fading into the soil, which bore the inscription, "You have exited Mondstadt City." Not literally, but it felt like it.
Taking a left, Caella saw the mountains in the distance, with fog resting on the waters and a dock meant for fishing or boating. She hadn't realized Mondstadt had them until today. Does it cost Mora to borrow a boat? Surely, she could teach herself how to fish and earn funds for the market! Blanche would’ve been proud.
Caella’s shoes pass a broken wagon cart. She was pretty sure Sylvan used one of those for his horses and to carry her belongings when she moved into Mondstadt. It feels like she got out of it just yesterday after several days, bringing her to her new life. The temperatures from Natlan to Mondstadt were a drastic change for her. The sudden shift from scorching heat to a cool breeze caught Caella off guard.
Thank the gods, Sylvan witnessed what happened that day. The girl needed to thank him somehow. For now…
Back to the task beforehand, she entered the Whispering Woods. Upon entering, she encountered numerous trees, with roots emerging from the ground and many bushes shimmering with the raindrops. Ripples appeared onto the small pool of water, Calla lilies swaying gently.
Caella never explored much outside the city; only the areas near the bridge were too far. Not that Caella minded; she preferred to get tasks done quickly. Thus, Sylvan or Blanche would always tell her exactly where to go. But today, Blanche had instructed her to go apple picking in the rain without specifying the location of the apples. She made an educated guess and so far, she had been right.
The girl’s eyes grew wide with wonder as she discovered clusters of apples nestled high among the leafy branches. The bright red fruits decorated each tree, their shiny skin glistening in the warm sunlight. Yes! She ran to each tree, shaking it until the fruits fell onto the damp grass. Caella picked up almost every apple and managed to fill the basket in a short time.
CRASH!
“What the?” Caella choked out, clinging onto her belongings as the ground shook underneath her.
From tiny flowers to big ones, they blossomed rather quickly, showing off their beautiful colours. The once-gray clouds parted, and gentle hues of yellow and orange appeared, with the sun's glow streaming through the leaves. The birds sang, and so did the crickets and frogs. Fresh leaves and grass wafted into her nose, taking a gasp out of her. The rain stopped?
The thunder sounded as though it was meant to strike down that specific spot, not too far, but rather near. “Investigate it.” was her first thought. She ran toward the source of the sound, being wary about it.
Could it be nothing or something? Either way, it smelt burnt. With a click of a button, the folds of her umbrella closed and just held it like a bottle just in case it started raining again or to throw it hard if she got attacked.
Caella stopped walking when she got there, in front of a person covered with mud, with steam somehow rising off of them. Kneeling, the hand with the basket handle grabbed the folded umbrella, now holding onto both objects and the other hand with nothing. With a gloved hand, she curled her index finger to remove the mud, then swiped it off with the rest of her hand.
She flinched when their eyes fluttered open, revealing their green irises. It looked like they still felt weak. So she placed her belongings on the ground and hoisted them up, their back now against the tree. Taking her things back on both hands now, she leaned back to examine them.
Surprising herself, a concerned voice finally escaped her throat without realizing it. "You passed out, I think. Are you okay?”
Her voice jolted the person awake, and they quickly wiped the mud away from their face with their palms. Their head shook and blinked rapidly, and their vision seemed to clear. As she watched, she carefully inspected their appearance.
His hair looked almost white, but it was hard to tell if it was actually whiteish blonde because of the mud and water in it. Despite being soaked, it made a little swoop. Goggles with cracked teal lenses rested on the top of his head.
He had freckles scattered across his slightly tanned face with a bandage on the ridge of his nose and on his shoulders, too. There were so many healed but deep scars on the exposed parts of his skin. His vest-like shirt, held together with x-shaped ties and a metal clasp in the middle, had slight rips and a burnt streak near his side. The shirt he wore was sleeveless, but it was accompanied by gloves and thin fabric below the elbows.
On the right side of his deep blue shorts was a dark brown bag with a vision on the front of the flap. A pyro vision.
So this guy who supposedly got struck by lightning is a pyro vision holder! He looked fit, not like the ones from the Adventurer’s Guild but in his own way if that made sense.
“That’s gonna hurt tonight…” He groaned out, his hand rubbing his side, a pained look on his face. Rays of warm sunlight sharpened his vision. The guy finally glanced at the girl before him, his eyes widening as he fell silent, not answering her question.
Once she heard his pained voice and didn’t reply to her question, Caella winced, “—I guess not. I mean, you did just get struck by lightning.”
Glancing briefly at her basket, she noticed all the apples had disappeared. It was just full a while ago! Her heart sank, visibly shocked at the moment. Then, she frowned, looking back at the white-haired guy and furrowed her brows. “Just…get up.”
He let out a sheepish chuckle before getting up on his feet, patting the wet mud off of him. Caella stood up as well, scanning the ground through her eyes to see where the apples went. Surely the basket didn’t have a hole, and those apples looked big enough that It couldn’t have fallen out.
“Thanks for finding me!” The guy spoke up after the silence, making her look up from her search just to hear him.
“Finding you?” Caella asked, sounding genuinely confused.
He shifted from one foot to another, rubbing behind his neck as his gaze was on hers and shrugged. “Yeah? You did come here to find me because one of my dads asked, right? They’re always worrying about me, but luckily, you found me!”
“About that, I don’t know who you are…” she informed this weird guy. This caused his cheeks to flare bright red, and he waved his hands in shame.
“You don’t?! Aw man, this is embarrassing!” The guy grimaced, shook his head, and extended his hand for her to shake, now wearing a huge grin on his face. “I’m Bennett! I originally thought you were the one my dads asked to find me, but it turns out I was wrong. But I’ve heard about you.”
“You have?” Her gaze flickered to her hand holding the folded umbrella and the basket on the other, then at him again. Caella watched him freeze in place, closed his fist and put it to his side.
“Y-yep! My dads were friends with your mom back then. And they heard that Blanche and Sylvan took you in after...” Bennett stopped himself, then gave her a small smile. “What’re you doing here in the woods? Finding something?”
“Right. Uh,” Eyes searched the ground, nothing but grass and dirt, looking at him now. She held out her basket, once full of apples, now empty.” “I picked some apples a while ago, full to the brim, but they disappeared.”
Green eyes twinkled in the light as he flashed a determined smile and gave a thumbs up, “I could help you with that. We can get them back in no time! I am the leader of Benny’s Adventure Team, after all. The rising stars… help out every person in Teyvat!”
“You will?”
“We will!”
Both of them began gazing up at the trees, trying to find any visible apples as they strolled along the pathways, venturing deeper into the woods. Some areas opened up where you can see a sunset over the fields.
It had been almost an hour, and they still hadn't found anything. The sun was about to set. The two of them sat on the same rock, apart from each other. He felt so bad that his heart ached. Bennett let out an embarrassed laugh, his nose pointing toward the ground. As his forced chuckle quieted down, the only sounds that remained were crickets and the rustling of the air.
He looked over at her, clearly not laughing but frowning. His mouth opened, closed, and opened again, sounding apologetic.
“I’m so sorry that we couldn't find any apples.” He mumbled. “I thought we could find at least five, but we found none.”
“There were so many before…” her voice cracked, lifting her legs and pressing her knees close to her chest. “Don’t apologize, it’s my fault anyway.”
He lifted his head and turned towards her, tilting it to the side. “How was it your fault? I felt like it was mine.”
Caella tilted her head back and gazed at the trees, which had once been adorned with apples but were now devoid of color. A sigh escaped her. “Why would it be your fault? Before I got here, I stripped the apples bare, and now there’s nothing left. I— I should’ve just taken 10 and not all of them.”
“It’s my fault cause of my bad luck!”
The girl jerked back, doing a double take at this, “Excuse me, bad luck?”
“Bad luck, yeah,” Bennett murmured, lifting one leg to rest his arm, then chin, muffling his voice. “I have such terrible luck that hardly anything goes my way.”
Peeking his eyes at her, he added, “I swore I saw a bunch of apples up ahead, but ever since we started looking for them, they’re gone. My bad luck caused this… it’s a curse!”
“A curse? Curses like that only happen in fairytales,” Caella scoffed, looking at him all baffled. “You’re lying. There’s no way. This was just a coincidence. Why are you lying to me?”
Raising his head, he gestured with his hands, attempting to prove his point, but this made him appear foolish. “Well, you can say that this ‘fairytale’ is real. I’m being serious here! Everywhere I go, bad luck always follows; that's just how it goes, only to me, at least. I was born with it.”
"As if!" she shouted, causing the white-haired guy to startle in his seat. His eyes widened as he watched her leap off the rock, her feet firmly planted on the ground. "I'm not going to believe in some stranger who says bad luck was the cause of this! Let alone that they were born with this 'curse'! Don't make up some lie so you can blame yourself.”
"I’m not lying!" pleaded Bennett as he hopped down the rock, but ended up falling onto his face. She watched him get up with mud on his cheeks, but he didn’t seem bothered at the moment. Getting up carefully, he stared at her with a hurt expression. Caella gazed over her shoulder nervously, her heart pounding in her chest, as she clutched her belongings tightly to her chest and slowly began to retreat.
This was becoming absurd. Why fabricate misfortune to shoulder the blame? It was clearly Caella’s fault; why attempt to disprove it? She searched his eyes, trying to determine if he was being genuine. Caella couldn't discern the truth. But his eyes exuded a gentle warmth, silently conveying a profound sense of kindness.
“You know what? Thanks for helping out anyways.” She sighed and turned her back toward him, preparing to leave the forest. “Don’t lie about things like that next time. You just.. You sounded crazy back there. I know it was my fault, don’t debunk it for my sake.”
“Caella…” he whispered, watching her leave until she disappeared from his sight.
As the sunset finally settled, he was left there, speechless.