Five Arabian Nights

And among these emotions

Lay the most complex of all.

Seemingly greater than joy

More mysterious than sorrow

And more often fueled

With an adrenaline bigger than anger.

It seemed larger than life at times

But at times it seemed nonexistent.

Like a dream

It sways once in a while

And like a dream

It can fade quite easily.

But the truest emotion

Will never fade.

And neither will it bring

Haunt and ruin

To a person in love.

Chapter 9

The Fourth Day

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Jaune Arc wondered if he was loved.

He knew he built a circle of trust back at his home. He built several circles, actually. They taught him how to be happy, be sad, and be angry. Every circle had its moments, but it always maintained a perfect round shape in the end. He could not deny that he never learned what love really was.

His parents tried to teach him. It only grew his confusion. His sisters tried to teach him. It grew his confusion even further. And when he fell in love, he questioned whether he was actually in love or not. For love brought too many emotions at once. It brought squabbles, chatters, and tears of mourning. The breaking of love brought just as many emotions as the eternal bonding of love did. Love was not just an emotion, but an expression as well. It was a form of affection that came in a variety of ways. Jaune did not know how it did, however.

What was love, exactly? Again, he did not know, but he knew it was not something that one could answer immediately. It took many forms, after all.

The blond knight walked down a dirt road, passing by lush gatherings of trees and flowers. A harmony of bells and piano keys softly filled the serene forest. A small, fragile voice hummed behind the audacious instruments that spread through the forest like a virus.

Bell jerked away from Ignis before floating towards the child of fire, poking her waist. Ignis flinched and jumped back before hopping over to the child of light, poking her back. They both let out light chimes and keys as they laughed. Lilium hummed, softly shielding her flower incase the other children crashed into her.

Jaune sighed as he called out for the tenth time, "Don't get too rough on the dirt."

Bell seemed fine with complying with Jaune's advice, but Ignis begged to differ. Grinning mischievously, the child of fire pounced on the child of light, who had turned to Jaune's direction. They both laughed and picked themselves up. As if Jaune had never spoken to them, they began poking at each other.

And Lilium continued to hum, softly shielding her flower as she walked alongside the knight.

Jaune believed that love was not infinite. And maybe it wasn't. There were so many stories about the breaking of love. Said stories existed since the beginning of time, based on how it seemed like a universal trait every living thing had. But he knew that when love was present, it could overwhelm a life that had seen little to no love.

Again, he knew he did not know much about love. After all, if he did, he would not repeatedly think that he did not know what it was.

It certainly was intriguing to think about. He knew that all men and women who claimed that they were uninterested in romance at the slightest extent were liars. It was a natural ability to love something, someone- anything and anyone. Love was different from hatred in the sense that one had to handpick what he or she hated. How far did love go, then? He wondered thoughtfully.

Breaking himself of his train of thoughts, Jaune glanced at Lilium. Lilium continued to hum, softly shielding the white flower she had given him. His eyes shifted their gaze on her flower.

The humming subsided, and Jaune soon noticed that the girl had turned to him. Parts of her long black hair shielded her right eye, but her left eye clearly had its gaze set on him.

She glanced at her flower, then at Jaune. A nervous look entered her once idle expression.

Jaune cracked a small smile as he pet the nervous child's head. "I'm not taking it," he said. Lilium nodded slowly as he brought his hand away from her.

She smiled as some of her tension faded.

A white flower. The dark-haired child loved the white flower. It had a special meaning to her. Jaune considered how love did not always apply to people. A source of love had the potential to bring people out of complex emotions, but in return, introduced new emotions that only love could bring. It was strange. Every emotion that love brought felt so similar to the ones he felt every day, but something felt slightly different.

Ignis was greedy, but honest. She loved finding new things and played with them. She also found it great to vent her anger on random things around her, whether it be the ground, a random tree, or even Jaune himself. She loved being free from responsibility. She loved doing things that brought her away from things uninteresting to her.

Bell loved joy. If someone smiled, then she would smile. If someone wanted to play with her, she would play with them. She loved the concept of happiness, and also served as physical proof for it. Her smiling had meaning behind them. They were full of life.

Life.

Jaune loved life.

Did other people love life?

As a new question floated weightlessly in his head, the knight perked up at the sight of a city.

A city?

From a forest to a city?

Now that he took a closer look, the dirt road blended unnaturally with the asphalt that led to the city. There were no signs of people in the large world of manmade structures. And strangely enough, the sky was pitch-white. The white sky brightened the dull city. He doubted that there could be something he loved there.

But who was he to care? He was a weak knight who was propelled into a world he did not know of. He now doubted he was in an afterlife. Perhaps he was in a very, very peculiar dream.

As soon as Bell's eyes shined at the sight of a city, Jaune Arc knew he was in for another strange experience.

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The Fourth Day -END-