Editing Rebella/Story

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{{Neighbor Stories
|s1_title = The Girl and the Rules
|s1_text  = {{Neighbor Stories/Image|Rebella The Girl and the Rules Image 01|left}}

"Stop!!!"
Every now and then, a cry like this would break the peace of Gem Street. Before long, a wave of chaos would ripple through the street, and everyone would know — the ever-rebellious girl had done it again.

----

"NO CLIMBING ON ROOFTOPS!"
"NO REBELLA ALLOWED!!!"

Warning signs sprang up along the street like mushrooms after a storm, only to be kicked apart just as quickly by the girl they were meant for.
"Rules, schmules! Not in my dictionary!"

There was a time when Rebella was someone entirely different. She wore exquisite gowns and lived in a grand manor beneath walls of ice and snow. She took pride in her family, in their abundance, their elegance, and in the measured, enigmatic way they spoke. Until the day came when the head of the family told her she would be sent to live with another "family," to trade her name for reputation, glory, and riches.
"You are too fragile. Think of this as your way of repaying us for all we have given you..."
That was when Rebella saw through the glitter of endless riches and gentle promises, and understood the price they truly demanded.

She tilted her head, then cast aside her corseted silk dress and climbed onto a passing supply truck.
To get lost without a destination... well, why not?

----

{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Rebella The Girl and the Rules Image 02|right}}

Her belly began chanting ceaselessly by the time she wandered to Chromawright Lane, a place famed for its gemstone craft. She was taken in by a kind-hearted but eccentric craftsman whose eyes shone like fluorite, just like hers.

Before long, she was scrambling up rooftops and leaping onto passing cars. Not a single corner of the street was spared her recklessness.

----

Her eyes, glinting with a blue-green shimmer in the night, were a gift she was born with. They set her apart, allowing her to spot hidden veins of ore faster than anyone else.

But the elder smiths told a very different story.
"Her eyes? Tsk... that's actually an impairment..."
"No one knows where she came from, and she's had no proper training. She won't last long."

Rumors drifted past Rebella's ears, only to be flicked away along with a casual scratch.
She paid no mind to the whispers of strangers. What she cared about were the colors of sunlight filtering through gemstones, the wind roaming freely across the rooftops, and the aroma rising from her master's cooking.
The smell of home.

|s2_title = Dreams on a Car Roof
|s2_text  = Rebella soon realized that her master's humble gemstone workshop was the quietest place on the entire street. She sat on the rooftop, letting the wind pass her by, but couldn't figure it out. In the end, she hopped down.
"Master, what does family even mean?" Rebella asked.

The craftsman lifted his gaze from the polishing wheel and looked at Rebella, now seated beside him.
"Family, sweethearts, friends... all of them are essentially just labels and categories," he said. "Fragile, yet enduring. Sometimes, those labels give us a sense of security. But what truly matters is where you are, and what it is you really want."

Rebella seemed to catch hold of something unseen. "Then what do you want most?"
The man looked up toward a gap in the roof, where a strip of sky showed through.
"You know... there is a tri-colored gemstone mentioned in the old records, one that can bathe the land in dazzling hues at sunrise."
Wiping the sweat from his brow, her master spoke of a dream of a tri-colored gemstone.

Although the dream had nothing to do with Rebella, it piqued her curiosity nonetheless. From that day on, she began traveling with him, climbing mountains and crossing rivers in search of stones with strange and wondrous colors.

----

{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Rebella Dreams on a Car Roof Image 01|left}}

But on Gem Street, no one believes in dreams. Beauty here is measured in wealth and status.
Then, one day, a few old craftsmen warmly invited Rebella and her master to join an expedition in search of new mineral sources. She said yes without asking a single question.

----

Out in the Starsea, Rebella sat atop a car once more, but this time, the direction was hers to choose.
Following her instincts and the strange colors only her eyes could catch, she pointed toward a path few had ever taken. She had thought of coming here before, but rumors of danger had always held her back.
The old craftsmen let her lead, giving her and her master free rein to explore, though they still had their doubts when Rebella stopped before an unremarkable cliff. However, as they skeptically broke through the rock and saw the gleam of a solid vein of rare ore within, they finally realized that Rebella had led them to a mountain-sized motherlode.

----

{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Rebella Dreams on a Car Roof Image 02|center}}

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Everyone was thrilled, save Rebella. She kicked a small pebble along the ground, disappointed. It wasn't the tri-colored gemstone she had been searching for.
They called in more hands, and soon the air filled with the sound of chisels and hammers. Meanwhile, Rebella, tail swaying, drifted off into a bored nap.
By the time she woke, her companions had already driven off with their haul, leaving her behind.
Rebella patted her belly, then flopped onto the ground, spreading out into a big, soft pancake on the unfamiliar islet.
"I want meat," she said.

Her master smiled, his hair tousled like wild grass. He looked down at his pancaked apprentice and pointed toward a spot nearby. Rebella blinked. From within the broken cliff, something shimmered, strange colors catching the light...

The tri-colored gem was no dream. It was right there before her eyes.

|s3_title = A Sigh in the Wind
|s3_text  = {{Neighbor Stories/Image|Rebella A Sigh in the Wind Image 01|right}}

<i>"A fully intact tri-colored gemstone... refractive index... Hmm, hardness still needs testing..."</i>
"Master, I'm hungry... rawr."
It was the third time her stomach had rumbled in protest. The moment her dream came true was also... the moment hunger caught up with her.
And they had no vehicle for the return trip, nor food supplies.

----

As the stars shifted overhead, the urgency of survival began to outweigh her dreams. Rebella was grateful for her thick fur, and for the cold she had grown used to since childhood. She lay on the ground, talking with her master, who held the tri-colored gemstone with a contented smile.

<i>"Maybe a car will pass by any second now."</i>
"My dream right now is a pot of stew, just like the kind you used to make."
<i>"That's not a dream. That's a wish. A wish is something I can make happen. But a dream... is something out of reach, yet impossible to let go of."</i>
"So... the tri-colored gemstone is your dream, and now you've found it. But it doesn't seem—"
<i>"Look! A car!"</i>

Rebella, who had been sprawled on the ground, heard the sound of a passing vehicle. She got to her feet, clutching the tri-colored gemstone, and couldn't help but glance back.
The wind had gone still. There was nothing there.

----
{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Rebella A Sigh in the Wind Image 02|left}}

It all came back to her in that moment.
It had been like this once before. Left alone on a deserted Islet, starving and cold. The only difference was that back then, there had been no tri-colored gem in her hands.
What she had instead was her master, hair tousled and smiling as ever.
He coaxed her onto the only open seat on a passing vehicle, telling her to find help once she was back on Gem Street. However, when Rebella returned and asked the smiths around for help, nobody cared to answer her call...

----

Her worried pleas were met with one excuse after another, all about some "rules."
"It's not that I don't want to go. It's just... there's this new rule about a mandatory maintenance period after each trip..."
"We're, uh, getting things ready! Soon, we'll go get your master soon, just waiting for the um, procedures to go through..."

By the time Rebella finally managed to get a ride back to where she had said goodbye to her master, there was nothing left but dust in the wind.
And in that wind, an unclaimed sigh. Drifting, forever unheard.

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