Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Minor Hiccups

The four children stare at the wealthy brunette in confusion: not understanding why the woman is acting so hostile and also because most of them can’t understand her language.

Their strange savior’s eyes glow a deep alien blue as he mockingly bows towards the two individual, “And to what do I owe the displeasure of meeting elves so far from their nest?”

The woman’s eye twitches as she angrily responds, “You will best watch your tongue cur, but I can see why you would surround yourself among other mutts just like you.” She stares daggers at Sune specifically but before she can say another word the man standing next to her puts a hand in front of her and begins speaking.

“Sister there is no reason to be confrontational with this half-breed, we have more important endeavors.”

The blue-eyed man smiles and begins to mock her with faux solicitude “You should listen to him, as your family knows best, sis.”

The woman’s eyes widen as she flies into a rage and is held back by her brother “No common gemang is a relative of mine. And you’d best remember that.” she barks while trying to pull away from her brother’s grasp.

“Ah. Did I strike a nerve with that statement elf? Do you not accept me as another highborn?” The man continues to mock the woman.

The woman begins to open her mouth, but no words come out as her sibling whispers something into her ear, and she promptly stops her resistance. “Tsk” she clicks her tongue and turns to walk away as she spews a few empty threats and pointless insults before her brother drags her off onto some unknown road.

The black-haired man sighs before turning to the kids and speaking tiredly “I’m sorry about that. I was hoping we wouldn’t run into anyone who recognized my eyes or Sune.”

Sune’s tail and ears droop like a wilting flower as she asks quietly “Is there something wrong with my dress that caused us problems?”

The man smiles at her and pats her head “Didn’t I already tell you? I think your dress was a wonderful choice. Just some people in this world hate wonderful things. It was not your fault.” Sune’s eyes arch up towards his smiling face.

“Sorry... I just don’t want to be a burden to you after everything you’ve done.”

The man takes his hand off her head as he reminds her “Why are you saying sorry? You did nothing wrong so you have nothing to apologize for. Just put your head up and ignore their pointless remarks.”

“Bu-” the man quickly cuts her off “No buts!” She opens her mouth to retort but is interrupted by a stifled laugh from behind. As she quickly spins around, she notices Fang with his hands on his hips with the most condescending smirk he can muster. Sune can’t help but chuckle at his poor attempt at imitation and suddenly feels the sorrow in her mind slowly burn away: watching Hollie try and fail to stop her laughter and the ever-quiet Kumiho’s lips slightly curl upwards.

Suddenly a voice whispers in her ear from behind, “See? It wasn’t that big of a deal.” She turns to see the man with a cordial smile on his face.

“Yeah, but they can’t even understand what that woman said.” She pouts. The man in response simply keeps smiling and pats her on the shoulder before walking past her and making silly imitations with the kids. Sune watches his actions dumbfoundedly.

After the whole ordeal is over, the children find themselves in a quaint little restaurant filled with the many scents of spices, meats, and cooking food. A waitress greets them and leads them to a fine wooden table covered in a red tablecloth with two seats on both sides and one seat on the far end of the table. The man chooses the end seat with Hollie and Sune on his right and Fang and Kumiho on his left. The waitress then asks the five what they want to eat.

Sune at first orders stamppot but after being told it isn’t a dish they serve she begrudgingly asks for sausage and mashed potatoes. Hollie orders bread and baked beans with a side of sunny side up eggs. Fang orders grilled mutton chops. Kumiho orders seasoned ox liver. They all get water as their refreshment and the black-haired man orders steak with an odd red liquid none of the kids recognize. The waitress surprisingly knows a little of the children’s language and is able to properly write down all their orders before walking into the kitchen.

As they wait, the children talk amongst one another and Oswin teaches them how to play I spy, only Kumiho refraining from playing.

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As the blue-eyed man finishes his fantastical tale of strange beasts and a hero of old the waitress finally comes and serves them their meals.

They continue to talk and eat for the rest of the day, savoring their first real meal in what feels like forever and they might’ve done this all night as well if the store didn’t close before sundown.

The children follow the man through the darkening streets only illuminated by the orange light of torches and the receding sunset as they are brought to a large wooden building. Uproarious laughter and raucous voices cascading out the open door of the building. The man tells the children to stay near him, but his voice is almost drowned out by the wave of noise as they enter building.

They enter a large room filled to the brim with tables and people on all sides. Men drink foaming liquids from wooden mugs as they talk loudly, waitresses go to and from tables, constantly filling the different table’s mugs and passing out food to whoever asks. Some of the men look towards the group as they enter with curious gazes but most are too engrossed in their conversations to notice or care about the strange group of children. The man leads the children through the filled room with practiced ease, smoothly moving through the crowd with no effort. Only tapping or pushing the occasional man who gets too close to the children, some turn in drunken rage but almost always stop upon seeing the children or the man’s cold blue eyes.

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Finally reaching the desk where a young woman stands, the man politely speaks with the woman, “Hello madam, we would like a room for the five of us.” He says with a charming smile.

The woman smiles back and pulls a key with a paper tab tied to it that has the letter seven on it before stating “It is five copper a night for one person, so...” She pauses to think for a second “That’ll be thirty-five copper a night.”

The man hands her one silver coin and five copper coins “We will be staying for just a few nights.” The woman politely takes the coins and hands them the key before giving the kids a sweet smile and waving them towards the stairs in the corner of the room. As they enter through the simple dark brown door, a room with four beds evenly spaced apart and a small window behind each is revealed. Other than the beds there is a door on the right wall and a small desk on the left with a candle on the right edge of the desk.

As soon as they enter the man closes the door and pulls out a strange grey cube with red glowing cracks covering it. As he twists the top of the cube, a red glow spreads through the room and suddenly all noise from the tavern below and the sound of wind blowing through the streets disappears. The room becomes deathly quiet, only the light breathing from the five of them being heard; the windows that used to show the twin moons and the neighboring buildings suddenly only show a strange red glow that blocks any and all sight of and from the outside world.

The man’s voice suddenly rings through the silent room as he speaks “I’m sorry my introduction is so late, but I didn’t want to risk any rats listening in. My name is Oswin but when we are in public, please call me Aldwin because my real name has become rather synonymous with some unfavorable things in this empire. Now I know you are confused and most likely worried as well, so I will try and explain everything to you now.” He pauses to look at the children before continuing “Now I will try and keep it simple and brief because you are all far too young to hear these things, but I still think you should know regardless. As you all might have heard you four have an affinity towards World Energy which in layman's terms means you all can do magic with enough practice. This affinity is why you all were left out from the rest of the kids, as you lot are more... Valuable.” Oswin has trouble finding the correct words to use towards the children but continues anyways “They were going to use you kids specifically for a particularly nasty project that I won’t go into detail on but would certainly at the minimum leave you kids...” The man completely stops for a long moment, his face twisting and contorting into numerous ugly expressions before choosing to continue. His voice is noticeably less refined and perfect: breaking and stopping at random intervals “It would leave you... At the least mentally crippled and at worst a... A breathing doll, so to speak, left without a mind.”

The children stand there listening to the man’s statements with numerous emotions swirling on their faces: horror, disbelief, terror, and more all at once; their eyes all shaking in a cacophony of thoughts. Fang shakily asks, “Wha-Why would they want to do that?”

Oswin gives a sullen smile as he responds tiredly “For the same reason why man does any evil: for power, for wealth, and any other selfish goal they have. I’m just sorry you kids had to be roped into something like this, something only adults should have to shoulder.”

Fang looks down in contemplation while the rest of the kids stand still or tremble softly, letting the information sink into their minds thoroughly. As they stand in a daze suddenly Oswin claps and while holding his hands together show a cheerful smile, “I know this isn’t something any of you wanted to hear but I don’t think I should leave you all in the dark just because you are kids. Especially since this is something so dangerous. But regardless let's just forget about it for now, okay? Leave it as an issue for tomorrow while we talk about something happier.” The children all instinctively nod at the man’s question, but their foggy eyes show that they aren’t truly registering his words.

Oswin sighs as he takes out another strange cube from his jacket pocket. The cube glows a faint purple through the web of cracks in its grey surface. As he twists the top of the cube, it begins pulsing with light as all the cube’s walls push outwards, breaking apart from the cracks. The pieces float in the air in a roughly cube shape around the violet-colored core. Lines of ethereal purple connecting to each of the floating pieces and leading back to the glowing violet cube in the center. Then suddenly, all is disturbed as Oswin pushes through the pieces and his hand goes directly into the core, completely disappearing within. He appears to rummage around inside the cube; oddly enough his entire forearm seems to easily fit within the small fist sized cube and occasionally his arm goes right up to the elbow into the small cube. After twenty seconds of rummaging, he makes a little “Aha!” sound as he pulls something out slowly. The last of his hand comes out and a stack of four identical leather books are revealed. As he holds the books in his right, his left idly sits under the violet core as the pieces are slowly pulled back together by the purple strings. And when everything fully comes back together, the cube falls into the man’s palm as he quickly pockets it into his coat.

He hands each of the children a leather book, giving them ample time to examine the books more thoroughly. The leather surface of the book is in a scale pattern and in the center is a golden sigil; a hollow circle that has a blade, a book, and a staff all within it, engraved in the same gold as the encompassing circle itself. The children turn and flip the books over and around, looking over its leather scales curiously and intently while occasionally rubbing the center sigil with their hands or fingers. The man smiles at their curiosity and interest before opening his mouth to speak.

“These are books commonly used to teach foreign people words in this kingdom’s language. If you open the book, you will notice that the words will shift and change to be understandable regardless of your actual language or reading abilities. I’ve even heard of some people’s books being filled with pictures because they can’t read at all, but I digress. I want you kids to read it at least once a day or night so that you can become better at speaking and reading this kingdom’s language because unfortunately going back home at the moment would be rather difficult and in some of your cases, impossible. And if you’re going to stay here longer, you need to learn the language.” He finishes the final few sentences with a gloomy tone of voice, but still tries to keep a smile for the children.

Sune excitedly mumbles some incoherent words that show her excitement, whereas Hollie and Kumiho are far less excited over the prospect of studying and simply stare at the books’ covers. Fang looks at the book with even more sparkles in his eyes than Sune and they begin to fawn over the idea of learning new words together as they sit by one of the windows and read while talking. Kumiho and Hollie on the other hand simply walk over to the beds and lay down. Hollie opening the book and at least pretending to read; Kumiho simply staring at its surface while other thoughts pass through her head. As the night goes on, eventually Oswin decides it’s time to sleep and says two of the children will have to sleep together because of the lacking beds. Which Sune promptly agrees for Hollie that they will sleep together, much to Hollie’s obvious dismay.

Kumiho stares through the lightly green tinted window behind her bed, watching the swirling galaxy of colors and lights and the twin moons floating in the sky. The moons are both a pale glowing white but whereas one is bare and simply covered in dark splotches; the other has what appears to be a large grey blade piercing through its center and out the other side, making the moon look like a giant celestial kebab. With thoughts of the events of the day still swirling through her mind, she slowly drifts off into sleep.