Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Birds of prey
It was summer, Miya was walking down the narrow path leading back to his home. The wind raised his hair lightly as the sun reflected on his white hair. The birds flew playfully in the air mixing with the sound of the cicadas that were in the grass.
Coming into his home, he took off his sandals and opened the wooden door. The house he lived in wasn't big but surprisingly it was the only house that was made of stones both inside the village and it's outskirts; but even at that the house wasn't that big. It looked like a regular house, the entryway being made of wood with steps leading to the door covered by a wooden roof, the only things that stood out were the windows that were made of wood and the roof that was made of straws.
His mother welcomed him as he came inside. "Back from the farm? How'd it go?" Hugging him gently. Her voice was joyful.
"The same as usual." His voice a little muffled because of her clothes.
"And the book I lent you?" she asked as she pulled herself away from him.
"I gave it to the farmer's daughter," he said walking past her.
"Reina again?" She said, smiling slightly, looking a little mischievous. "You know it isn't nice to forget people's names."
He continued walking, not caring at all about what she was saying. She sighed then gave a bright smile, watching him as he walked into the living room. "I'm going out for a bit, I'll be back soon. Make sure you go to school today," she said as she shut the door behind her.
Miya took a seat at the round dining table. It had 4 wooden chairs spread equally around it. Besides the dinner table was the parlour with 2 wooden armchairs placed side by side at the left, at the right was 1 medium sized couch with 2 pillows at each end and at the center was a longer sized couch with 3 pillows placed on it, 2 at each end one in the middle. They were spaces between the wood as part of the design and the foam was attached to the bottom of the wood.
There were 2 wide windows at both ends of the living room, one was facing the dining table and the other, facing the couch at the left.
He sat on the chair behind the window. With his breakfast infront of him; a loaf of bread and a cup of tea. He put his hands together and offered a short prayer over the meal before he ate.
He closed his eyes as he swallowed the bread, sighing as he opened his eyes. "Marina Graystov, my mother. Long white hair dyed brown leaving only her top, brown eyes, smooth skin, short nails and piercings of red jewels on both of her ears. She is a noble when he pregnated her at 18."
"We live in the outskirts of the village, Sowfred, where she gave birth to my sister and I. She wears normal clothes that makes her look like the other villagers. The only things that set her apart are her earings that she got from her bedridden mother who approved her running away."
When he had finally finished eating he got up walked to the couch in the middle and fell flat on his face. Lying down, he went back into thought. "Kitsumi Graystov, my father. A man with the body of a professional boxer. Peach brown hair raising upwards, green eyes slim fingers and slightly tanned skin. In these parts, he is well known for being an adventurer but he was actually once the head of the Knights at the Graystov mansion. He fell in love with my mother there, slept with her then ran away with her."
"I read in a book that the Graystov's live all the way in the next continent. I wonder why they had to go so far just to run away," he said aloud, raising his head from the couch. He faced upward and covered his eyes with his left hand. "Haa, I really don't want to go to school today."
He was about falling asleep when he heard knocks on the door. He didn't get up, he waited patiently expecting the person to assume no one was around then leave but the person just kept knocking, louder and louder every single time.
Giving up he covered his head with a pillow and tried to sleep. The person immediately opened the door marching into the living room. Miya clicked his tongue as a girl with shirt yellow hair walked into the room." Hey! why didn't you open the door?!"
Miya pretending to be asleep didn't reply. "I know your awake!" Stamping her foot so hard on the floorboard that Miya heard a snap. He rose kneeling on the couch, he brushed his eyes as he looked at her. "Oh, it's the farmer's daughter."
'You were actually asleep?!"
Miya squinted while blocking his ears. "Quit yelling," he said, sinking his head back into the pillow as he went back to lying down.
"Ah, I'm sorry. Wait a minute!"
She grabbed one of the pillows on the couch beside her and slammed it on the back of his head. "Get up!"
Miya looked up at her as he turned his face in her direction. He had just noticed what she was wearing. A wide brim straw hat with a pink ribbon tied to it. A light pink long sleeved v-necked button cropped cardigan sweater which stopped below her chest, the sweater was unbuttoned revealing her white sheath gown that stretched to her heel, with a pink midi belt of the same colour as her sweater fastened around her waist and flat peach coloured sandals.
None of them spoke to each other for a short while and Miya just kept staring at her. "What?" She asked and after another few seconds of silence Miya said, "you look pretty." Getting up from the couch.
She froze and her face immediately turned red, she quickly clasped both of her cheeks. "E-eh?! Where did that come from?! Don't tell me that you..." She glanced up at him. Miya carrying his plate and cup from the table and walked to the kitchen. "Works every time," he said to no one in particular.
"Ah!" She opened her eyes in shock." Stop using my personality against me!" Her voice a little shaky as she yelled angrily, her cheeks still bright red.
Miya didn't reply. Reina could hear the rushing of water from the kitchen. "Jeez," she said sounding exhausted. walking to the door of the kitchen, she folded her arms. "You know, I'm basically your only friend so it would be nice if you could appreciate me some more."
Approaching her. "It's not like asked you to be," waving his hand gesturing her to move out of the way. She clicked her tongue as she walked away. "You really are annoying sometimes, you know that?"
She stumped to the entrance, Miya cleaning the dinner table with a cloth. "Meet me outside when you're done!" slamming the front door behind her. "she's pissed." When he finished he walked back to the kitchen. "I wonder if she'll notice if I follow the back door."
The kitchen, unlike other rooms was arranged horizontally with the sink facing sets of rectangular widows which showed the tall grass rooted behind their house. He turned to the opposite door of the kitchen which lead to the rear of the house. "I wonder if she'll notice if I follow the back door."
He opened the door at the other end. It lead to a narrow dark store room with wooden shelves stretching downward to what appeared to look like another door btu was too dark to be noticed if not for the circle on the door taking the same image as that of the windows, emitting the faint light into the room.
The passage was dusty and certainly unkept as bean bags, farm tools and old pots were left disarranged. "This place stinks," he said, gently shutting the door behind him. "I'll clean this up later."
He made his way through the narrow path, mostly because of his small stature. As he pulled open the door he saw the grassland behind his house, the blue sky and the forest and mountains far off in the distance; and as he looked down below the steps...he saw an angry girl with folded arms.
There was a period of silence, she stared at him glaring at him as she bared her teeth, waiting for what he would say. "I forgot something inside," he said as he swiftly tried to close the door. But the girl swiftly climbed the three wooden steps, slamming her palm right above the handle, forcefully pushing the door open. She grabbed him by the collar.
"Let's gooo!" she yelled as she pulled him outside and throwing him over her shoulder and onto the grass.
He landed hard on his back, squinting his eyes tightly as he sat upward.
Reina closed the door and stumped down to where Miya was. "I can't believe you," she said with a slight disgust in her voice; walking past Miya who managed to open one of his eyes. She went to the front of the house while Miya was dusting himself off after he had gotten up from the ground.
The sound of footsteps approaching him from behind caused him to pause momentarily, but when he looked back all that was there was the grassland and a faint brown colour that ran into the higher grass immediately as he looked back before disappearing.
He was still staring at the higher the grass when the wind became a little rougher. "Move it!" Reina said, pulling him by the arm.
They walked together, Miya still being held by the arm until they had gotten a reasonable distance from his house.
They were at the farmer's district. which was a place where all the farmers lived and divided the land equally amongst themselves. Ever since they left neither of them said a word to each other but at random moments Reina would mummer to herself angrily.
The silence continued even after she had let go of him. The farmers that recognized them would smile as they walked past, while other children would make fun of them as they ran past playing with each other.
Reina was always a show of expression, the other children liked her reactions, and she in return, would put on a good show. Miya on the other hand didn't react to anything at all he just continued to stare at the distance as they walked.
A few minutes passed and they were almost out of the district. Miya was focusing on 2 birds that seemed to be racing each other in the sky. Reina noticing his interest decide to speak to him.
"That's a first. I didn't know you liked birds."
"I don't."
"Hm?"
Miya didn't say anything else after that, he just turned to the stones and leaves on the ground and stared at them as he walked. His looked so focused but calm at the same time as if his life depended on the tiny stones that he stepped upon the sandy road.
"Ah, there he goes again," she sighed, facing her front then glancing back at him. "When he has that expression talking to him is basically pointless..." the glance quickly turned to a stare "I wonder why he's like this, every time I look at him something about him feels...empty." Like a picture flashed in her mind. She recalled a memory from when she was just a little younger. Miya with that same expression on his face as he looked down. Bruises on his face and dirt all over his clothes. His hair was a ruffled mess and his left eye looked a little reddened. A shadow of a building shading his entire body darkening the features of his face and making the bruises stand out even more and something about the cloudy sky behind him made the image of the boy, who looked as if he was barely able to stand, a truly sad memory to Reina.
She tore her eyes away from him as if to tear the memory from her mind, she started feeling sad and regretting how she had treated him this morning. That's when she looked back at Miya again just to notice that he was staring at her. For a moment she was startled then became confused but before she could ask him anything he had already looked away. "What was that about?"
And after a few more minutes of walking they'd arrived at the village. The village was surrounded by a stone walls with an iron gate. Miya stayed by the gate while Reina was exchanging pleasantries with the gatemen, watching as one of the gatemen handed her a shopping bag, he also watched all the horsemen, farmers, traders and all other people that were either coming or leaving the village.
Reina walked towards him slowly. "I'm done," she said in a soft voice, looking at him with pitiful eyes that she tried to hide behind her smile. Miya noticed them but couldn't care less for why she had them, he already knew that everyone in the village looked at him that way and for that reason he found it as a good excuse for why he couldn't go to the village, but that didn't last very long.
The village wasn't very big so there wasn't really many people, but for some reason there was another large number of houses that had closed till further notice and people that were left seemed to be really excited about something.
"We're never gonna get it at this rate," Reina complained. "Get what?" he asked, but Reina didn't answer, looking around impatiently as they walked past around the village. After every turn, she'll look at the few people that were there, the shops and diners, the faces of the traders and even the spaces between buildings were pickpockets and drunken men spent their day.
"Where is he..." tightly squeezing the ropes of her bag. She walked away from Miya and started talking to one of the traders.
Miya sat on a bench in front of a water fountain at the center of a four-way round about. He was staring at the sky again, kicking his fact and putting his weight on his arms. The same expression on his face as when he was walking to the village.
As he was staring the sound of a metallic object broke his focus, he turned to the left and looked to the ground.
There was a silver coin on the ground, two feet away from where he was seated. It was facing heads with the picture of what looked like a shining star on the earth engraved on it.
A little after the first coin appeared-another silver coin shot out of the fountain and landed 2 feet away from the first coin, rotating before coming to rest. Miya looked into the fountain and the only things that were there were rocks and a few bronze coins.
He got off the bench and picked up the first silver coin and examined it. As he looked up, a man that was carrying a heavy sack of potatoes on his shoulder was walking past. Out of a rip at the bottom of the sack another silver coin fell out. "Two feet again..."
Miya picked up the next coin and once again another silver coin appeared, this time it came out of a chicken fluttering it's wings. He kept on following the trail of coins, picking them up one at a time. "Hey! Where are you going?!" Reina called out, trying to get past 2 hawkers that were trying to sell their products to her.
The silver coins kept on appearing, out of windows, inside carts, beside sleeping dogs; but it stopped when he had reached a bar. It was one of the only few buildings that was actually made of stone.
He waited at the entrance of the bar expecting to happen. He also attempted entering but it was locked. Turning to the side of the building, there was a brown squirrel nibbling on a shiny object.
Slowly he approached it but upon hearing his footsteps it ran away into the space between the bar and the building opposite it. He looked at the space between the buildings but it was nowhere to be seen.
He was about entering the same direction as the squirrel when he felt something under the sole of his sandal. He rose his leg and beneath it there was a gold coin. "Is this what it was nibbling on?" He picked it up and looked at the image engraved on it, unlike the silver coins the Gold coin only had the image of a cross on it.
"I wonder how a gold coin even got here," he said looking into the space again. he saw the squirrel seated at the center staring at him, it looked like a doll, you could barely tell if it was even alive-the only difference between it and an actual squirrel was that one of its eyes stood out because of it's bright yellow colour.
Miya and the squirrel were staring at each other for a few seconds, and the more he looked at it the more he got the feeling that it was calling him. He could feel it, like a cold but faint wind pushing him back but at the same time, it was like a tune that being played just for him.
As this was going on, Reina appeared from the corner of a building, panting and sweating as she looked around "Miya!" she called out as soon as she spotted him. Immediately, the squirrel turned around and ran back into the space.
Miya, ignoring Reina's call ran after it. "Wait!" she shouted as she followed in the pursuit. As they ran the shadow of the buildings made the place a little dark, what was strange was that the place kept getting darker and darker and what was meant to a small alleyway turned into an endless road.
"What's going on ?!" she said to herself. "Why is it getting so dark?!" Why is he running?! Why can't I catch up to him?!" trying her best to speed up, she tripped on herself and fell-that's when she finally looked back.
To her amazement, the once small space between a bar and an apartment had looked as if she was trapped in the bottom of an endless well. The 2 buildings had become extremely huge and had curved fusing with each other to form a tunnel sealing off the light and the only source of light was from the place she had come from.
She looked back at where Miya used to be but because of the darkness she couldn't see nor find him, she got up immediately, ripping her sandal while trying to take it off as she sprinted after him, faster than she had ever done in her entire life. "I need to find him, I need to find him.." she kept on saying it repeatedly in her mind as she dashed deeper and deeper into the darkness.
The further she ran the higher the buildings grew and curved downward. No matter how much she ran she felt as if she was just running in the same position. It became so dark that she couldn't see a thing, all she could do was hear herself panting and the sound of her footsteps as she continued to race forward.
Suddenly, a faint white light shone ahead of her glittering as the light increased the faster she ran to it. She was so tired she wanted to stop running but for some reason she couldn't stop trying to reach for the light. The closer she got to it the more visible the area became.
The white light started to become bigger and brighter out of it seeped a faint blue light that curled over each other like a light transparent fabric twisted gracefully, they stretched out from all sides of the circular white light and inside the blue she could see shimmers of tiny white lights that spread out of all the blue lights.
At that point; she couldn't speak, she couldn't think, all her senses had grown numb but the attraction she felt to go towards the light made it look like she was possessed.
The blue lights made everything around her radiate slowly and twisted as they sunk into each other and the tiny shimmers had attached in large numbers, like a swarm of bees, to her body and whenever they touched a part of her body would disappear, like shimmers.
The slow radiation that sunk to her body and twisted round her as if it was getting pulled forcefully began to vibrate as she reached closer to the white light, and in an instant, immediately as what was left of her body had reached 2 feet away from the light, everything squeezed together then vanished.
The white light disappeared, and the shimmers disappeared. Everything had returned to normal, but Miya and Reina were nowhere to be seen.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone