"Ssshh..."
Senna heard a familiar voice from a man as she slowly gained consciousness. It was followed by several giggles that echoed around her. No, after giving more attention, they weren't echoes after all. She distinguished probably eight different tones of voices. She was surrounded.
"You might wake her up..."
It really sounded familiar. As her senses began to return, she realized she was lying in a rough and gritty surface. She brushed her arms a little and felt for the thin piece of rug that kept her from coming into contact with the ground.
"I thought I already asked you guys to leave several minutes ago?" Iris said in a sarcastic tone as he tried to point out how the children around Senna were becoming a nuisance.
He dismissed the children early that day because no matter what he did, they were completely distracted by the sleeping lady inside the same room. They stole several glances every now and then while he taught them how to read and some, who weren't able to control their curiosity, even went to her.
Annoying it may have been, he understood how the children felt. His guest had red-hair that only belonged to performers. The children probably associated her with them and expected her to do something fun like walking in tight-rope or something else when she wakes up.
At first he wondered to himself how he might probably knew the troupe she belonged to but, on second thought, she most likely wasn't part of one. The lady she saved the other night had skin so white and smooth that it couldn't possibly be from someone belonging to the low or middle social strata. Performers only seemed to have beautiful skin because of thick make-up every time they come out. He had fooled around with too many women to know this much.
He only had the chance to ask for her name before she lost consciousness but he concluded that she must be living in the upper districts. Her clothes, though plain, seemed more expensive than all of his combined. After laying her on his "bed" hours ago, he wondered if he should have made her sleep in the table instead. It would be bad if he'd be asked to pay if she'd return home with scratches from sleeping on the ground.
"She's so pretty," a small girl remarked as she poked Senna's face.
"Her hair's so soft too."
The children's small fingers poking her skin felt a little ticklish. Senna opened her eyes and saw the children all around her.
The children stared in awe at Senna's deep brown eyes. The color of her eyes were very common so
Iris thought it was funny how the children were making a big deal out of everything related to his guest. Heck, they never once praised his rare green eyes!
"She's awake, Iris!"
"Yes, yes, I can see that. Now make way." Iris said as he stood from his chair and made his way to Senna.
The red-haired lady tried to sit and as she was finally able to do so, all the children ran behind Iris.
"What's this? A second ago you guys were going gaga over her and now you're being shy?" Iris retorted in a seemingly jealous manner. "That's unexpected."
Senna looked at the scenario in front of her. She found it amusing how this many children were so comfortable with Iris. She thought how he must be a good brother.
"How are you feeling?"
Senna touched her forehead with a slight bit of pressure to try to fully awaken herself. Memories of the occurrences last night came to her. Before fainting, she definitely saw corruption in the air in the form of smoky black miasma surrounding the city.
She strengthened her limbs, stood up and then walked towards the only window in Iris' small house and looked outside. It was very bright outside and not a trace of miasma was in sight. She couldn't have been wrong. It's impossible for her to mistaken its foul stench and eerie presence with something else. She continued to stare in silence until Iris spoke.
"Is everything ok?"
"Where am I...?"
"You're in my house."
It wasn't the answer Senna was expecting. She chose to divert the topic nonetheless. If the people in front of her aren't the least bit involve, she knew fairly well how bad the situation was to make them stay innocent.
"Yes, you're house..."
Iris took a small sigh and stretched his lips a little to the side in a sarcastic manner as he watched Senna scan the room. "She's probably uncomfortable being in a cramped up place with so many people." He thought he guessed it right about her being someone from the upper districts. He felt this seemingly pompous air around her when she walked from his bed to the window.
"Hey Iris, have we bothered you enough already?"
Iris was shocked by the sudden question coming from one of his students.
"Dad told me I shouldn't let you be alone with your lovely wife. He said it's irritating how you always get the good stuff."
Iris lowered his body to the level of the boy who just spoke. He put his hand over his head and squeezed it a little.
"What's that suppose to mean, huh?" Iris asked as he tried to scare the boy in a playful manner.
"That's what your dad told you?" Another one of his students, this time a girl, interrupted them. "Mom instructed me not to leave until the lady in Iris' room wakes up or teacher might go to jail..."
The other children continued to share their own reasons why they haven't left yet. Each one was more absurd than the one they followed. Iris was dumbfounded with the remarks of his students and continued to look at them in shock. What were their parents thinking? If it was their way of teasing him then they probably didn't know that it'd get this out of hand.
"Yes, yes, you've bothered me enough. You can go now. I'd be sure to tell your parents how you were OBEDIENT enough to stay." Iris had no choice but to brush them all off. But seriously, their parent's will have a bit of scolding if he ever he sees them.
The children scurried out of the room and left Iris and Senna alone.
"Sorry about that." Iris apologized as he closed the door. "People in these parts of the city love to play around."
"It's ok"
Senna smiled a bit. It made her happy watching them. She was wrong when she thought the children before were his siblings. Good thing she lost her ability to read minds after she already learned Luen kingdom's tongue from the people she met last night. It would've been a great inconvenience if she couldn't talk to anyone like how she was mistaken for a foreigner when she first stepped foot on the city.
Iris walked towards a bag that hung from the ceiling. He took out a few pieces of bread and laid them out in a plate in the table. "You're probably hungry. This is all I have. I'm Iris by the way."
Senna smiled back at him. This time it was bigger than before.
Iris couldn't help but stare at the seemingly unearthly beauty in front of him. When he realized he was looking far too long to be considered polite, he said, "After you eat, I can only accompany you until the fifth district. People from here aren't allowed to go beyond that."
"I'm sorry but I believe I'm not from this city."
"Believe? She isn't sure?" Iris muttered in his mind. "...By any chance, were you probably kidnapped from a very far away land?" Iris asked. There was a big chance Senna wasn't from Ark. There was no way he wouldn't have known someone of her beauty no matter how sheltered she may have been.
"A far away land, eh?" Senna replied as she averted her gaze back to the window to stare up to the sky.
Iris couldn't explain why but there was definitely something sad about the red-haired lady in front of him.
As if she was looking at something far away where she could never go back, Senna added in a regretful manner, "You could say I came from someplace far away... But I wasn't kidnapped. I left on my own."