The first night of my life happened peacefully without any kind of disturbances on my mind. Other than the mysterious girl in the house, there wasn't anything that currently occupied my thought.
I was simply being comfortable by resting on the lap of the previous pair. I acknowledged that they must be my new parents in this world, but I just could not overcome the awkward feeling of calling someone new your father or mother. However, my infatuation towards them was a sincere feeling I could not deny in any way inside me.
They stayed up all night watching me, exchanging words with each other several times. No matter how hard I listened to them, it just irked me more to understand the meaning of their words. If I wanted to fit and survive in this world, then I would have to learn as many aspects of my new life as possible such as the type of speech that was being spoken here.
The lady under the sea gave me missions to 'retrieve her body' and 'restore the world', something I didn't have enough explanation for. I decided to just focus on finding Aria at the moment, therefore I had to gather any clues that could help me with my task. Especially the thing that the turtle woman did with the water previously.
I faintly remembered the face that Aria made that time, the frown she had when her body was disintegrating. If she was truly unwilling to go with me, I would have felt so guilty to drag her so far into this. But in the end, she decided on her own to go with the deal, so perhaps there was a glint of hope in this situation. I should definitely not betray and waste her expectation.
A yawn unintentionally slipped out of my mouth, stopping the chatter between the man and the woman. I couldn't exactly tell what happened to my body, but I was just feeling tired from all the events which carried their own surprises.
The man smiled lightly before picking my wrapped figure up and brought me out to the same big room while also holding a candle in his free hand. Darkness had inhabited the room by then and the only thing I could inspect was the loose greyish robe that the man wore. The turtle woman must have gone away as soon as the rain stopped dripping.
We went upstairs after going through the dim hall and he strode carefully as to not drop me all of a sudden. The woods creaked when we reached the second floor, and after a couple of steps, a door slid open on the left.
He walked inside before lowering his body to the middle of the room and passed the candle's fire to a seemingly bigger candle. I was dropped on a large pillow that was encased by a wooden cradle, preventing me from moving anywhere other than the comfortable pillow.
A circular noise was present above me; a nostalgic sound of peak annoyance, the sound of mosquitos, or whatever kind of insect it was in this world. It appeared that I might have to deal with my worst enemy at night time again.
Next to the cradle, a box that contained flowers with red petals laid there near the window, emitting a strong yet not too pleasant smell that pricked my nose. The man plucked the topmost flower and brought it near the fire to burn it, but the candle fire caused no harm to the petal.
The flame was simply too weak and the man seemed to notice too. At that moment, the insect had already bugged me mercilessly by landing some bites here and there.
He then took the candlestick further from me and pulled his sleeves, as if preparing to do something drastic to it. His pointer and middle fingers were extended near the fire while the rest were closed in his palm. Then without any kind of care to his fingers, he planted them into the fire straight away.
I wondered what he was trying to do, but I was more worried about his burning fingers. His face however, was not showing any sign of distress over long exposure to fire.
His thumb joined after quite a while and he rubbed them all together in a very brisk way. Astoundingly, the candle burst more sparks and his fingers were burning from the wildfire this time. The red heat was dancing on the top of his nails with intensity similar to a torch. He tried to burn the crimson petal again with the bigger fire and the flower was immediately starting to produce some smoke.
The stinky scent was becoming thicker in the room and my nostril had itched so much from the ashes that flew to me. My patient was beginning to show its worth when the insect suddenly got itself in a pinch and flew as far as it could from the house.
Apparently, the vexing smoke was irking the insect's sense much more than It did to me. Finally, I regained a taste of peace after facing the bothersome night bug with the man.
But seriously though, how could he pull off a fire ignition without tools? Was he able to control fire just like how the turtle woman controlled the bathwater?
My suspicion was cleared when he flicked his finger and made the fire disappear in no time. Without any doubt, this man I should call father any time soon had proficiency in meddling with fire.
The smoke was still invading the room when he decided to give a peck on my forehead and carefully walked away from the room, leaving me alone with only one company from the candlelight or maybe more if you counted the calming screeches outside.
"Majaga kah adiba rumu?" he seemed to be speaking with someone after the door had been shut close. It must be a conversation with the woman, but was she able to even stand after delivering my birth?
The sound of his steps gradually faded as he was reaching the lower floor, filling my mind with a looming dread I could not remove easily. My eyes got heavier in the poorly lit room but I was feeling anxious from the previously stinking smoke.
The dangerous mist slowly crept into the entirety of my nose, forcing me to sneeze the air out and choking my throat with a great sense of itch. My neck was on the verge of draining at the moment and I needed water with any amount so desperately. I tried to call for help but only tiny squeals and coughs escaped my mouth. Imitating other babies' cries that I used to hear was somewhat a crucial talent I lacked as a newborn.
Before my head could spiral any worse, the door was slammed open in a hurry and the steps approached me in quick intervals. My mind was feeling grateful when a help arrived, but the person that revealed herself in front of the light turned out to be the last person I expected. Someone else other than the woman came instead. Someone with a small posture, light-brownish skin, and also brown hair.
It was the peeking girl from before.
Her face was hidden because of the lacking light but she was clearly panicking. She was frozen in place for a bit before dashing to the window side and picked up a container that must have collected the rainwater. The last remaining thing she had to do was feed me with the water inside the container but she was hesitating about something.
Then, she did the unexpected. She chugged down the container into her mouth until there wasn't any drop left. My hope died out at the same time she finished drinking the whole thing, however, she was still looking at me with concern and extended one of her hands.
From her fingers, a lot of strings with yellowish color spurted from the skin and then grappled into my neck. I already expected for the worst when there was a sudden sensation of liquid pouring into my throat, and it was the best thing ever.
The cold water filled my throat and immediately removed the itch that obstructed my mouth.
After gulping more water down into my insides, I eventually spotted the water droplets that were transported by the strings from her hand. The beads fell one by one, seemingly extracting water from her body and transferred them into my neck.
When I had calmed down for a bit, she retrieved the strings and stopped the stream of water from overflowing me. I inspected her as my heart was still beating quite fast and noticed her purple eyes. She was showing a face of relief and exhaled a big breath without moving from her place.
Contented with my recovery, she gazed at me with adoration as she slowly tried to poke my hand, probing it several times as if she never touched one before. I caught her finger within my palm, causing her to gasp awkwardly from the sudden contact.
A while after the long touching between us, she returned her finger before giving me a smile and left my cradle. She closed the sliding door leisurely and I was able to catch the glimpse of her hand wave which bid us farewell for the night.
Once again, I yawned from the exhaustion that clumped within me and got sleepier every time my eyes flickered.
I was too dizzy to even absorb any information properly, therefore I did not give any mind to anything. At last, I was able to enter the realm of dreams in this new world.