Ria tried to open her heavy eyes. It was as if there was an invisible force trying to stop her from opening her eyes. She wiggled a little and hit something hard in front of her.
A wall?
She squirmed a little and tried touching the wall again. Ria trailed the sides of the wall, but it seemed she was completely encapsulated in it.
Right, who was she again? Ria could feel her memories were still there, but they were so far away from her right now. She could only rely on her instincts and subconscious to move about right now.
She had this indescribable urge to break the wall. Ria felt she could. And so, that's what she did. At first, nothing happened, even as she pushed on the walls with all her might. But soon, she pushed her whole body on it.
Craaaack—!
It was as if a dam burst open. Ria wanted to escape even more now, now that she knew she could.
As her body hit the cold sand beneath her, she finally realized that she had to breath. Ria took deep gasps of air as she slowly got up. Everything was quiet, but it wasn't like she heard the ringing in her ears either.
Was she deaf? Actually, she couldn't see either. What was happening to her?
Ria spent her first few days in a daze. The people around her took care of her, but she felt no warmth or compassion from these people. Why does it feel like she lost something?
And that was when it hit her. All of it. Her memories came flooding back to her. Ria's first memories, her childhood, her first crush, her eighteenth birthday, the day she moved out, the day she-
The day she died.
-
Ria jolted awake. She frantically looked around in the dark, seemingly searching for something. Fallios looked up groggily.
[Are you okay?] He asked sleepily. Fallios let out a yawn, stretched, and then fell back to sleep all in the span of a few seconds.
Ria stared at Fallios's face for a long time. She felt relieved for some reason when looking at him. Her eyelids slowly closed again, her head still facing Fallios's direction.
The next morning, Arlitos walking in their enclosure with a smile on his face. "Good morning, you two." He said.
Ria lazily spurted a weak jet of water at him. It was so weak that it didn't even hit him. She floated in the pond like a piece of driftwood, her limbs splayed out like a rug.
She was more exhausted than usual, but she couldn't sleep. She was too afraid to remember.
"Alright, are you two hungry?" Arlitos didn't even blink when she sprayed at him. She caught him so many times in the past month that he wasn't even fazed anymore.
At the mention of food, Fallios agilely hopped down from his ledge and approached Arlitos, his tail lightly swaying from side to side.
Ria swam to the edge of the pond and crawled out. Thankfully, the pond was more like a wide bowl, with it becoming more shallow the closer to the shore she got.
If not, Ria would have a hard time trying to climb up with her huge body. Fallios was still okay since he had legs meant for running, but for her, her size would only be useful when she was bigger and didn't have to climb.
Arlitos put his hand on his chin and tilted his head as if he was deliberating on something. "Would you like to eat in the dining hall instead?" He asked.
Fallios turned to look at Ria, who was slowly approaching them. He looked hesitant to accept even though he obviously wanted to go.
[I won't freak out this time, I promise] Ria knew what Fallios was worried about and promptly shut it down.
She was just stressed from her new environment plus the thought of her mother. Ria knew her limits and knew that she would be fine this time.
Fallios sighed and turned around to nod at Arlitos, who smiled and spoke again. "Okay, but you might need to wash yourselves outside so you won't make a mess, got it?"
They both nodded and the both of them, plus Arlitos walked outside. Ria sprayed herself and Fallios off.
"I should go get towels.." Arlitos mumbled as he turned to go find a maid. Fallios realized something and went to stop him.
"Hisssss—" He hissed, making Arlitos stop and turn around in confusion. Fallios shook his head at him. It was a waste of time to bring towels in his opinion.
Ria also looked at him in confusion. Fallios turned to look at her. [We can just use your cultivation to dry ourselves off] He said.
Her eyes widened in realization. She immediately sat down and began absorbing the water on her shell, while Fallios took advantage of the heat radiating off of her to evaporate the water on himself.
Arlitos watched them in shock. "Wow. I didn't know you two were this smart." Even he, the one who was supposedly supposed to be smarter not only because he was a human, but because he was older than them hadn't thought of this ingenious idea.
That doesn't mean he couldn't have, it just meant he wouldn't have thought of it for this specific situation.
"I guess, let's just go then.." He mumbled, not even looking behind him to check if Ria and Fallios was following him.
He led them down various hallways before stopping at a set of double doors. He opened the doors himself and propped them open for Ria and Fallios.
Servants would only announce their arrival when they were at important events. Breakfast didn't count as an important event.
There were three people sitting at the long rectangular table; a man, a woman, and a young girl. The man and the young girl both had blond hair and blue eyes, while the woman was Asian.
The young girl, around thirteen years old turned to look at Arlitos with a neutral expression on her face and a fork close to her mouth.
Her eyes widened when she saw two huge reptiles behind him and dropped the fork, her jaw still open to receive the food which never came.
Clank—!
When the woman saw her daughter's shocked expression, she turned to look and gained a similar shocked expression, though she didn't drop her fork like her daughter.
Altos was barely any better than the two females. He choked on his wine and started to violently cough while pointing towards Ria and Fallios. "Kah, w-why did you bring them here?!"
Arlitos smiled and brought his hands together on his stomach. "Don't worry, they don't bite." I think. He whispered under his breath. Arlitos wished to laugh while watching his father choke on his wine.
Not from malice, of course. He didn't hate his father to the point where he wished his death, but it was still funny to watch Altos trip up in front of him.
Arlitos turned to look at one of the servants who was standing in the corner of the dining hall.
He gave the servant a polite smile. "Please bring some extra food, my friends are hungry."