The insides of the church were cold and there were a few places where water was dripping inside. It looked old but was big enough to hold a pretty big group of people. There were 3 long benches on either side of the room with a small walkway between them that ended in a small altar. The church was built quite some time ago when their religion was much more present. Now what remains is but an empty shell.
The girl that looked like she was barely an adult had brown eyes and a few freckles on both of her cheeks. She carried the basket to the altar and placed it before a small statue representing a woman wearing plants for clothes. She looked at the androgynous child and checked if any belongings were given to the child.
"Let's see, what's your name. Hmm? They didn't leave behind a name, why?".
Yet the only thing in the basket were some small rugs in different iterations of red that served as sheets. Somewhat stupefied the girl brought the basket with her to a room behind the altar. In that room were a bunch of young children sleeping with clothes and pieces of cloth as blankets.
Placing the basket in a somewhat empty space she left.
'I'll deal with that tomorrow.'
Since the child was crying some of the other children woke up and were surprised to see the girl in their room. "Sister, what happened?" whispered the oldest-looking boy. "It's your new brother, tomorrow we'll decide on a name together, so go back to sleep now. I'll see you in the morning." The girl looked very tired and didn't want to deal with it, but still went out of her way to sound friendly and caring.
"Ok sister, is it ok if we quickly played with him for a bit?" A younger boy asked, "…Fine, but don't stay up too long now, we have a long day ahead of us."
"Yeah, no problem sister. Goodnight" one of the boys said and they gathered around the basket. While moving they woke the other children up, one of which was a girl and another 2 boys.
"Hey Gregory" the girl said "what's the deal with waking us up?"
"We'll be having another brother join our family Tris" Gregory said "And we get to decide the name!"
"What?! Why couldn't be another girl, I'm sick of all of you monkeys" Tris said irritated, but the other boys were already ignoring her. Though she wanted another sister, she couldn't help but be curious about the new member. "He looks tiny" one of the boys said, "Of course, he's just a baby, compare him to Olivia's child, she's also very small."
"Olivia from the bakery?", the other boy nodded in affirmation.
The children went on and wanted to know about their little brother, but the child kept crying. Surrounded by unknown people touching him he couldn't help but scream for help.
Jack, one of the boys was looking confused about something "Why is his hair so weird?"
"That's just his hair color, not because you've never seen a person with blond hair doesn't mean they don't exist."
"Yeah that's true, I even saw someone with blue hair…and even someone with red hair!" Gregory said
The boys exclaimed in surprise at this, while Tris was just shaking her head in disappointment at their ignorance.
Tris eventually got the boys to stop their 'inspection' of the child and decided to hold him in her arms. Surrounded by warmth and being saved from the constant touching, he fell asleep and the children eventually followed his example.
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The sun came up and the storms have passed. The people slowly woke up due to the hen. The first to wake up and started working were the farmers and the bakery. Slowly but surely the village became alive again and they had to deal with the aftermath of the storms.
In the church, the children were awake but stayed silent in respect for their new little brother. A bit later the sister knocked on the door to get the kids for breakfast. Although it's called breakfast, there wasn't much to eat. A few pieces of bread were all they had for this morning.
'I really need to figure out how to get more money, definitely with the new one' the sister thought, but she couldn't come up with any way to make some income except for whoring herself out. But she couldn't do such a thing because of her religion. "Sister when do we get to decide the name?" one of the boys said. "Let's do that after breakfast" she said but looked a bit downtrodden, probably stressed over their financial situation.
There were 4 boys and 1 girl, youngest to oldest would be Jack, Rast, Korian, Tris, and Gregory. Gregory is about 10 years old and is the self-declared protector of the church and the family. Gregory was the only one who had actually lived with his parents for a while. His father was a prominent soldier that was respected by his peers. Filled with arrogance, he had a big family with a few concubines, trying to imitate the royals. During a war against magical beasts, he was defeated and left behind a broken family with no income. The women found their way, but the children had to be left behind. As the oldest one, Gregory wanted to be like his father and protect his family and started to be the father figure for the other children.
He has brown hair and blue eyes. Jack, Rast, and Korian are all about a year or two younger than Gregory but want to help their sister in every way possible. They were all abandoned at her doorstep so they grew up as a very close group.
Jack was the first child to arrive at the church, soon followed by Rast and Gregory. Tris and Korian were abandoned on the same night, though it's unclear whether or not if it's from the same family.
The children ate their slices of bread on the benches in the church together with the sister. Suddenly Tris thought of something. "Sister, the little one can't eat these slices right? He doesn't have any teeth yet!".
Tris had always had a more caring personality, as the only girl she had to mature a bit faster to make sure her brothers didn't get into trouble, which they often would. She had darkish brown hair to her shoulders but always wanted to get ponytails. The sister mentioned she would for a way to make her wish come true, but she was saving it for a special occasion.
"I know Tris, don't worry, I'll try to ask Olivia for some milk."
"Do we have the money for that?"
"No, we don't" the sister mumbled under her breath, making sure they didn't hear
'Not that we are going to buy milk from the cow, I think breastmilk is the only thing he can consume at the moment'
"Let's hope that some prayers will cover the costs." The sister tried to not make the children worry, but she couldn't hide her emotions on her face. The kids didn't know a whole lot about calculation, though they were being taught by the sister, they didn't seem to grasp it. Even though they didn't know a lot about it, they could see that they weren't living as royals and knew the struggles their sister had to go through to get them their measly breakfast.
Trying to liven up the mood, she quickly changed the subject to something more exciting.
"Alright kids, what are the names you have come up with so far?" she said with a forced smile.
"Josh" "John" "Alex" "Maxor" "Liam" "Sergei" "Sanders"
The 4 boys said a bunch of names all at once. The second shouted louder than the first, thinking it would make his answer more valid. Yet, Tris was sitting looking at the ceiling not saying a word. The sister looked at Tris "What do you think Tris?"
"Hmm, I think Lucas is a fitting name."
"Then it's decided."
"What?" "C'mon!" the boys shouted in surprise.
"Sorry boys, I agree with her, Lucas is a perfect name for him"