Part 1
Friday, May 15, 2009
Location: Chekhov, Moscow Oblast, Russia
Grey clouds filled the afternoon sky as rain was supposed to set in about an hour.
Several children were running and playing around in a large grassy yard in front of an orphanage.
The building was slightly decaying but was able to be used by the people inside.
A group of adults and several dozen children.
Children who have lost loved ones to the civil unrest between muggles and mages within the country
A conflict that has gotten deadly over the years has led to sweeping legislation outright banning all magic within Russia, leading to the mass expulsion of the population of mages.
At the sound of a soft thunder crackle, a young woman looked up at the sky.
She was attending to a flower bed of various flowers.
The young female had black hair with blue highlights wrapped in a bun. She was wearing a white button-down shirt with a blue-ribbon bow tie. She was also wearing a blue jean skirt with black slippers.
Noticing that the sky was getting darker, she dusted off her skirt and stood up.
She started walking across the grass as she made her way to the front of the large building.
"Miss Anya"
"Miss Anya"
As she made her way to the front, several of the children swarmed the young woman.
"What snack will we have after supper?"
"Will it be cake?" A boy asked.
"No, it will be cake" a girl said to the boy.
The woman quickly felt overwhelmed by the kids surrounding her.
She could only weakly smile.
"Now, now we can worry about snacks later, but for right now, we have to head inside before it starts to rain"
Suddenly, she was hit with the sound of various groans coming from the kids.
"Hey now, no complaining" Anya placed her hands on her hips. "You remember the rules, do you?"
"Go to sleep on time"
"Treat others the way you would want to be treated"
"We must pray before every meal"
"Carefully read our books and study hard"
"And.." Anya closed her eyes and held up her left index finger. "You guys must listen to the head adult in charge, so you guys must head inside now; if you guys don't, then you will be helping me clean the yard"
"Wha…."
"Ewww no"
"No way"
The kids shouted out before running away towards the entrance of the building.
Everything was quiet now as the kids left the yard.
With a sigh, she began the process of picking up the toys from the ground.
She only managed to pick up a teddy bear from the ground before she noticed a young boy sitting near a tree.
The young boy sat there, looking at the city in the distance.
A place most of the kids at the orphanage would never be able to visit.
Anya could tell that such an action weighed heavily on the children. She would always find them looking out the window during bed checks.
Even though they were children, they were curious about the outside world.
Most would be after spending most of their lives here in confinement.
The civil unrest caused the number of orphans to skyrocket, and since the children of deceased mages could be expelled, they were cast to the outskirts of the city in decaying ghettos.
She made her way to the brown-haired child.
"Ivan, it is time to head inside now"
The young boy looked at her, his brown eyes meeting hers.
"I'm sorry"
The child turned his head back to the city in the distance.
"The city really looks amazing"
Ana turned to the city.
It really did look beautiful.
The city was more simplistic in terms of architecture. It didn't have all the fancy buildings compared to Japan, London, or even NEO New York City. It was those very simple designs that made them so visually appealing.
"Would we be able to visit the city one day?" the child said before standing up.
The question from the child caught her off guard.
She stared at the bright-eyed child.
She did not know how to answer the child's question without breaking his heart.
Mages were cast out and targeted all across the country; they were confined here for their safety since they were treated in ways some could call worse than second-class citizens.
As she tried to find the words to say something, something in the corner of her eyes caught her attention.
She turned her head to see a green vehicle approaching from the distance.
Tigr (Russian: Tiger)
A 4x4 all-purpose, multipurpose infantry mobility vehicle, which had a camouflage pattern on it colored in two shades of green—one dark and one light.
Her gray eyes watched the car as it approached close, like a shark fin rising out of the water as the shark got closer to its prey.
A feeling of unnerving dread.
That model and in those colors.
She knew.
Those were the vehicles of the Russian military.
"I believe it's time to head inside now" Anya said as she grabbed the child's hand.
Both made their way to the entrance of the orphanage as the black car pulled into the parking lot.