The sounds of the chicken filled the entire ravine with their small echoes. The little devils were making their final screams before getting beheaded and served on a plate.
"Can these noises please calm down?!" Arya had his ears surrounded by the cushion, and still, the noises hadn't stopped.
kuku…kuuuu….
"Oh, come on!" Arya finally gave up and threw his pillow on the ground. His eyes were barely opening, and his mouth left sour, and he needed to pee.
The sun wasn't out yet, the window in Arya's room was dim, and only his magic prism was lighting the room. He wasn't sure why the chickens were basking so early.
"Why can't yesterday night just continue till eternity?" Arya fell onto his bed once again.
The most pleasant experience of his life had ended yesterday, a meal with friends who cared, and his shelf lined with a bottle of wine and potions along with a mystery gift in the future—the gift Arya wanted the most in his life.
The second orb of power was in Arya's possession: "Just 18 more to go.". Arya looked at this hand and tried to feel his power increasing, but it didn't feel much the same as before. The rush during the orb's absorption didn't feel like much.
"Maybe this is because of Seraphina, or is there some other reason?" Arya had eaten good food with everybody else after he consumed his orb and was happy and well. Or so he thought. Anastasia and River were arguing for an hour, and then they patched up with more noises. So, Arya's sleep wasn't the best.
Ku…ku. kkuuuuuu
"Still, more happy in trouble than without trouble in the capital." The small inconveniences didn't matter much; the happy moments were enough to put a smile on Arya's face and get him off the bed.
He looked outside his door, and the loud couple was quiet after a busy night with their lights off.
Arya walked to the mirror near his wardrobe and took a look at himself. There were no changes in his body, and his body definitely wasn't as muscular as Mercy's. Nonetheless, he grabbed his clothes and got ready for a bath.
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Arya finished a warm and easy bath in the morning. The taps dropped both cold and hot water. Arya was more of a fan of lying inside warm water with the river's Sampo on his head.
He wore a grey trouser and a red half-sleeve shirt, the best combination he could make out of the trousers and shirts in his wardrobe.
ku..ku.kuuuu
"Who the hell owns these chickens? They will make my life a nightmare." Along with the fact that his neighbours weren't the quietest people, Arya was scared about this sleep. He walked through his window and looked outside.
"..."
The slight sunlight fell into Arya's eyes as he looked from his window down at the Ravine of the New Order. Dusk had broken the night, and Arya could see people already moving.
The first humans Arya saw were the kids who were playing with the dwarf kid.
Their height was similar, but dwarfs had thicker legs and were stronger. They were playing chess at the small extension to the bridge connecting both sides.
Near the houses, human and dwarf families were mingling their own things.
Maybe planning to go on a hunt."
Near the forge, the dwarfs in armour were sitting in a carriage driven by a human and the horse carrying the carriage was... Rush?
Arya rubbed his eyes and pinched himself to make sure he was awake. The revelation was no big wonder for him, Rush was appearing and disappearing in thin air. Who knows what that horse can do?
Arya shaked his mind of supernatural things happening around him and focused on catching chicken once again.
"Arya looked left and right but did not see the chicken anywhere.
"I wonder if Reva is awake." Then he remembered something, and his eyes began searching for someone else. As his eyes moved left and right, something came from up.
"Hello!" Suddenly, Seraphina appeared upside down in front of Arya's window. Her black hair was lying upside down, and she had a smile on her face.
"???!!!"
Arya was taken by surprise, and he fell to the floor. His body had goosebumps, and his heart was nearly in his throat.
"What the hell was that?! Why are you on the roof?" Arya took another second to identify that it was Seraphina on his window.
"Hehe.. I thought I'd surprise you. Everybody is sleeping right now. Come on the roof; we can talk and have fun. Also, the air is so chill and lovely." Seraphina lifted her body up again.
"That girl is filled with wonders." Arya got up from the floor, cleaned his trousers and shirt, and confirmed his looks in the mirror before he reached the window.
He placed his foot on the frame of the window and grabbed the edge of the window, but he couldn't make a grip. The roof was thin as cardboard length, and the wood of the roof was just too smooth and small to make a proper grip.
"I'll pick you up. Give me your hand." Seraphina's voice came alongside her small hand in front of Arya. He was surprised at the confidence of the girl. "Can you seriously think you can pick me up? We will both fall to the ground." Arya liked the girl for being brave, but he was not stupid.
"Don't worry, I picked up Lady Anastasia from her window easily. You aren't half her weight; it'll be easy. The roof is too small for your big hands."
"More wonders…" Arya thought.
He didn't argue any further and grabbed Seraphina's hand and removed his feet from the window, putting his entire weight on her hands.
In a single push, Seraphina raised Arya from his window to the roof like he was a toy, and Arya swigged and placed his foot and his other hand on the roof for better gripping, and then Seraphina let go of him.
The roof was just like a hut's roof, slanting but with layers of wood placed below each other from the top. Seraphina held the upper roof's edge with her finger while lifting Arya up.
"You are very strong, Seraphina. For stronger than any kid of your age." Arya said, "And far stranger than any kid too." He left out.
Arya and Seraphina both sat down, relaxed and easy, on the roof. Enjoying the cool breeze and seeing the stars slowly fade.
"Why are you awake so early? Did the chickens wake you up too?" Arya asked the little girl.
"No, I just can't sleep at night, but day sleeping is much more enjoyable," she explained.
"About the chickens, I was the one who woke up the chicken in the cage near the river directly below the house. They always cry when I go near them." She said it with a hint of sorrow.
"Don't worry. Maybe they are scared that you might eat them. You do like to eat them raw."
"That I do; it is difficult to chew, but cooked meat makes me feel uncomfortable, and vegetables make me vomit." Seraphina made an expression of vomiting: "I don't know, why?".
"Maybe it is because of some stomach problems. Did your mother or father have the same problem? Medics say parents and kids generally have the same diseases."
"I don't know my mother or father... Uncle Mercy is my only relative. He told me that he was my uncle when he found him in the forest of the forsaken; he said that my mother was away for some work." Seraphina spoke while looking at the distant sky.
"And you believed him?" Arya was surprised at how strong and powerful she was; she couldn't be dumb.
"I believe from my heart that Uncle Mercy's smell was just like mine when I met him. He had tears on his face and was happy to see me. Also, he built this entire place for me to live!" Seraphina spread her arms open and wide.
"He gave me home and brought people for me to meet, like Lady Anastasia, Sir River, Reva, you, and all those people down there living and working happily. He told that you and Reva will be my friends forever." There was glamour of happiness in the Seraphina's eyes.
Arya didn't know what to say, he felt a burden of expectation from than a feeling of friendship.
"You believe everything your uncle says, don't you?" A little girl could easily convinced of things at never happen, but the people she trusts.
"Yes, because taught me how to write and how to talk to others. Even if everything here is gone, I know Uncle Mercy will bring it back for me. He promised."
Seraphina's words forced Arya to question her no more; he had no more. He could see love in her eyes, care for others in her hands, and ofcourse, her power to protect others from the strongest beings on the planet.
Arya stayed quiet and looked at the sky and horizon from his seat.
"Look, the moon is still out." The little girl excitedly pointed at the moon on the other side of the house, still up before the sun was out.
"The moon is as large as the sun, then why does it shine so little?" Seraphina asked Arya. She smiled at her curiosity.
"The moon and sun are of different sizes; the sun is very big but also very far. The moon is very small but very close to our land; that's why they both seem the same size."
Seraphina popped up with more questions, and Arya kept answering them, trying to make the answers as simple as possible.
"You should read some books, Seraphina. Those things have answers to many questions, and they will lead you into many other mysteries."
"I fall asleep before I reach the third page of any book; why can't they just write the answers to questions in a simple way?"
Arya simply looked at the sun rising from the horizon and the dusk ending.
"Because to give an answer properly, you must understand the past of the mystery. What did people think about it, what did they uncover, and why were they wrong or right? All of these are things that make mysteries special."
ZZ..zzz.ZZ
Before he could say anything, Seraphina was already asleep on the roof, maybe tired of all the adult rambling Arya was giving.
Arya saw her lying there peacefully and innocently, and his eyes also caught some sand lying on the roof edge near him. His hands reached forward for the dust, and he grabbed some in his hands.
"..." He thought to himself for a second, then threw away the dust, got up, and started looking for a balcony to climb down to.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the other side of the roof, lying just like her niece, Uncle Mercy was resting and listening to the conversation happening on the other side, but his face was more watery than his niece's or Arya's.