"And this is our room," Fiora said cheerfully. They were in a room that looked exactly like the boys' room: four bunk beds, beige-colored walls, and a tiled stone floor. However, it smelled like roses with a hint of grease by the bed on the wall. There were a bunch of fashion and cooking magazine photos taped to the walls. Underneath the bottom bunk bed, there was a simple black leather suitcase. It had a name written on it: "Faron Adeena," which must've been Faron's last name.
"That's my bed," Fiora pointed at the bed with the posters on it, "and this is your bed," she pointed to the bed opposite. "Do you need anything?"
Pyra thought for a minute. She didn't think of anything she needed until she remembered… "Do you have any paper and pencils?" Pyra needed to relax, and drawing was the best way to do that. Ever since she was little, she had had lots of free time to draw.
"You draw?" Fiora inquired.
"Yes, although I'm not very good at it," Pyra retorted.
Fiora nodded and leaned down, shuffling her hands underneath her bunk bed, searching for something. She emerged a few seconds later with a fresh notepad and coloring pencils. Pyra smiled her first real smile of the day. In fact, she couldn't really remember the last time she had smiled. How long had it been since she was truly happy? Pyra couldn't even recall.
"I did it!" Fiora exclaimed.
"Did what?" Pyra asked, confused.
"I haven't seen you smile even once, but I finally did it. You look really pretty when you smile."
Pyra didn't know how to respond to this. No one had ever called her pretty before, but it was nice hearing it from Fiora. For some reason, Pyra was starting to think that she might really like this girl.
At that moment, Faron opened the door. Seeing Pyra and Fiora, she grinned and said, "I see you're giving her the grand tour of our room. Have you gotten to the good part yet?"
"Do you mean what you call the good part or what I call the good part?" Fiora responded, smiling.
"I mean what I call the good part," Faron replied. "What you call the good part is showing her all of your fashion designs and then helping her glam up her part of the bedroom with lots and lots of sparkles."
"Just so we're clear, I will not be having any sparkles on my side of the room," Pyra jumped in.
Fiora smiled mischievously. "I never said anything about sparkles, but a little bit of pink wouldn't hurt anyone."
Pyra imagined waking up one day to find the whole room bathed in hot pink. "I might need to have handcuffs on standby just in case she tries to mess with my part of the bed."
"Besides the point," Faron intervened. "Time to show you the coolest part of our room." Faron walked over to her bunk bed and pulled out the suitcase that Pyra had seen earlier. Closer now, she could see gears on the outside. There were multiple buttons on the suitcase, each with a similar symbol on it. Faron pressed a few of them in a specific order. Then the gears started to turn, and the suitcase opened into a stand about the size of a dresser. On the stand, there was an array of mechanical objects, gears, machines, and tools of all sizes and shapes. Pyra had never seen anything like them before, but the most interesting item on the stand was a robot dog.
The dog was metal, but not how you'd imagine a robot dog to look. It really did resemble a real dog, except when you looked closer, you could see gears working in its mouth and on its stomach. There were also wheels at the bottom of its paws. On the dog's ear, there was a reddish-pink button that Faron pressed. The dog then started to move. It jumped down to the ground, wagged its tail, and jumped up on Pyra.
"Ouch!" Pyra protested.
"Bad dog, Capas!" Faron said in an annoyed tone. "Sorry."
"That's fine." Pyra smiled. As Capas licked her, she was surprised to find that it didn't feel like metal. It wasn't slobbery or soft like a real dog's tongue either; it felt more like sandpaper, though it didn't hurt. It reminded her of a gentle massage.
"Hi, Capas," Pyra said to the dog.
The dog responded, "Hi."
"The dog can talk!" Pyra exclaimed.
"And you can scream," the dog replied. "Also, my name is Capas, not 'dog.' 'Dog' is my species; Capas is my name. You see, there's a difference."
"Sorry," Pyra said sheepishly.
"Would you like something to satisfy your taste buds?" Capas asked. Both Fiora and Faron nodded. Pyra hadn't eaten in a very long time, so she nodded too. Capas sort of smiled in a way only dogs could and wagged his robotic tail. Then, on Capas's side, a small compartment opened up, revealing a plate full of pepperoni pizza.
"This is a human delicacy that is treasured very much by the humans."
Fiora frowned. "It just looks like a lot of red bread."
Pyra smiled and took a piece. "Trust me, just try it."
An hour later, they were on their fifth slice of pizza, and Pyra had told them all about her life in the human world and what it was like. A person stepped into the room. As they entered, a figure with short black hair and dark eyes surveyed the surroundings.
"Zafir!" Fiora exclaimed. "How was training?"
"All right," Zafir said. Fiora turned to Pyra. "I'd like to introduce you to Pyra. She's one of the prophecy twins."
"Which one?" Zafir asked, their eyes lighting up with curiosity."
"The fire one. You know, the one that Kindlesurge believes will be the good one."
"Cool," Zafir said, looking at Pyra with clear interest.
"Now I'm pretty sure we all want to know more about the human world," Faron said, smiling. So Pyra went on to tell them all about electricity, movies, subways, and what the ocean looked like. Apparently, they had never seen the ocean because the only time they had been outside was for training.
She continued to describe the places she had been throughout her life since she had always been switching between different families around the world. As Pyra shared all this, her listeners' fascinated eyes hung on her every word. She thought, Maybe this is the place for me. Maybe I've finally made friends. Maybe I'll fit in somewhere for once.