Zeais stands alongside Eris, watching the brown haired girl Anya approach her father's heavy bedroom door. On the handmade placard, the words "Inn Keeper" were inscribed. Zeais ponders over the fact that he's met so many people in such a short amount of time, and now he might be taking one of them to meet someone he knows by coincidence. His thoughts swirling with the odd turn of events, he can't help but think that the world is often too mysterious and precarious to predict.

Though they have only known each other since the early morning, Zeais sees no reason that he cannot help the girl, being that he is acquainted with the child she wants to meet with, it poses no problems to him. The only problem he has with any of this is the odd tension coming from Anya. The only dark and slightly cold due to the lights being out and the window curtains closed, Eris and Zeais get an eerie feeling. Only able to see her from behind as she stands in front of the door, her shoulders perked up and seemingly holding her hands to her chest, he questions just what kind of man her father is, to have her feel so timid to ask a simple question.

Finally, after what feels like minutes to them, Anya breathes out and knocks onto the door. Hearing the loud sound of a foot that just stepped onto the lightly wooded floor, they feel the heavy vibrations of a large man walking toward the door. Having only heard his voice the night before, Zeais and Eris had not been able to see the Innkeeper. They had only heard him talking to the village chief inside and he only unlocked the rooms for them. The Innkeeper did not stay to greet them, he only disappeared into his bedroom and went back to rest for the night. For the two young guests, this would their first meeting.

[Anya: It's Anya, can I come in Pops?]

Having never heard of such a name, Zeais and Eris look at each other with the same look of confusion and interest. Loud heavy footsteps bang on the hardwood floor as he approaches the door and his deep raspy voice speaks, muffled behind the door.

[???: How many times do I have to tell you that that phrase is older than the wood that makes this Inn. Only old people say that...]

The door makes a heavy click sound as its unlocked, upon opening the door and presenting himself, his shoulders almost touching both sides of the door frame. Large in stature and quite muscular he gave the impression of someone who had been a definite handy worker or even a very skilled hunter that took care of his body as if the world might end. Zeais marveled at the beast of a man, to him, not even his teacher could win a fight with him. Feeling that he just might eat bears, Zeais takes a step back. Looking at Eris to see her reaction, he sees her staring at him with a strangely harsh look.

His tan buttoned shirt had fitted just right and his professionally tailored gray working pants gave him the appearance of a high-class establishment owner. His dark brown eyes gave a cold expression, his rough white skin knew of hard labor, short hair brown hair atop his head and scruffy facial hair added to the weight of terror he could inflict on someone if he had suddenly appeared. He narrowed his eyes down toward his daughter then took notice of the two other small bodies standing behind her.

[Yale: Ah, you must be the children who I let stay the night so suddenly, I am Yale, quite obvious but I am the keeper of this Inn. I'm sorry for not meeting with you earlier. I'm not a nice person when my sleep is interrupted so suddenly...]

Zeais felt his statement on a personal level and knew exactly where he was coming from, looking at Anya.

[Zeais: My name is Zeais,...Nice to meet you Sir..]

Wanting to reach out to give a courteous hand grab, Zeais thought he might have his hand crushed instead of getting a polite handshake. Still, he walked up to the man and reached out for the common courtesy. Reciprocating the request, although a little perplexed on such a young boy with old-time manners Yale also puts a handout, At least three times as large as the young boy’s hand, he engulfs the boy's hand in a firm and cold grip. Firm yet gentle, the boy found it strange that his hand was not on fire with pain.

Finished with their pleasantries, the man goes on to look at Eris.

Eris did not say any words and only nodded her head to him, still looking fierce. Unaware still of what she might be thinking whenever she comes into contact with adults, Zeais reflects on what she had previously said about a "Murderer".

He has only known her for less than a day and feels no need to pry too much into her life. Still curious as to why he keeps the thought in the back of his mind for a later time.

Yale did not push her further for introduction, she didn’t seem like she would like to introduce herself further than a nod.

[Yale: Anya. What did you need? Did you come just for me to greet the guests?]

[Anya: No... I wanted to ask something important...]

[Yale: If you want to come in and talk we can talk in private--]

Stopping mid-sentence, Yale starts coughing roughly into his hand. It was a thick and whooping cough. Anya put out her hands toward him looking worriedly with a wide-eyed expression. He kept coughing and began to use the edge of the door frame to hold himself up.

[Anya: Pops!]

Stopping her with a free hand, he stops her with a gesture saying he doesn’t need help.

[Anya: Nevermind mind my talk! Please get more rest. I can't leave you like this, with how--]

[Yale: Leave?--- You were going to ask--- me if you could-- leave?]

[Anya: Don't worry about that, I'm not going to--]

[Yale: Not worry!? My daughter wants to get out of the house---- Why would I not worry...]

Yael had slowly seized his coughing and stood up straight, wiping his coughed into hand along his pants. He looked over to his two small guests watching the two talk.

[Yale: Would you two be the reason she wants to go outside these cramped walls?]

Before either Eris or Zeais could even attempt to answer his question, Anya had already spoken up loudly.

Frustrated that her father continues to ignore her plea to disregard

[Anya: Forget it! Forget it! Forget it! I don't want to leave you, what if something were to happen if I left!]

Almost on the verge of tears his daughter so obviously distressed, he makes a tightly gripped fist behind his back. Not out of anger but because his daughter is more concerned about him than her own needs.

[Yale: Anya, I'm not so weak that I can't take care of the Inn that I built. ]

[Anya: But you don't have--

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

[Yael: You want to go somewhere right?]

[Anya: But!--]

Yale grabs her by the shoulders and brings her in for a close hug.

[Yale: My only wish is for my only daughter to be happy. Staying in this Inn..... Doing so much work that you don't even live your childhood... I can't keep watching.]

Anya still had more words to say but her cries were muffled as she was pulled to close to speak.

Eris watched their family feud and upon hearing his words, her glare had disappeared. As if hearing something to confirm her suspicions she attempted to walk away. Zeais feeling awkward watching the two get sentimental tries to also leave, but this is thwarted by the man's abrupt question.

[Yale: Hey you two, hold on. Are you friends of hers? I've never heard her speak of anyone else except those kittens in the back.]

After staying silent for so long, Eris finally speaks.

[Eris: I guess you could say so, we've only known her since this morning though.]

[Zeais: Friend huh, even though she's taken me from some good sleep, she is a child just like us, any child who is friendly is a friend to me.

Yale looks at Anya with a face of disbelief.

[Yale: OH! I'm so proud!]

Hugging her tighter now he makes a cry of joy.

[Yale: You've even made new friends too. I know back in my childhood days even wandering children from far away were easy to befriend. I guess nowadays that still holds true! I told you all you needed to do was have a bit more gut! HAHAHAHA]

Laughing dep and boisterously he ruffles her hair. Although the huge man is happy, Anya's face does not seem to happy about the situation. Furious that she's been interrupted so many times and now forced into an overly aggressive bear hug she makes a tight fist. Zeais and Eris can quite obviously see that she is not like what's happening, they look at each other's eyes.

[*Zeais*: I feel like we shouldn't be caught up in this.]

[*Eris*: We shouldn't be caught up in a lot of things but they still happen.]

[*Zeais*: We still have the meeting with the Chief too...

[*Eris*: We still have time, plenty really, but if he asks to talk to us I don't know...]

[*Zeais: I'd rather not hear any of their family business..]

Due to the effects of using will of word, children can communicate at faster speeds than speaking normally. What would take tens of seconds to complete a short conversation could quite easily be shortened to just seconds. This is more dependant on how often their ability is used with that specific person. To use their strange gift, times for conversation can vary if they are not used to either parties light frequency. Children who converse more, consequentially gain more control.

Stopping his laugh, Yale looks at the two other children and sees them stare at each other. Taking note of the faint light he makes an audible Oh

[Yale: Those eyes...]

Zeais and Eris stop their inaudible conversation to look at Yale.

[Yale: You two must be around her age too... You have that ability which means..]

THinking to himself his face twists into an angry look. Also angry but for different reasons, Anya finally has enough. She puts her hands to his stomach and pushes with great strength away from her father.

[Anya: Enough! Why won't you listen to me!]

[Yale: Because I'm your father and only want you to do what you want to be happy]

[Anya: I'll be happy as long as you're still here!!]

[Yale: .....]

Screaming her rebuttal. the two stare at each other intensely. One with a sad look because of a statement and the other furious due to being ignored. Both of them wanting two different things but the same goal, they both fuel the others wants.

Back at arguing once again, Zeais speaks up this time.

[Zeais: Um, I'll leave you two to talk.]

[Yale: Could you please...]

Getting a chance to leave them to talk alone, Zeais turn away from them and walks away. Eris also joins him, not wanting to be apart of their personal affair. They walk down the hallway and disappear around the corner to the lobby. Hearing the sound of the Innkeepers door close they are assured that the feud will continue for a while.

----------------------------- -----------------------------------

Sitting on a couch in the lounge for no other reason than wanting Anya not to worry where her new guest companions ran off to, they converse about events past.

[Zeais: It's just one thing after another, and here I just wanted to get back home.]

[Eris: It's not like you had to help out, its kind of your own fault.]

[Zeais: I know but I would never just leave someone to die if I can help them.]

[Eris: I would say the same but I only often help other children.]

[Zeais: But you heard that scream too right? Or did you see the marker in the sky, you never did say how you noticed.]

[Eris: I didn't hear a scream or see the marker.]

Confused as to what she said, he responds with a loud What?

[Eris: Like I said I didn't hear anything or see anything. I felt it..]

[Zeais: Felt what?]

[Eris: The weird sensation in my eyes. Did you not think I was strange with the halo in my eyes? I can feel the reflections of certain types of light bouncing off things. ]

[Zeais: What? That's really something! But what Halo?]

Confused as to why he questioned something he could quite clearly see she points to her eyes with her hand.

[Eris: Do you not see this, it's as bright as the sun outside? Are you blind??]

[Zeais: Ah, I can;t see color]

[Eis: .....]

Feeling like she had just heard an alien language she makes the gesture of a hand to her ear.

[Eris: Come again?]

[Zeais: Your eyes only look grayish to me. Except for the most middle part, that part is Orange I believe.]

[Eris: And the rest of it?]

[Zeais: Nothing but a rainbow of gray.]

Staring at his eyes, she sees no reason for him to lie. She had always thought it was strange that his eyes didn't give off too much light when speaking through will of word.

[Eris: Hmmm, there's all types of gifts out there huh.]

[Zeais: Even though all gifts can be good or bad, its sort of helpful and not really at the same time. Does it hurt when you feel that in your eyes though?]

[Eris: No, not really but it depends on what I'm seeing, I've seen some things that hurt to look at, but usually the pain goes away after some time. More importantly, though, how did you see in the dark last night? Doesn't that make it hard to travel if it gets really dark?]

[Zeais: I couldn't see a thing at all, I can make out some objects ahead of me but without my glasses, I can't see far anyways.]

[Eris: Glasses too? You really may as well be blind ya know, why didn't you wear them? You don't have them with you?]

[Zeais: Well I did but my glasses are what I meant was getting fixed in Don'te.]

Eris scratches her head as to how he's survived so far. For a child with such a disadvantage, he should have died or gotten taken away by some crazy abnormal long ago...

[Eris: So strange..]

[Zeais: Me!?]

[Eris: No.. Life I guess.]

[Zeais: Ahh, mm. There's a lot of coincidence and chance. I wonder what it was like before. Large lakes of water that you can't see past and Large buildings that could reach the moon.]

[Eris: I heard there were man-made sky birds too, they flew people to far away places instantly. I once heard there were remains of one far in the southern forests.]]

The children had only heard of past stories of Circinus's previous life when it was once called earth from various stories passed down from the few generations that lived. The world the children live in now, much different than it was only a little over a century ago, is much more dangerous and treacherous than before. Wondering about a world they had never seen and never will always capture their minds.

They sat in silence for half an hour, still waiting for Anya to finish with her father. Eris had started to drift in and out of sleep in this time. The boy had her accidentally headbutting him in the shoulder and occasionally pushed her head away.

Zeais thought about Anya's request to go to Brights with him. Even if she did change her mind about going to Brights and meeting Memori, Zeais didn't have a problem if she didn't come at all. He did, however, want to get the business with the village chief over with. The chief was to finish his meetings late afternoon, it was almost approaching that time.

As if on que, Zeais could hear the door of the Innkeeper creak open. Hearing light slow footseps, he hears another door open and then close. A louder set of footsteps begin to come from the direction, not hearing another door open the footsteps continue. Thinking she probably stepped into her room the Innkeeper must be coming to tell them something. Nudging Eris to wake up, she opens her eyes slowly and yawns.

Yale walks around the corner into the lobby . Stopping in front of the children his buttoned shirt is wrinkly and wet with what looks like tears.

[Yale: I'm sorry for the wait, please give the girl some time. She's coming with you to Brights if you don't mind, she's a bit stubborn but take care of her okay?]

[Zeais: I don't want to know too muh about whats going on but I'll be sure to get her to meet her friend.]

[Eris: *YAwN* We should head over to the Chief while we wait then.]

[Yale: I'll take you kids to his residence, I've got a carraige we can use.]