Koro was sitting in the back of a car. That didn’t mean he was respected at all. All his possessions were taken away from him. He wasn’t even allowed to take his parent memento. But he secretly had one of it inside his pocket. Though he didn’t felt a need to tell the others.

There were two of the clan members who were tasked to leave him in a mortal city. One was an adult man while the other a woman.

From their conversations, he was able to confirm that both of them were in the same year. They hadn’t talked to him at all during their journey. In fact the man was even irritated on the task to leave him away from the clan perimeters. The woman had been continuously coaxing the man, that it would be over soon and what not.

It had been 4 hours, if Koro would roughly guess, he just thought that all of this should be quickly over, so that he could, he could. He didn’t had anything to do at all.

Screech

With a screech the car stopped. Koro looked around to make sense of his environment.

The surrounding building were not at all shining like in the clan. In fact these buildings looked so old. He saw that people were curiously looking at the car which had stopped in the middle of the square, not caring about rules and such.

“Will you go out, or do I have to kick you out from my car,” the man said with a sudden aggression.

“Stop it, he is just a kid," the woman said.

“Yeah, a kid whose parents are traitors, it would be best to get rid of him as fast as we could.”

Koro didn’t wait to listen to their conversation. He opened the gate of the car and got out. He looked at the place he would be living in, with a clear view. There were people all over. But they weren’t looking at him with the same gaze as those from his clan. They were all curious toward him. The building is very very small. He hadn’t seen anything small like that before.

The car didn’t wait at all. Reversing itself, it sped back to where it had come from.

He looked toward the departing car. For a moment he had the urge to shout. Come back, he had wanted to say. He wanted to return to his own home. His parents home. Koro felt tired from the journey, he just wanted to return and sleep. But where could he, there was no home for him anymore.

Sniff

His eyes were starting to get watery again. He didn’t want that. With the sleeves of his clothes, he wiped his tears. He looked around again. Some of them were still looking at him. But most of them had gone back to their own task.

There was some place near the shops. It was the only place he could find. He sat there. Among the myriad other things he had to think. He missed his parents more. People passed by him, different from what he had known all his life.

He had visited various places in the past with his parents. But he hadn’t stayed at any other place than his home. The only comfort he knew was their home. The place felt so much foreign to him, the knew environment, new people. All of it was knew to him. He felt scared. He didn’t know when he had fallen to his sleep.

A voice woke him up, someone was calling out to him. Koro opened his eyes to see a woman looking at him with concern.

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“Are you ok,” She put her hands on Koro’s shoulders. He couldn’t help but mistook her for his mother. Like her mother she was gentle. She was sitting on her knees. Her eyes filled with concern. She had black hair, she was wearing heavy clothings. Most of them looked old. Even older than the ones Koro was wearing right now.

The instant he saw her, Koro found his tears falling again on the ground. What is this? This doesn’t stop? He aggressively tried to wipe away his tears. But his tears won’t stop falling at all.

The older woman. Rubbed his face after she saw him crying.

“It is alright kid, you can cry all you want.” Koro wanted to deny the woman saying that she was wrong. But he couldn’t contain his emotions at all. He started crying, this time not silent crying but one filled with grief and loss.

For good minutes. Koro couldn’t stop himself. His cries filled the neighbor buildings. People would look at him curiously, but they would go away with pity in their eyes.

Finally Koro stopped to look at the woman. She smiled at him.

“You must be hungry,” Koro wanted to shake his head. He didn’t want to disturb the stranger. But his rumbling stomach betrayed his emotions.

Koro looked embarrassingly at the stranger. He then nodded.

“There is a food stall right over there, you see,” the woman pointed at the shop. Koro felt relief looking at the shop. The shop wasn’t big. But it was filled with other customers who were enjoying their food.

Koro walked till the shop. There was an empty table with two seats. The woman pointed at him to sit on one of the seats. She walked near the counter and started talking with the person.

Koro looked at her curiously, she walked back to him while limping. Though it wasn’t that much but it was still there.

“Why are you walking like that,” Koro couldn’t contain his curiosity. The woman smiled at him.

“This, it was due to an accident,” the woman took a seat in front of him.

“Accident,” He mumbled back. He didn’t wanted to ask anymore, his mother had told him not to ask something about other’s disability, it might hurt the person in heart.

“Tell me about yourself, where are your parents,” the woman asked him.

Koro considered telling his name to the woman. The woman looked alright, she had also ordered food for him. So he told his name.

“My name is Koro Sol”

“My parents,I don’t know where they are right now” He stuttered.

The woman looked sad as he said that. Infact, Koro felt sad, too. He hadn’t seen his parents for such a long time. He didn’t even know how they were doing.

Food came. The lady had only ordered for him. Koro felt bad for the woman for not ordering any food.

“You aren’t going to eat,” He asked the lady.

The lady shook her head. “I am full, you should eat.”

“No,” he pushed the bowl in the middle.

“Let’s eat together.”

“Don’t worry about me,” the woman said with a smile as she passed the bowl to him.

“You should eat all of it, you must be pretty hungry.”

Koro hadn’t eaten since the morning. It was the first time, he had gone whole day without food.

The food was hot. The lady advised him to blow it to make it cold. He did and ate the noodles. It didn’t take long before the bowl was empty. Koro felt full at that moment.

Koro saw another of the customers give some coins to the person at the counter.

It was money.

“I don’t have money,” he feared that he would be punished for not paying the money.

The lady laughed, “You don’t have to worry about it. I am the owner of this shop.”

“You are the owner,” Koro was astonished.

“That’s right.” The lady soon changed the topic.

“What are doing after going from here,”

Koro didn’t knew what he was going after leaving this shop. This shopowner was the only one who had helped him. But he knew there wouldn’t be people like her and he didn’t wanted trouble her.

“I, my aunt, live in this city. I came here to meet her.” Koro thought he would be able to get away with those lies.

But the woman's expression changed, she frowned at him. “Are you lying to me?”

Koro felt guilty, but he didn’t want to disturb her anymore, and he had to find his parents too.

“No I am not lying. She lives here. She works…”

“Where does she live?” the woman asked immediately.

For a moment Koro was stunned, he didn’t know what to say. He had made some random answer. He was hoping it would convince the woman in the front when he heard screams from the other end of the street.

Both Koro and the lady turned to face in the direction of the scream. They saw people, but they didn’t looked ordinary at all.

The person was emitting some kind of light surrounding the entire area. Because it was the night time, the market had been bustling alright. When all of it was halted by the sudden arrival of the people in weird clothings. “Wizards.”