The morning is here! I hear the soft sound of birds chirping, so I hop out of bed using a soft squishy object as a bouncing board.

“Ouch!”

The squishy platform I used made a weird noise. Where art thou, fair Emma? I dash into the living room.

“You've been here for a couple of days now, could you stop using my stomach as a spring?”

I hear a mean voice as I look around. I see lots of boring books on a shelf and papers everywhere. The kitchen is in a corner, separated by a countertop. I wonder what secrets this place holds.

“Eclaire. What are you doing...?”

“Ah! Where is Emma?!”

“She works at night, so she's not home yet.”

[https://imgur.com/oPq24vx.jpeg]

“Emma was here yesterday and yesterday's yesterday”

“You mean, the day before yesterday? She took a few days off to get you settled in.”

“Why?”

The boy that I met a few days ago approached me. His ink-black hair and yellow eyes like Emma made it difficult to look at him without my face feeling weird. But, I really like him! He gave me his blanket for the first few nights and was explaining new things to me!

“I don't know how to answer that. You're living here, so she wanted you to be comfortable.”

“But I am comfortable!”

“Because she took the days off!”

“Oh! That's why!”

While thinking about Emma, I remembered who he was.

“Wing.”

“… Yes?”

“Wing! Wing!”

“What is wrong with you?”

Wing looked at me with a funny face. Talking to him is fun. I want to talk to him more.

After I look under various cushions and drawers for secrets, I set off for my adventure today. There were some interesting things I saw outside! Besides that, I never saw what the town looked like, even though I'm always outside. Emma said there was good food there!

“Hold up there, Eclaire.”

“Huh?!”

Before I could walk out the door, Wing grabbed my collar. A lifetime of fascination and excitement has been yanked from me.

I call out a line I remember Emma telling me.

“Ugh! I am vanquished!”

I was hit by a book.

“You're not allowed outside alone.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Then go with me?”

“I'm not allowed to go past the garden either.”

“Why not?!”

“Because you're ten and I'm twelve. Emma will come home later.”

Oh! Twelve is more than ten! That’s why he’s so adult-like! Emma said he was smart! What’s that got to do with going outside, though?

“We can still explore right?!”

“No. Emma told me to teach you how to read.”

“Why?!”

“Because you can't read!”

“How unfair! I don't want to look at some boring paper all day!”

“It's only boring because you can't understand anything!”

“But if it’s boring, how can I understand it?!”

Wing quietly carries books to the dinner table, ignoring me.

Unfair! Totally against my will! I sat at the table. It had writing materials for both of us. Wing then started to pull his chair to me, but I don’t wanna look at paper.

“I just woke up. I'm hungry!”

“Wait until Emma gets back. Let's study a little before then.”

“But… I don't want to study.”

I wanted to see the town. I didn’t understand what a region, or neigh-boar-hood was. We lived about half of something or another from Fals.

I sat there doing nothing, trying to get out of studying. Wing pulls out sweet bread from nowhere. It was like one of those weird shadow warriors or something like in Emma’s stories. Why do I need to learn to read when I can learn to do things like that?!

I ate the bread and sat there, looking at stuff for writing.

Wing stares at me with the same expression as before. In the first place, why do I have to study?!

Boring!

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

That’s what I thought anyways. Over time, Wing taught and read many things to me. He would praise me for what I did, and kept repeating the same stuff over and over. I don’t know what a lot of these lines mean, but I know what some stuff now. I think I only remember what is said from how many times Wing has repeated them, though.

“Wing, why do I have to learn this?”

“Ah…”

“What?”

“We can help Emma more.”

“Oh…”

I don’t understand how this can help Emma, but if Wing says so, I’ll do it! Especially if she will be happy if I did learn!

While enjoying my own genius, the front door opened and Emma popped out of it. She put down her bag and entered the house. I wanted to share with her my growing brilliance.

“I’m home!”

“Emma!”

I ran to Emma when hearing her voice. I was motivated to tell Emma and make her proud.

“I am more je..jen..ius…ge...nis….genius today, Emma!”

In response to that I heard Wing call for me in the back.

“Wha—! Eclaire! Wait!”

“Huh?”

Once I jumped down the seat, all the papers fly all over the place.

Oops.

It felt like heavy rainfall. So many papers. Together, we picked up all the papers on the ground.

Why are there so many papers anyways?! Did we really use this much?

After Wing put everything away, Emma told us we were going to Fals today.

Finally! I get to see what's there! Food!