I looked towards the sky. The sky was beautiful, The pure white clouds filling it were each a different shape. It was ironic that this scenery was seen in my mother's funeral.

Fatherless at age 5, leaving my home at age 7, 3 years faster than the other kid.

Unlike the common saying "The true value of anything is only understood after it's lost" I didn't have any ill feeling nor I felt any particular bond toward her except for the fact I was her son.

And while I was staring at the limitless unending sky, the funeral had ended.

All that troubles and money to come back home and the funeral only lasts for a moment. I shook my head to get back to the reality and stared at the two girls in front of me.

I remembered or at the very least, some part of my brain recognized the short 13 years old girl with tan skin, triangular shaped face, jet black eyes and long silky black hair with a side bang and metallic piercings on the both of her ears. Yeah... her golden coloured pupil clearly told she was my little sister, Coco Latte.

And the one stood next to her was... I moved my head up and down but I still didn't recognize the kid in front of me. Her age might be somewhere around 3 or 4. Chubby round face, chin length light brown hair, and emerald coloured eyes. When their eyes met, the small child in front of him gave a big, wide and innocent grin.

In her hand was the supposedly small, avian Aeon called Hatchicko. It resembled a chick with a round body and had short legs, but hers was fatter and rounder than the usual. Its plumage was white,  whiter than the whitest snowfall, I could see clearly the food stains on its feather. I only wondered whether or not this one was asleep or this one eyes naturally appeared to be closed but one thing that I sure of was that it had a stubby yellow beak. Its feet had two forward-facing toes and one backwards facing toe; they were the same colour as its beak. 

For now, I just decided to ignore her for a moment and turned around to Coco. "So... what will you do then?" I asked, as my eyes transfixed to Coco.

"Who knows...." said Coco uninterestedly. "Maybe stop working with the researcher and become an independent hunter."

"You? A hunter?" I snorted. "You can't even kill a cockroach."

She glared at me, frowning a little. "T-that's like 7 or 8 years ago you know. FYI I'm strong enough to catch an Axe Beak without getting any help."

Insulting each other had become and always be our habit since we were a little, and even when we hadn't seen each other in a long time, we still opening our conversation with an insult. This wasn’t exactly a meaningful conversation to be proud of, but there were no words that could express how glad I felt at that moment when we traded all of the insult and retorts.

"Leaving the hunter things aside, why don't you just go to the school, it's free and you don't need to worry about lodging and food, right?" I asked curiously.

Coco moved her eyes downward, looking at the girl next to her.

"Hah..." I sighed, walked forward, gently touched Coco's shoulder and whispered at her. "That's why you need to use protection."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"The hell are you talking about?!" She furiously protested as she punched me right in the stomach... yup... still as violent as usual.

While I was holding my stomach in pain, Coco pushed the little girl's back. "Vanille! Introduce yourself!"

"Um?! Uh, yes!!" Vanille wobbly moved forward and seemed to be flustered because of the scene she just saw. 

"I'm Vanille Latte! This one is Pouspous!" And you must be my long lost big brother, right?!" She shouted while clenching the sleeping Hatchicko in her hug in excitement. While I, finally getting over the pain raised my right eyebrow, wondering how the story from me getting kicked away turned into her long lost big brother.

As the side note, even though her... our mother had just been buried a few minutes ago, she seemed to be in a high spirit. Perhaps because she didn't harbour any particular feeling toward their mother, just like me and most likely Coco, or perhaps she just didn't understand the concept of death yet.

Sighed inwardly, after giving some consideration at my mother habit, I already had some vague idea about what was going on. "Yup!" I said. "Now, why don't we just go to the car and talk in the way?"

"You have a car?!" Coco said with dropped jaw.

"You have a car?!" Vanille said with starry eyes.

Pointing my thumb backwards, the girls saw a dark green open jeep, large enough to hold four people. The driver's side was on the right and it was a stick shift. It also had a spare tire, water container, and collapsible shovel placed on the back.

As the girls got closer, they could see Lime and Lemon peacefully sleeping on the back chair, basking under the sunlight.

While we were still in the middle of our journey to their house, they asked a lot about the city's life. Well... It wasn't at all common for someone from a rural place like me to be able to live stable in the city, so I guessed everyone at the car was extremely interested in hearing all about it.

Coco seemed most interested in hearing about all of the things that the city girl wore and the kinds of things they owned, so her questions were all about the city's girl belongings... In which I couldn't answer her as I never actually had a girlfriend to share that kind of knowledge with me. Vanille was curious about the food and snack they ate in the city and she also seemed to be interested in the decorative tapestries and cushions they had... but why?

After a much more exciting journey than I thought we’d have, I parked my baby next on the two-story house.

Yep, it still the same house. My eyes were greeted by a wooden wall painted in white while its rooftop was red. When I opened the door, it created an uncomfortable squeaking sound. The floor was all wood and when I walked it created the 'krit krit' sound, almost as if the wooden floor had already reached its maximum tension. 

The ground floor was only 4m in width and 3m in length. And it was clear my mother never had the intention to change the decorations. Even from before I parked my car I already knew the items on the ground floor. It was a wooden table with four stools rested in the centre of the floor. Right in front of the table, directly facing the door was a box TV, then a bookshelf, and a kitchen area containing a refrigerator and a sink, located next to each other from the north-centre to the north-western side of the room, the rest was empty space.

Three windows were located on the ground floor, one in front of the sink, one on the north-eastern side of the room, near the stair to the second floor and the last one was on the south-eastern side.

When I checked the room under the stair... yup, it still the same bathroom, so big that I must lower my head just to enter the room.

I took my things to the upstairs. Two doors were greeting me, both had the same size.

I put my bag to the first room... I scanned the room. It had green carpet located in the centre, a bed located on the south-eastern, the smell of cigarette lingering on the wall and as I used my finger to examining the table, it showed that the items in the room were collecting dust as if they hadn't been used for a long time, except for the bed.

The farther one from the stair was formerly mine and Coco room. When I checked it, it still only contained a study desk with a wardrobe located next to in, three bookshelves, and a single bed in the south-western corner.

"Dang... 8 Years and this place haven't changed a single bit," I muttered to my mom's ghost if she still here.