The sun started to show itself rising on the distant horizon, signaling the breaking of dawn, but for the young Eleazar, this was but a sign that he needed to stop what he was doing and return to his room in the orphanage before the Matron decides to wake the kids up and get them moving for the day.
See, young Eleazar here was but an orphan boy at the tender age of 13, without any memories of his childhood family, and for as long as he could remember, he had been with the orphanage, living with the other children, and being raised by the Matron of the place. He had asked the Matron in the past once about his family, and all he got in return was a gaze of pity, and the Matron informing him that she merely found him as a child, delivered to the doorsteps of the place.
When Eleazar first heard this, he was depressed at the thought that his parents didn't want him, and that he was thrown aside without care, however, after actually thinking it over, he soon found out this couldn't be the case. Not only did they safely place him at the doorsteps of a place where he would be taken care of, but they also left a note with his name on it, and some basic information about his birth, Eleazar Zaleska, born on the 4th of the 6th Month.
While this might not seem like much, the very fact that he had a last name, Zaleska, meant that he was born of a proud family. Commoners, didn't have the right to have a last name, let alone orphans, in order to have a last name or family name as it was more commonly called, one needed to make a contribution to the Kingdom, and be appointed the status of a noble, or, one had to pay great wealth to the Kingdom. This meant that family names were only available to rich merchants, or nobles.
When Eleazar first found this out from the Matron, he was greatly surprised, and furthermore, he was happy. It meant he wasn't abandoned by his family as he originally thought, but with this in mind, it made him more perplexed. Why was he at an orphanage, why was he left here, if his family was of such status. These were questions he had no answer to, and as such, he decided to find answers to them.
It had been around a year since then, and without the Matron knowing, he would sneak out the window in his room, and secretly work out his body. Now, he was young, so he couldn't do much, especially without any proper equipment, but he was able to train somewhat. He would wake up before the crack of dawn, before even the Matron was awake, and do 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 air squats, and a 10-km run around the building.
At first, it was like a living hell, he could barely finish 10 pushups, or run 5-km, yet he forced himself through it under the idea that once he got older, once he was stronger, he could leave this place and search for his family. His true family. He loved the orphanage, he loved the other kids here, they played often, and even though he didn't have a lot of friends, he still found the ones he had enjoyable. He also loved the Matron, she took care of him and all the other kids like they were her own, she was sweet and warm, yet, deep down he wanted something more. Maybe he was just being selfish, he thought this often, but, he still wanted to find a family of his own.
With time he went from barely being able to do the workout, to being able to complete it in time for dawn to break, and for him to sneak back to his room and join the other kids.
==========
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Sneaking through the window Eleazar found himself falling to the ground after his foot got caught on the ledge of the window, thankful that the other kids were deep sleepers after they tired themselves out playing, so he didn't wake anyone up. Stumbling to his feet, he quickly rushed over to his bed and got onto it, he covered his body with the blanket, as he closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, which wasn't hard with his tired body and mind.
A few minutes later, like clockwork, the Matron opened the door to the room and rung a hand-held bell, using it to wake the sleeping children up. Its ringing wasn't very loud, but with the repetition, it was enough to wake everyone up, albeit with a few annoyed grumbles here and there from children that were enjoying their dreamlands, and even though he was still tired, Eleazar also stood up from the bed and stretched his body, pretending as if he was now awaking from a long slumber.
As he moved to exit the room, passing the Matron who stood by the door and greeted every one of the tired children, he heard her soft aged voice enter his ear as he did.
"Good morning Elea, I see you're still very tired, didn't get a good rest?"
The Matron was many things, perceptive, was one of them. She had almost caught Eleazar multiple times over the course of the last year, one time she quite literally walked in on him just getting into bed, but each time he was able to cover it up with a good excuse. Maybe he was a great liar, or maybe the Matron was simply not as good at picking out lies as he thought, but one thing was for sure, each time she made a comment related to his sneaking out, his heart rate would rocket.
"Haha, couldn't sleep well because Dave kept snoring."
He said with a somewhat forced laugh while scratching the back of his head, he made sure to say that Dave was snoring loud enough for the other kids and Dave to hear so that they would also start poking fun at Dave. Sorry to Dave, but, he was a great excuse to use, especially since he did snore occasionally.
Upon hearing what he said, some of the other kids laughed and started to joke around with Dave, who naturally got embarrassed and rejected that he snored at all, not that he would know anyways. Eleazar simply laughed along with them, as he went to pass by the Matron and exit the room.
"Now now kids, don't let Dave's snoring distract you from breakfast."
With a slight chuckle, the Matron spoke in a joking manner, leading the kids out of the room and into a large dining hall, large wasn't just Eleazar's opinion, the room need to be big enough to fit the 30 or so kids that stay at this orphanage after all, along with the 4 caretakers that work here. With a long table in the middle of the room, filled with plates for the kids to all eat.
While the orphanage wasn't the richest place around, it did have enough money to support buying food for the kids to eat properly, and even occasionally had enough to throw some parties for the kids to enjoy. Eleazar wasn't sure where this money came from, but he assumed it was from the mayor of the town they lived in backing the orphanage.
Taking his seat, Eleazar looked at the breakfast on his plate, some eggs and bread, basic stuff, but after the workout he did earlier, this was just the thing he needed to fill his tired body with energy, and subdue the beast that was his stomach. So without waiting, he started to dig into the meal. Manners were only taught to noble kids, he didn't need them.
==========
Breakfast was short, well there wasn't much to do anyway besides just eating, some of the kids did mess around and joked, but, it came and went without anything really interesting happening unless you counted Eleazar's spotless plate as interesting.
Now, after breakfast each of the children had to do a few chores before they could go and play, this was a daily thing, and it was supposed to teach responsibility or something along the lines, but most of the kids just found it boring. Some paired up with others to clean the windows, make up the beds, wash the dishes, and so on, while others alone did some simple things, sweeping a room, picking up toys, and so on. Eleazar was one of the ones that were alone to do simple things, his task, sweep the hallway.
As he was doing so, without paying much attention to it, since he did it so much that it was basically instincts to him now, he heard a knock on the orphan door. Now, the kids weren't allowed to open the door of the orphanage and greet people, because they were too young, but, Eleazar was one of the oldest kids here, so when he heard the knock instead of calling for the Matron he walked over to the door and opened it.
"Hello?"