CHAPTER ONE
Orphans
When we are born, we aren’t given names.
We were told by Sister Maresa today that names bestow meaning to our lives. Through this meaning we can obtain access to great powers inside us which can be used to help others.
I saw this earlier today but, I don’t think it was helping anyone. There was this huge gust of wind and this giant person with wings like a bird came down from the sky into the orphanage’s garden! Sister Maresa was really angry because they had blown all of her plants about. She really likes gardening. I didn’t care though because they looked so cool!
Brother Burkhard said afterward he’s stronger than them but I don’t believe him. All he can do is make really good sandcastles when we go to the beach. We always beat him at tag too! Some of my friends can do cooler things than him like walk on water, make things hover, jump really high and dance! Brother Burkhard is a terrible dancer. The trees dance better than him.
My favourite of all of them has to be my best friend’s because it’s basically the same as mine! She can make a cloud which snows! She looks really pretty when she does it because the snowflakes are the same colour as her hair.
All I can do is make it rain from my cloud. It rains all the time though so some of the others think its pretty useless. Little do they know that it also serves as a really comfy pillow. I can’t make it go away unlike the others and it’s getting bigger every year. Sister Maresa says I’ll be able to make it go away when I get better at controlling my powers. Maybe a name will help me with that.
I want to try wearing my cloud on my head to try fly around like the cool guy but I’m a bit scared it’ll eat me. My best friend laughed when I told her and put her cloud on my head. In my final moments I threw my cloud at the traitor.
A couple of minutes later she was drenched, I was frozen and we were both sneezing. Brother Burkhard trapped us in the sandpit until we warmed up and apologised to each other. We’re not sad about this loss to Brother Burkhard though because he still can’t dance.
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Today in class we found out that most of us only have a month left at the orphanage. Some of us will stay behind like those in the older year groups but for the rest of us it would finally be time to join our new families and get our first names. There is a huge party at the start of every year called the Origin Festival where 5 year olds like me are chosen to be part of people’s families and our new parents give us names. Apparently it’s even bigger this year because the Royal family will be there picking children of their own! That means some of us might become the future King or Queen. It turns out the cool bird person from yesterday was actually royalty too but they had left pretty quickly after Sister Maresa had shouted at them so they hadn’t introduced themself, she can be really scary sometimes. Sister Maresa said there were going to be no more lessons for today and that Brother Burkhard would take us down to the beach. She left telling us that we should use that time to think about our futures.
The beach is the only place outside of the orphanage we can go to. I’ve been told I once went to the hospital in the capital when I was younger because of an accident, but I don’t remember any of it so it doesn’t count. The orphanage is big so we don’t mind but everyone thinks the beach is better because you can see forever. Everyone was quiet today though. We were all thinking about what we had been told.
There was a lot of tears but there was also a couple of kids talking about what name they were going to get. I heard a lot of them wanted to be called Prince or Maresa, there was even one kid who wanted to be called Beach which made Brother Burkhard laugh for some reason. Someone splashed someone else and that started a massive water fight which made people cheer up a bit. When it started getting late, Brother Burkhard made us all a giant sandcastle and started a fire and we all sat together watching the sunset.
Sitting next to each other my best friend hugged me and told me she didn’t want to lose me. I didn’t want to lose her either so I joined in with the crying which had been going on since we got here. I am really scared about the future but I am also excited. We’re finally getting our names. I hope I get something cool like Prince or Craig. And I have never had a Mum or Dad before, I wonder what it’s like. My best friend looks a little bit like a Wilford or maybe Snowdrop It won’t change much so I’ll keep on holding onto my best friend until the tide reaches us.
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[ Burkhard’s Perspective ]
Most of the kids have fallen asleep now and the crying has stopped. Some of the other brothers and sisters have started taking them back to the orphanage. It felt awful watching the kids fear that their time together has come to an end but for now I’m just going to be a shoulder to cry on. I don’t have it in me to tell these kids that they won’t be separated. No, I’ll leave it to Maresa to tell them about the horror that is School.