“Hold on!” uttered one of the guards, halting his actions and glanced from the side of the gate.
“What is it!?” the other guard asked him, wondering why he stopped.
“Did you not hear it?”
“Hear what!?”
“I think someone is coming… let’s just keep the gate ajar and wait.”
The guard who heard the calling from the distance argued to keep the gate open for sometime until whoever was calling from the distance arrived.
“Are you sure you heard anything and not just tired?”
His co-worker on the other hand thought he was just hearing things from overworking.
“Did they shut the gate?” Ryn muttered, coming into halt and switching into walking.
Ryn couldn’t see it from his location if the gate was closed or not, and it was getting dark outside. So he decided to walk the remaining distance.
‘I guess i will have to knock then.’
Ryn hoped to arrive before sunset, so he could enter without being given any weird looks, but now that he was arriving alone after the gates were closed, they would probably ask who he is, even if some of them recognize him, just for procedures.
After that if he ever went out or returned late again, they would recognize him and that would raise questions,
Even if it is just within the guards, why a 6 years old child roaming alone and is always late coming back.
“See, nothing is there, and no ones coming.”
“I swear I heard someone say ‘wait’. It was a child’s voice.”
“Hold on! You said a child!? You sure you weren’t hearing things like the wind or something? There is no reason for a child to be outside at this kind of time.”
The guard anxiously got chatty, trying to reason with his co-worker to close the gate.
“I am sure of it, it was a child’s voice. Just one voic–”
“I get it, so let’s just close the gates for now and then open one panel. Okay?”
In panic he didn’t let his friend finish his words, after he heard it was just one child. And started moving his panel of the gate, in an attempt to close it.
“Let’s just wait, they would probably be here.”
Since the panels needed to be attached before pushed into place and closed, he needed the other one to move in sync with it. But the other guard didn’t budge and was adamant on waiting for the caller's arrival.
“Wait for what? You know what kind of things are out there?”
The other guard fixed his panel temporarily near the adjoined locker on the ground where the gate is fixed in place, and moved to the other panel to forcibly move it on his own.
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“What are you on about? The Ash Crown is on the other side.”
“You moron. It doesn’t matter after sunset, it is all the same.”
He grabbed the panel handle in an attempt to finish the job on his own.
“I am telling you, they will be here by now.”
“And I am telling you, like hell I am waiting for them to arrive.”
‘What are they doing?’
Ryn arrived when their argument got heated up and was unable to enter because they were blocking the path.
And because of his small stature and dark engulfed outside, the small lights that were coming from the lanterns from the village were unable to shine on him, blocked by arguing guards.
“Let’s just close it FOR NOW!!”
The guard who wanted to close the door forcibly snatched the panel from the hand of the other guard after they wrestled for it and pushed it to the other panel.
“..AAGH!!”
Right after his body swirled behind the gate panel to move it, with his head peering from the side, the light slowly shined on the small stature individual standing right before them and his heart almost escaped his chest.
“By what’s holy what is that!?”
The guard fell on his back and crawled back. His action forced the other guard to step to the side to see what startled his friend.
“Hm!.. Ryn!?”
The light only reached up to his chest, only illuminating everything apart from his head. That prompted Ryn to step forward for the other guard to recognize him.
“Yes, it is me. I didn’t mean to..”
“Don’t worry about it. This guy is just afraid of children, but I never thought it would be to this level.”
Both Ryn and the standing guard looked down on the startled guard on the ground.
“Who said anything about being afraid of children and things like!?”
The guard on the ground retorted, standing up from the ground.
“But back then when we were by Da–”
“SHUT IT!!..I am not scared of anything.”
Zarko, dusting dirt off his trousers, saw his friend glancing at Ryn's side and caught onto what he was about to say, so he had to shut him up before he alerted Ryn of their activity the other day.
“Why are you yelling at me for?” Marlo was dejected at why his friend was angry at him, when he was the one crawling around, startled by the sight of a child.
“Ryn, you should go, your mother is probably waiting for you.” Zarko ignored his friend and let Ryn in.
“Thank you and have a good evening.” Ryn said his goodbyes leaving the two standing before the still ajar gate.
‘What was that?’
Ryn on his way to Gideon was still confused on what those two guards where doing.
“You really should watch your mouth around people.” Zarko reprimanded in a tired tone.
“What is it now?” Marlo replied, tired of his friend and his continues reprimands.
“You think Ryn is like the other children?”
“He is still a child though.”
“Let’s end our shift for now and talk about it later.” Zarko didn’t have the energy to argue and wanted to just leave.
“Humph” Marlo just humphed at him side-eyeing him.
‘Humph all you want, but we shouldn’t alert him to our suspicions yet.’
Zarko has been keeping an eye on Ryn and his movements since that day when they heard him laugh ‘eerily’ on his own.
though his suspicions probably started earlier than that.
Most of the villagers forgot about his “miracle boy” time and mostly treated him like he was any other boy from the village, but it wasn’t the same for Zarko.
The more Ryn acted normal and tried to blend in, the more Zarko’s suspicions increased. And now that he was filling in for the guard duty of the gate, he was keeping an eye on his movements even more.
‘I will definitely find out what you are hiding.’
“Why are you smiling creepily like that!?” Marlo asked from his side, distancing himself from Zarko.
“What should we eat!?” Zarko asked instead of answering, changing the topic.
“Of course to the Hot pot. You know Granny Elsie’s food is nothing like…” Marlo replied in delight of remembrance of Grandma Elsie’s food, distracted about what he asked earlier.
“Alright, to the Hot pot.”
‘I will definitely find it all out, that is if this guy doesn’t ruin it all’ Zarko sighed inside.
After Ryn made it inside the village his first stop was Gideon’s place and he quickly dropped off the materials and then made it home fast.
“How to hatch eggs…how to incubate them..” Ryn muttered.
Sitting beside the bed on the wooden floors and a lantern on his far left and the kittens snuggled by the far on his right atop a pile of clothes and a punch of writing papers spread in front him.
“There is nothing about it in here.” Ryn sighed, lifting his head up staring at the ceiling.
After arriving home, he had been searching for a way to hatch the eggs.
He fed the kittens and washed up before diving into the task at hand.
But he couldn’t find anything apart from that eggs are hatched by the heat produced by their mothers.
After he stumbled on that in the fauna book of the village, he was searching and deciphering the data that was within him now.
‘Hm, what is this!?' he stumbled upon a word.
“How to produce light and heat by using your KI!?”
After not finding anything that has to do with hatching eggs in the mysterious data, Ryn has been searching for anything related to producing heat on his own and how to control it and that’s when he came across those words.