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Rei looked around and started running. Trees and flames flashed by as he ran and smoke diluted his sense of smell and sight. The forest around him, his home, had caght fire during a dry thunder storm. Water formed in his eyes, from the burning of the smoke and the loss of his home. Finally breaking free of the forest, he turned around and stared at it, tears streaming down his face.
"HEY YOU! What are you doing here?" A voice called out of nowhere and Rei spun around. A tall man with dirty blonde hair, a tall structure, and bright blue eyes was walking over to him. The man was wearing torn up jeans and a red, sleeveless shirt.
"W-who are you?" Rei stamered, tears still running down his cheeks. His tall, muscular, 14 year-old body was shaking from fear and saddness. His long, dark jeans, blue t-shirt, dark brown hair, and light skin was covered in ash.
"My name's Chris. And who are you kid? And why were you in the fire?" Chirs looked at Rei, curiosity showing on his face.
Rei looked at the man, Chris, and opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out but a stream of coughs and hacking. His eyesight started to get blurry and his head was spinning. He put his head in his hands and moaned.
"Kid? What's wrong, eh?," Chris asked him questionably, but his voice seemed to be getting farther and farther away from Rei. Rei looked up at Chirs but soon put his head back in his hands. Everything was spinning around him and soon he fainted and everything went dark.
When he woke up, Rei found him self warm and wrapped up. He opened his eyes and found himself laying on a pile of blankets on the floor and one particulary large blanket covering him. He sat quickly and fell back down his eyes closed, holding his head.
"If you want to get up you should do it slowly," a female voice said, cutting through the silence. Rei slowly opened his eyes and saw a hand with a wet cloth, washing his face. He wiggled away from the hand and sat up slowly. He rubbed his eyes with his hands and suddenly his eyes were stinging.
"That wasn't very smart of you to do. I haven't washed the smoke off your hands yet. You were curled up in such a tight ball it was impossible to wash anything without distrbing you. The best we culd do was change you out of those ragged, dirty clothes," the voice said again.
"M-my clothes?" Rei opened his still stinging eyes and looked at what he was wearing. All he had on was a pair of soft blue pajama pants. He looked at the women. She had long blonde hair and soft green eyes. She was wearing a long red dress and white apron. "Where are my clothes?" He asked her.
The women started to wash his face again and Rei had to close his eyes. "Don't worry. They're being washed right now and you can change back into them as soon as they're clean. My name's Cathrine, Chris' wife. He came home yesterday carrying you. Said you fainted after coming out of that forest. He tried asking you your name but you just started coughing and hacking."
"Rei."
"What's that now?"
"My name's Rei."
"Well thats a beautiful name Rei."
"Thank you ma'am."
"So waht were you doing in that forest anyways?" She took one of Rei's hands and started to scrub the ash off of it.
"I-I lived there ma'am."
"WHAT?! You lived there? But you're just a child! To young to be living alone! Did you run away from home?"
He looked down, thinking about what had happened three years ago when he was 11. "I would never run away from home. I loved home...." He paused. Should he tell her his story. Yes. He knew she would ask him why he was alone anyways so he might as well just tell her. "I-I lived alone with my parents about a mile from a small village. One day they left me at home while they went to get supplies. A few hours later I saw smoke rising from the village. Scared, I sat and waited but they never came back. I was 11 when it happened. I remember it clearly. I had picked up my cat, Chu, and walked to the village. When I got there everything was burned and there was-" He cut himslef off as tears started to run down his cheeks.
Christine looked at him and pull him close to her. "Shh... you don't have to tell me the details. I understand." She gently started to run her fingers through his hair, trying to comfort him.
He burried his face in her dress and cried. He didn't care the he wasn't a kid and he shouldn't be crying like this. That just didn't matter to him and he just kept crying. When she started running her fingers through his hair he remmebered how his mom did the for him when he got scared and started crying. He slowly stopped crying but when he tried to say something all that came out was a hiccup.
"Shh. Just lay back down and I'll get you something to eat." She got up and started walking out of the room.
"Thank-" He hiccuped, "-you." He watched as she left the room and the closing slowly behind her. Curling up into a tight ball he though about what he saw three years ago, the burned houses, the ashes of hay, and..... the pile of dead bodies, including his parents. As much as he wanted the memory to go away, it stayed stuck in his mind like penut butter to the roof of your mouth.
Rei suddenly bolted up, rembering that he had lost his cat while he was running out of the forest. He got off of the pile of blankets, wished he had a shirt, and walked out of the room. He walked into a hallway and looked around. Walking down the hallway, his eyes widened. This place is huge! I don't think I've ever seen anywhere so big... he thought to himself. Finally, after wandering the halls, he found himself in the kitchen and saw Chathrine preparing a plate of sausages. "Um... Ma'am... Im sorry to bother you but... I was just wonderign if you're husband also happened to have found a cat. It's brown tabby..."
"Huh?" Cathrine turned around and looked at Rei. "A cat? I don't think so... You might want to ask himself." She placed the plate of sausages on the table. "Sit down, eat, and I'll find you a shirt. Afterwards you can go outside and ask him."
"O-ok...." Rei sat down at the table, picked up his fork and knife, and started eating the sausage. He turned around to tell Cathrine that they were delicous and thank you but she had already lef the kitchen. He sighed and went back to eating. Catrine soon came back. Hearing her come in, even though there was no door to be opened or closed, he turned around and smiled. "Thank you for the food ma'am. It was delicous."
Cathrine looked at his empty plate. "You ate it all already? Haven't you eaten? A plate of sausage that size would take Chris hours and he can eat fast." She took a dusty gray shirt out of a pocket in her apron and handed it to him.
"I, uh.... haven't really eaten that much lately. There wasn't really anything to eat...." He took the shirt and slipped it on over his head. He looked at her and smiled gain. "Thank you for the shirt."
She shook her head. "Your welcome Rei. If you want to go outside the door is just down the hall at the very end."
He jumped up from his seat. "Thank you, again." He looked at his palte and picked it up. "What would you like me to do with this?"
"Just put it in the sink and I'll wash it later."
"Ok...." He walked over to the sink and set it gently inside. He watched as Cathirne turned and walked out the kitchen. Quickly turning on the water and finding a sponge, he started to wash his plate. He put it away and walked down the hall and outside.
Outside, he stopped at the door and looked around. He saw a wooden stable next to a big red barn On the side of the house he saw a garden with vegetables, fruits, and herbs. He looked back at the bar and stable and saw Chris coming out from behind the barn. Rei ran over to him, but stopped a few feet away, seeing that Chris wasa holding a brown tabby cat. "Chu!"
Chris looked at Rei. "Huh? What are you talking about boy? My name isn't Chu, it's Chris."
Rei looked at Chris and started lauhging."No, not you sir." He smiled. "The cat, his name is Chu, I lost him while I was running from the forest."
Chris looked down at the brown tabby, then back at Rei. "Oh, well then, here you go kid." Chris handed Chu to Rei and smiled at the reactioon of the boy. Rei and carefully grabbed Chu from Chris and cuddled him like a baby, smiling like little kid with a lollipop. Rei started to rub the tabby's stomach and Chu started to pur happily.
"Thank you Sir." Rei said sheepishly. The big man, though very kind, somewhat frightened him.
Not gonna finish. Don't pester me about if you do happen to read this. The idea is gone and I have writers block. I don't even have poems to write at the moment.
 Lumiere Cachee · Sat Feb 17, 2007 @ 06:53pm · 3 Comments |
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