Roland and Cael had now been walking for a while now, nothing was said, just calm silence, from here they could see there house in the distance on a small hill.
In front of them was the nearing town, beyond that was a grassy plain with a soul strip of dirt being a path through the plains, even closer was the great tree, and mountains covered the town like a bowl.
If anything Cael was slightly confused on how Roland was going to walk him half way, if he wanted to be time efficient he would of diverged from they path a few moments ago to get to the tree quicker.
But Cael didn’t really care, if anything he enjoyed the time he spent with his farther here on this path, even if nothing was said he could still feel something between them talking for them on this lonely path.
Roland was walking normally, while Alex was slightly bored so he was jumping and hopping around the path even if he was around the same age as
Roland, he didn’t care he was a child right now, so he enjoyed it.
“So,” Roland said aloud, it had been long enough in silence and Roland only got so much time around his child, he spoke again; “Are you ready for school? Or maybe excited?”
Roland put his coat over his shoulders, letting it hang there for a moment even if the blazing sun was out.
Alex stopped jumping around feeling the mood shift, not in a bad way but rather in a happy tone, Alex then spoke;
“I guess I am excited, I am just happy I get to get outside of the house, and meet some new people…” He said, looking at Roland face he saw the hidden smile he tried to hide, Roland then piped up;
“Well, as long as your happy, I don’t really mind, though there might not be to many kids there, it is quite a small town..” Roland then stood still, Alex looked back at this strange halt, with an outward sigh he spoke again; “This is as far as I go, if anything I should of started to diverge of the main path a little ago, but I have to go or else I will be in trouble, you be good, and if you run into any trouble say your my son, most people know me in the town… Aright, I am off…”
Alex was quite surprised, but it also answered his question of why Roland didn’t start diverging to the tree, be he understood it well, and was finally time for him to walk a new path alone, with a smile he said;
“I understand, see you later.”
Roland turned back almost like he had remembering something he said aloud before running off again towards the great tree; “I almost forgot, Tiffen should pick you up later, see you soon..” And with that he started to run on the grass, he clearly was very late so much so he needed to start running to the tree.
she seems incapable of even walking in her sick state let alone coming all the way into town..
』 Cael wrote it off as a miss saying, perhaps Eveline or maybe even Roland himself was coming to pick him up, and he just said Tiffen out of habit and didn’t realize before he started to sprint off.
Regardless of who was coming later, he looked forwards at the town, with a courage he took his first step towards it completely alone.
This was one of very few moments Alex had been fully alone out in the new world, and his first task was, school of all places…
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After walking his way through the town a few locals had spotted him and said
‘hello’, Alex was kind and respectful, but he also didn’t know the time, so he might be late he might not be.
So in favor of the latter, he keep the chit-chat conversations to a low surface level like how they should be, he was still interested in hearing all this new world had to offer but he had a mission today: Make it to school, and settle down his new schooling life.
So after walking down the town, getting lost and asking for directions, and eventually making it to the gate of the school grounds, it didn’t look much like a school.
It had a large metal gated fence along the outside, and the main building was more of a church,
『 Is this really a school?
Or is this an old church turned into a school 』 If it was a church and they started talking about the void and a weird cosmic mist then Cael might me interested, might even become a preacher.
But he highly doubted anyone would be preaching what Cael had experienced, let alone fitting a God into that.
But he had read the sign, and was certain this was the building for school to happen, he opened the gate and walked past the grim grass running along the side, like ghosts had been playing in it.
Then was the large wooden doors that hanged like an arch over some small stone steps, pushing with all his might he manged to open the door, looking inside.
『 What the hell?
outside of his tight-nit family (including Tiffen, even if she isn’t blood related), but inside this building was two other kids.
Talking to each other they turned to the new person.
One of the children had black hair, while the other had a tinted blue hair, dressed well for the occasion, they stood around the same height as
Alex leading him to believe; 『 Don’t tell me there are only two students in the entire school… 』
“Hey, new kid.” The black hair kid turned, looking at Alex’s sighed face of defeat, the black haired student continued; “Looks like, me, you, and Cleo are all stuck here for a year…” The boy pointed to himself, then to Alex, and then to Cleo who was the tinted blue hair it was unclear why
Cleo was hiding slightly behind the black haired boy, but Alex didn’t concern himself with that.
Alex started to walk towards them, closing the large arch doors behind him,
Alex had clearly overestimated this as what appeared to be the school was made of 3 students with himself included.
He walked up until they where almost side by side, reaching out his hand for a shake he said; “I am Alex, short for Alexander… Happy to meet you…”
『 Ahhh!
That’s not what kids say… Shoot, should I take back my hand, Ah!
What do I do?
』
Cael panicked as he realized this is definitely not what kids do, But the black hair boy grabbed onto his hand shaking Alex’s, the black haired boy now with a firm grip raised his head higher speaking; “Nice to meet you Alex, MY name is Shin, and this is Cleo…”
Despite being kids and now students, they all seemed to have manners, and Shim even shook Alex’s hand, Cleo who was now fully hiding behind Shin, slowly emerged raising his hand out.
Slowly and shyly, he moved his hand closer, and closer to Alex’s open shake, before this slow painful act appeared to frustrate Shin, so he grabbed Alex’s hand and Cleo’s hand and forced them to meet.
“Be a bit nicer Cleo, Alex is fine, a kid just like us…”
Cleo and Alex where pulled together as Shin had moved there hands for them,
Cleo looked away shyly before saying; “Um… uh… Good afternoon!” It was morning.
Shin shook his head releasing there hands, he turned to Alex as Cleo hid away behind him again, Shin spoke; “That’s the best your going to get…”