Sitting in front of these people who shared things in common, I felt unsettled while scooping good food in my mouth. The dark empty room with only a few things collided with the silence. It was awkward to eat at this moment.
As I roamed my eyes around them, I spotted Hanaele's eyes hesitating to pick up her eating utensils. Her hands were going back and forth to the spoon and fork placed beside each side of her plate. Her eyes were confused while making decisions out of uncertainty.
Cassius noticed her reaction. His eyes were worried and seemed to put himself onto her shoes. Since he sat beside Hanaele, he gently held Hanael's hand, guided it towards the spoon. The spoon was placed above the fork. Hanaele felt relieved, glancing towards Cassius as she smiled, showing a glimpse of appreciation.
I was wondering the reason behind Hanaele's confusion. Although both the fork and the spoon were different in color, she still could not figure out which one of them is the spoon.
The fork has a slight shade of brown, and the spoon was grayish. What's her problem anyway?
As I remembered, Cassius told me that they were siblings, but it does not justify how he looked at Hanaele a while ago. Or I guess I was just overacting. I just shook my head and forgot that moment.
"Are you not gonna eat, Sophia?" A child-like voice interrupted the mood. When I quickly faced where that voice came from, it was from a short girl with a white cape. She asked this question while drinking from a small cup. She has blonde, curly hair with a shoulder-level length, and her face looked the same as her voice.
I blinked my eyes several times. I was thinking, how did she know my name, but it doesn't matter anyway. Base on the cape she was wearing, she's part of the Agila. Probably, Larch Laverens have already told her about it.
I gulped in silence before answering her. "N-no, I will..."
She nodded with a wide smile on her face as she glanced at me. Oh well, she looked jolly and playful when she did that. "Good! Because nature will punish you if you do not eat the food." She warned, raising a few of her eyebrows.
Huh? What does she mean?
"N-nature?" I asked. At this point, some of her teammates glanced at me while busy feeding themselves. I felt more uncomfortable now.
She stopped eating for a while and gave me a surprised look. She glanced in Hanaele and Cassius' direction before looking at me back. "Wait, you didn't know?"
"Know what?"
"Hm..." At this point, she was thinking with a wit expression of hers. "I see that big sis and big bro did not inform you yet. But that's alright! You're still new here, so that's pretty considerable." She sounded like I need to face death by not knowing that nature thing that she meant. Also, why did she called Hanaele and Cassius siblings where their faces were not similar at all? Ah.
I drank my water first before listening to her back. This topic interests me the most.
"Flora, just let your leader explain that to her." She was not able to speak more about it since Hanaele chipped in our conversation. Here we go again with this mind-blowing, mysterious stuff. I was hoping that they could tell me things straight without leaving me hanging for answers.
In respect to Hanaele's decision, this girl, Flora, quickly nodded. "Okay!"
And once again, everything went silent with only these clanging sound of the utensils. As I continued eating, a storm suddenly appeared. Right through the window, I saw heavy rains. The people right here have no reaction at all that only me who reacted to the range.
"It's raining..." I whispered to myself.
Flora looked at me, glanced at the window, and faced me back again. "Y-yeah, since the daughter of the world wasn't able to come back home, the weather is like this almost all the time. Human-eating trees appeared, and farmers have no plentiful harvest. If there are, it would be a bit of luck." She said, leaving me pointless. I did not understand what she was saying. Meaning to say, I did not see the relevance of her words from my view. Was this part of what she meant by 'nature' a while ago?
I was about to speak, but then and again, Hanaele interrupted us. "Flora, I told you to shut up about these things. Do I have to repeat reminding you all the time? Is there some point of my instruction that you do not understand?" Her voice sounded irritated, strict, yet graceful. She was trying to minimize the volume of her voice in respect of everyone.
Flora covered her mouth and shrugged her shoulders. "Opsie! Sorry for that." Afterwhich, she continued eating once again. Well, it seemed like this girl was used to Hanaele's attitude. Good for her.
I then looked back to the window once again. The satisfying sound that the rain brought to my ears was familiar. It was the same as when Sarah cried a river at one time. Speaking of her, I suddenly remembered that I wasn't in my hometown right now. Ah. I wondered how's the weather right there, huh.
I softly put the spoon beside my plate and stood up, walking towards the window. When I saw the sharp edges of the bright, full moon, I suddenly realized something again. I haven't been at home for many days now, and mom is looking at me for sure. However, I haven't felt any interest in going home. I may be insisting to escape at first, but to be honest, it was because meeting Hanaele and Cassius was the first time. And so, I did not know them. But, above all, I did not miss home at all.
I don't miss the environment I have there. I stop worrying about Sarah lately. I don't miss mom anymore.
Living here with no assurance of safety from these people was alright rather than dwelling with expectations from reality. I may sound an idiot for being too confident in saying that amidst the fact that these people were still strangers in my life, but as of now, I did not care about the reasons behind forcing me to come.
I turned my head back to the table where some of them were done eating, and some were talking. I may not know all of these citizens now, but I am looking forward to working with them. Although I still do not know what roles are we going to do, I am wishing for a fun and memorable experience.
I sighed.
-
"This is what you are going to wear." Hanaele lent me common identity clothes that the Agila squad is wearing. A white, knee level cape with a logo of an eagle in the emphasis of its sharp eyes, and its writing style that I did not recognize. A stretchable, dark red pants. Several blue strands of which I still do not know what are uses, and yellow upper attire. An orange-colored hip length jacket-like. And of course, peach footwear in knee level.
Ok, so what am I going to do with these? To wear, of course, but these feel so hot. Do I really need to wear these? Anyway, I guess I have no choice at all. After hearing the voice of Hanaele last night, it was slightly expressed, but it was enough for someone to get scared if you're not that close with her.
Neither way, I just presented my arms and accepted the uniform. "Good luck to your first day," Hanaele said when she noticed that I kept avoiding her eye contact.
"I hope so." I just said without checking her reaction still.
I will begin a new life here with new people. Far away from pressure...