The broken gear

Early visitor

After waking up from a restful sleep, Thomas had a strange urge to visit a few places. He had sunlight peeking from the window directly in his eye causing him to wake up earlier and have his eye blinded for a few seconds. He got out of bed got dressed and did his morning routine. When he went down to the kitchen he saw Nelle eating cereal. He was confused as his family didn't have this brand.

"Hey Nelle."

"Yes?"

"What are you eating?"

"Cereal, I came up with this version when I was younger."

The cereal was made up of corn flakes that had a strawberry flavor similar to that of strawberry ice cream.

"Doesn't that have a bit too much sugar".

"Not as much as when I was younger".

Suddenly, Arthur entered the kitchen and said that they arrived.

"Who's they?" Thomas asked.

"Your bride," he responded.

"What!" Thomas and Nelle yelled out at the same time.

"You might want to hurry," Arthur said as he left the kitchen.

Thomas began to panic. Someone he didn't know was waiting for him and might spend the rest of her life with him.

"I'll have to break it to her gently," he said.

"What if she's just like you? Being forced into this as well and only doing this because she thinks this will make you happy."

"I don't think someone would be that nice, but I hope that she isn't into this."

They then followed Arthur who was going towards the meeting room.

It was a large room, there were two large couches both adorned in golden sultan swirls on a velvet like fabric and and red and gold-like frame. There were also a few matching pillows with tassels on their edges decorating the couches. A small desk with a white ceramic lamp was also present in the area where the short end of the couches would meet.

The flooring was decorated in tiles that varied in coloring similar to that of wood. The tiles in the middle of the room made a circle with lines of tiles expanding towards the edge of the room.

There were a few other decorations on walls or bookshelves meant to either impress or invoke jealousy on other nobles. Thomas saw a trophy he won at a science fair. He was proud yet felt a bit embarrassed at his attitude of when he first placed the trophy. He didn't have much time to think as he heard the crested doors open. The doors had small amounts of stained glass and were slightly gilded in some areas. Nelle made herself hard to perceive.

He saw a family of 5 be greeted in. Two older people, who he assumed were likely the parents, and three girls. one looked as if they were in their twenties, another who looked as if they were his age and one who looked to be slightly younger than Sarah. The parents of the visitors told their daughters to stay with the other kids. As both pairs of parents went to a room next to the one they were in followed by guards from both parties, the children just stood awkwardly.

"Hi, I'm Valerie," said the eldest sister to Hazel and Arthur reaching her hand.

"Hi, I'm Arthur" he said shaking her hand.

Hazel followed, "Nice to meet you."

Thomas saw as they awkwardly tried to make small talk. It seemed to somewhat go well. He also noticed Sarah sound as if she was bragging to the girl around her age. However when she talked to her, in a similar tone, Sarah sounded frustrated. Thomas was focused on the other sibling and how they got along which caused him to get startled when he was approached by the seemingly middle child of the family.