Shadow and Bone - The child of shadow and light

Chapter 9 (16)

It took us 12 hours to reach Keramzin by train and Anja thank saints, slept through most of the journey. From the train station, we quickly reached the village where we gathered much-needed supplies before continuing on to the outskirts of the village on foot. We both thought it would be for the best if we bought a small farm or cottage a bit further away from everyone. That way it would be easier to hide when uninvited guests decided to visit. To hide Anastasia.

While the orphanage had once been on the eastern side of the village, we had decided to move to the western side. Neither Mal nor I had the heart to even go close to the place we had once called home. Mal hadn't seen what the Darkling had done to the orphanage, to Ana Kuya, to Botkin. I shivered as the memories played before me. I pushed them down and instead looked down at the sleeping treasure in my arms. 

Even though I knew the chance was slim, I really - really hoped that Anastasia wasn't Grisha. That she was and could be what I had always wanted to be. Normal. To grow up as a normal, happy girl. To go to school, have friends, and perhaps even get married. After asking a few of the farmers, we were told that there was an abandoned house not too far away. And there we went. And let me tell you that the farmer had been kind when he had said abandoned. The grass had grown so high that it reached my waist and you couldn't even see Anja when she walked around in it. But at least the house wasn't as bad. 

"Well, We've seen worst haven't we Starkov?" I scoffed. "We absolutely have Oretsev" he laughed before opening the door to our new home. Calling it a fucking mess would be an understatement. After looking around for a bit, I was able to get my hands on a broom and started cleaning while Mal got to work on the broken staircase. It wasn't easy to try to get things done and Anja slowed us down as she always needed someone to keep an eye on her. For if you even let your eyes off of her for even a second, she would run away like a lightning bolt, looking for trouble. And it was easy to tell that cleaning wasn't something she enjoyed. 

A few days later the house was at least livable. But Anja seemed to actually like the new house and was adapting really quickly to her new environment. Especially since she now had more space to run around but when the nearby neighbour's children visited with their parents, she backed away. Anastasia had never in her five years of living, been shy. She didn't even greet them and just stayed hidden behind me as if afraid the children would bite her. Even after I tried to coax her to at least say hello, she still refused and instead ran up the stairs to her new room.

Perhaps she was missing Maria, or she really just was shy. After speaking to the neighbours, I found out that there was a recently opened school for the village children that offered the basics: reading, writing, basic math, geography, and history. The next day I bought the necessities that Anastasia would need for school. Like a thin slab of slate and a slate pencil. The books were trickier to find. I already owned a history book that she could use, as well as an atlas and a few maps, but I had to ask around a lot just to find a math book. 

In the end, I wasn't able to get my hands on one but at least she had everything else. And I could always help her to understand the basics. Ana Kuya had been extremely fussy about us knowing at least the basics of math. Though I doubted that the children would be learning math this early on. They'll probably start learning mathematics after a few years. "My children will not become some buffy, dumb baboons that can't even count potatoes! My saints how It would embarrass me" I could hear her voice in the back of my head. 

When I told Anja the news, she got excited at the same time as she got worried, as expected. She had looked forward to starting school with Maria when we lived in Ivets. I told her not to worry and that with my extra help at home, she would become the best in her class very quickly. It seemed to ease her, though I could see there was something that still bothered her, I didn't ask. I informed the teacher the next day and got Anastasia officially enrolled in school. She was to start school at 9 am the next Monday. And if to be honest, I didn't know who was more excited - her or me.