The Crown Of Fire

Alex III

He'd never slept so deeply in his life.

Back home, he always had to worry about Fred getting too drunk and thinking it was the room he shared with Alex's mother, climbing into bed with him. Although, one particular morning, he knew well whose room it was and offered the boy a bottle. It was a different story when he'd gotten back from sharing the bottle with his friend, Fred had forgotten the entire morning again and thought that Alex had stolen that bottle.

This morning, he was actually kicked into consciousness. And it did hurt.

When his eyes opened, Aria stood over him, she was looking down at him. Like she'd been watching for longer than she'd been kicking, and it was like she was studying him.

"Good morning?" he spoke in a questioning voice. She furrowed her brow and tilted her head to the side ever so slightly.

"What's good about morning?"

He sighed. "Nothing, I guess." He sat up and put a hand to his ribs. Octavia was already up, smoothing out her skirt before the day's walk. "Did you kick me?"

"Yes," Aria answered. "Where I come from, if someone sleeps too deep, we make our water on them."

"What?" he asked. "Make water?"

She inhaled sharply and squeezed her eyes shut. "Eight has informed me that in your tongue, it's called peeing."

Alex's nose wrinkled in disgust. "Gross, that's disgusting."

"Since you are not yet acquainted with my culture, I thought that was not the path to take," Aria told him. "I was being nice."

"What she means is that I told her that peeing on people isn't necessarily sanitary and that you could get pneumonia from being wet and die." Octavia intervened.

"Where did you learn that?" Alex asked. She shrugged.

"A book, also, Fred kept going outside after he wet himself, and I always wondered if that's good for anyone's health," the little girl spoke. "Long story short, it's not good, ever."

"Is it common to soil your trousers in your land?" Aria wondered aloud. Alex shook his head.

"Not unless you're a child, old person, or drunk all the bloody time." The raven-haired boy told her as he got to his feet. "Which brings me to my question; why is it normal to pee on people in your land?"

"It wakes the soldiers up and gives them a fresh smell."

"I wouldn't say fresh," Octavia stated. "More like new."

Alex let out a dry laugh at that. But Aria didn't get it. "Come, we don't have all day."

The siblings chased after her. They kept up well with her, but Aria was more used to the terrain than they were. Of course, Alex himself had spent a lot of time in forests. It was often on weekends, he'd leave Octavia with her little friends and go with a few of his friends to escape their home, though, it would've been better if they never had to go back at all.

"Why do you treat us so differently?" Alex asked her. "Yeah, we're otherworlders, but we're just like you. Mostly, I mean. You are human, aren't you?"

"Yes," she told him. "I am human. But there are certain... certain things that make me different than you. For starters, you live only one life. I will live for hundreds of years, if not forever. That is unless I get brutally murdered, in which case, it is but this life that I live."

"Are you reborn? Like Jesus?" Octavia asked.

"I don't know who that is," Aria stated. Alex paused for a moment, thinking of a way to explain it to her.

"In our world, there are almost too many religions. But the one that's been at the forefront of our history is called Christianity. The entire religion focuses on this man, Jesus Christ. He was born as a son of God to a..." he started but paused and glanced at Octavia for a second, unsure of how to proceed for only a second. "A young woman. They crucified him, and then someone took him off the cross and took him to a cave to make a tomb and it was sealed by this giant rock. A lot of people think he's a miracle because he rose from the dead after being dead for three days and opened his own tomb."

"It's not like that," the white-haired girl told him.

"Then what is it like then?" Octavia asked as she walked on the other side of Aria. Octavia was a curious person. She liked to know things and learn things. She liked to go to school, and all of her teachers liked her. Half of them couldn't believe that she was Alex's sister.

"We repeat our lives over and over again. There are no miracles. We will be reborn if we die of natural causes, illness, or even poison. But being stabbed, or shot with an arrow, ends all of that. A bloody death results in permanent death." Aria stated.

"Is this your first life?" Alex asked her. "It seems like you're a pro."

He forgets that she doesn't understand certain things that he says. He often forgets that while she might look the same, she's not. She isn't entirely human. She can't be. She's not even from Earth. She's from wherever Ashiver is.

"Yes," Aria answered.

"What happened to your mother and father?" Octavia asked. He watched as Octavia reached up and held Aria's hand as they walked. "Why are you all alone?"

Aria paused in her steps for just a second and looked down at the little girl's hand in hers. She seemed to be confused at the affection a strange girl showed her. But of course, Octavia had such a big heart. It didn't matter who they were, Octavia always had kind words for them, a kind thought, and a kind gesture.

"They abandoned me. Truth be told, good riddance," Aria spoke as she kept walking, pulling her hand out of Aria's grasp. "The last thing I need is another attachment. Another person to worry about Ser-the Queen killing." she cleared her throat. She refused to show emotion in front of them, in front of anyone. That was just who she was. Too proud to be vulnerable. "And I'm not alone. I'm never alone. The trees keep me company, if you listen closely, you can hear their whispers."

Alex took Octavia's hand in his, as he could see the disappointment in her eyes when Aria trudged on ahead without her. Family was a difficult topic to discuss, he knew that. Especially when they proved that they wanted nothing to do with you, that you weren't good enough for them.

~

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