Rayvin

Chapter 1

Rayvin. Rayvin. "Mmn." Rayvin. With hair as dark as the sunless sky and eyes the color of ripe raspberries the girl drowsily lifts her heavy head from her pillows. Skinny as bones with an olive skin tone, the pitiful but lovely child stood from her single bed. In a daze she looks around the large and long room, rolls and rolls of beds lined the walls with equally malnourished children of varying sizes. She caught a glimpse of holes in the wood walls that she couldn't help but find impractical and unnecessary. What would happen if they were attacked?  The sky was just about to show off a new dawn she wasn't used to seeing or understanding.

 There were many familiar and unfamiliar scents in the air. She couldn't smell damp rotted wood and limestone like she should have. Instead, the air came off as somewhat fragrant and...forestry. After processing her surroundings, the lovely child slowly lifts her scarred arms tilting her head as if contemplating her situation. Ah. She exclaims internally with a calm facade, her raspberry eyes blinking just as slow as her brain making her appear as slow-witted as a lazy puppy. I am alive.

We are alive. Something in her chest thumps oddly making her look away from her ugly arms to her flat chest. It was a strange and new feeling. What was it? She thought to herself in what she identified as curiosity towards the new feeling near her chest that wasn't pain for once. Rayvin. Lifting her head she turns towards the only door, the child quietly places her hand on the wood frame of the bed and with much effort managed to break off what she could as quietly as possible. Her hands were red with the effort and her reopened shoulder wounds began to bleed through the brand-new white cotton dress. Indifferent to those injuries, the child held the improvised weapon that was as tall as herself tapping it lightly against the floorboards testing its durability.

  It's ok. "Hiccup-Ra-Rayvin?" Turning her head over to the ten other children some with bandages covering their heads and arms, some unable to walk or stand up. They all look over at her with frightened and teary eyes. She had done the best she could to be as quiet as possible, but it seems like it wasn't quite enough. The closest one was a young girl with the same black hair as herself but baby blue eyes like an angel. Half her face was covered in bandages and the other half staring at her with a single puffy eye and tears flooding down her skinny beautiful face. The puny child younger than herself stretches her equally damaged arms out to her whimpering dependently as did the rest. "Sister wuuu~" Rayvin tilts her head at the girl, placing the weapon on the bed she had just destroyed. She took the girl in her arms like a mother cradling her precious child, lightly patting her head and speaking in a velvety tone with her childish voice.

 "It's ok, Ailee." She raises her head to the other children who were sniffling messes while hugging the shaking and quietly sobbing girl. Lifting a palm towards them, like the holy mother her eyes as gentle as an angel. "It's ok, I'm here." Like a waterfall, the tears and snots of ten children fell all at once the moment she opened her mouth. "Wuuuuu~ Rayvin~! Sister Rayvin~!" Like a swarm of chicks reunited with their mother the children, all struggled despite their numerous injuries to cling to any part of the girl they could. They almost tore her cotton dress with how desperately they clung to her. However, with Ailee laying her her lap, she silently soothed the children with her familiar scent and presence without complaining no matter how tightly they held her. The fabric pulled and turned her skin red like the back of her bloody dress.

 Her expression held a quiet and loving smile as she now by one pats their heads to ease their fragile minds. It took quite awhile, however, once the children calmed the sun was already peeking its head from behind the tree line. Despite being covered in blood from head to toe due to reopening their wounds the children stubbornly held onto the girl. Never wanting to be separated from the girl who was their only backing in the black hole they were born in. However, the girl called Rayvin still peels their tiny hands off one by one with the patience of a saint. They were hesitant and as their tears were about to fall again the girl held a finger to her lips. The children's woeful eyes immediately became frightened at the familiar signal.