Verita's Chronicles, The Dreamer

Chapter 2

- Henry! Wake up !

- Mmmmh

Henry opened his eyes and saw a young boy of around ten years old shaking his arm, a little blond with blue eyes. His name, li- whatever. He then looked directly in front of him, not even a meter away there was a wooden board. He rubbed his eyes and began to remember, he was in his room, a room he shared with seven other children, seven other orphans. The one who was still pulling on his arm was one of them

- Leave me alone.

- But Madame Rigant asked me to come and wake you up, she is afraid that you will stay asleep

for days like last time.

- There I am awake, leave me alone now.

- No, you're going to come and eat with us.

- I'm not hungry.

- Madame Rigant and the new girl will be worried if you don't come, and I don't want them to be

worried.

Henry rolled over onto his stomach and placed his pillow over his head to drown out the sound of his voice.

- Go tell them I'm fine.

- Tell them yourself.

- Leave me alone.

The little boy stomped and thought for a few more seconds before a flash of genius crossed his mind.

- If you don't come, Madame Rigant will go see Madame Élaine, and you know that she will surely

take you to church again.

Church, Henry hated going there, the people were nice and wanted to help him but every time it was just endless hours praying to a group of beings who live in another world and who don't give a damn about what happens to us.

- Yeah, ok I'm coming.

Henry stretched and sat on the side of his bed. The little boy smiled at him with a victorious look.

- I'm going to eat, you'll join us quickly.

- yes, yes, okay, whatever you want.

He ran out of the room into the hallway.

Henry sat there for a while longer, looking at the ground trying to remember what had happened.

tonight. The boy with the black eyes, the man with the badge, everything came back to his mind piece by piece.

piece. He raised his head to look at the window, the sun's rays were streaming through the curtains, he was

rather late in the morning, but that was normal for Henry. He yawned and got up, barely awake and

already exhausted, the night did not rest him, he was always sleepy, all day, all the time. In

looking around he recognized his usual room, 4 bunk beds next to each other. He turned towards the cupboard placed between his bed and the wall. The door had a mirror and the interior was divided into two areas for him and his bedmate. He stood there staring at his reflection, he had to

I was about twelve years old and was five feet tall. He was rather thin with a child's face.

all round. His eyes were a rare violet and he had straight brown hair that went down to

Ring.

After long minutes of staring at his reflection for no particular reason he shook his head and recovered.

in his clothes closet. He put on some hot pants, a top and a coat a size too big

tall for him, raising the hood that covered the upper half of his face. As he prepared to

going to eat he heard small knocking noises in the window, turning around he saw the silhouette of a bird emerging in the curtains. Smiling, which was rare for him, he opened the curtains and the window, letting in a little owl. The animal must have measured thirty-five centimeters at most and was rather light, its feathers had a nice gradient of gray in the center and on the edge of its wings while the rest was a dark and beautiful black. Dream, that was the name of this animal, Henry had seen it for the first time when he was eight years old, his parents had just died and he had fled into the forest. He ended up lost and that's where Rêve found him and guided him to the orphanage. Since then they often spent their days together. He had been told that Dream was no ordinary owl and was surely a gift from the gods, and Henry partially agreed, the animal was far too intelligent to be normal but it was not a gift from the gods, just a friend, his only friend.

Letting the little owl sit on his shoulder he then hurried towards the orphanage canteen. There he saw a long wooden table surrounded by small stools. There were more or less sixty children in the building, of different races and ages, the oldest must have been fifteen years old and the youngest was a baby barely born and already alone. When he returned he immediately noticed Madame

Rigant, a woman in her forties with rather dark skin and gray hair, her skin

showed signs of maturity and a scar passed over his lip. Next to her stood the

new, another young woman who was barely in her thirties, her skin was rather dark and her

curly and long hair fell in all directions like fireworks. She had been there for two weeks and had already tried several times to get closer to Henry, but without success, he was used to staying away, he frightened most of the other children and even some adults, not only because of his intelligence equivalent to that of an adult but also his curse.He took a tray and went to sit aside, passing in front of the two women. Madame Rigant smiles at himand the news tried to greet him, without much success.- Still trying to sympathize with him, don't worry if he doesn't answer you, he's not bad but that's the way he is.- I know, I'm just trying to get him out of this bubble he lives in.- I gave up a while ago, as long as he's not unhappy like that, that's fine with me.- If you say so.He didn't know if they were thinking of being discreet or not even trying but honestly he didn't care, hurrying to find a place aside Henry took a piece of bread which he gave to Rêve before starting to eat an apple that he had picked up, plunged into his thoughts, especially on this badge that the man had shown him.