The Unforeseen Spark

The People Waiting For Her

        After lecturing her fully about her failed drinking attempt, Celso reluctantly let her set off on her way home.
       The sun outside was slowly setting, casting a collage of colors across the sky. This striking image reminded Roetta of the time and the people waiting for her when she got back home.
In a hurry to get there, she picked up her pace, sending bits of dust flying off of the dirt roads that connected all the buildings of the lower parts together.
Not long after, the shabby looking building came to view. Walking down the connecting pathway to the structure, she reached out her hand to open the door, but before she could even touch the doorknob, she was knocked down by an unseen force. Looking up to find the small tackler, she was not shocked to see tiny Rosemarie hugging her waist.
"Big sis, come on in and play with us," gazing into the kid's shinning, sky blue eyes, she couldn't help but let the girl pull her up and drag her into the orphanage.
The building that they called home was a barely funded orphanage that contained two rooms, a kitchen and a bedroom. The bedroom was the biggest of the two, since it had to house all eleven of the kids living there.
The so called "bedroom" didn't even contain beds. The budget of the orphanage did not allow for that kind of spending, considering that the funding barely paid for the occupying of the land itself. Instead, there were little pallets made for each person out of old cloths and jackets, scattered around the floor of the room. It was in this room that the other kids were currently lying in and that Roetta was dragged into.
Roetta's sudden appearance caught the attention of the kids in the room, causing them to immediately stand up and rush over to her. She felt the pulling of her coat sleeves as well as her pants as the children below her all tried to catch her attention at once.
"Sis can you-"
"Big sis where-"
"Sis did you-"
There was a chorus of voices all speaking at once, trying to be heard over each other. It took the petite, blonde headed Rosemarie standing on a makeshift mountain of cloth to quiet down the room.
"Shut up, I got to her first so all the rest of you can wait - unless you wanna fight me for 'er."
The brave young girl pointed her nose in the air and proudly placed her hands onto her hips. The quiet in the room only lasted for a little while longer before falling into chaos.
"Hey, you had most of the time with her yesterday!"
"Who do you think you're talking to?!"
"I'm older than you by two months and I say no!"
The last comment made Roetta chuckle, but finding it time for the chaos to be over, she quickly walked to the circle that had just begun to surround Rosemarie instead. Squeezing her way past the jumping kids (they were trying to grab Rosemarie from her pile but couldn't reach - no telling how she even got up there), she lifted the girl from her proud stance and set her down outside of the ring of kids.
"Okay, that's enough. How about we play something all together, like hide-and-seek?"
Her proposal made the kids quickly forget about any arguments they were making with the blonde headed child by her side, and after a quick decision of Roetta being "it", they even dragged the girl along so that they could find places to hide.
Roetta put her hands over her eyes and began to count. When she got to twelve, she stopped counting. From the corner of her eye, she could see that there was one child who didn't run to join the others. Looking back to when she first entered the room, she realized that he stayed still then too.
Lowering her hands, she approached the boy. He was currently lying on his pallet, reading an old book that Roetta had given him a couple of years before.
"Benett, don't you want to play with all of us?"
The boy in question looked up from his book, closed it, and set it to his side.
"I don't want to slow down all the others," he was avoiding her eyes and instead focused on his hands that were clasped together in his lap. The bruised littered around his wrist reminded her of the incident that occurred just recently with the knights. It was only a day ago and the injuries that Benett obtained were yet to heal.
All the kids were going to play outside that day, and Benett was finally well enough to play with them. Everything was going fine, the day had started beautifully after all, with clear skies and a bit of warmth from the sun.
That had all ended, though, when one of the king's knights showed up. They didn't have the best of reputations in the lower parts since they did all of the king's bidding and the king didn't have the best reputation himself. Even when they weren't doing the king's bidding, they weren't pleasant people to be around.
The knight approached the group of playing kids and the giggling of the kids was interrupted by a loud yelp.
Benett's wrist was in the hand of the knight and he was struggling to wrestle it back. The book in the same hand was held so tightly his fingertips turned white. It was the same book that Roetta had gotten him.
"What's a slimy orphan like you doing with a book? You're probably too dumb to read you pig, how 'bout I save you a headache."
With those words, the knight tugged the book out of his hands and held it high in the air. With that tug, Benett was sent to the ground and an ugly snap echoed through the air.
With that second pain filled cry from Benett, Roetta finally reached the scene, and she was filled with rage. Her vision was dyed red, her breaths ragged and forced. It took every single fiber of her being not to run the man through with the dagger she had hidden in her belt.
Luckily the head of the orphanage, a lovely old woman by the name Ms. Diaton, was able to quickly distract the knight and get him off of the grounds before she could make the situation worse.
In the end, Ms. Diaton was able to get the book back, but that didn't change the fact that Benett ended up with bruises and a broken leg from the incident.
It seemed that Benett was also thinking about the incident, since he was staring at his left leg that was wrapped into a cheaply made splint.
"You won't slow down anyone Benett, and if you did they wouldn't care," he still looked unconvinced so she added, "how about you hop on my back then, we could find everyone else together?"
Roetta knew that she had said the right thing when a smile slid across his pale face, his chocolate eyes shinning. The dimples that he was showing off made anger tickle her stomach towards the knights, but she pushed it back down.
Kneeling down to his level, she helped him get on her back, being careful of his hurt leg.
Slowly rising up, she made sure he was steady before yelling,"Ready or not, here I come," and taking off into a sprint.