Clouds River Valley

Chapter 1. The Orphanage

It was an afternoon on a rainy day of late December that Miya first arrived in the orphanage. Surprisingly, it hadn't snowed yet, the rain just stopped not a while ago, you could tell the withered grass not far away was still wet with some fallen leaves scattered on top of it. Suddenly, a gust blew one of the leaves and sent it to the air, the leaf flew to about 10 feet high and then hit to a dark brown wall and got attached to the wall for a while. The wall was taller than a grown-up man, about 8 feet tall, there was also fence installed through the wall, you could see the giant mansion located deep far in the yard through the fence. Looking over the other side of the wall, there were some words carved on it: "Clouds River Valley Orphanage".

It was an old looking orphanage, located on a plain close to Clouds River. Looking from outside of the fence and wall, you could only see the dark brown two floor mansion, which has the same color with the wall out of the yard, if you had good eye sight, you could also peek the dark green roof and a whole row of the always closed windows on the second floor. In the center of the building, a four to five floors bell tower was standing on top of the mansion, the ring from the bell every hour kept the whole Clouds River Valley awake.

'Mia, look at this house, isn't it much bigger than the last one?' Mandy got off from the car, she turned over and talked to Mia stepped off from the car following her. This should be the last time Mandy came to Clouds River Orphanage this year, it was also the fourth time this year. She was a little bit excited, maybe more relieved. It was not easy to find an ideal place for those orphans to like, she had selected a handful of orphanages and decided this one was the best fit for Mia. She was appreciated the orphanage could make time and arrange Mia to enroll before the holiday season started.

Mia looked like an Asian, she looked younger than her real age: 10 years old. Her hair was long enough to lie on her shoulder and they were brushed deliberately, her bangs laid on her forehead of her round face, she looked like a very smart kid, especially when she looked around, you could almost see her eyes shining.

"Yes, what a big house!" Mia answered. Mandy couldn't tell if she was happy or not, Mia's answer kind of disappointed her. She pressed the door bell next to the huge metal bar gate.

"Hello, who is this?" It was a lady's voice.

"Hi, this is Mandy from Orphan Care Org, I had an appointment with Mr. Richard about Mia."

"Oh, Mandy, come on in!" It seems like the lady already knew Mandy would come today.

The door clicked, and then opened. As soon as Mandy and Mia got in, it then closed automatically behind them automatically.

It took them almost 5 minutes until they walked through the front yard and came to the front door of the house, a man who seemed like in his fifties opened the door even before they were going to knock.

"Hey Mandy, perfect time, we are about to have dinner in half an hour!"

"Hi Richard, sorry I have an appointment tonight so I am afraid I can't stay for dinner. But it's good for Mia so she gets a chance to meet everyone on her first day."

"That's all right, you know you are welcome to join us anytime. Hey Mia, I am Richard, I'm the head of the orphanage, it's my pleasure to finally meet you!"

"Likewise!" Mia didn't seem like she was shy or afraid, she didn't know why she felt so comfortable and relaxed talking to Richard.

Now they were standing in the lobby, which located in the middle of the building. A huge wooden spiral staircase sat behind the lobby, there were corridors on both sides of the lobby. Richard started talking to a lady sitting behind a desk placed in front of the right corrido, Mia couldn't hear what they were talking about, but she was almost certain it was the same lady who answered the door bell. Richard then waved at Mandy and asked her to go over for a quick talk.