"Master Johan."
Johan stirred in his sleep. He had been dreaming about his mother. Of the small stifling room which smelled of old fish. Men would come at night, sometimes two, sometimes more, and would ask for her there. He would take them to the small room – just a small enclosure in the old abandoned shack they lived in. The walls, if you could call it that, was but an old tarpaulin they salvaged from one of the abandoned tunnels in the old mine. It was held up by two pieces of timber of varying height and nailed to the corner of the room.
His mother always sends him to his gran whenever she had guests. There, he would listen to gran's stories, and maybe get a bite to eat if they were lucky. She always had a way with words that somehow fills you up even if all you had for breakfast was half of last night's stale dinner.
When ever she told her stories, her golden eyes would shine in the darkness, and the lines in her face would seem to fade, as if revealing the princess held within the cursed shell. She could change her voice to fit every character and describe all the things that her eyes had seen, and oh, they have seen everything, those special golden eyes!
In fact, her eyes were so special that outsiders once tried to take them for themselves to sell to the wizards on the other side of the mountain.
"Master Johan, wake up."
Johan groaned. He was reluctant to open his eyes and lose the image of his grandmother.
She took him in when his mother's body could no longer take men. When she could no longer take anything but the vials with pale liquid that they call solace. But gran was never the same after she lost her eyes. They still kept them, submerged in the same pale liquid, floating in a bottle on top of her dresser. The miners got them back when they saw what happened. After all, the miners always look after their own.
It was shortly after that incident that Jacob arrived in their dusty district, looking for metals that could only be found in the heart of the mountains. It was Johan who was tasked to bring the stranger to the part of the mine that still had a bit of ore remaining. It was a good chance to raise money for his gran's eyes, and as it turned out, it was a good chance for him as well.
He didn't think he could see gran smile again.
The stranger was so excited to know he could make fire. He was to go with him to the city as soon as possible. He was to learn about his element, about magic, about the world in general.
But gran was here in the mines. She belongs in the mines, as did all the other people he had known his whole life. How could he possibly leave?
He never wanted to leave.
But one day, his reason for staying suddenly left him, and after his grandmother's wake, he had nowhere else to go, but away. Away from the mines. Away from his home. It was her dying wish that he left with this stranger and learn from him about the world his gran told in her stories.
And now, here he is. In this unknown paradise that is as full of danger as the treacherous mines from where he came.
"Master Johan!" the voice is impatient. He felt two small hands slapping his face.
"I'll fix you some breakfast later..." he mumbled, remembering the little ones who also called his grandmother gran. The little ones he had to leave behind.
"Master Johan, I am not hungry, there is a problem..." said the voice. "You must hurry and wake up!"
Johan's eyes flicker open at the sound of the word 'problem'.
'Is it a... another cave-in?' he thought to himself, 'Or perhaps the soldiers are on patrol again...?'
He sat up in bed, the surrounding covered in darkness, it took a while for his eyes to adjust. He saw Azra, sitting at the side of his bed, staring at him with a frown. He finally remembered when and where he was.
"What's wrong?" he tried to stand up, but Dagon had an arm and a leg around his torso and was still fast asleep.
"There's a stranger inside my liege's room," the girl said worriedly. "He just appeared out of nowhere..."
"A what...?!" Johan pried an arm loose from Dagon and finally got up.
The two of them made their way to Sebastian's room and found the door ajar. Upon entering, Johan noticed a bulk on the floor. It turned out to be Sebastian, still fast asleep, sprawled on the floor with nothing but his blanket to lie on.
On the bed, sleeping soundly while holding on to Dorin, was the white haired young man they found earlier.
He was still wearing his striped pajamas.
"See?" said Azra, "That boy just pushed my liege off the bed and took his place beside Master Dorin!"
"And Sebastian's still asleep, huh?" mumbled Johan, "Well, he does need his rest..." he sighed and picked Sebastian up, taking him to the couch in the common room.
"What about that interloper?" asked Azra, roosting at the top of the couch and watching her master sleep. "Are you just going to leave him there?"
"Don't worry, they seem to know each other," was Johan's reply. He stifled a yawn and looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. "3:23 am... Get some more sleep," he told the caladrius. Azra nods at him as he went back to his room.
Dagon had taken over the whole bed. Johan sighed and walked over to the window overlooking the forest instead. He opened it, letting in a soft breeze. He shivers. It was never this cold in the mines. He took out a cigarette, touched the tip with his finger, and takes a long drag.
"The more things change..." he says to himself, "The more they stay the same."