A teenage boy stood there.
He looked like… Arthur, no, a mini version of... a mini version of Arthur!
Barely fourteen. Messy white hair, grass stains on his trousers, and that half distracted, cold expression he wore when his mind was running too fast for the rest of the world to keep up.
Then another figure appeared.
A little girl.
Nnenna's breath caught.
Because the girl looked almost exactly like her younger self.
No, not almost. It was her.
It was as if she had been pulled straight into the memory, not as an observer… but as the one living it.
She was small again. Six years old. Barefoot. Cheeks streaked with tears.
"Arthur!" her tiny voice broke, trembling. "They said I'm small! They said I'll never be strong like you!"
He looked at her for a long second, then smiled in that way that was just for her.
"Come on. I'll teach you something no one else knows."
Her little self's heart leapt. "Really?"
"Just you. Promise?"
"Promise!"
