As soon as Cain entered the dining hall a flood of familiar voices and memories entered his mind. There, he saw all the other kids of the orphanage who were essentially his brother and sisters. Even though they weren't related by blood.
And including Cain, there were twelve orphans here total. The layout of the dining hall was spacious and simple. The floor was of a cobblestone like texture, the same one that lays out in the rest of the orphanage.
What was different in this hall however, was that the walls and ceiling were also made of that stone too. There were two large and wide circular wooden tables on the right and left side of the hall, where the kids would sit down and eat. And finally the hall was illuminated by bright lanterns in the top corners.
In the front, was a wide stone surface where Miss Maevis usually presented the bowls of food for the kids to take. Today's meal seemed to be something similar to that of chicken and rice.
With their minds now fused, Cain knew and was familiar with this world's food. But at the same time, as Leo, he was second guessing a little whether or not that was actually chicken and rice. Maybe it just had a different name in this world, or it was something else entirely that just looked and tasted the same.
'Whatever, I think it's the same thing, I'll know for sure once I eat…'
He thought as he walked over to the stone surface where the bowls of food were served. Miss Maevis sat behind the stone on a wooden stool, Cain felt delighted to see her again even if she wasn't paying him much attention at the moment.
He still felt a little awkward from last night though, so decided to try and speak to her later. Since she was also preoccupied reading something that looked like a book, if it was from the sixteenth century.
'Now that I think about it… My world is really behind compared to, well, my other world.'
That thought was only supported once he looked past Miss Maevis on the stone wall, where there was an etched map of the world. It showed one moderately large continent with two kingdoms. To the best of his knowledge, "Kingdoms" were a thing of medieval times or something of the sort. He was only twelve after all, now, and upon his death in the other world. Not much time to study history.
The two kingdoms were split north and south on the continent by the looks of it. The names were etched in as well, with the Arturon Kingdom lording over the north, and the Velmoran Kingdom in the south. Information lightly surfaced in his mind upon seeing this world map, stuff that Cain knew but was also "remembering" for the first time. He remembered that Rathshaw island was somewhere along the Velmoran coast.
He also noticed that he could read the language easily, as if he'd known it his whole life.
'But I have known it… I'm literally from this world. Wait, well one of me is-'
'Mmph!'
He groaned lightly in pain. Thinking again about the craziness that was his situation, being fused together, essentially two people at once, only added fuel to the fire that was his current fragile state of mind. He shook his head and tried to put it out of his mind, but it was definitely still there. In the back, waiting to be constantly addressed like an itch, except this itch would not go away even after he'd scratched it. It would just become worse.
So he sighed hopelessly, and tried not to pay too much attention to it as he began reaching for a bowl of food. Right before he could grab one though, something heavy landed on his back, which almost sent him falling over.
"Oomph!"
"What the hell!?"
Cain muttered in an annoyance as he turned to see what it was. However, before he could even turn his head the same sensation repeated itself, and now his legs felt heavier.
"Why were ya screaming last night..?"
A voice whispered in his ear, followed by a light noogie. Cain grimaced as he turned his neck to see who it was. What entered his vision were two boys, Peter and Jonah, who were both piggy backing him one after another. They looked like three ice-cream scoops towered on top of each other. With Jonah in the middle and Peter on the top.
"Hey! Get off!"
Cain whined as he swayed trying to get them off, but making sure to be careful to not send Peter on the top flying off. The two kids just chuckled as they stayed on though.
They both had black skin and slightly long dreaded hair similar to Miss Maevis's. Only theirs wasn't as long, their hair length ended past their jaws. Peter had blue hair and eyes, whereas Jonah had the same except the color red. The two were a year older than Cain, at thirteen. They were an interesting red and blue looking pair, but most of all they were annoyingly energetic.
"Come on! Tell us…"
Jonah said as he continued giving Cain a noogie.
"Tell us or we won't get off"
"Tell us or we won't get off"
"Tell us or we won't-"
Cain interrupted them with an annoyed huff.
"Alright! Alright just get off, damn! I'll tell you!"
Peter and Jonah laughed.
"Naw, that's not how this works.."
"Yeah, you gotta tell us first before we get off stupid."
Cain started to care less and less about their safety the more they opened their mouths, and started swaying harder.
"I…had…a…nightmare!"
He said through a strained voice as he struggled under both of their weight. He thought it was best to dismiss the incident as a nightmare to everyone else for now until Miss Maevis could help him figure things out. And just before he was about to start considering flinging Peter on the top off, someone stepped in.
"Miss Maevis, look what they're doing to Cain!"
A young girl's voice called out, belonging to Lyra. She and Cain were the same age, her skin was light brown almost like sand, and she had green hair and eyes. Her hair being long, straight, and currently in a bun.
She also had some freckles around her nose bridge that spilled out into her cheeks. And because she and Cain were some of the younger orphans here, she tended to be excessive on following "rules" or behaving. So upon seeing such injustice she felt that she had to speak up. Miss Maevis, however, seemed to be more occupied with her book.
"Sora, Isaac, get off Cain.."
She mumbled lazily, not even sparing a glance at Cain's situation, and continued reading.
"Miss Maevis! That's Peter and Jonah!"
Lyra called out again, she was now tugging on Jonah's shirt trying to help Cain. Before things could escalate though, Rowan appeared and started punching Jonah's legs, which caused a chain reaction leading to both Peter and Jonah falling off.
"First thing in the morning, and you guys are already being dumbasses…"
Rowan mumbled after chasing the two boys away. He patted Cain's back and joined him in finally getting a bowl of food. Lyra, seeing that Cain was okay, returned back to her seat at the dining table.
"That was them, not me."
Cain said as he grabbed two bowls for himself. He gave Rowan a long side glance, studying his features, orange eyes and hair. Then, he turned his head and looked over at Peter and Jonah who were now seated back at one of the tables.
A slightly thoughtful expression appeared on his face. As Leo, he was not used to seeing other people with natural bizarre hair and eye colors. He was always used to being the odd one out when it came to that. In this world however, as Cain, he remembered that this is normal.
'Cool…'
He thought silently as he followed Rowan back to the round wooden dining table to the left of the hall. Then right as they were about to sit down, another shocking revelation entered his mind.
"Brother?"
Cain muttered slightly confused, turning to Rowan as they were walking. Rowan glanced at him from the side.
"Huh?"
Cain's eyes widened.
'I have a brother! Rowan is my brother in this world! How did I forget that!? How could I forget…'
But before he could finish that thought, a memory flashed in his mind of Jason's bloodied hand sliding down his face. His other brother, who was now dead. His expression turned from happy realization to a solemn frown. His heart ached with a deep pang of sorrow and confusion once again.
'How is this fair? How can I suddenly have another brother, he's not even older than me, we are the same age in this world… It's so weird, I've known Rowan my whole life here, but I remember Jason too… Ow, my head. Let's just try not to think about it anymore.'
Cain shook his head slightly in response to Rowan and they continued walking and reached one of the dining tables.
Like mentioned before, there are twelve kids at this orphanage. There was Cain, Rowan and Selene from last night, Gabriel from earlier, then Peter, Jonah, and Lyra just now. Along with five more, those kids being Isaac, Sora, Elijah, Ibra, and Goose.
Cain sat down now and immediately started eating with a wooden spoon.
'It is chicken…'
It seemed that, even though this was another world, they were not entirely different in every single aspect. After tasting the chicken and rice, the memories of a small chicken farm out back surfaced in his mind.
To Cain's current knowledge, In this world everything outside of magic, civilization, and dragons were the same as Leo's world. Even though there were kingdoms, this world was still practically another earth, at least that's how he saw it.
After all, the other world had kingdoms in the past did it not? The differences lay in the fact that Leo's world before the invasion was a modern technological civilization, whereas this one where Cain is in, civilization slightly mirrors that of the fifteenth or sixteenth century. There are bound to be a few differences though, since this world indeed has magic.
Cain didn't pay too much attention to this revelation though, since he had more or less suspected that this was the case in the back of his mind after seeing the world map etched into the wall. Instead, he was more focused on devouring some decent food for the first time in what was months for Leo.
'Oh my god, it's so good. It tastes amazing, I've been so hungry, so… so damn hungry for so long'
And before he knew it, tears were streaming down his face as he silently sobbed and ate. He did not care about his display or how it looked at the moment, because right now, he was finally eating well. Back in his world, the one that was invaded, destroyed, and eventually imprisoned by the dragons, it had been months since Leo had an actual meal.
They were only served something that looked like grey soupy sludge, and tasted like nothing. This meal at first was very hard to swallow, but with only having it once in a while during imprisonment, it became a desperate source to keep people from starving. The water - its origins unknown to the prisoners - was given in small, almost clay like made cups as well.
At some point in the weeks of imprisonment the humans would be led to another warehouse next to the one they were imprisoned in. This one had bathrooms and sometimes food and water was distributed. If you could even call that grey sludge food, and food was not always distributed everyday. One time, Leo's warehouse went a whole four days with nothing.
Now, back in the dining hall, at one of the two large tables where the kids sat, a silently crying Cain was devouring the tasty bowl of chicken and rice. Miss Maevis was not really the world's best chef, but she definitely knew what she was doing as compared to that grey sludge the dragons provided.
And although yesterday, in this world, before Leo and Cain's minds were fused together, Cain had eaten the same food, he practically forgot all about that. Because the devastating hunger that Leo suffered for months on end was so overwhelming that it blocked out any memories of a full belly that Cain may have had last night.
The same goes for physically, because right now his body may have not been starving, but the mind was a powerful thing that could sometimes trick the body, and in Cain's special circumstances, that's what was happening.
'Starving, I'm starving, this food is amazing, was it always this good? No, it doesn't matter, I'm just so fucking hungry.'
Cain thought, tears still silently streaming down his face, as he quickly finished one out of the two bowls of food and immediately started on the second one. Meanwhile, the kids seated near him at the long wide table, Rowan, Selene, Lyra, Elijah, and Goose were all staring at him with worried expressions.
"Hey… what's wrong with him?"
Selene whispered across the table to Rowan, who was sitting next to Cain. He was also a little bit confused as to why Cain was acting like a starving beast while crying at the same time.
"He's… uh, well I don't know! Cain, what's wrong, why are you crying?"
Rowan said as he awkwardly nudged his brother on the shoulder, Cain flinched as he looked up, as if waking up from a deep dream. Slowly chewing the rest of the food in his mouth before swallowing.
"What..?"
Selene's worried expression then turned to slight annoyance upon hearing Cain's response.
"What do you mean, "what" you're crying and stuffing your face like a crazy person!"
The other kids nodded. Cain looked around at them as if noticing that they were seated at the same table for the first time. Then he blinked a couple times while wiping his face from the tears.
"Sorry, I didn't even realize.."
He was saying before Goose spoke up and interrupted him. The boy had long dark-brown hair, as well as brown eyes and olive skin.
"What the heck's going on with you man? First the screaming at night, now you're… crying over Miss Maevis's cooking?"
Selene nodded in agreement.
"What even happened last night? Why were you acting like that?"
Cain opened his mouth to respond but Elijah suddenly spoke up.
"What's wrong with Miss Maevis's cooking? I like it…"
Elijah had black skin like Miss Maevis, and also shared her silver-white eyes. However, he did not share her white hair, and instead had low cut, dark brown hair. The boy also had a strange scar up the right side of his lips.
"You like anything she makes though."
Rowan said to Elijah across the table with a yawn. Elijah was about to retort but then Lyra spoke up.
"You guys act like you've had food outside her cooking!"
"Well, don't Sora and Gabriel go hunting with her sometimes?"
Selene said in response. To which Lyra responded back:
"But that doesn't mean they cook it…"
Then Goose chimed in again.
"Nuh uh, Sora told me herself that she's made dinner one time!"
"You're just lying like always."
Lyra said to him with a huff as she sat back with crossed arms. This erupted a long back and forth between everybody while Cain silently went back to devouring his second bowl of food.
While he got immersed in eating again, he started thinking about his time in imprisonment. And unpleasant memories began to surface of what it was like during those times…