Nine Years back.
The moonlight seeped through the window reflecting on the young nine years old boy's face. His face looked peaceful with light snores. The cover only up to his chest.
Suddenly a pair of tiny hands appeared on the side of the bed. Then between the pair of hands a head appeared. A pair of violet eyes watched the sleeping boy for a long while.
A pair of slithery tentacles rose out of the ground.
"Remember your promise," the young boy cupped one side of the face of the sleeping, "after I'm back, I'm taking you with me." the boy's face beaned with a smile as he retracted his hand from the sleeping boy's face.
"For now…" the tentacles moved closer towards the sleeping boy's head, "forget about me, Soren…" the tentacles pierced the child's head from either side. They gloated as if draining something important, "from now on, every event you spent with me, every moment with me will be erased."
Young Soren's sleeping expression contorted and twisted as if he was trying to hold on to something extremely important or running away from a monster in a nightmare. His little body convulsed slightly, a faint whimper escaped Soren's mouth.
Seeing that Voren gently held Soren's trembling hands, "just a little bit more." He reassured.
Soren's body gradually calmed down and his expression cleared as if he had finished the nightmare or forgot about someone important.
The black shadowy, slithery tentacles retracted from the sleeping boy's head as Voren sighed a sigh of relief retracting his hand, "I will be back for you, little brother."
Voren turned towards the other bed on the other side of the room. A boy about two years younger and with sunny blonde hair slept, matching the same peacefulness as Soren.
After doing the same to Cyrus. Voren quietly walked out of the room. If any of them woke up and looked at his eyes for even a second. His plan would be ruined.
After erasing the memories of the younger kids. He moved to the older ones. They didn't need as much time as the younger ones.
Voren huffed before going to the last room. He was exhausted, his little body had worked overtime erasing memories. He slowly pushed the door open. He was glad that none of the seniors or younger ones locked their doors or it would be hard to sneak from the window.
He had almost slipped up and almost woke most of them up but he managed to keep them asleep while erasing their memories.
He approached the bed. A girl with honey gold hair slept. Her shoulders contracted with steady breathing.
Voren exhaled a breath, "sorry, sister Aria…" the tentacles rose from the ground and advanced towards Arianna's head from either side just like everyone else.
Arianna's eyes shot open as her hand lunged forward grabbing both of the tentacles before they could pierce her head, "what in the ever living mother of earth are you doing?" Her voice was hoarse from sleep but Voren could feel the anger in them.
Voren flinched as he saw similar violet eyes staring at him, "sister Aria, I–"
The tentacles in Arianna's grip slowly disappeared. She got off the bed as Voren took a step backwards, "your stupid little tricks will not work on me. I also have shadow magic, I'm much more experienced than you."
"Sister…" Voren stammered guiltily.
"Don't 'sister' me." Arianna scolded lightly, "you tell me why were you trying to erase my memories, brat."
Present Day.
"And she let you leave just like that?" Aaron's eyes widened. He rubbed his temples, "you went outside the orphanage alone, then came back after nine whole years, reverted big brother Soren back into a human..." he paused, "I need to process all of these."
"To answer the first question." Voren said leaning on his chair with his feet on the table and arms behind his head, "she did not let me go easily. She made me promise that I will not leave until I'm ready for survival. So I lived in a cave for a year."
"And you mastered it all in a year?" Fallon asked, flabbergasted.
Voren shrugged.
Soren sitting beside Voren sighed helplessly, "That's what had happened."
"I came back to take Soren with me." Voren said, looking lazily at Fallon and Aaron, "his toes are at stake."
Fallon and Aaron bursted out laughing.
"Toes?" Aaron coughed after trying and failing to hold his laughter.
Fallon snickered, "Why the toes?"
Soren's face turned red, "how do you still remember that?" He asked Voren, hoping the floor would swallow him.
"We were thinking of making money anyway," Fallon said, "big brother, Soren, it is not a bad idea now is it?"
Soren leaned back and thought for a moment then shrugged, "and…" Soren drawled, "what are you gonna tell the kids?"
Voren answered first, "how about telling them that you went on a mission to retrieve a magical artifact."
Aaron thought for a while, "that could work but… how are you gonna send us money?"
"I have a solution for that too." Voren shoved his hand inside his coat then pulling out two black pouches
Aaron, Fallon and Soren exchanged a look then.
"How's that gonna help?" Soren picked up one of the pouch and examined it.
"Watch." Voren handed the pouch that was on the table to Fallon. Fallon took it then looked at the twin brothers with a confusing gaze.
Voren took off one of his gloves and handed it to Soren, "put this inside the pouch."
Soren took the glove and just stared at it for a good second before dropping it into the pouch, "now what?"
"Close it." Voren ordered calmly.
Soren followed the order and pulled the pristine white strings on the pouch. It closed with a sharp zip.
"And now?" Fallon asked.
"Hold the other one." Fallon did as he was told. He held the pouch. It felt slightly heavy. He opened the pouch and his eyes widened in shock.
Curious Aaron leaned in and he was equally surprised. The glove has appeared in the other pouch.
"So cool." Aaron exclaimed, picking up Voren's glove from inside the pouch.
Soren opened his pouch again and as he expected the glove was gone. He put the pouch back on the table and smiled, "that actually is cool."
"What's cool?" Voren teased, rolling his eyes, "my glove or the pouch?"
"The pouch." Aaron said, handing Voren's glove back to him and then he placed the pouch on the table as well.
Voren sighed, putting back on his gloves, "my glove is cooler." He muttered under his breath but he said it like he wanted them to hear, "anyway, we will take one of the pouches and leave the other one at the orphanage… then we could transfer things like that."
All three of them nodded in agreement.
"Speaking of agreements," Fallon looked around, "where is Cyrus and Aizen?"
Voren chuckled, "Soren made Cy so frustrated during cooking that he is in his room to cool down, Aizen is helping him cool down."
Fallon and Aaron looked at each other and nodded understandingly, "valid." Both of them said in unison
Soren just grinned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cyrus sighed, "you won't meet the kids?"
Voren, lounging in Soren's bed as if he owned it, "yes I will." he said with a hint of clarity, "should we go now or… should I just trick them by dressing up as Soren?"
"They still think that I look like how I had ever since the transformation." Soren sighed, "I wonder if they had missed me while I was training to regain my human form."
"Actually," Aizen, who had been silent suddenly spoke up, "the kids had asked Cyrus multiple times about you."
"Aww," Soren cooed, "really?"
"It was annoying." Cyrus looked away from their faces.
"Brother, let's just do it normally." Soren glanced at Voren.
"Normally?" Voren scoffed at the word, "how boring." Then he sat up straight, "fine we will do it normally."
Soren sighed and looked grateful because someone wouldn't describe Voren as normal. Voren likes risky stuff. For a moment Soren thought that Voren could get along best with Marryanne and the prankster twins.
"The kids are in the cafeteria by now." Soren stood up from the bed and walked toward the door, "lets go you three."
Cyrus also stood up, "I also would like to see how it will end up."
Aizen got up after them, "I wish to see as well."
Voren grinned, "lets go."