1 An encounter

snow fell on the streets of rastink, covering the surrounding in it clear white coat. This white directly contracted with the dark shady atmosphere of the town. Winter was probably the only moment when the already depressed people of this town were even more depressed. The period of winter was a hard time to survive with the rarity of the food and the soaring cost of living. The houses were tightly shut in fear of thieves or meddling with the few remaining thugs as the ones that still remaining alive in winter were of the most dangerous.

But this didn't stop a child from going out to make money from cleaning the shoes of the few travelers the town had.

"Damn this town is really messed up Jim! My wife got her jewels stolen in the when she was taking a shower at the hotel this morning" Said a man with long beard as he was waiting for the child to finish cleaning his boots.

"That you say Bob. But for us who need to go from Ludvania to the New United Urillia , this is a must since we don't have any identification card. May the sun guide us." Said his friend.

By the time they finished their talk, the child also terminated his work. They gave him two bronze coins. He thanked them and ran away with his materials. He was in the rich part of the town. People like him we're not allowed here. If the guards caught him, they might beat him up to death as it wasn't an uncommon behavior. He ran till he arrived on the outskirts where the houses began to look more and more ruined. Here was where he belonged. He stopped his tracks in front of a rather good looking building compared to the others ones even though it was really old.

He came to the door and knocked. A few minutes later a woman in her mid thirties opened the door. she looked at him with disgusted expression as the boy was wearing the same clothes since two weeks.

She just asked one question " How much did you make? "

"I made six bronze coins before the guards showed up" He said while he held out his hand with the money.

To this the woman just frowned and snatched the money " Didn't I already stated the rule that every child could only come to the orphanage if they make eight bronze coins every day ?" She slapped him in the face "don't show up again if you do not have the remaining amount ! " Then she processed to close the door loudly on the boy.

he just stood there staring at the door for some time.

After a while he left to the rich part of the town again but this time with tears on his eyes. to calm down he started contemplating the star mark on his left palm. It was his only light in his life.

The young boy was about to go to the hotel several blocks ahead in search for travelers as he remarked something strange.

Many people were assembled in the streets looking at a old woman on a stage made of woods as she performed something he didn't was possible. She took one card from one of her pockets and blew on it. The card changed into a bird that flew around before changing again but this time into a rose as she caught it and smiled. The boy was absolutely fascinated by such an impossible feat and forgot about his task to do and kept looking at the woman.

After some times everyone left except for the hypnotized boy and the woman who was on scene. Suddenly she looked at him. This made him afraid and he began to run away in the corner. But he was easily stopped by Lady.

" Calm down young one. I am not here to hurt you i promise " She said with her right hand on her chest.

The boy just stood still as he was not fast enough to escape.

"Its okay I promise. Tell me, what is your name?"

"... M-my name is Yu Nashime" He said carefully

"Good. I need to introduce myself too. I am kaomi. I am some kind of magician you see" As she talks she clenched her palm and after a second opened it as a candy appeared. She gave it to him and he thanked her.

"Yu, can you tell me why you're here alone in the snow barefoot with ragged clothes?"

" I needed to earn a bit of money from shoes cleaning to pay my dinner at the orphanage this evening" He said as he finally remembered the task he had to do.

kaomi looked angry at this but calmed herself fast. " You see Yu, I have many shoes at home but I don't have the time you clean them so they are pretty nasty. Can you help me with that ? Of course if you work well, I pay you handsomely too. What do you say ?"

" Yes, yes yes" He said quickly. He didn't want her to change her mind and with that money he could even stay at the orphanage for a week.

She smiled and took him to her rental house in the rich part of the town.

inside, Yu thought that he had made the right choice as he did not felt the cold. It was cozy and warm.

" Before working, I'll need you to take a bath. After all you're dirty" She said while not even giving him the choice. He reluctantly got washed and given some nice clothes. But as he was about to ask for the shoes..

" You need to eat before working of course. Look at you, you're all bones and no meat" She dragged him again in the kitchen and stuffed him with nice food that he never had in his life.

After finishing eating, Yu began to feel heavy and very sleepy. He tried to resist but the voice of Lady kaomi was like a sleeping charm "you need to sleep, child. Don't worry about anything and just dream" With that he was definitely sleeping.

She gently took him and put him in a bed and gave him a blanket. She closed the door. Her smile disappeared as she spoke "Ars" a pigeon came from the kitchen and stood in front of her.

" I am going to make a visit to the orphanage. I don't want anything bad to happen to Yu. " The bird just looked at her as if she was doing the most stupid thing.

"Just do it. You don't need to nurse him or do shit. Just do it" The pigeon nodded to her, seemly understanding her. She looked at the closed door one more time and left.

As Yu slowly started to woke up from his dreams, he finally noticed the foreign elements of the room till he realized that he wasn't in the orphanage and panicked. He quickly got up and dashed toward the front door but he quickly got stopped by a kaomi in the living room.

"you don't say Good Morning lit one? " She asked

"Good morning. Thanks you for everything but I need to return to the orphanage now" He said as he hurriedly undressed himself.

"What are you doing ? "

" I am returning you the clothes. It does not belongs to me. Uh please can you tell me where are my clothes from yesterday ?"

" In the trash bag with the others trashes. Now stop moving around and listen to him" Yes it was funny to see him panicking but there were more pressing things to do.

Seing that he finally stopped she sighed and began " While you were sleeping last night I paid a visit to the orphanage. And now they're closed for multiple charges and I don't even think that you'll see the one in charge a day again" She smiled

" Then where would I go now? "

" You're living with me now. Welcome home Yu"

Yu just stood there motionless for some seconds before tears started to fall from his eyes and a beautiful smile appear across his face

" Thanks you" This was pure sincerity

" Now that's a smile. Happy to know that you're okay with that. But do you know what I am not okay with? Your smell. Even after yesterday bath you still stink. Go take a shower right now!"

"..... Yes"