Max heard a faint voice calling out something in the distance.
"Well, got to go Newbie, dad's calling." Yuri grinned at Max and jogged away as if he hadn't just told Max he was from another dimension.
No wonder everything's different here, Max thought.
Max turned around and slowly walked back to Miss Irena's house. "Maybe I'm just dreaming." He mumbled to himself as he approached the door. He stopped just before it, his hand holding the handle but making no move to turn it. "Maybe," he whispered and opened the door to see Miss Irena and the girl on the wooden sofa, looking at him expectantly.
"I understand that you'd want to go and look around a bit, but not everyone is as friendly and accepting of strangers in the village as Yuri and we are, okay dear? There are also some off-limit areas that I'd rather you didn't go near." She smiled but Max couldn't reply, he just nodded and sat in the nearest chair. The chair was rather uncomfortable at first, the seat not being very well cushioned by the fabric covering it; it was probably something he would have to get used to quickly, so he didn't fidget to get himself more comfortable. "First of all," Miss Irena began, "the woods are completely off-limits to anyone who is underage, alone or untrained in basic defence, I expect you to not only avoid them but to make sure others in the village, which fall under such categories, do also." She looked pointedly at her daughter but the girl's gaze was focused on Max, observing him with as sombre look.
Max nodded, still unable to speak, he knew somehow that her daughter would repeat it all anyway at some point so he tuned out and focused on his own thoughts.
Sebastian had given him something that had taken him to another dimension, and it was most likely that his family didn't know. He wondered if they thought he was dead, and hoped that wasn't the case, they were always so protective of him. Max needed to find a way back home, and Yuri and Miss Irena's daughter seemed like the best people to ask than Miss Irena herself, he didn't want to trouble her as he had earlier.
The girl said she had found Max in the woods, which meant she went into the off-limit areas often, she might know of something or someone outside the village that could help him.
"Until then," Miss Irena brightened up again, obviously finished with her warnings, "just have some fun while your here, dear. I'm sure my daughter will show you around and be your company for a while until you make more friends. Well, I'm going to prepare your room with clean sheets and make my way to bed, it's getting quite late. Goodnight sweetheart," she turned to her daughter, gave her a kiss on the cheek and stood up, beginning to walk towards Max in order to get to the doorway behind him, "and goodnight to you too, dear." She ruffled his hair as she walked past.
"Goodnight mom." The girl called to her the same time that Max croaked out "Goodnight Miss Irena."
The girl crossed the room and stood directly in front of Max, her eyes slightly narrowed. "What did Yuri tell you? I wouldn't take him seriously all the time if I were you; he gets these crazy ideas from his dad, always talking about magic and portal as if there are such things. But there is no such thing, or somebody would have noticed during the last thousand years, right?" She was trying to comfort him the best she could, he could tell. The thing that surprised him the most was she didn't believe in magic. Were there no warlocks here? He was confused, so he asked her about it.
"A War-what? Haven't heard of one, probably something Yuri told you, yes?" Max shook his head in reply.
"No?" The girl looked surprised and a little excited; she dropped to the floor by his feet and sat on her knees. "Tell me about them, Max. Please?" The way she sat so eager and attentive made it seem a lot more like story-time for mundies than an explanation of magic.
"Well, from what I know they're the closest being to demons so far. They use magic, and can do really neat things, especially the High Warlocks, it's really awesome watching them magic stuff out of nowhere and be totally cool about it. Also, they can sometimes come along in different variations of bright colours and glitter." The side of his mouth twitched, but he couldn't seem to crack a smile just yet.
"Whoa, you already know about demons? That's awesome!" She almost shouted but instead settled for a loud whisper, remembering Miss Irena had recently gone to bed. "Your must be like us, just from somewhere else. Hey, maybe we can train together! Wouldn't that be cool?"
Strangely, she didn't mention anything about Warlocks, or his reference to glitter, that night. She only spoke of training and how much she wondered if their fighting styles were at all different. Max didn't want to ruin her mood and mention that he didn't know how to fight yet, his family had been way too busy trying to get rid of that bad guy everyone seemed to have a history with.
Eventually, the girl seemed to get tired as her excitement faded. He suggested that they should get some rest and she readily agreed. She walked him to the room he was staying in and wished him goodnight. He watched her as she walked away and rounded the corner to her own room. Max noticed how gracefully she walked; he figured she had already been training for quite a while to be able to walk with such elegance at her age.
Max wasn't able to sleep very well that night, but he definitely wasn't going to tell Miss Irena that. The bed was ridiculously soft compared to the hardness of every other piece of furniture in the house; it seemed Miss Irena had noticed he didn't find it comfy at all and changed it so it was more relaxing for him. The thing is, every time Max shifted or turned under the covers, he sank just a little bit more into the thick mattress until he was eventually over halfway enveloped. This is when Max stopped moving no matter how awkward his position was.
The next morning consisted of a wheat-like breakfast and a small board game that, even after almost an hour of playing, Max still didn't understand the rules of. After the almost an hour playing, he gave up and sat with his legs and arms crossed on the seat. Miss Irena gave him a sideways glance that he could only relate to concern, while her daughter just pointed and laughed at him.
"Giving up already, Lightwood? It seems my Rammai skills are just too heavenly for some people to handle!" She looked back to the boards to watch her mother's next move and her grinning smile faded awfully quickly.
"Your skills are heavenly, little one? Then my superior wit and skill must be the equivalent to a god! I would say I have officially won the game now, wouldn't you?" Miss Irena reclined back into her chair and put her hands on either side of the arms, crossing one leg over the other, exaggerating her smugness.
"Err, yes mother." Her daughter replied meekly, not yet recovered enough from her loss to form a witty reply.
It carried on like that for the majority of the morning until a bell started ringing outside.
"At last, I thought they'd never start!" Miss Irena exclaimed, raising her arms in an exasperated manner.
They both rose to their feet and made their way to the front door, leaving Max in the room who was incredibly confused by the sudden change. He didn't know where they had gone but he figured he wasn't supposed to follow.
He went to the window when a lot of shadows passed by under the door, many of the village's occupants were walking down the road in little groups, they turned at the corner which told Max they all went to that big hall he'd seen the previous day.
Fine, Max thought, I'll just sit here and wait for your return, just like any other day. He was used to this, he'd admit, the way his family would up and leave at any moment, leaving him on his own for any number of hours. He wasn't angry at them for it, he knew he'd be apart of it when he was older and trained, plus they bought him plenty of manga and games to keep him occupied. This was different though, at least his family told him why they had left and an estimate of time to wait, plus it was always nighttime and the obvious reason was demons. But it was the morning here, and everyone was going to this big hall and he didn't know why, not that he particularly wanted to go with them. Although, a short briefing was always nice.
He paced around the room after sitting down in the silence didn't help the waiting when the door slowly slid open and someone's rear was backing it's way into the room. Max had to stifle a giggle when the door shut and Yuri turned around with a great grin on his face. "I thought they'd leave you out of the meeting, reckoned i'd come keep you company while everybody's gone." Yuri walked further into the room and carelessly dropped himself onto the sofa, still smiling. "I see you guys had a game of Rammai?" He turned his face to Max with a smirk, "Do you understand the rules yet?" Max shook his head and sat on the chair Miss Irena's daughter had been sat on, opposite Yuri.
"Not a clue. I mean, what does this even do?" Max said as he picked up a little round chip that hadn't been used once in the game even though he had been told it was one of the important pieces.
"Don't ask me," Yuri's grin returned, "I've lived in this village my whole life and I still don't understand it." They shared a chuckle and then a long silence passed between them.
"So, if everyone's at that large hall for some kind of meeting, why aren't you there with them, Yuri?" Max waited for a couple of minutes waiting for Yuri to decide what to say. But no reply came and he just shrugged off the question, changing the subject.
"So you're gonna start training with us tomorrow, right? Little Miss Brilliant will be excited about that, it's been a while since she's had someone new to fight. Think you'll be competition for her, Newbie?" He faced Max again and gave him a look that told him not to press into why he changed the conversation.
Max didn't want to upset him so he replied with, "I'm guessing you mean Miss Irena's daughter? She wouldn't stop talking about training for most of the night." With this, Yuri's face lit up with amusement. "But to be honest," Max carried on, "I won't be much of a fight, my family never got round to training me, everything happened so quickly." Max whispered the last bit, looking down at the floor.
Yuri didn't dwell though, and carried on as if he hadn't noticed. Max almost thanked him for it but decided against it.
"Doesn't matter, you'll pick it up in no time, and no doubt you probably picked up something by watching your family that'll surprise her enough to consider you game." Yuri looked thoughtful and then went back to his grinning. "Hey, maybe you'll end up teaching us stuff, i'm always up for new moves." He moved his hands as if doing a karate chop with a concentrated look on his face, but Max's giggling turned out to be too much and his focus was destroyed. They heartily laughed until the door burst open, and Miss Irena and the girl came into the room talking about what he guessed was the meeting.
"I don't see why," the girl whined at her mother, "it's not really all that different from any other situation, they're just being awkward just for the hell of it." She threw a puppy-eyed look to her mom and then then turned her gaze to Max and Yuri. "Whaddup?" was all she had to say.
"Language, little one." Miss Irena chided and then turned to the boys too. "Hello there Yuri, it has been a while since you've visited considering you help your father work just outside." She flashed them a warm smile and carried on with a different subject before Yuri could reply. "Who wants an early lunch?"
At this, Yuri jumped up and the girl's eyes beamed, Max just nodded in agreement. The three of them sat down at the table while Miss Irena started cooking, not asking if what she was about to make was what any of them wanted. Yuri and the girl started talking about someone he doubted they were friends with, making remarks about their attitude to something that happened the other day, Miss Irena occasionally turned around and said something like 'really?' or simply tutted whilst stirring the large pot of food in front of her.
Eventually Miss Irena served up four bowls of stew, Max flinched and pushed the bowl a little farther from him. Nobody noticed as they practically dived into their bowls.
Yuri was the first to finish his bowl of stew, Miss Irena's daughter not far behind him. He jumped up and went back to the pot for seconds, not asking Miss Irena if it was okay, Max figured it wasn't the first time he'd come round for a meal. As Yuri came back, he noticed Max's full bowl and stopped short of the table, confusion etched on his face.
"Hey, why aren't you eating, Newbie? Something wrong?" He continued his walk back to the table and sat down beside Max, nudging Max's side with his elbow. He scrunched up his face when Max didn't reply, and instead tried to provoke Max to reply with a different tactic. "Irena," Yuri started, sounding shocked, "I don't think he likes your cooking!" He grinned when Max began to talk.
"No!" Max shouted, going red in the face. "That isn't it, Miss Irena. It's just..." Max stopped and looked down to the table at the bowl of untouched stew, he shuddered and looked up again. "Last time i ate stew - well - it didn't end pleasantly, that's all. I can't even look at it without feeling a little ill." He smiled apologetically at Miss Irena.
"How on Earth can eating stew end unpleasantly?" The girl sat across from him inquired, amusement shined in her eyes.
"Someone forgot to tell me my sister was cooking that night." He shuddered again, and after receiving curious looks in return he sighed and carried on. "One day, after I find my way back home, I'll invite you round when my sister's cooking tea and... well, you'll see." Max cringed.
This seemed to be enough for the others and went back to eating, the girl shrugged and took Max's bowl. Miss Irena got up and pulled out some bread from a cupboard, cut it open and put some other ingredients inside it. She returned to the table and gave Max the bread, smiling at him with understanding; he nodded and started eating as Miss Irena finished off her bowl.
They finished off the rest of the day playing Rammai, a game that Max still didn't understand even after he'd won three times in a row. Yuri was just as skilled as Miss Irena at it. Sure you don't understand, liar. And the girl who was once again sat opposite him was close to knocking the board over in frustration. And i still don't know her name, he added to himself, smirking when she threw the game pieces onto the table and announced to the group she was going to bed early. He didn't have much of a reason to smirk, he was losing worse than she was, but the way she took it to heart was enough to leave the three remaining people in the room with a serious case of the giggles.
"You two'd best be off to bed too, you know" Miss Irena, being the first to recover from her daughter's tantrum, advised the two boys. "Training begins early tomorrow and you're," she turned to look pointedly at Yuri, "like when you're tired, you slack enough as it is." She finished with an eyebrow raise; something that Max remembered Clary could never do without pulling silly faces. He giggled to himself, realising a little late that his laughter was taken to be the response to Miss Irena's remark instead of his private thought.
"Fine!" Yuri abruptly stood up in an exaggerated manner that reminded him a lot like something Jace would do. "I'll go get some sleep, but we both know I'll be grumpy by the end of the day anyway. Aly's like a machine and she always picks me to spar, it's unfair and you know it." He poked his tongue out at her, and then relaxed his face into a pout as he made his way to the door.
"Oh, Newbie?" He turned around to face Max. "Don't forget to wear a lot of padding, yeah?" His pout was no longer existent and instead he left the house with a Cheshire's cat grin. Max couldn't share the joke and instead felt a little frightened; Miss Irena's daughter could be that good, could she?
Miss Irena gave a light-hearted chuckle and told him that the training clothes he would need would be provided to him when he reached the hall. She also said that her daughter would be the one to wake him up, though he should probably try and listen out for her in case she leaves after forgetting him. Being late on his first day would not end well as the instructor was ruthless, even on kids his age.
His name is Logan but should be referred to as 'Master Logan' or he blows up a lecture about respect which is something Max was advised he should only want to hear once. Training was rough and even Miss Irena's daughter was prone to coming home with the occasional bruise from sparring. Every time Miss Irena opened her mouth to tell Max more about the training sessions, he wished more and more that her daughter would forget him and he'd never have to go. He wanted to have training sessions like Jace and Alec had; teasing but serious, playful banter yet completely focussed. Max wanted to go home.
"Oh, and one more thing, Dear," Miss Irena called to him just before he reached the door to his room, he turned to find her leaning against the door frame to the living room looking at him a little too sternly for his liking. "Do not, if you ever want to get out of the training room with all limbs attached, make eye contact with Logan for too long unless he tells you to look at him." She ended the warning with a smile and walked away.
Max couldn't sleep very well that night again, his body refusing to ignore Miss Irena's word, so when he heard a light knocking on the door early the next morning he still had terrorising presumptions about the day ahead running through his mind.
I realise that that was probably boring for you guys to read :P I'm not going to make excuses for it
Review?
I don'ts own TMI. If I did I wouldn't be writing this fanficiton :)
Fanks for reading!