The sun had set five times since he'd left. He was cold and tired and didn't know where to go. He knew he couldn't go home. He had no idea what had happened, everything went so quickly. There was this incredible impulse to run as fast as he could, he hadn't even taken a second to look for his mother. As he watched his home burn from the hillside during his escape, it seemed unlikely she'd made it out. It seemed unlikely anyone did. He'd cried in the past few days until he literally had no more tears to shed.
He'd used what he'd learned to keep himself alive. Finding water and food. Still, his grief made it difficult to focus on survival. They hadn't prepared him for that, for being in such pain in such a situation. It brought him to this moment, where he let himself collapse beside a small brook, weak from the past days' events. Usually, he knew better than to plant himself in a place that was so open, but at the moment he didn't care. He just wanted to rest. As he was just getting comfortable, a rock hit him in the side of the head. "Ow!" He jumped up into a defensive stance, scowling in the direction it had come from. A girl stood there, only maybe a few years younger than him. She held another rock in her other hand. "Why'd you throw that?" he growled at her.
She narrowed her eyes in confusion. "You speak Russian?"
"Yes," he scratched his head, feeling a small lump. "What else would I speak?"
The girl shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "I thought you'd speak in Romani. When apparitions appear, they usually talk the way I talk."
"Apparition?" he scrunched his nose. "What's that?"
"A visiting spirit," she told him. "Sometimes it's a person who died, but also it can be evil or even a demon." She wound her arm back with the rock in hand. "I know how to handle you, so don't try anything."
"I'm not an apparition!" he told her. "Don't throw that at me!"
"What are you then?" she demanded.
Alek shrugged. "A boy," he told her.
She regarded him very carefully, then relaxed her stance. "You don't look like a boy."
"I am," he argued. "I never knew I was anything else at least."
"If you're a boy," she started. "Why are you alone? Where's your family?"
He took a breath as he felt newfound tears in his eyes. Alek turned away from her as they began to spill. "I don't know. My home got burned down by bad men. I haven't seen my Mama since then."
The girl frowned at him, and finally dropped the rock. She came close and took his hand. "Don't cry," she started. "I'm sorry I threw a rock at you."
He sniffled and wiped his eyes with the other hand, still avoiding her gaze. The girl bent around trying to catch his eye. "I'm Margali," she told him. "What's your name?"
"Aleksandr," he told her. She smiled warmly at him.
"Well, that's not a demon name for sure," she said. "It's definitely a boy name."
Alek nodded, finally the tears drying up. He took a deep breath and let go of her hand.
"Are you hungry?" she asked him. "My Mama is making stew and it's really good. She always makes extra."
Alek nodded again. "Ok."
Margali smiled at him, and took his hand once again. "Come on, then."