Idly flipping another page of the book that he extorted from riko which she had "bought" yesterday breckan stared absentmindedly at the creature illustrated on the page which resembled an oval of cream colored fur with darker stripes along its sides, it was adorable, and according to the book harmless, the neritantan, they tasted good too, the little flat creatures live in the enormous tunnel system of the great fault, the third layer, the only way to traverse it being said tunnel system, lest one risk being devoured by a madokajack.
While breckan sat deep in thought on what spices to use on the unsuspecting neritantans the door swung open inducing breckan to slam the book shut which bounced on his bed minutely eliciting jirou to frown, the act making little difference to his face however, jirou always looked passive, much akin to a shepherd watching his sheep graze on deep green grass but knowing that a wolf might spring up and kill the sheep if he allowed his concentration to slip by just a fraction.
"I thought I told you not to encourage her breckan"
"I don't, but since its already here... i might as well make the best of it right?" Jirou simply sighed crossing the room to reach his bed
"Go to sleep, you have your first delve tomorrow, I won't have you being sleepy, I already got my hands full" at that, "alright man, ill go lights out in a bit", "that's all i ask" proceeding jiruo's remark, Breckan raised himself off the bed, putting on his sandals and exited his room.
Traveling down the derelict halls of the orphanage he reached his destination, pulling the door open finding a distracted riko holding a Crystal ball with an arrow pointing down and towards the abyss, at this he frowned, delvers of the orphanage werent supposed to keep relics they found, they were categorized and sold to keep the orphanage running.
noticing his entry, riko tried to fruitlessly hide the object under her pillow, her room mates, shiggy and natt didn't think the best of breckan but they didn't mind him either, though natt watched him warily while shiggy just continued to read his map.
eyes nervously flitting back and forth "hehehe did you need anything breckan?" "No not really, but now that i think about it, can i see that spherical glass ball?" Frowning Riko stated "no, The compass is mine and I wont let you take it!" "Hmm well that IS a relic you shouldn't have" during the time he proclaimed that fact he withdrew the book from his cargo pants bottom pocket and dropped it on her lap while sitting besides her on the bed "I won't take the compass or tell belchero riko, I just want to see it" "you promise?" "I promise" with that riko reluctantly drew the orb from below the pillow and gingerly handed it to him, oblivious to the two boys observing the interaction discreetly,
to which he thought out loud"this relic is beautiful", "i know right! It looks really different" the relic certainly departed from the common design cues of artifacts found in the abyss.
The smooth glass seemed almost untouched by time and the beautiful curved designs of bronze metal that made up the frame of the sphere as well as the needle floating perfectly centered in the compass That seemed to indicate to the same direction no matter which direction its rotated, Breckan was amazed, he knew relics had unique properties and effects but the tennis ball sized sphere was really damn cool.
Handing the sphere back to the anxious little girl whom took it in addition to holding it high above her allowing the light from the artificial bulb to shine through it "isnt it so cool? It looks so pretty and it has complicated patterns on it! So it must be a worth alot right!?" Breckan hummed a maybe to this while simply giving riko a small smile, the relic probably wasn't worth much, from what he could infer the sphere had no more uses outside of pointing downwards so that rendered it to simply being a beautiful ornament.
Standing, he announced "go to sleep kids, we go delving tommorow, you should be rested" to this natt retorted hotly "your telling us to worry about tommorow, but you dont even have a whistle, worry about yourself scaredy cat" his small smile instantly fell while turning his head towards natt's bunk whom met his gaze unflinchingly and impassively, breckan game him kudos for that, natt being an 12 year old and all, "just worrying about you CHILDREN, after all it wouldn't be good for you to be eaten because you were sleepy" natt pshed to this "as if old man, if anyones gonna die its gonna be you" "typical kid response"
Being the mature one, he stepped out of the room and closed the door a little more forcefully than neccesary, unable to stop the small frown from forming on his face.
marching towards his room he thought "whats wrong with that kid, or them all on general, theres creepy, giant, 3 eyed man eating birds in that hole and they dont even give a damn, and old man? He was only 15!"
Arriving at his destination he pulled the door open, entered while letting it fall swing shut behind him.
Jirou was already in his bed, unmoving, seemingly ignoring this sudden intrusion.
Taking off his sandals breckan climbed up to his own bunk above jiruo's and slipped below the covers, he couldn't help but feel anxious along with jittery, like a child for the expedition tommorow.
Trying no to dwell on these thoughts, breckan closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
Authors notes:
So i know i probably got some things wrong about the age, if you see any errors I might have missed let me know. Since riko is 12 I put natt's age to be the same since theres no mention of it in the wiki.