The passing landscape gave the young girl a moment to rest. Seeing the country where she was borned and raised brought peace to her heart. Moving her navy blue hair aside the woman stood up to stretch her muscles, feeling the sense of relief that never gets old for her.
The screeching of the train along with the loud whistle announced to everyone that the train will be stopping shortly. She makes her way towards the exit as the train slowly comes to a stop. The setting sun painted her pale skin a light orange. Stepping off the train she made her way towards the station's exit.
Taking a deep breath Alice feels the frosty air of home entering her lungs and soul. Upon leaving the station a roundabout road with a large statue of the goddess greeted her return home, she checked the watch on her wrist seeing that it was only 5pm.
"He should still be there by this time." Alice said as she made her way into town.
As she heard the crushing of snow under her foot she kept looking up at the sky seeing the sun set silently taking in the beauty of the natural world.
"ALICE!"
Alice turns her head down to see a small blur collide into her leg. A small pair of hands wrapped around her waist as.
She looks down to see one of the many young kids from the orphanage, his black hair and dirty face reminded her of her younger days. She looked around to see an absence of a certain someone causing Alice to look down at the child.
"Why are you alone?" Alice asked.
"I heard you were coming back today, so I came here. Then I saw you so here we are." The child said.
Alice felt a sigh escape her lips as she grabbed the child by their hand and maneuvered them on her back so he wouldn't run away for whatever reason. Children tend to do that often.
After walking for some time a dark orange and blue building came into sight, with the inside having about a dozen or so people of varying ages. Alice walks inside ringing the usual thunk sound of the wood which replaced the ringing of a bell.
"Hello, welcome to- oh it's you."
The middle aged man whose face was covered in a thin layer of sweat regardless of the cold interior looked at Alice. Fondness and warmth filled his eyes as he moved his navy blue hair out of the way, causing the small wrinkles on his face to virtually disappear.
"Welcome back Alice, and I see you have one of the kids with you too."
Alice returned a smile to her father as she approached him. "Doing good?" She asked.
"If I wasn't I would be at home. Would you like anything?" He asked.
"My favorite, Mom's favorite and what do you want?" Alice asked the child.
"I want mint chocolate!" The child borderline yelled.
"Coming right up, just give me a moment. Also your mother is at the orphanage as always, dinner will be there tonight as well. How's work treating you?" He said as he prepared the ice cream.
"Nothing bothersome. Work is work." Alice replied.
"I see even now you don't speak a lot, but that's just who you are." He said as he placed the order on the counter. "And he's your order, tell your mother I'll be there tonight."
Alice grabbed the ice cream and left the shop waving her dad goodbye. While many people would often show love for their parents in public, Alice made it a rule for her to not do that in front of the kids from the orphanage.
Those kids know better than anyone that their parents aren't there for them to do that so she found it insensitive to do such things in front of them.
The walk back to the orphanage wasn't eventful, along the way the child fell asleep on Alice's back causing her to slow down and stay steady so as to not wake them. It took some time but the sun wasn't completely down as they reached the orphanage.
"Wake up, we're here." Alice said as she tried to wake up the child.
The sleepy eyes of the child opened as Alice entered the building. The sound of children laughing and screaming flooded into Alice's ears as she saw a pack of them running around enjoying themselves.
Off to the side in some of the tables sat some of the older kids being in their early teenage years, likely doing homework that should have been done earlier.
All the way in the front with a pack of kids surrounding a whiteboard, standing in front of them was a woman who many would say is the older image of Alice.
The sea of warmth in her eyes as she tutored the children in whatever school problems they may have was clear to see. Navy blue hair shined in the light of the room along with her pale skin. While Alice couldn't fully understand what she was saying, the softness of her voice was all that was needed for Alice to feel relaxed.
The woman looked up to see her daughter standing there watching her do what she does best, being a mother.
"Hold on kids, try to figure out this problem. I'll be right back." Alice's mother makes her way to her daughter not quite reaching a sprint but quicker than a walk, she pinches her daughter's cheeks once she was in reach. "How is my lovely daughter doing?"
Alice tried to answer but with how much her mother was moving her hands, knowing it was futile she let her mother do her thing for however long she needed it.
Seeing what was happening, the mother stopped messing with her daughter so she could speak. "So how was work, Alice?"
"Nothing special. Here." Alice said as she raised the bag of ice cream she bought for her.
The mother's face lit up at the sight of ice cream from her husband's shop. She receives both the ice cream and the child from Alice.
"I told you to not run off on your own. If you want to go outside at least go with one of the older kids." The mother said to the child.
The child didn't say anything but the pouting expression on his face conveyed everything they wanted to say.
The mother took the child away and placed them in an empty seat to let them rest with their order of ice cream while she returned to tutoring the kids from earlier.
Seeing that everything at the moment was done, she makes her way to one of the many benches within the building. As she walked, paintings of religious moments of Kjerag history were placed all around the place with a large wood carving of Kjangander above the building's entrance.
As Alice found her spot that she always sits in whenever she's here. She takes out a sketchbook and pencil. She flips the pages as past sketches flashed before her eyes before landing on an empty page.
Putting pencil to paper Alice begins to draw an anomaly she felt recently, that outsider girl from an organization called Rhodes Island. Alice recalls how she felt when she looked at her, everything about her was normal, just another person.
Yet whenever she looked at her head something felt off, Alice couldn't understand what was the cause of that feeling. As she continued to draw the girl everything came to naturally. The legs, hips, chest and face; all of these things came like second nature on paper.
However when she drew the top of her head each iteration felt wrong. Alice didn't understand why.
When she drew the girl with her hat something felt off.
When she drew the girl without her hat something still felt off.
Nothing Alice drew felt right, before she knew it the wooden feeling in her hand snapped in half. Yet her face was as natural as always masking whatever emotion she felt at that moment.
Accepting defeat Alice closed her book leaving the two halves of the pencil on the page.
The door of the orphanage opened up, Alice expecting it to be her father. Yet at the door stood a lone person. Covered in head to toe in thick black clothing. Baggy pants, long black sleeves and gloves, on their face was a black mask with the only trace of color were white goggles but the tint on them was so dark that the eyes were covered.
"Hiker." Alice said.
The Hiker made his way to one of the open benches, making sure to not bump into any of the kids running around. The Hiker soon made his way to the same bench as Alice but sat on the other end of it giving both parties space.
Alice's Mother who was finishing up her tutoring made her way to the Hiker. Giving them the same smile as she does with all people who enter the orphanage.
"Are you here to offer your prayers to the Kjandganer before you leave on your travels? Many travelers, Hikers and climbers tend to before they leave for good luck." The mother asked.
The Hiker merely looked at the mother before shaking his head in decline.
"I see, then I'm sorry to say but the orphanage will be closed in a few moments as the day is ending. So I must ask you to leave, however we are open early in the morning if you wish to pray tomorrow." The mother explained.
The Hiker didn't say or move for a moment before slowly standing up. He made his way to the door but stopped to look at Alice.
Due to his goggles the Hikers eyes were replaced with a flat black reflection allowing Alice to see herself instead. The Hiker's stare quickly moved down to the sketch book of Alice's failed attempts of drawing the girl's in question head.
The countless eraser marks and its eraser remains are clear for them both to see. The Hiker looked at it for a moment before turning their gaze to Alice's hip as her hand was already on the hilt of her sword, perhaps due to instinct Alice didn't even realize it.
The Hiker soon made their way out the building making sure not to bump into Alice's father who was about to open the door.
The night went as usual. Alice's mother, father and herself provide food for all the kids with the help of the older ones.. Afterwards they get all the kids to bed, business as usual for the navy trio as they were nicknamed by the people of the village.
"Ha, I swear those kids have so much energy. I got to thank the older ones for their help or else I don't know how we'll handle them all." Alice's father said.
"You're just complaining, they aren't hard to manage." Alice's mother said in response.
Alice didn't say anything but gladly listened to the banter of her parents since they allowed her to take a step back from work fully and enjoy the dynamics of a family.
As Alice listened, a vibration traveled through her body. Noticing that the source came from her pocket she reached for her phone to see a coworker calling her.
"Hello, Alice speaking." She said in her usual deadpan voice.
"Alice, I know you just got back and likely with your family but I need you at the moment." The coworker said as his worry was all but clear in his voice.
"Explain." Alice said.
"Just come to the base on main avenue, it would be easier to explain there." The coworker said.
"Fine." Alice said as she looked at her parents. "I have to leave."
"It's fine, like you said work is work." The father said.
Alice quickly made her way to the base, sprinting past numerous people with ease taking sharp turns back to back. It didn't take long before she arrived at the base and saw her coworker.
"Issue?" Alice asked.
"Follow me." They said as they guided Alice into the infirmary.
A rush of iron entered Alice's nose as she entered, within seconds she saw the source of it. On a pair of beds rested two people. Saying they were attacked wouldn't be an understatement.
Both of them were covered in bandaged dyed crimson on their chest. Their faces were puffy with bruises clear on them.
"What happened?" Alice asked.
"We don't know anything beyond the fact that they were attacked. Neither one of them remembers what happened except that their attack never showed themselves." The coworker said as they showed a small pile of photos. "This is all we got."
Alice looked at the photo showing the bodies of the two that were attacked before they got bandaged up. Various markings were drawn on their chests, the more Alice looked at them the less they made sense. It was like the makings of a mad man who wasn't fully there.
"Anything else?" Alice asked.
"No." They responded.
"Make me a copy of these." Alice ordered.
"Yes, ma'am" They responded before leaving the room.
As Alice waited for the copies, she focused on trying to piece together what happened and what to say to the branch family head. A small drop of blood fell from one of the injured people landing on Alice's shoe.
Within seconds the blood seeped deeper in the shoe. It went past the shoe, past her socks before making contact with her skin. The blood branded her foot with a mark before fading.