Andra Evergreen

Zenith, whose face was staring blanky to the sides, suddenly looked towards the crowd with a frown. As though Zenith had been shocked out of his cursed trance with a bolt of lightning, he awoke. Zenith narrowed his eyes and examine everyone that was looking at him with curiosity. He wanted to see who was the person that called him out.

"I'm behind you. Brat." said the same voice again.

Turning his head, he saw an elderly woman that looked somewhat short and had gray hair curled into a bun. Her facial features were wrinkly and rough, like an old tortoise.

The elderly woman was taking her morning strolls and came back just in time to see some undisciplined child blatantly ignore her granddaughter's kind treatment.

Seeing the elderly woman, the burly man greeted her by bowing his head like a junior trying to please his senior coworkers. His eyes were filled with reverence as he watched her close the wooden fence gate and walked toward the child.

A Headquarter agent like himself could not have possibly disregarded such a legendary figure. Before admitting the baby, the burly man had naturally done his research on the orphanages in this local town. When he was looking through Lady Liliana's orphanage, he discovered an extremely familiar surname: Evergreen. With further research, he found out that Lady Liliana's grandmother was the legendary expedition captain Andra Evergreen. Andra Evergreen was one of the captains that led the fourth expedition into the harsh wilderness of this planet to find a water supply located by headquarters' satellites.

The expedition could only be done on foot and flight was naturally canceled because of many failed attempts. Cunning and persistent creatures of the sky made it nearly impossible for headquarters to scout by air, especially when a monster named (by headquarters) "The King of the Northern Sky" roamed the northern area which is where the only human settlement on this planet lay. "The King of the Northern Sky" is a giant bird-like creature the size of two football stadiums covered with metallic feathers and was reported to have breath so hot it could melt the armor of a military scout spacecraft designed to withstand heavy damage. Furthermore, the bird had three more abilities that were witnessed by surviving pilots: it was able to fly at extreme speeds despite its size, its talons could easily pierce and crush any spacecraft, and it could concentrate its breath to create a fire beam that was hotter than the sun's surface. Luckily, the settlement was near the edge of the northern lands and headquarters was confident that their force field would be able to repel the strongest attack of the bird.

Though Andra's expedition was on land, it was equally treacherous and vicious. After all, out of the ten captains that each led thousand men forces, only her group managed to survive. But still, the expedition was a huge success since it was the settlement's first-ever successful expedition.

Being the only survivors, many members were interrogated and it was discovered that many creatures possess incredible intelligence. Apparently, a horde of creatures resembling the mythological monster "Taotie", which had protuberant eyes on their shoulders and exposed sharp fangs, had skillfully ambushed and separated the whole force. Fortunately, due to Andra's quick-witted commands, her group was able to outrun the creatures and barely made it back to the settlement.

The burly man's mind was wandering through all the glories of Andra when suddenly curses were hurled loudly from the granny and the child.

Liliana was trying to calm things down, but their loud shouting blanketed her pleas to stop.

"Hmph! This brat got guts."

"You are nothing but a helpless child trying to act tough!" shouted Andra in disdain.

Zenith gritted his teeth and shouted, "All these damn orphanages are the same. They pretend they'll care and forget about you once you're out of the public's eyes."

Tears started welling up around his eyes and he was constantly rubbing the tears away as if nothing had happened.

"Ho-Ho-Ho, baby boy is crying." said Andra as if she was mocking him.

When Zenith heard this, his face reddened in embarrassment, and he prepared to run away. Just as he was taking his starting steps, a wrinkly hand grabbed his arm.

"Where do you think you are going?" said Andra with a serious face.

Zenith with his eyes leaking tears struggled hysterically to get the hand off his arm. Unfortunately, Andra was a veteran expedition captain enhanced with strengthening genes when she was in her prime, and these genes are still taking effect.

Andra watched Zenith struggle pathetically and gave him a smirk.

"Grandmother!" yelled Liliana the best she could.

Hearing her granddaughter shout, Andra let go and the boy took off running.

"I was merely disciplining him to be more humble and reserved." Andra walked past Liliana and sat lazily on the steps of the house.

Having no time to rebut her grandmother's claim, Liliana asked Oliver and Lily to take care of the babies while she go look for Zenith. Soon Lucy ran after Liliana afraid she might need extra help.

The burly man was utterly dumbfounded as the events had happened too quickly and suddenly. He gave it a thought and decided it was best for the orphanage to take care of this issue, thus he waved goodbye and drove away.

....

Zenith's mind was a mess and he couldn't think straight; all he could do was keep on running. He dashed along the cobblestone sidewalks, navigating towards randomness. He ran until he was out of breath and wandered into a narrow alleyway that was empty except for a rusty dumpster.

Zenith took a seat on the dusty cold floor in the alleyway. The air in his lungs was rising and falling as he struggled to catch a breath. Despite his legs trembling and numb from all the running, he gritted his teeth and suppressed those feelings out of habit.

During his time in the central city's orphanage, he developed a growing nature of misanthropy and an unhealthy habit of suppressing his feelings to appear tough. These unique traits comforted him and made him feel superior to his counterparts. Yet when he encountered and confronted the old lady, her words easily toured down his walls of comfort and exposed his emotions like someone completely stripped him naked. As a result, he was confused by the sudden outbursts of emotions that he had never experienced before.

Zenith felt pain in his heart as he recalled his previous interactions and shook his head to disperse his thoughts of it. He sat there for another hour before he finally succumbed to his tiredness and fell asleep hugging his knees.

It was the afternoon, and the sun was hanging proudly in the vibrant blue sky. Slight beams of sunlight pierced into the alleyway and warmed Zenith's chilled body.

His eyes twitched, and he felt an aching sensation in his back, probably due to his posture when he fell asleep. When he woke up, he felt like everything that had previously happened was just a dream. Unfortunately, reality proved him wrong, he was still in the narrow alleyway with the lonely rusty dumpster.

After contemplating and giving some thoughts on his actions, he felt regretful and decided to head back to apologize to Lady Liliana. However, an unfamiliar sight greeted Zenith when he weakly arose and peered around the alleyway.

The streets were empty and abandoned houses were littered on both sides. Occasionally, Zenith would see some people entering the abandoned houses carrying pots and baggage. These people looked different from the ones he usually see: some were tall and sturdy and others had exclusively braided blonde hair. The neighborhood could be considered extremely diverse, but they all lived in abandoned houses like many vagrants.

Zenith was dumbfounded as some of them looked very noble and pretty yet it heavily contrasted with their dirty living environment. Seeing some people coming outside, he tried to ask for directions to Lady Liliana's orphanage. The people stared at him with confused and shy looks. It was like they didn't understand what he said.

Disappointed, Zenith continued down the street that he believe to have come from. After hours of walking and asking, Zenith began to feel hopeless. The dazzling sun was also fading away, leaving the sky orange in color.

Beginning to lose hope, Zenith deeply regretted running away. In a last-minute decision, he decided to climb an abandoned apartment building and use the height to search for Lady Liliana's orphanage.

Zenith chose a small abandoned apartment building that had 5 floors, but each floor only consisted of about 4-5 rooms. There was moss and vines covering the apartment building's upper floor windows. Some of the greeneries were hanging out the window all the way from the fourth floor. Mysteriously, there were no moss nor any greeneries on the first and second floors. It felt like someone had disposed of them and was too lazy to do it for the upper floors.

Walking into the abandoned apartment, Zenith didn't find any trace of human activity nor was there any trash or dust. The first floor was unexpectedly clean like someone had been constantly cleaning it.

The second floor was the same, it had no trash and no signs of human activity. The rooms on the first and second floors were absolutely empty, making it feel like a newly built house.

When Zenith was exploring the second floor, he heard faint gentle footsteps following him. Zenith, only being an 8-year-old child, immediately got goosebumps and felt a chill gently swipe across his spine. He was frozen in place and could only pray that what he just heard was his imagination.

Suddenly, a sweet and somewhat childish voice whispered into Zenith's ears.

"What. a-a-re. you d-doing here?"

The voice seemed to be struggling with what it was trying to say, but there were hints of both shyness and courage in the words spoken.

Slowly turning his head to the side, Zenith almost fainted.

He saw a girl about his age peering at him from a corner in a dark room only inches away.