The Two Young Boys

"He's up", the shocked voice of a boy was the first thing that greeted me, "He's up! Mills!"

The boy ran over to the door and kept calling out to someone.

"Mills! He's up! Mills!"

This boy was the single loudest being I ever knew. He was ridiculously loud, I'd have woken up earlier if he'd been shouting like this.

"Mills!", I am sure the entire house shook with that boy's voice.

Whoever this Mills was had to be dead if he wasn't already responding.

"Mills! Hurry up! He's up! Mills!"

Oh Lord, I thought to myself, why does this kid not just leave and drag this Mills out of his grave if he is so desperately needed here. By all means, I needed no assistance getting up. But the boy went on and on. Talk about a rude awakening, I never slept in late while I stayed there.

"I hear you, calm down!"

As it turns out, this Mills was very much alive, and I'd say very much deaf too if he was only now responding.

"He's up!"

"I heard you. Stop shouting!", Mills himself wasn't exactly a grown man but certainly not a kid either. Though, he was a little short for his age.

"Hey, are you feeling alright?", Mills made his way in and closed in on my bed.

I had already looked around and grasped the situation to some degree.

"I just looked up, and he was awake!", the boy didn't know how not to shout.

"Neil, I get it. Now will you please give him a chance to speak?", the boy stared at me with his round green eyes and remained silent, though I didn't think it was possible.

Mills then looked back at me and gently smiled, a bit nervously too, "Sorry, my brother's a loud mouth, isn't he?"

He could say that again.

"Do you understand our language? Are you from Agartha?", Mills asked me.

"I do understand", I answered.

Why wouldn't I understand? This was, wherever it was, still Mercae, wasn't it?

"Oh, good. We found you passed out in the mountains. You weren't injured, but you seemed to be having a dream...", he said in a low voice.

I was sure I had had a dream, but only God knew what it was now.

Mills and Neil were very young to be living on their own. They said their parents had passed away, and they lived in this house, where their father had kept a stable. This stable was how the two young boys earned their living. Mills was probably around 17. He was short, slender, and had fairer hair of the two. Neil was perhaps around 12, chubby but not quite fat, better than his brother, and wore a newsboy hat. His dark brown hair, apparently overgrown, dangled over his eyes. But his emerald green eyes were too striking to ignore.

Mills was a total pushover, though a kind child, but Neil wasn't one who would listen to anyone but his brother. With a voice as loud as his, I wonder how Mills managed to keep him under his thumb.

I had not heard much from Mills when a rather violent knock came at their door.

"It must be them!", Neil announced.

"If you'd kept quiet, they wouldn't have learned anything", Mills hurriedly got up.

"No! I'm telling you, they saw us carrying him in!", Neil defended himself.

"Alright, just shut up, would you?", Mills fixed his messy hair and took a deep breath.

"Um, excuse us for a while", he turned to smile at me courteously and left with Neil in tow.

I wasn't showing much gratitude where it was due but soon as they'd left the room, I jumped out of bed. I was doing great. I had slipped down the crevice but somehow I was uninjured. Regardless of whatever power was at play, I couldn't be happier.

Just as I was fixing my disheveled state, loud noises began to grow outside.

"Mills, your father---!!!"

"Don't play us---"

"Get 'em outta here!"

I quickly got the feeling that this may have something to do with me. Those boys rescued me in some mountains, as they mentioned. Perhaps people weren't welcoming of outsiders in this town, which may be due to some outbreak or outlaws. It could be anything. Anyways, I had found my stuff lying around in one of the chairs and had dressed up, all the while listening to Mills' protests to their complaints. The kid was barely holding up. Neil tried to defend their actions against the people, but Mills shut him up. I really thought he ought to have let Neil do the talking.

"Hey!", I thought I heard a familiar voice amidst all the noise, "Is the guy you brought still uselessly lying around?"

That kinda rubbed me the wrong way. But I at least knew who it was that I thought I was hearing. That was my cue to leave the room. Right as I stepped outside, I was overcome by a bout of astonishment. It was like a whole different world opening up in front of me. The room opened into a corridor that had a square garden right in the middle of it. The corridor led towards the front and right opposite to my room, beyond the garden, what I believe, was the stable. The stable opened outside so I could only just stare at the wall.

But what astonished me was the blue sky that hung up top, with puffs of white clouds drifting by. The sky looked so much higher than I remembered. The garden was brimming with greenery, a small fountain right in the middle of it, with shimmering water trickling down silently. The air felt so light, it had never been this easy to breathe. I just stood there, taking everything in, for a solid five minutes before the noise outside seemed to rise up.

The voice of one pointless chatter particularly caught my ear. I sighed, there wasn't much I could do now. As I made an appearance through the door, pulling Mills back and assuring him that I'll be fine, the noise subsided. All of those present in the street looked at me in shock as if they'd seen a ghost.

Then a single chortle escaped and slaughtered the tension in the air.

"Ahaha! There he is, the useless guy that can't stay out of trouble! Oh man, Seraph, why can't you just be normal?"

That was rich coming from this childish grown ass man.

"Shut your trap, Lubbock", I couldn't help but shake my head in dismay.

"How rude!", he seemed to have no regard for anyone around him.

I could tell just by the looks they were carrying, these people were so not letting us off easy.