Legacies of light

Arc 1.05

Year 4

“Now, let us begin operation new food,” I say fervently, as Orb claps excitedly beside me.

Due to my priorities changing last year, I couldn’t try out the new combinations for the spices and seasonings, so here I am. But I discovered that Orb has a rather sharp tongue, so I asked him to taste each of the spices and seasonings to find out which of the sections I should put them in. This was not by any means a failproof method; We still passed out due to mistakes when splitting the spices up, but it worked out well. I showed Orb the proper amount of spice to put on the fruit. I also made it crystal clear that you shouldn’t mix too many spices; I need to try my best to avoid another poisoning situation. We found four more combinations that neutralise the aftertaste of the fruit, and we successfully found one that made the fruit taste better.

“Yummy”, Orb said with delight.

“This isn’t just average; It tastes good.”

“Orb, we did it!” I say as we both begin jumping with joy. Out of excitement, I give Orb a big hug.

Why did Orb stop making noise? Looking down at Orb in my arms, I realise that Orb is shaking and looking at me with his eyes, staring daggers into me. Orb’s hair is bright orange. Orb then bites my hand, grabs a knife and says, “Capti, what was that!”

Perplexed by Orb’s actions, I answer, “A hug.”

“Never do that again!” Orb says as his hair turns red.

Wait, why would Orb not like being hugged? In that moment, it dawns on my head; Orb has never been hugged in his life. Oh god, how sad, but I need to try something. So Captivant reaches for Orb’s cheek.

“Noooooo!"Orb screams as he throws the knife at me. However, the blade doesn’t fly that far. So I pinch Orb’s cheek with my hands while Orb’s hair alternates between orange and red while Orb screams, “Stop.”

After teasing him, I stop, and Orb stares furiously at me. So, it seems he doesn’t like to be touched. I never took notice; most of the time, I’ve taken his body back to his room, but I guess he was unconscious all those times, so he didn’t freak out. He also seems ok with touching others, so it is only one way he doesn’t like contact. But while lost in thought, an angry Orb headbutted me in the ankle. “Fuck!”

Log of the boy

Name: Orb

Age: 9 (approximately)

Hair: White (normal?), Red (anger), Green (excitement), Yellow (fear), Brown (nervousness), Grey(confusion), Cream(hunger), Lime(lying), Orange(discomfort), Black(worry), Pink(happiness), Purple(?), Gold(arrogance). All with strands of silver.

Eyes: Blue(left) Gold(Right)

Likes: Drawing, Food, Snow Sculptures, Books, Captivant, Wolfie

Dislikes: Being left alone, Being touched

Height: 138 cm

Orb is weird. A lot of the time, I don’t know what to make of him. He hates people touching him, but loves the opposite. I sometimes find him laughing to himself. I have even caught him talking to the snow sculptures, but at least he gets shy when I see him do it. I believe Orb now understands that talking to Snow is weird. I should thank the stories for that. Talking about growth, he keeps growing, which gets rather annoying since I have to keep refitting his clothes; I am not very good at it, and I can’t pay people to do that here. Still, it makes him happy, so it’s no real problem.

But regardless of any of his weird behaviour, I would still call him a genius. He has wholly mastered both arithmetic and the Saviour's song. He speaks it fluently. We can even have full-blown conversations. His speech is better than most adults. Still, through our conversations, I have been passing on some lousy speaking habits. He has also pronounced some words horribly, and I haven’t corrected him because I think it’s funny. But still, we run into a few issues due to his ever-expanding brain. Due to his increasing knowledge, he has been reading more challenging books, which has caused him to ask more and more questions.

“Hey, Capti, where are we?” Orb asked suddenly.

“Well, I guess in a library.”

“No, I mean, where in the world?”

“Well, currently from the centre of the continent, we’re northeast on a mountain of ice called Fimbulwinter.”

“Capti, in the books I read, ice kills people, and mountains are very tall, so no one would come up here if they’re not resistant to the cold like I am. So if someone came up here, they would most certainly die.”

“Orb, those are some neat deduction skills, but what’s your point?” I said, even though I had a pretty accurate idea of what he was getting at.

“I’m saying that unless there is treasure buried somewhere in all this snow, there would be no reason to come here unless you wanted to die, so Capti, why did you come here?”

He really is a sharp kid “Hey Orb, let me go get something.” Heading to my room, I grab the jar beside my bed and then return to Orb.

“Orb, this is my wife.”

Orb stares with a confused look. “So, this is what women look like, nothing like what you described. How do they eat like this?”

“No, Orb, her ashes are in this jar. My wife is dead. The reason I’m here is to bury her on this mountain. When the moon shines and hits the top of the hill, it is said to be the most beautiful site in the world, and my wife was the most incredible woman in the world, so from the bottom of my heart, I believe she deserves to see this site every year even from death.”

Orb’s hair turns pure black, and then he says, “Capti people die when they get old, and you are over 82 years are you going to die?” Orb said restlessly.

“What a weirdo. I tell you something heartfelt: all you can think about is death. You have quite a few screws loose in your head. Honestly, you’re such a weirdo.”

“CAPTIVANT, stop being stupid and answer my question.”

I give Orb a thonk on his head. “Ouch”

“Orb, 2 things, first, when did you become so bold as to scream my full name? That’s disrespectful, and second, I am immortal, you heard me; I can’t die, you fool.”

Orb’s hair turns Orange and then red.

“Captivant, do you take me for a fool? Immortality doesn’t exist. That is purely fictional. All things have a finite value. If you were immortal, your value would be infinite, which is impossible. ”

Fricken smart ass. “Of course it exists. Living proof is standing right in front of you. Also, what do you even know about the world? All you’ve done is spend all your time on this mountain.”

“I may not know much about the world, but something as ridiculous as immortality can’t exist, you idiot.”

“Says the boy whose hair constantly changes, you weirdo.”

“I’m not weird, and my hair changing colours is normal.”

“Yeah, you're right. It is normal if you compare it to the rest of the things in this world, like beasts the size of this house, a nation where the sun doesn’t shine, places where clouds have wills of their own and castles in the sky compared to all that your normal you brat.”

“That stuff can’t exist, you liar.”

“It makes sense why you would believe you’re a child, so of course, you would do something as childish as disregard what I’m saying because it doesn’t match your worldview!”

Orb pouts and says, “I’m not childish. YOU ARE!”

Captivant smiles smugly at him and says, “That’s obviously what a childish person would say.”

“You’re the one arguing with a child who is 73 years younger than you. You’re childish.”

Direct hit. Recuperating from the blow, I say, “I was correcting a child who can’t seem to understand that it’s illogical to deny everything you don’t understand.”

“I’m illogical. Ok, then explain to me why you looked like you’ve almost died many times before.”

“I can almost die and feel pain, but I will never fully die.”

“Then why do you look like you’ve aged, old man? You don’t look like how young people are described in books.”

“Immortality is like a cycle. You grow old; then you become young again when you turn a certain age.”

“What about food? If you were immortal, you would not need to eat”

“The only way an immortal can die is by starvation. Remember, nutrition is essential!”

“Well, isn’t that convenient? Then why would you marry a person who isn’t immortal? That would make you sad.”

“Elementary Orb, my wife was simply so amazing, I had to marry her, and if I am Immortal, my wife will also be immortal in my memory.”

Orb begins to pout more as his hair turns redder.

"Well, I guess it’s my fault for not educating you about the world." Getting up, I run into the library and quickly pick out a book.

“Orb, this is a story I recreated. It’s a log of people and my time spent with them.”

Orb grabs the book out of my hand and jumps gleefully, but then he looks at me with confusion “Hey Capti, are the people in this book your friends, because I thought you didn’t have any?”

“Wait, why would you think that I had no friends?” I say, hurt by this statement.

“I simply thought that you’ve read so many books that you can recreate them from memory, so I thought that means you spent all your time reading, and since you don’t have an excuse like me, I simply thought you had no friends.”

“Well, so you know, I have friends, a lot of them, and the reason I have read many books is that I am an author, so I read lots of books for work.”

Orb sighs and says, “So you’re going to lie to my face.”

“I am an author, believe me,” I say, desperate.

“Whatever you say, Capti”, Orb says as he walks away.

“Well, if you won’t believe me, return my book,” I say, reaching for the book.

“No, it’s mine”, Orb says as he runs from me.

-Break-

Orb has been reading the books I have given him, the stories of real people. Some of them, I would say, are too mature for his age, but he can understand the more mature writing. He even loves asking me questions about things I probably shouldn’t explain to an 8-year-old, but if I explain them scientifically, he gets them rather quickly.

These books are helping him forget about our past conversations, since his hair has been bright pink since he started reading them. It looks like it’s brought a lot of happiness into his life.

But then one day he asked me, “Capti, how many people are on the planet?”

"At its peak, I believe it was some absurd number like 20 billion, but I believe about 4 billion now”.

“That’s amazing. There are so many people outside.”

“Orb, why the sudden interest?”

“It’s because people are always trying despite all the issues that they all face and all the emotions they contend with daily, yet they try to be happy, and that’s just in the books I’ve read so far, and you’re telling me there are four billion people like that, of course, I would be happy” he’s says energetically.

“Orb, not all people are like that. In the world, many people are the opposite of what you just said.”

“Yeah, I guess that would be logical, but that means that everyone who lives despite that is amazing. They’re all like shining stars to me and aren’t all kids blank slates, so as long as people weren’t born one way, they can all change.”

That is a relatively logical answer from Orb, but what did I expect? There is something about what he was saying or how he said it, “Orb, why are you talking as if you are not a person?”

“Well, I guess I am a person, but I’m not like all those people,” Orb says as his hair returns white for the first time in ages.

“Please explain what you mean, or I won’t be able to understand.”

“Well, Capti, I don’t try hard or face any hardship, and I am useless on my own. I’m not amazing like all the people in the world. I might be a person like everyone else, but I’m not the same. I guess I’m here because I shouldn’t exist in their world.

Captivant sighs and says, “What a stupid and childish idea.”

“I’m not childish,” Orb says as he begins to pout.

I can’t blame him for having such an idea. It’s something a kid like him would think up, but regardless, I must do something to erase such thoughts.

“I can’t believe I just heard something so completely illogical, I can all but guarantee the only reason you’re here is due to some strange circumstances. You already exist in their world. You can exist in their world. I will take you out of here. Just watch me.”

Orb’s face lit up with his hair turning pink “Really.”

“I promise you. I’m not a liar, so let’s get out of here together. But only good kids get to go, so you must behave.”

Orbs start jumping with excitement. Until we hear a large GRUMBLE. Orb's hair turns to cream.

He looks embarrassed. Orb, I will get some food ready.

As I leave Orb and walk to the kitchen, I cough up some blood. “Those fruits really did help me.”

So, after preparing the food, I head back to the room. “Orb, are you ready to eat?” But I see Orb collapsed on the floor. “ORB!” I scream, running over to him.

“Capti, I feel a little funny.”

Taking Orb's temperature, I notice that Orb is burning up. What the hell, Orbs had no body heat for years now. "I have to act fast," I say as I grab and bring Orb to a bed. I take the water sack from the fruit and make Orb drink.

“Capti, I’m feeling a little sleepy”, Orb says right before passing out.

This is too strange. For the first time in four years just randomly caught a cold? No Captivant, break this down, his inability to feel temperature is caused by the fact that he is a legacy, so that would mean if he lost this ability, it would be due to his legacy being uncooperative, but why is that what was different today? The only thought that comes to mind is what I said.

While lost in thought, I suddenly heard a large bang. “What the hell was that?” I say as I run to see what happened. It might have been the front door, but no one could be here except for one thing.

As he reaches the front of the house, he sees a large mass of snow through the window. But then, as Captivant approaches it, he sees it start to form into a giant wolf.

“Your presence here has become bothersome; leave or die.”

“Well, I guess you must be Wolfie. Nice to meet you. I am Captivant, but I guess you’ve heard all of mine and Orb’s conversations”.

-Break-

“Orb, get up”, I hear as a hand pokes me.

“No, leave me alone, I’m comfy,” I say as I push the hand away.

“Orb, I am going to eat all your food.”

“Noo”, Orb says as he jumps from the bed. When he gets up, he sees Capti, blood splattered on the left side of his body with his left arm gone. “Capti, what happened?” Orb says hysterically.

“Oh, this well, I fell down some stairs”, Captivant replies casually.

“What are you talking about? Do you think I would believe that you have fallen down the stairs?”

“When an immortal like falls down the stairs, a body part comes off; it’s the trade-off for immortality.”

“Is that so? Then let me push you off the stairs to check if you’re telling the truth.”

“It only happens when I fall naturally, and what’s with all these questions?”

“The reason I am asking all these questions is that you are lying to my face like I’m an idiot-GRUMBLE” Embarrassment fills Orb’s face.

“Looks like someone’s hungry,” I say with a smirk as I hand Orb the fruit.

Orb starts devouring the food out of hunger, “I’m still going to question you later,” he says with satisfaction.

“Hey Orb, I’m going to be busy soon, so I won’t be able to hang out with you all the time, but I will give you lots to do regardless.”

Orb pouts and asks me, “Why?”

“It’s a big present from me to you, so you've got to be patient. I bet you it will be worth it, so get excited.”

Orb energetically says, “Ok.”

Sorry, Orb, you might not like this present, but it’s something I need to give you since I don’t have much time left.

Year 4 End