Legacies of light

Arc 1.04

Year 3

Log of the boy

Name: Orb

Age: 8(approximately)

Hair: white (normal?) Red (anger), Green (excitement), Yellow (fear), Brown (nervousness), Grey(confusion), Cream(hunger), Lime(lying), Orange(uncomfort), Black(worry), Pink(Happiness)

Eyes: Blue(left) Gold(Right)

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

Dislikes: Being left alone

Height: 126 cm

While Orb is merrily reading some new books I made for him, he asks, “Hey, Capti, what does this word mean?"

“Let me see,” I say as I head over to Orb’s book. The word I see is time.

Where do I even begin to explain the idea of time to Orb is easy, but he loves to keep asking questions, and I am not sure if he is ready to learn arithmetic. Well, I need to start eventually because he will be moving on to tenses, and understanding time is essential for that. So, I decided to go ahead with the explanation.

So, as I proceed to give a long lecture to Orb. I explain the idea of time, how we measure it, and the daylight cycle. At first, Orb finds it confusing, but with the help of illustrations, Capti was able to get the point across

But then Orb asked, “If we can’t see the sun, how do we tell what time it is here?"

“Come with me,” I said as I guided Orb towards the museum. When we get there, we head to the back of the museum. “Orb, in this showcase, is an astral feather.”

“What does astral mean?”

“Orb, I will answer that later”, for a boy who likes asking questions, he sure doesn’t like answering. “Orb, this feather is from an animal known as an astral phoenix. As you can see, this feather has a red colour on the outer edges and a blue one on the centre of it.”

“These feathers are very reactive to the sun’s radiation, and the blue colour gets brighter or darker to specify what time of the day it is, which depends on the intensity of the sun’s radiation at the time. The outer red part of the bird’s feathers also changes as the year goes on to one of 12 different colours, which allows us to check what month, and the lighter or darker it tells us how early or late in the month we are.”

“Capti, can you show which colours correspond to what month?” he asks eagerly.

I have yet to teach Orb any of the months outside a basic description due to the lack of understanding time, so I say, “If you want to do that, you must get your arithmetic down first. It is going to be difficult.”

“I will so promise to teach me.”

“I promise, we will start tomorrow, so you better get prepared,” he says to Orb as both leave the museum.

-Break-

“Capti, when will we get to the difficult part?” Orb said as his innocent eyes stared daggers through me.

All I can do is stand here dumbstruck. He’s a freak, are the only thoughts going through my head as I see all the worksheets he made for Orb. He understands Arithmetic almost instantly. He gobbles up anything he learns about addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.

He’s looking at me with his eyes gleaming with curiosity. It’s almost as if Orbs is saying it is all you’ve got. But it’s not “Orb, there’s this little thing called fractions I’d like to teach you.”

So, I go on to teach Orb fractions over the next few days, but to my dismay, he devours them quickly. But I won’t be beaten yet, so I continue to teach him all the principles I have committed to memory.

“Length, area, and volume.”

“Capti, what is next?”

“Trigonometry and geometry.”

“Capti, what is next?”

“Algebra.”

“Capti, what is next?”

“Indices and Logarithms.”

“Capti, what is next?”

SHITTTT, I guess I have no choice, “Calculus”, now fall child.

It was to no avail, he even understood calculus perfectly. After these last few months, it’s been defeat after defeat. My embarrassment was almost at the max, but he just had to say this.

“Capti, the way you did this makes no sense.”

“Huh, what do you mean?”

“If you do it like this, you get the right answer, and if you enter it back into the formula, you can check it's correct.”

What the hell is this! Did Orb teach me? To be honest, I don’t understand maths on a high level; I just committed most of it to memory. I think he may even have a better handle on it than me. He surpassed me. I’ve been defeated by a seven-year-old.

“Capti, this is fun. What’s next?”

“I submit, master,” I say as I bow my head.

A look of confusion appears on Orb’s face while staring at me.

So, with me teaching Orb, all I know about Arithmetic, we return to the Saviours' song. It seems that Orb got a lot of confidence due to learning arithmetic. Especially since I told Orb he was a genius, making his hair turn pink with happiness. Ever since then, he has been working nonstop on his languages. I have also learned that it is not that Orb is a visual learner. He cannot understand something unless it perfectly makes sense to him in his mind.

I have also decided to work on the great food plan part two, for a few reasons.

First and foremost, the spices and seasonings I have been using are starting to run out, and I need an alternative.

Second, I need to find a way to reinforce all of Orb’s good behaviour with rewards, and outside of knowledge, I can only think of food.

Finally, I have honestly gotten utterly bored with the taste of the fruit; eating the same taste for two years is driving me insane, and I want to try something new.

So, I start by talking about all the spices and seasonings I haven’t used and put them in one of 3 sections. In terms of the aftertaste, do they increase it, reduce it, or don’t affect the aftertaste? That’s how I split it up two years ago, so now it’s back to testing. “I never wanted to experience this again, but I must press on.”

Walking up from the floor, I say, “I honestly forgot how bad it is”. So, I insert the spices I used into one of the three categories, then say, “I’ve got to keep trying till I get results.”

-Break-

Φ If you know how to cook, a man will never leave you.” Reading the lines from the rather haughty female in his book, an idea popped into my head. I’m going to learn how to cook. So, after entering the kitchen, I shrieked. Captivant was lying on the floor.

“Capti, are you okay?” I say, but I get no response. After looking around, I figure Capti's problem fell victim to the taste of the fruit. Is this what he’s been doing while I have been reading lately?

Remembering how long it took Capti to wake up two years ago and using my newfound knowledge of time, I say, “I think if it’s like before, he will be out for about two hours.”

Did he make a mistake while cooking? Maybe he was trying to make something yummier. People in books are always making lots of different food. Then I guess I will make something very yummy because I’m a genius.

If I remember correctly, these are the terrible spices and seasonings that make Capti pass out, so these must be the unused ones. I should take a few to make it extra yummy. After laying the spices on the table, I take one of the knives to cut up the fruit, then I run excitedly to the back of the house, to grab one of the fruit, and pulling it from the ground I say, “I don’t need wolfie to get these for me anymore”

Feeling dejected, I say, “If I make delicious food, Wolfie will come back to get a taste.” Reenergised by that prospect, I excitedly run back inside to get started while thinking. Can snow even eat?

So, I take the spices and seasonings, then taste each with my tongue to see which tastes the best, then I cover the fruits in all the nice ones. Capti never has a lot of spices and seasonings in the fruits, so maybe that’s why it tastes terrible.

So, I layer the spices and seasonings onto the fruit. The more, the better it will get, even yummier. If I cut the fruits up into objects and animals, they will be more fun to eat. I take the knife I had prepared and slowly cut the fruits into shapes.

With this, I can also spice the inside of the fruits. I am a genius. “Ouch,” I cut myself with the knife. Why is red water flowing from my finger? Is this blood? I see this in what people talk about in books. While looking at his red blood orbs, his hair turns grey “Have I seen this before?”

-Break-

Φ Damn, my back cannot stand all this sleeping on the floor. Rising from the floor, I see, Orb. Well, damnit, I wanted to keep this a secret, but it seems he found out anyway.

“I knew you would wake up now since I’m a genius!” He says arrogantly with gold hair.

This is going to be annoying, I think to myself. “Hey Orb, what are you doing here?”

“I came to give you a present, so close your eyes.”

“Hey Orb, I was doing something here, so could we do this later?”

Orb begins to pout and say, “ No, this is much more important, so come with me and close your eyes”. Orb grabs one of my hands and begins dragging me to his destination.

When we arrive at the library, I see a mess with a bunch of animals in what I think is spices or maybe seasonings. “Hey Orb, what is that?”

“It’s the food I made for you out of the fruit, but it seems I made a mess. I’ll clean it up afterwards, but you should eat it now.”

“Wait, Orb, that’s the fruit. Why does it look like that?”

“I put a lot of spice and seasonings on it to make it extra yummy, I also cut it into shapes.”

What the hell? The fruit is covered in spices, I can’t eat this. I am frightened by what all that spice would do to the taste.

“Orb, I think I’m full.”

His eyes started watering with a sad look on his face. “I tried hard to make this, so I thought you would want to eat it.”

Damn it, please don’t cry. He looks like an abandoned animal. Come on, Captivant, you’re a man, you can do this. So vigorously, I take the fruits and shove them down my mouth at full speed, so I don’t have to taste them, then I use the base of water to flush them down.

“Orb, that was yummy.”

“I knew it would be because I am a genius. But don’t worry, Capti, this isn’t the end, I will be making more every day!”

“Yeah, that would be nice, but how about we take turns?”. But then Capti puts his hand suddenly against his mouth.

“Capti, what’s wrong?” Orb says as he rushes toward him.

Holy shit, how did Orb make the taste worse? It burns. My god, I feel death coming upon me. I must pass out before my mind breaks due to the taste. So I started to strangle myself to make myself unconscious.

“Stop, Capti. I’m sorry I won’t cook anymore, so PLEASE STOP!” Orb says with panic on his face.

Sorry, Orb. I will apologise later, but I don’t feel like dying right now. So I continue until I fall unconscious.

Φ “Capti, Capti, Capti, please say something”. Wait, he usually wakes up in 2 hours anyway, so all I have to do is wait.

5 hours later

Why hasn’t Capti woken up yet? It has been over five hours since he should have gotten up. Sometimes in my books, characters go to sleep and never wake up. Did this happen because my cooking was terrible? I didn’t mean for this to happen.

“Please, Capti, don’t leave me too, please don’t leave”, Orb cried with tears flowing down his face.

“Dad, Mom, where did you go?” the groggy man said

“Capti”, Orb shouted happily as he went to hug him.

Φ What’s going on? Just a second ago, I was chatting with my paren-Oh yeah, Orb almost killed me with his food.

“Capti, I’m so sorry, please don’t go. I will become a better cook, so please stay here with me,” Orb says as he weeps profusely.

I figured this out earlier, but Orb doesn’t like being left alone. I need to get to the bottom of this, so I use this opportunity to do something dishonest.

“Orb, no matter what you do, I will always be here with you”, is what the man over 80 years of age said.

“You promise.”

“Yes, I promise, but Orb, you must tell me why you decided to cook.”

“One of the books I read said if I know how to cook, people will never leave me.”

Ahh, this is my fault, but I told him not to believe everything he read in books. Still, that’s not the issue here. “Orb, why do you want people never to leave so much?”

“It makes me happy to have you around, but if you leave me alone, I’ll be sad. I want to stay with you like wol-”, Orb stops short with a nervous expression.

I should press and try to get answers, no more beating around the bush “Orb, who is Wolfie?”

Orb stays silent, looking more nervous than before.

“Orb, no matter what you say, I won’t leave you, so please tell me who is Wolfie.”

Then Orb’s hair changes from Brown to white as he says, “Wolfie was my friend. He has been here for me since before I could walk, he gave me my food and clothes and talked and played with me daily.”

“Orb, what did Wolfie look like?” I feel stupid for asking this, but I need to make sure

“He didn’t look like you and me. He was made of snow and looked like a wolf.”

That must be the reason Orb thinks snow sculptures are alive. So, Orb, what happened to him?

“One day after playing, I told him a word I had in my head. I don’t remember who told me, but I said I love you to Wolfie.”

Then he vanished the next day, so I ran into the snow to look for him, but I couldn’t find him and got lost, and then I fell down. While trying to get up, I felt a big thump on my head, and the next thing I knew, I was back in the house. Then I saw you, Capti.

“Orb, thank you for telling me your story.”

“No problem”, he says as he clears the tears from his eyes, with his hair turning light purple.

-Break-

Orb’s story yesterday all but confirms my suspicions. There is just one last thing I want to check: I take a pair of scissors and head over to Orb.

“Hey Orb, there is something I would like to do for you.”

“Capti, what do you need?”

“Your hair has become too big, so let me cut it like they do in stories.”

So, Orb excitedly runs towards me and sits down. Orb’s hair is almost twice the size it was when I first saw him, and it was already overgrown back then.

But that’s the second reason I’m doing it is to check something. So I cut Orb's hair until it gets low enough, then tell him, “Orb, go look in the mirror to see your new haircut.” Orb runs off.

It’s what I expected. Orb’s overgrown hair prevented me from seeing this, but there were lots of silver strands on his head. He has two hair colours and two eye colours, Orb has a legacy.

Year 3 End