When Mia met Casper

|Chapter Three| - Empty out our ashes

| C H A P T E R   T H R E E | - Empty out our ashes

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27TH OF JUNE 1997

        The sky was covered in this dark blanket of inky blue and black. Amongst it, bright silver diamonds could be seen: like light seeping through the little holes beneath the grounds of heaven. Mia and Casper lay comfortably on the hammock they had both put up in-between two large oak trees that overlooked the sea in the woods.

        Earlier that day, the two friends had decided to venture out into the unknown wilderness that was the woods, a couple of blocks away from the care home. Mia and Casper had been so excited to go out exploring into the dangerous wasteland; to make a camp fire and build a shelter out of sticks and wood, maybe even tame a precariously wild tiger but their plans had soon been shattered before it had even began to take flight because of the horrible rainstorm outside. So instead of lying around mopping, the pair had settled for exploring the attic instead.

         They hadn't discovered anything remotely interesting except for some dusty ancient books and broken parts of old bikes until Casper tripped over a rather large bump underneath the rug. While Casper sat sprawled on the floor moaning about the pain in his ankle, Mia had undisputedly decided to detect what exactly lay hidden beneath the tattered rug; only to be perplexed at what she had discovered. Beneath the rug, lay an unusual looking blanket-thing. It was comparatively large and was coated in the most magnificent shades of oranges and red. Mia had tried to pick up the unknown object but found that it was extremely heavy. She called Casper over and together, they uplifted the strange looking commodity and carried it towards Laila's office, hoping to get some answers. Mia and Casper had received strange looks and confused glances from the other children and care workers, unaffected, the two friends carried on their tedious journey into the office with triumphant grins planted onto their faces and a sense of pride. Pride that they had discovered something miraculous and beautiful.

                  ☾☀   你永远是我最好的朋友。☽☼

        "It's called a ham...a Hama--"

        "A hammock."

        Casper's cheeks turn into a startling shade of red. So much so that he looks like an untire different species of tomato. He slowly nods his head, "yeah...what she said."

        Jenny's eyes widen as she looks at the large piece of fabric in adoration, "It's beautiful," She beams. Jenny reaches out to touch it but Mia hastily pulles the hammock away from the little girls grasp. She doesn't want Jenny's dirty hands all over their precious discovery. What if she brakes it or even worse, tries to steal it?

        "It's very fragile. An ancient artefact according to Laila. You can't touch it," Mia tries to explain. She feels a little guilty lying to Jenny but in all honestly, Mia doesn't want anyone else to touch it except Casper or herself. They were the ones who had found it after all.

        Jenny poutes in disappointment but soon loses interest and caperes away happily when she hears Laila call everyone in for lunch.

        Mia's eyes travel around the room and then stop when they land on a couple of pillows and a Batman blanket which lay on top of the couch in a disorganized pile. And that's when the light bulb on top of her head flickeres on and a huge grin lights up her face. Reaching out for the blanket and pillows, Mia dumpes them on top of the hammock.

        "Help me lift this up."

        Casper cockes his head to the side, confusion clear on his face as he gives his best friend an inquiring look.