Other Side

Chapter 12: Smoothies

*Sorry for the long wait. 

Ari did not sleep long, and though his eyes were closed, the movement behind them was obvious as his thoughts went sporadically around what was coming. When he woke up after the blurred eye-rubbing experience of realization that one is awake, he immediately closed his eyes against the darkness that still surrounded him. He knew his arms and legs were free, he could move his body as he wished yet the weight was still there just in a different way. His wrist's light without the chains and his muscles tensed, heavy even as he moved, they seemed to fight against the movement. Curled into the thick pile of fluffy blankets, enveloping himself in more darkness but he couldn't convince himself to leave the huddle. Fear that the second he did go for a light or move too far from his spot, he'd find those chains around his wrists again and Adam laughing as the weight held him down.

As he huddled under the blankets, he thought of everything he'd read, concentrating more than he'd been able to in the last few years. He couldn't say he remembered a lot, for instance, the fact that elves had magic, that required someone to mention it for him to recall the fascination of such a small detail as family genetics. He couldn't even remember what lines were the most important and what factions were made to differentiate the type. Now, Leander wants him to work with the King's son in order to research the connection between the different lands and he honestly didn't know how much help he'd be.

Maybe the offer was just a nicety, but Ari couldn't see how the king's son- Cove, Cove was his name- would handle the little information the boy knew of his own land. Because that's exactly what he was, a child without the knowledge of the world. The knowledge he'd always wished for, no it's worse, locked away from any chance of knowing the place he was born to. Now he had the chance to know more of the world, something further than his home, somewhere that he did not belong. If had never even understood his own home, how could he understand someone else's entire culture?

He had drifted off eventually, succumbing to the darkness and heaviness of his body. Even then as his mind sat in the dark and he felt the time tick by, it didn't feel like long before he jumped awake at the sound of footsteps and a shining light burning through his cover of blankets. He blinked his eyes rapidly as he pulled the covers off his head to see who was in the living room. Randolph was standing by the light switch head tilted as Ari popped his head up.

"Sorry if I woke you. Leander's still out cold. Probably from the time change." Randolph a smile on his face as he made his way across the living area to the kitchen, "I'm gonna make breakfast, is there anything you want or want to try?"

"I don't know what I could eat." Ari stood gathering one of the blankets around him as he shuffled after Randolph into the kitchen. Ari nodded, watching as he pulled out a drawer from the fridge. Ari didn't pay much attention to the kitchen yesterday, not really thinking about it. He also wasn't here when Randolph had started cooking dinner so hadn't seen where anything was. At first, he thought that it was the same as back home but as Randolph opened a cabinet, the inside was like that of a fridge. Shelves and drawers lined the inside and it seemed to spread most of the cabinets across the wall if the gap Ari saw was anything to go by. It was like a big two-door hidden amongst the cabinets.

"Right. Well, how about I cut off some fruit and have you try some pieces, and then we can make a drink out of the things you like?" He held up some of the things as cool smoke came off them as they sat in the air, "Of course, I tell you if some things don't make a good pair."

Ari wondered what was in the other cabinets then if the fridge seemed to hold so much. He returned his attention to Randolph as he began slicing fruit. Some, Ari fully recognized- apples, bananas, strawberries- but others he didn't recall ever seeing. There was a yellow-colored watermelon that had some kind of leaf and sticks as if it was picked off a tree, and a purple kelp-looking block that was as thick as a chocolate bar, but Randolph said it was some fruit.