Eidos

Chapter 5: The Story of Ro

Harmonia took the chance to examine the strange boy as he rambled about his fascinated findings. The mesh of black hair that had first poked out from above the roofs of Mine was a tangled mess. Even now it remained even curlier than hers had been before she had washed up. His face was a little narrower than the other children she had seen before, and his nose, a little sharper. Two green emerald eyes sat resting just below two darkened brows. Ro was much smaller than Harmonia, and much skinnier too. No matter how long she examined the boy the fact remained, he gave her a good feeling. It was a feeling that told her she could trust the wild haired Ro.

"So that's what Bird is," smiled Harmonia. "A red-feathered skylark."

"By the looks of it," Ro suddenly began picking at the bridge of his nose as he busied his mind in thought. " I've never seen a real life red-feather skylark, but my father left me a book about them. The same one my uncle used to read it to me before bed. Instead of bedtime stories, I learned about birds, animals, closed circuits, physics equations, and so much other stuff you'd probably find boring. Nobody really likes to hear about that stuff anyways."

"Whoa now, relax Ro. Why are you being so down on yourself?" observed Harmonia. "I know it probably doesn't mean as much coming from another weirdo outsider, but...you seem like a good person. And you don't need to read bedtime stories to be interesting."

Ro suddenly blushed, unable to hide his shyness, "Can I get you anything? Water or food? I'm afraid all I have are vegetables and potatoes, but I have some spices I can add to them."

Harmonia smiled, "I could kill for a glass of that fresh mountain water we followed all the water down here. What do you say Bird?"

Bird gave no reply, all of the excitement had exhausted it to the point of collapse as it drifted to sleep atop Ro's doohickey.

"Make that just for one." It was then that Harmonia's curiosity poked its head up, and for lack of anything better to say, she asked, "So Ro, what's your story? Has it always just been you and your uncle?"

"No. I had parents just like everyone else did before the war, but I was too young to remember them that well. What little I do know I learned from my uncle and a few charcoal drawings of my mother."

"But wait, I don't get it," she replied in confusion. "Your uncle was probably old enough for conscription. Why didn't he get taken away?"

"Well he didn't in a way," Ro began scratching his head as he brought back the glass of water and a freshly washed carrot. "He actually worked for the Corporations. They made him live in the Capital for what...three years...four? We lived there so long ago I can hardly remember."

"Wait, what!?" exclaimed Harmonia before quieting her voice in hopes of letting Bird sleep. "You lived in the Capital! Like, the same Capital run by the Corporations? You've got my attention Ro. Start from the beginning, tell me how an dirt looking kid like you ended up here."

"Well, let's see...I guess I'll start with my family. It's the reason I have two names in the first place. My grandmother was originally from Oceanas. She came over when the two planets first discovered each other. Oceanas tried sending representatives to connect with the people back on Sky. That's where she met my grandfather. He originally worked for the Corporations, before they became greedy and decided to take everything for themselves. From there my family kept up with the tradition of giving everyone two names. Even my mother had two names before she was taken away."

"Your mom's family was from Oceanas?" Harmonia could hardly believe a word of it. "Are people from Oceanas really different?"

Ro only laughed, "Ha, ha. No, not at all. They are very much like you and me. Even those who look a little different here or there are still just people."