Child of Hades

1. Small beginnings

Bells were ringing. I left the sponge on the floor drenched in soapy water and ran to the dining room. My chores were not done in time, as usual. Mrs. Hopscotch hit my hand 3 times with the ruler. Then I sat down on the table next to Cat.

Cat was tall for her age. Her wavy brown hair was tied behind her head with a twisted tree's root. She had only a few scratches on her face, and her fingernails were strong and sharp.

Most of the other kids were still getting their beatings so Cat and I ate as fast as we could. At first, we focused on getting as much meat as possible for ourselves. As more kids joined, the fight over food intensified. There was a lot of scratching, pushing, and throwing going on between us. At this point, Cat and I began settling for the less sought-after gray Asphodel-mash. We got our stomachs filled properly.

In the end, only Mouse was still trying to scrape rests off the food. Mrs. Hopscotch hit a bare rabbit bone out of Mouse's mouth. Mouse's big wide eyes followed the bone as it flew across the room. "All Praise to Hades" She lifted her hands and we stood up. "All praise to Hades", we said unanimously. Then we returned to bickering with each other.

"SILENCE!", Mrs. Hopscotch screamed. "FINISH YOUR CHORES!"

The dining table was empty in no time. Cat had finished her chores already so she came to help me with mine. After we were finished we snuck out to play in the garden. It was cloudy and cold. Cat grabbed a clump of wet, gray mud and slapped it on my face. "Fight's on", I said with a wicked smile. We threw the slimy matter at each other until we were covered completely in it.

"Mrs. Hopscotch is going to kill us", I giggled.

"If she finds out.", Cat added. She took off the rough brown Asphodel-bag that Mrs. Hopscotch had given to us as clothing. I followed her example. Being 2 years older than me, Cat enjoyed being the shot-caller in our friendship.

We washed ourselves with the shower buckets in the garden. Then we rinsed our Asphodel-bags as best as we could. I put the empty bucket over my head and pretended to be a zombie. Cat laughed, but reminded me to hurry. When we put our clothes back on they were still very wet. Bells were ringing again. Cat and I rushed to the living room.

"GAME IS ON!", I screamed provocatively. Mrs. Hopscotch gave me a halfhearted smile. She gestured to me to enter the play-fight cage.

Mrs. Hopscotch was wearing a long black dress. She was a bit chubby. Her arms and hands were big and scary to me. She kept her black-as-night hair at shoulder-length, I had seen her cut it with a knife herself.

Cat sat next to Mrs. Hopscotch and watched as the children that had not been able to finish their chores before lunch were fighting.

Cat was 9 years old, one of the older children in the orphanage. As a rule, younger children typically never finished their chores on time.

Fighting with the other children was different from fighting with Cat. Most of the other kids were not my friends and they did not care about if they hurt me during the fights.

Jiraiya, a 7-year old Zorbian boy, won this fight. Zorbians were stronger than humans or elves. Jiraiya lifted up his scaly green fist and let out a victory shout.

Mrs. Hopscotch gave Jiraiya a croissant as a reward for his efforts. Jiraiya shared the croissant only with his best friend Blagden, a pale human 7-year old with black hair. I crawled out of the play-cage, my muscles hurting. I had countered a lot of hits with my arms and legs.

Ribbit helped me get up. Ribbit, a 7-year old human, had gotten his name from the other kids because of his weird way of walking. He often pretended his legs were made of rubber to make the other kids laugh. Most of us got our names from other kids.

The older children were sent off to steal their own dinner while the younger ones stayed in. Mrs. Hopscotch let us play with electronic parts before dinner. She watched us from her wooden chair, laughing whenever a kid shocked itself.

"All Praise to Hades", she said when she sent us off to sleep. "All Praise to Hades", we replied.

Cat was not home yet when I made my way to our sleeping room. I rolled down inside a blanket on the wooden floor. Ribbit and I were silently grimacing to each other until the lights went out.