"Lalala, towards the sky!"
"Lalala, above and high!"
"Lalala, to the cloud and sun!"
"Lalala, it's bright and fun!"
A voice echoed inside the dark and dingy room. This was the only proof that it was bright and fun outside this premise. The entire place smelled moldy and had the intense stench of sweat and urine. The ceilings were high, and the whole space was divided into multiple cells, which were locked with rusted iron gates. Each cell housed more people than it probably should; all the inmates were sitting with their knees to their chin to accommodate everyone at a time.
"Lalala, towards the sky--" the old man started again, only to be cut off by a guard opening the iron door to lug a child in. The child looked like she was barely 5 years old, with curly black hair, covered in mud. The child looked intimidated with all the giant men in the cell and started to look around desperately to find a safe space. She spotted a small boy with muddy black hair, who was sitting with his head resting on his palm, looking up at her with wide blue eyes.
"H-HI..." she said to him shakily. The boy's eyes shined, seeing someone around his age for the very first time.
"Hello! It's my first time seeing someone my age. What's your name? Are you from outside? Why are you here?" the boy threw a barrage of questions. The girl was still shaking and suddenly started wailing loudly. The boy looked around for help, not knowing what to do.
"What happened? Why are you crying? Are you hurt?" he did what he knew best: ask questions. The girl moved her hands and started rubbing her eyes, and she continued to cry. The boy rose from his place and awkwardly wiped her tears with his dirty shirt sleeve.
"Don't cry now; tell me what's wrong. How will I help you if you keep crying?" the boy asked nervously.
"I wanna go home, I am scared," she replied in a small, shaky voice accompanied by a lot of tears. The boy facepalmed and sat back down, patting the small space next to him for her to sit. The girl plopped down next to him, with eyes red from crying.
"I will take you home, but it will take some time," the boy said confidently with a grin showing all of his yellow teeth. The girl looked at him with eyes filled with doubt and let out a shaky "How?"
"I don't know, we will figure it out," the boy replied with a shrug. "Now, tell me what's your name and how you got here?" the boy asked with a tinge of excitement, which he tried desperately to hide.
The girl wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and started, "I am Mirna. My mum and I lived at one of the outer villages of Anton. My dad was a fisherman; he went missing around the time I was born. Mum raised me by herself. We were poor, but we were living happily. A few days ago, mum was teaching me about element types and how people are naturally born with certain elemental powers depending on their parents. She told me both she and my dad were of the fire element, and I will also inherit the fire element. She wanted to do an aura induction ceremony, which is done when every child turns six. To do that, we were supposed to go to a place which naturally produces the element; in my case, fire." She continued her story while the boy listened, with realization dawning on his face.
"We lived near the ocean. My mum always believed that my dad would return home someday. The nearest volcano was on the Arno island. It took us half a day to reach Arno by a raft. The island was filled with greenery. I held my mum's hand and followed her so we would not get separated. We kept walking, but the sun went down, so we took refuge in a cave. I couldn't sleep, the bats were making a lot of noise, and I heard wolves and bears in the forest, which scared me a lot. I suddenly smelled something burning. I woke my mum up, and we went out of the cave to look for the source. A bunch of men walked out with black masks, and a few of them had their hands lit up with fire. We tried to hide in the cave, instinctively," Mirna said as her face turned pale, recollecting the memory.
"Lalala, towards the sky!" the old man started again. The kids got started and looked in his direction. The old man was without both legs and had an eye patch. He stopped the song and started laughing hysterically. Mirna looked spooked out and held on to the boy's arm.
"He gets like that at times, it's fine, he will go back to normal in a while," the boy shrugged like it's a normal occurrence. It gave Mirna little to no reassurance.
"He told me that he sings that song whenever he thinks about his granddaughter. So, what happened in your story after that?" he continued to ask.
"We were trying to not make any noise, but somehow we were found out. The masked men walked towards us. I was scared out of my mind, and my mum was shaking. One of them pointed his staff towards us. Mum pushed me behind her to protect me. They captured me and my mom to lock us up here. We have to get out of here somehow!" Mirna finished her story, slowly gaining some stability.
The boy remained emotionless for a while, processing all the information given to him. Mirna kept looking at him to get some sort of response from him.
"A lot of things make sense now!" the boy muttered to himself.
"What is your name?" Mirna asked.
"I'd like to know that too," the boy replied, finally realizing he didn't know who he was anymore.