Brian walks towards the large bed by the window and sees Ambra is still sleeping. After observing her, he sits on the couch and surfs through the different channels on projected screen.
Arwin comes from the kitchen wearing warm clothes with gloves, a head cover and a mask in case the air is too cold to breathe.
"Oh, you look like you're getting ready to play in the snow, kid." he says with a laugh.
Arwin pouts a bit to act cute. "I have never gone outside this house in five years, Brian."
"In five years? Kid, you are five years old—no, wait, five and a half, right? Or something in between?" Brian replies with a small smirk.
"Five and a half." Arwin confirms.
'Yeah, five and a half years in this life. I mean, I can't exactly say I used to roam around and go to Sunbucks for coffee before I was even born in this world.'
Arwin observes Brian eat a simple meal cooked by Axel.
By the time Brian has finished his meal it is already 6:20 am and leaves the dishes to Axel. He slowly gets up from the couch and looks over at Arwin.
"Let's go, kid. Time ain't waiting for nobody."
As both of them walk towards the front door Arwin glances back at the large bed and asks, "Shouldn't I wake my mom up since I'm going outside?"
He looks up at Brian.
Brian sighs and looks down at Arwin standing near his leg.
"Ah, this is going to be our little secret. Just don't tell her," he replies with a smile.
Arwin nods before Brian opens the door.
He nervously swallows before taking his first step outside the small world he has lived in since he was born.
He looks at another door in front of his own house, then glances left and right, summarizing that there are six apartments on his floor, including his own. Both of them enter the elevator.
Brian looks at him.
"Arwin, have you ever been in an elevator before?"
Arwin looks slightly alarmed and tries to think of a reason why he isn't surprised by the elevator. "We-well, I've watched many movies, so I've seen how elevators look. But this is my first time experiencing one."
Arwin looks up to see Brian's reaction, but the elevator door suddenly opens, grabbing both of their attention. A young man with black hair, covered by a beanie and thick warm clothes, steps inside. He looks weak, his sunken eyes and cheeks giving him a sickly appearance.
Brian steps in front of Arwin to shield him as he walks forward, with Arwin following closely behind him.
As both of them leave the building premises, Arwin looks up at the sky to see darkness coloring the sky, with a few twinkles dotting the dark canvas.
Arwin huffs out a breath though his mouth to see it turn into mist and he does it a couple of times more, enamored by the mist escaping his mouth before he is hit with a very cold wind. He immediately covers his mouth and nose with the mask.
"Haha, kid it's cold, isn't it? Come on, there's much to see at this time. Get in the car."
Arwin nods and follows him to a red car. It wasn't as bulky as Ambra's, but compared to the cars in his previous world, it was still quite large.
Brian takes out a small gadget and uses it to unlock the car with a beep. He glances at Arwin, "This is used to unlock my car."
While getting in Arwin asks, "Does my mom also use that thing to unlock her car?"
He points to the small device Brian placed in front of the steering wheel.
"Well, your mother uses her bracelet to unlock her car. But that bracelet can be stolen quite easily, so I don't use it. And it's a bit expensive—not that I can't buy it! I just have no need for it," Brian says, trying to sound cool at least from Arwin's perspective.
As Arwin fastens the seat belt, looks over to the driver's seat as Brian replies, "Lets go I will show you all the good places of Zimnocień city."
As they travel through car, Arwin notices that the infrastructure of buildings, shops and how roads are constructed are pretty much the same as his world, just with an added touch of sci–fi appearance with neon 3D signboards and all.
The first place they stop is a large playground for kids to play, except it is filled with homeless people in thick clothing sleeping on the playthings and robots cleaning the footpath.
"Is there only one playground or are there more like this?" Arwin asks while watching the robots clearing the dead leaves.
"There are more but this is the largest one in this city. Lucky for you it is just 5 minutes away from your house." Brian says while walking around the playground.
He observes Arwin watching the people sleeping on the plaything meant for children and public benches before taking a look at the big watch at the border of the playground.
"Don't worry they will get up before 7am, since there are law enforcers who start to make rounds around that time. Until then they will sleep here."
"Do these people not have their own home?" Arwin asks with a curious expression.
"Ah, buying a house is expensive and not everyone can afford it." Brian replies, but seeing the sad expression on Arwin's face he hurriedly says, "but they can give pay to stay in a motel as a less expensive option for couple of days."
Arwin asks while mimicking a sad expression, "Does my mom also pay rent so we can only live for a few days?"
"No, no kid. Your mother has bought that place, and you can live there for 50 years without paying expensive fees. So don't have to worry about being homeless."
Arwin nods and explores the playground for a while.
'Thank the gods, I don't have to worry about it not that it matters since sh*t will hit the ceiling when I become 15. I am purposefully making slow progress in learning, cause I can't act like a genius without getting in trouble. So I guess I have to be patient until I am able to get a good job in a big company.'
Brian watching Arwin physically sigh smirks a bit. 'Kid must be thinking something really imaginative since he can't play on that slide.'
'Next time I will bring him during the day so he can make friends and play with them. No kid should lose their childhood over some goddamn war.'
He walks towards Arwin, "let's go kid, there are other things I have to show you."
Arwin follows Brian back to the car, as they start to travel once again.
Only this time some shops are now seemed to be opening up. Arwin turns to look at the time displaying on the windshield.
It's 6:40am and then turns his attention back to different buildings they pass by. As Arwin observes that the buildings only seems become taller as they travel.
"Where are we going Brian?"
"I want to show you a view, that you can't watch from your house."
After some more awkward silence as they travel.
"So kid, who named you Arwin? Was it your mom or your dad." Brian asks trying to start a conversation.
Arwin turns his head in suprise at the question.
'Oh you want to know? Well I named myself, Why? Because my supposed 'mother' was not too interested in naming me. So I gave myself my previous name, so I can avoid confusion when someone asks my name and also I wouldn't forget to turn my head when someone calls me by my name.'
'Not that I can tell Brian this!'
"Well my mom gave me the name since I don't have a dad, she named me when I could start to write. It's good name right?"
Brian looks over to Arwin smiling, "Its a good name for a handsome kid like you."
I nod to the remark, "What about you uncle, who named you?"
Brian falters a bit being called uncle, but replies with a sad smile.
"I didn't have my ma and pa. I grew up in an orphanage so I gave myself a name."
"Ohh!, I am sorry uncle." Arwin's expression turns to being apologetic.
'Oh sh*t. Of course he is an orphan. I just hope he doesn't stop coming to my house. Dude, you are the only guy who can take me out of that grey prison.'
"Kid, why are you apologizing?" Brian barks out a small laugh.
"You didn't say anything wrong and you know I believe they couldn't give me as good of name as Brian."
"Is your name special uncle?"
"Hm? yeah kid, when I was young and handsome just like you, there used to be a show about a young boy called Brian who joins the military and becomes a national hero, defeating all the bad aliens and helping the good folks and saving our world despite being an orphan. I believed that I could do the same, be a hero." he scoffs at the end.
Arwin nods slowly only to ask innocently, "What do you then uncle? Are you a hero like the one in that show?"
"Ohh I? I... um, I work with people in import and export but that you can ask later kid, we have reached the place." As Brian stops infront of a tall building.
Arwin bends his neck down to look through the windshield to see a building with no end.
'Definitely a skyscraper.'
"Woah, thats so tall. Wait how tall is this building?" he turns towards Brian asking with amazement.
Brian laughs a bit, "Why don't we find out Arwin? Come on lets go."
Arwin exits the car only to now see how tall the building actually is. 'Damn that must be more than 100m. '
"Come on kid, you are gong to freeze to death if you stand there gawking." he replies with a smirk.
Arwin sprints towards him to cover the distance with his small feets, "I was not gawking alright, I was just surprised a bit."
"Yeah, yeah. Kid, did you know this building is the place where many big companies host their events and meeting and also has their own offices, so if you ever go into this building then that means you have become successful in life." his expression is a serious before turning to smiling again.
'Successful, huh. So if I ever get a job in this place that means I would survive this novel.'
As Arwin follows behind Brian into the skyscraper of a building, only to feel a warm air hit his face. Warming up his cold gloves and clothes as he exhales a sigh of relief from the bitter cold that had been biting his skin.
He observes Brian talking to the young woman with red dress at the counter before grabbing his hands and takes him to an elevator.
'Don't tell me he is some super rich guy who just acts like he is poor, so he can enjoy trivial things.'
Suddenly Brian lifts Arwin up from his feets and placing him in his arms.
Surprised he asks, "Wait, why are you carrying me in your arms?"
"Well, you won't be able to see the view. Since the windows are placed higher above the wall."
Arwin nods with understanding but internally rages at his own short height.
'Hah, can't even look at things I normally could. Guess this is just one of the many things in the long line of list of cons being a kid.'
*Ting*
His attention is suddenly taken by the sound of the elevator, as it slowly starts to open.
"Arwin can you close your eyes. There is something I want to show you."
Arwin obliges to Brian's request, putting hands on his own eyes to cover them. He feels himself moving as Brian carries him.
He peeks through his fingers here and there to watch where Brian is taking him, walking through the corridors with wooden doors on both side, as Brian then approaches a steel door only to be hit with a wind even colder and freezing than before. As Brian has taken him to a balcony.
'Shit the air is even colder than when I was in that playground.' He quickly covers his mouth and nose with the mask.
As Brian suddenly stops, he quickly closes the gap between the fingers.
"Arwin." Brian calls out.
'Shit he didn't see me peeking, right?'
"Arwin you can open your eyes now."
Arwin slowly removes his hands from his face only to be met with the dark sky, all kinds of buildings with different architecture giving out their own light, shops starting to open up, large buildings with offices seemed to have lights, still on.
He looks with wonder in his eyes, 'Damn, this is quite good place to view the city. Pretty much all the buildings look unique from one another.'
He focuses from building to building, comparing them. Some seemed to be just offices while other seemed to host luxurious shops even on higher floors.
Arwin watches the view for few moments more, taking in the breathtaking view as light itself seemed to come from the earth while the sky is dark with few twinkling specks of light, unable to match the glamour of the city lights.
"Thank you Brian. Its beautiful."
Brian nods smilingly, was it due to him calling Brian instead of uncle? as he starts to get accustomed to the view he glances at Brian gesturing to put him down. Only for him to respond with a serene smile on his face.
"Be patient Arwin."
Arwin looks with a confused expression, not that he could see with a mask on his lower face.
"This city view is just one half of the view I want to show you."
He nods at the response and goes back to viewing the city lights, with a few vehicle travelling the road. As he then suddenly nudged by Brian towards a direction. Only to see the brightening dark sky, in the shade of indigo, as slowly the dark sky starts to brighten up, turning more and more to the shade of blue.
A speck of light starts to emerge from the horizon, slowly climbing and becoming more large as it emits more light turning the sky around it the shade of beautiful maroon.
It was a beautiful sunrise, his first ever sunrise ever since coming to this fantasy world.
"Happy birthday Arwin." Brian says with a smile, congratulating him on turning 5 years old.