Sera sat on the windowsill, gazing at the moon, which was blue that night. His yellow eyes counted the stars.
"I started getting used to them... Never seen anything like it. And who are those others?"
Lost in thought, Sera watched a group of people dressed in cloaks. They certainly weren't cultists. Sera paid them no mind and went to bed, falling asleep.
He woke up in the morning to the smell of something burning, and Lar burst into his room.
"Sera! Get up, now! Everything's on fire! Hurry!"
Sera quickly got up, threw on his cloak, and grabbed everything he could. As they ran out, he snatched a knife from the kitchen.
"Sera! No time to stand in the kitchen, run!"
Lar shouted from the doorway. Sera tossed the knife into his bag and also ran out.
"Where's Layla?" Sera's voice was calm; it seemed he didn't care at all.
"She woke me up and told me to wake you so we could escape, and she ran for help!"
'Are there people nearby?' Sera wondered as they ran somewhere. He simply followed Lar. They hadn't run far when Lar stopped, trembling.
"Why'd you stop?"
"L-look at the ground... There are traces of blood here..." Lar replied with a trembling voice and fell to his knees.
When Lar fell to his knees, it revealed a view to him: a dead body. It was Layla. Lar cried and trembled, while
Sera felt something strange, unpleasant. As he looked at the body, he felt no pity or sadness, just something unpleasant.
"So, what are we going to do?"
"What?" Lar asked, wiping away tears.
"I-I mean, what are we going to do?"
"Well, where do we go, or something like that? We're completely homeless now."
"I don't know... I don't want to go anywhere..."
"Then go on and cry. I'm going somewhere.
Nothing was keeping me here anyway."
With those words, Sera walked ahead of Lar, stepping around Layla's body. He didn't care. A bewildered Lar wavered; he looked at Layla, then at Sera. Finally, he got up, sobbing, and followed Sera.
"Where... are we going?..."
"Anywhere. I'm disgusted with this place now."
"Well, I know where there's a city... We could stop there."
"And what will we say? 'Oh, excuse us, our house burned down, and now we have nowhere to go'? I won't stoop so low as to beg for help from anyone."
"What else is there?"
Lar's gaze was sad and lifeless, his eyes red from crying. Something inside him had vanished, something important.
"We'll get everything ourselves, with blood and sweat, but I won't beg for help. If you want to do otherwise, I won't need you."
They walked straight ahead, and by evening, they were in an unknown city, standing opposite the tavern keeper.
"Good day... We..." Lar stammered hesitantly, when Sera interrupted him.
"Do you need two workers? We'll work for any money, do almost anything you say."
The old, one-eyed man looked at them. He had gray hair and a receding hairline. His eye glanced at Lar, then at Sera; he clearly hadn't expected such audacity from a young man with bronze-colored skin and yellow eyes.
"So, what's your name again?"
"Sera, and this one next to me is Lar."
Lar nodded hesitantly and looked at the old man. The man assessed Lar, feeling pity as he looked at him. Then his gaze shifted to Sera, and he liked his impudence. It seemed two hardened souls had found each other.
"Alright, you'll work until the end of the day and live in one room. I'll pay five copper coins each."