(Unedited)

Freija brought the three of us to a place called The Early Bird and thankfully this was one of the smaller dining places that didn't require a reservation or any early warning or announcement that we wanted a table before hand. It was just a nice cozy place with Glow Candles burning at every table and a relaxed atmosphere that surely took years to master keeping with how many beast-kin and other races were in the place so early in the morning.

When we were seated the waitress, a human this time, went away to leave us be to serve other customers, "I figured we might as well go somewhere relaxing after what happened earlier, and because the rest of today is going to be full or fun events that I'm dying to hold over you for the next few decades." Freija admitted when we all say down and while I was dreading what was to come I nodded my thanks for the decision to come here over somewhere else.

"From what I can see they don't really have anything special," Wreign spoke, looking through the menu at the different morning options for meals. "They close at 13pm and don't even serve alcohol!" He growled quietly at her.

Freija snickered, nodding, "That's the point." She picked up the menu and started looking at it as well, "I don't want Red overwhelmed too soon so early so I decided coming here, to a place selling regular food at regular prices was good enough; You can still eat as much as you want, so I don't want to hear any complaining from you Wolfy." Why was she saying regular like that? This place was still pretty expensive for me: most of the meals on here cost from 3-7 Silver! It wasn't super expensive like the other place was, but this was still quite up there in pricing...

I looked at the menu for a little while, and the three of us sat there in silence until the waitress came around again to get our orders. This time I was ready to order what I wanted and per the look from Freija I got as much as I wanted as well and tried not to worry about how expensive this bill was going to be as well. The next few minutes were me trying to get the plan of what we were going to be doing for the rest of the day, but Foxy was very tight-lipped on the whole thing. And after the food came, three rounds of it, we all ate in silence and just bathed in the comfortable atmosphere of the place until we were done eating.

"Ah." Wreign howled, sitting back and smacking his lips, "There's nothing like a good Honey Hen Sandwich in the morning to set the day off right." Freija rolled her eyes at his exaggeration; I looked at the time again:

10:47am

We were here for just over an hour this time, and I was not looking forward to having to leave for whatever it was Foxy had planned for the rest of the evening. Hopefully it was only one thing, not a series of things like yesterday. I didn't get a choice though: she scooped me up out of the chair as she got out herself, Wreign just watched passively, shooting me a grin as he caught my eyes.

"Now that we've eaten for the day, and now that you are not a sleepy or sad kitty, we can go to the next event!" She yipped loudly, getting a few glares from the other patrons in response. "Come on Wolfy, I'm sure that you'll realize where we're going in a few hundred lengths or so." With that Freija left the establishment, carrying me under her arm as she set the pace. One much faster than I would have liked going--it was probably one of the reasons she was carrying me and not just letting me follow along after. As we went further west through the city some things started to look more and more familiar as she traveled, running along rooftops and through alleys with an ease I was envious of.

Once I saw the giant stone building in the middle of a large field--similar in size to the one at home--I realized where we were. Why were we at my old Orphanage? Did she actually get an event put together and have it hosted here?

I looked at her confused, and she looked down at me with that stupid sly grin she had when she knew what she had planned was something I was going to absolutely despise. "Why are we here Freija?"

"You'll see, Kitten." She walked up to the main entrance of the place, set me back on my feet and rang the door-whistle. Swiftly reaching back after me and holding me in place as one of the younger kids answered the door: It was a white raccoon-kin girl with electric blue eyes that answered the door and the moment she saw me her eyes widened and she ran back inside. The door closed partially as she scurried off, Freija dragged me along as she let herself in and went directly to the kitchens. Where she knew the Headmistress was likely to be, baking with all of the cooks that volunteered to take care of the children in their own spare time.

"Headmistress Hyc'antie!" She screamed, and a familiar blue-scaled Naga's face and tail peeked from around the corner, slightly confused for a moment. Then she saw the three of us, beaming as her eyes landed on me, and the tip of her tail waved to us excitedly in greeting.

"Oh hi Freija, Wreign, and Red! It's so nice to see all of you after so long." There was a long trail of movement in the form of her four length long dark-blue tail slithering past the door and out of sight just as she rounded the corner and came towards us.

She'd gotten longer--bigger, since the last time I saw her, "Especially you Red! I haven't seen you in...nearly a decade now! Why don't you visit more?" I couldn't look at those huge inviting green orbs she had for eyes. It just felt so gross to lie to her face.

"I don't know," I looked everywhere else but directly at her. There was a moment of silence before she just shrugged it off, as always.

"Well that doesn't matter. What matters is that you did come and from what I understand Freija's planned something special for the Orphanage for the rest of today?" We all looked at Freija, who had the biggest grin of the last two days plastered on her face.

"What did you do?" Wreign asked cautiously--she was looking at him with the same mischievousness greed that she had whenever she'd planned something that no one in their group would like. 

"You'll see..." She stood there grinning, and there was a few minutes of dreadful silence before Hyc'antie cleared her throat to get everyone's attention once again. 

"If you would like to join us in preparing Lunch that would be wonderful, or you can go and look around and see what's changed since you were last here..." At that Hyc'antie turned around and went back to the kitchen: Her super long following after her before stopping in the middle of the doorway--likely because she'd reached wherever it was she wanted to be at and just didn't care about where her tail lay after so many years of dealing with it. 

...At least it was fun to play with when I was little: 

I remember getting different colors of string and ties and wrapping them around the entire length of her tail in several different styles of bows, without her moving an inch, and going back to playing with the others outside before she'd even realized something was happening. Some of the other kids realized what I started doing and ended up joining me in the weekly project; eventually, Hyc'antie just stopped trying to keep track of her tail and let us do whatever we wanted to it as long as it didn't hinder her movement or trap her in place. 

I looked at Freija, then Wreign but didn't get any input as to what I should do. I huffed, slightly annoyed to their indifference, and decided to go to my old room to see if anything has changed or if anyone else was using it now. I turned left, going down several long hallways, and then up a couple flights of stairs, and after a few more long hallways I was there. It was a room in the middle of the second hallway through the third floor, and I remembered first getting my (Dash) Skill here due to having to run back and forth so much: whether it was dodging the other kids, running from Hyc'antie because of something I did, or just because it was a lot of fun. 

The room still had the same color to the door. It was one of the things I didn't bother changing unlike most of the kids here due to the fact it wasn't my home and I didn't plan on staying long: whether I'd been adopted or not. I knocked on the door, just in case, and after a few moments of silence opened it and went inside: the room was also the same, that slight odor of fresh mint and cleaning supplies being the only thing that was different. 

I looked around, taking in the nostalgia of being in a room I'd been on the edge of calling home only ten years ago. This was the place I'd gone to after my parents had died: Hyc'antie had been so nice to me then, and so were most of the other kids, because they know what it was like to lose everything. There were a few that weren't all that happy with having to share space with another Beast-Kin, but they eventually got over it and started to see me as someone that got the short end of the stick...like them. 

I took in the room for a few minutes. It looked like it hadn't been touched since I left and I wasn't sure if there was anyone staying in it. There was surely more kids here after so long, unless the ones that aged out moved and others were taken in to be a part of a family too; Though, this wasn't my life anymore, I'd moved on from this a long time ago--the three years I'd had here were nice, but they weren't everything to me. That spot would belong to Pops, Foxy, and Wreign; nothing would ever change that...

I stepped out of the room, closing the door behind me, and decided to go outside. Maybe all of the kids were behind the building playing somewhere...If not then I guess I would have to wait to see them all when it was time to eat; no one was late when it was time to eat, Hyc'antie made the best food I'd ever had, and that was including the super expensive diner from yesterday...

This weekend was Rough, being the only person working my position most weekends, and having to be outside in rain, wind, and heat is not fun. It didn't help that that same week my mom was having more problems and had to go to the ER again...

...Yeah I'm having a weekend. 

Anyways--Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next one!

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