Maya's crimson eyes sparkled with an almost manic gleam as she looked between her two closest friends. The morning sunlight streaming down on them seemed to catch the wild determination radiating from her small frame. Her red hair, perpetually tousled from her restless energy, caught the light as she tilted her head with that familiar grin that both Kai and Rowan had come to recognize as the precursor to nothing good.
"I'll just buy my spot then!" she declared with the same bold confidence one might use to announce they were having toast for breakfast.
The words hung in the air like a challenge to reality itself. Kai felt his mouth fall open slightly as he processed what Maya had just said. Beside him, Rowan's usually composed expression cracked, revealing the bewilderment that was rapidly spreading across his features.
Just as they did just moments ago during her previous statment, both boys found themselves caught in that familiar state of stunned silence. They exchanged a look and their eyes met, searching each other's faces for some sign that they had misheard, some indication that this was another one of Maya's elaborate jokes.
Finding no such comfort, they turned back to stare at her with expressions of complete and utter shock.
Rowan was the first to recover his voice, though it came out slightly higher than usual. "Maya..." he began carefully, as if speaking to someone who might explode at any sudden movement. "The orphanage doesn't have that type of money. You know that better than anyone. So how exactly do you plan on doing this?"
Maya's grin, impossibly, grew even wider. The expression transformed her entire face, making her eyes dance with an almost feverish excitement. She bounced slightly on the balls of her feet, her hands clasped behind her back in a way that suggested she was barely containing herself from jumping up and down.
"I've thought about it a lot recently," she said, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm. "Just in case they said no to my request for a scholarship... Let's all three go build money being adventurers!"
She threw her arms wide as she made this declaration, her voice rising with each word until she was practically shouting by the end. The pride and conviction in her tone suggested she believed she had just solved world hunger and discovered the secret to eternal happiness all in one brilliant stroke of genius.
Once again, for now the third time in as many minutes, Rowan and Kai found themselves sharing that now achingly familiar look of bewilderment. The silence stretched between them like a taut string, filled with the weight of Maya's impossible proposition. They stared at each other for a long moment, their eyes wide and searching, before slowly turning back to face their friend.
"What?!" they said in perfect unison, their voices cracking with disbelief.
Maya clasped her hands together, practically vibrating with excitement as she launched into the explanation she had clearly been rehearsing in her head. Her words tumbled out in a rush, punctuated by animated gestures and the occasional bounce on her toes.
"It's simple, really," she began, though nothing about her plan sounded remotely simple. "It would take just about a year to travel all the way to the capital by foot, right? And during that entire journey, we'd be spending time working as adventurers! Think about it—we'd be earning money while traveling, building our skills, getting stronger, and seeing the world!"
Her eyes shone with the kind of fervent belief that only the truly passionate could muster. "I've calculated it all out. We spend the year it takes to get there building up enough money to enroll when I turn fourteen and officially start school. It's perfect!"
But Maya wasn't finished. Her voice took on a more serious tone, though the excitement never fully left her expression. She looked directly at both Kai and Rowan, her gaze intense and unwavering.
"And I want both of you to come with me," she said firmly. "We'll all attend the academy together. We'll all become great mages. We'll all chase our dreams instead of just sitting here in the middle of nowhere forever."
The weight of her proposal settled over the room like heavy. It was a lot to process—too much, really. The sheer audacity of what she was suggesting, the risks involved, the complete upheaval of everything they had ever known. Maya seemed to recognize this, and for the first time since she had begun speaking, her manic energy settled into something approaching consideration.
"I know it's a lot to think about," she said, her voice gentler now. "So I'm going to give you both the day to consider it. Sleep on it, talk it over."
But then that familiar fire returned to her eyes, and her grin came back in full force. "I'm rather excited though," she admitted, bouncing again on her toes. "And just so you know—I'll be leaving in two days' time, with or without you."
With that bombshell dropped, Maya turned and hurried toward the orphanage, clearly intent on finding Mary and beginning her preparations.
Kai and Rowan sat in the heavy silence that followed Maya's departure. Minutes ticked by, marked only by the steady rhythm of their breathing and the distant sounds of the orphanage continuing its daily routine in the distance.
Finally, Kai spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. "S-she's crazy..."
Rowan let out a soft chuckle, though there was no real humor in it. "Yeah..." he agreed, his own voice hollow with shock.
They sat in that contemplative silence for a moment longer, each lost in their own thoughts about Maya's audacious proposal. But then Rowan's expression began to shift, a new resolve slowly building in his brown eyes.
"But she's serious," he said quietly, more to himself than to Kai. "And if she's really going... then so am I."
He glanced over at his friend, studying Kai's profile in the morning light. "You have to go too, Kai."
But Kai didn't respond. His gray eyes were distant, focused on something far beyond the plains surrounding the orphanage. His hands were clenched in his lap, and Rowan could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his jaw was set as if he were fighting some internal battle.
Recognizing that Kai needed time to process everything Maya had just thrown at them, Rowan quietly stood and left, giving his friend the space he clearly required to work through whatever demons Maya's proposal had awakened.
Meanwhile, Kai remained sitting alone in the grass, his mind a churning tempest of conflicting emotions and buried memories. By some cruel twist of fate, this scenario—Maya's wild plan, her determination to leave everything behind, her insistence that he come with her—had brought to the surface many things he had spent the past thirteen years keeping pushed deep down in the darkest corners of his heart.