Gen One- Chapter Three

My mind was spinning when I woke up. Not because I had been sedated, but because there was so much for me to take in. I saw many things that I knew the words for but had never actually seen myself. I was lying in the back seat of a "car", and we were parked on the side of a dirt "road." I could see a bunch of tall buildings in the distance. I promptly woke up Eden, who was napping in the front seat, and excitedly asked about them. He thankfully wasn't annoyed and explained that we were close to the place where we would be living- Berrybrook County. All I had to do was get changed, and we could head to our new home. Apparently, Eden had met with one of his "friends" while I had been sleeping. He had brought me some green clothes and lunch for the both of us. I changed quickly for I was starving. Eden and I sat out in the field near where we were parked to eat the spaghetti and meatballs. It was strange to be the same color as the grass. The change was going to take quite a while to get used to, and I hoped I would never have to have another injection. I liked Eden being green. I didn't like me being green.

However, I soon forgot about that. Eden let me sit in the front seat of the car while we drove into Berrybrook County. I had never had such a thrill before! To have the world zooming by me was a sensation impossible for me to have ever imagined on my own. I was so enthralled by the drive that it took us reaching Berrybrook for me to start paying attention to what was outside the window. Eden explained that it was half a city and half a town. Our house was on the town side. I didn't listen to him very much. The television truly didn't do justice in showing what the outside world was actually like. My heart began to beat fast again though. There were so many people around. It was knowing I was going to be surrounded by a lot of them that was the source of my continued anxiety.

It was awe, amazement, and excitement that my heart then began to beat with. Eden slowed the car and pulled us into our driveway. Our driveway that was at our house. Our house. It was just too much to believe. I jumped out of the car before Eden could turn to look at me. I had only seen the other houses we had passed coming in, but I quickly decided the one in front of me was the most perfect one of all. I began to understand why Eden had gotten upset with me all those times I said I didn't care about the outside world. Now that I was in it, I could never live in isolation again.

     "Meadow."

I ran over to the window. I wasn't surprised when I saw that there was a lot of green. Despite my desire to peek and see everything in its entirety being great, I found myself hesitating. It really was so much to take in. I thought looking at anything else would make me faint due to me being absolutely overwhelmed.

     "Meadow!"

However, my curiosity won me over. I began to crane my neck to see inside.

     "Ethereal!" Eden whispered furiously.

I flinched. Whoops. I had done it again. Eden was scowling when I turned around, so I walked over to him quickly when he motioned me to him. He hurriedly glanced up and down the street to make sure no one was around.

     "You have to remember to respond to your new name." he reprimanded sternly.

     "I don't understand why I have to have to be called something different." I mumbled.

Why couldn't I keep one connection to the old me?

     "No one would name a green child Ethereal. Besides, that name would be a magnet that would draw The Company here."

     "Why didn't you change your name then? They know it just as well as they know mine."

    "Believe me, I would have done that if there had been time. My friends and I had enough trouble just getting 'Meadow Yonder' into the system. It's easier for them to hide us than it is to come up with new identities."

     "Can't you call me Ethereal as a nickname or something though?"

I was desperate.

     "I will call you that when we are home alone only after you have gotten used to 'Meadow', alright?" Eden compromised.

     "Alright." I pouted.

Eden's expression softened.

     "Alright," he repeated, "Well, I can tell you're eager to see what's inside. Let's go in."

He said that, but we stopped suddenly before we got to the door. Eden bent over to pick up what looked like a bunch of rolled up papers.

     "We've already got our first newspaper, huh?" he said with a chuckle.

     "What's that?"

     "It's something that gets delivered to the house each day. It's basically an announcement of what's going on in the world."

Eden seemed as if he wasn't going to pay much attention to it at first. Then something caught his eye. I managed to look up and turn my head to the right position to see what he was interested in. The words on the paper were pure gibberish to me of course, but I was able to tell that there was something scribbled on the corner with pen. Eden read it quickly and said nothing. He just gave me a smile, put a key into the lock, and opened the front door of the house for me to step inside.

I rushed inside eagerly.

     "It's lovely!" I gushed.

     "That's what you've said about everything you've seen so far." Eden pointed out as he closed the door behind him.

     "But it is!"

     "You've just seen normal stuff."

     "Well, you're just so used to it all that you've stopped appreciating the wonders around you." I defended.

     "Fair enough," he shrugged, "I'm really not a fan of the leafy wallpaper, but it'll do."

     "I do suppose there might be a bit too much green. Does it have to be this way?"

     "It's not nearly as bad as it could be. Back in the day, everything was really segregated. People weren't even allowed to have romantic relationships with someone who wasn't their color. It was completely against the law. Things have changed now. In fact, it's gotten to the point where there are almost more people who are multiple colors than there are people who are one color. Some traditions have remained though. Obviously, most stick to wearing clothes that are the color they are. The houses are the same way, but there is more freedom with the decor than there used to be. I actually would have liked much more variation, but we can't afford to stick out right now."

     "Hmm, got it. I'm used to a bunch of green anyway, and there's plenty of color outside."

     "That's the spirit."

While Eden thought he was nonchalantly hiding the newspaper away, I wandered into the sitting room I had almost seen through the window before. The crackling of the red flames pulled me over to them instantly. I held my hands out to feel the warmth.

     "This is fire, right?" I asked Eden when he reappeared.

     "Yup. Make sure you don't get too close now."

     "I know."

I moved my hands a bit closer, but I did make sure I stayed away a good distance. However, I had to jump and pull back when Eden suddenly laughed.

     "Sorry," he apologized when I gave him a look, "I just realized why the fireplace is lit when it shouldn't be. Blaze has been here."

     "Blaze? I've never heard that word."

     "It's another word to describe fire, and it's also the name of one of my friends. He-"

     "Is he your friend or is he your friend?" I interrupted.

     "Friend. I've known him since middle school," Eden said with a smile while he folded his arms, "He's red like fire, and he also used to draw fires on things to let me know when he's been somewhere. He lives in Berrybrook as well. I asked him to come and check on the house if he could before we got here. It seems he started an actual fire this time to let me know he had been here instead of leaving a note. You'll find that he has quite the sense of humor."

     "I'll meet him then?"

     "Yeah. Soon. Blaze actually watches over his nephew, who is your age, so we were planning on getting the two of you together to play. Amaranth is a great kid. He'll help you to make a lot of friends."

     "Hmm."

Eden made it sound like a great thing, but I didn't see things the same way. It felt like Eden had hardly prepped me on what information I was supposed to know about 'Meadow'. I was still worried I would give us away too easily. Hopefully, soon wouldn't be too soon.

I played with the fire for a minute more to hide my hesitation. Eden eventually prompted me to move into the next room. He beamed proudly.

     "This is your place to study and play. I made sure that you would have your own space- partly for your benefit and partly to keep you out of my hair while I work." he finished with a sarcastic grin.

     "Work?" I asked, ignoring his tease.

     "I have my own office upstairs. A job basically doing online paperwork has been set up for me. It's not the most exciting thing in the world, but it's easy enough and pays decently."

     "I thought you wanted to be a professor?"

     "I do. I still have some more schooling that I have to finish first. I'll be taking a few online classes in addition to working."

     "Oh, okay."

Eden showed me around the room more. While he booted up the computer to show me how it worked, he gave me more information about 'Meadow'. I listened intently to every word. The more I knew, the less I had to worry. When the computer was ready, Eden surprised me by saying that I was going to be home-schooled. He was surprised by my surprise.

     "You thought you would be attending a normal school right off the bat?" he asked.

     "Why wouldn't I?" I pouted again.

     "You don't know nearly enough to keep up with the grade level you should be in."

     "I do to!"

Eden gave me a look.

     "What's 1x1?" he questioned.

     "It's two!" I answered proudly.

     "No, it's one."

     "But there's two ones!"

     "It would be two if you were adding. My question was about multiplication."

     "What's that?"

Eden smiled a frustratingly victorious smile. He continued.

     "What's the year our country was founded?"

     "Umm..."

     "What two colors do you mix to get orange?"

     "That..."

I had no idea. Eden petted me on the head sympathetically.

    "You're not dumb. You just haven't been taught properly. Don't worry. I'll have you reading, doing multiplication, and doing all that fun stuff soon enough. You're my sister, so I'm sure you've inherited my amazing intelligence as well." he joked boastfully.

     "We're not actually related though." I replied as I rolled my eyes.

Eden liked to use any excuse to remind me about how smart he was.

     "Same difference." he said with a wave of his hand.

With a lightly annoyed huff, I wandered over to the corner of the room. There had been something sitting there that had been catching my attention for a while. I picked it up and held it out as I stared at it.

     "What's this?"

I'm glad Eden had a lot of patience with me. I had to have asked him that same question a thousand times already.

     "It's a teddy bear. It's what's called a comfort object. They're generally given to young children to relax them and give them, well, comfort."

     "It's mostly white." I pointed out.

     "Yeah. I didn't know if you would actually want a teddy bear, but I wanted to try to give you some connection to your old self without the object being out of place. If you don't like it, that's fine."

     "I love it," I smiled widely as I held the bear tightly while turning back around to face Eden, "I'll call him Fluff."

     "That's a much better name than the one I gave mine."

     "What did you name it?"

     "Teddy."

I laughed.

     "You might be smart, but you're not very creative."

     "That's more true than I would like to admit." Eden agreed with an amused grin.

With another wave of his hand, Eden got me to follow him upstairs to the second floor when we finished with the computer. I brought Fluff with us. Eden held a door open for me again, and I walked inside.

     "This is your bedroom," he said, not nearly as enthused as before, "It's...kinda small. It's not the best in terms of decoration either, but when we get some more money in we can spruce it up to make it really nice."

It was easy to tell Eden was disappointed that he couldn't give me something more impressive like the room I had before.

I wasn't disappointed though. I stared at the walls, which were more white than green. They were the only ones in the house to be that way. Then I looked out the window. Even with the trees blocking a lot of my view, I could see a world more beautiful and vibrant than anything I had dreamed up. I let Fluff fall to the floor so I could turn around to shock Eden with a big hug.

     "W-what's that for?" he stuttered.

     "I'm happy."

     "Yeah?"

     "You've given me everything I didn't even know I wanted."

     "Awww, you are just the sweetest thing!"

     "I know." I giggled.

That got Eden smiling and laughing again.

I wasn't smiling and laughing though when Eden told me what we would be doing next. We were going to the park to meet the Blaze and Amaranth that he had mentioned. My slight panic attack delayed our leaving. Eden got my confidence up by taking the time to go over in much greater detail the information about the new identity I had to take on, but I still nearly cut off the circulation in his hand when I held it so tight as we walked down to the festival that was going on at the park. The two of us passed a decent number of people. I stared down at the ground and pressed against Eden whenever they got close. I was afraid just looking into someone's eyes would give us away. It didn't help that Eden had told me The Company's influence was massive. There was so many people working for them all across the country. Eden said even there were even police officers, journalists, and politicians in their allegiance. If we tried to reveal the situation to just one wrong person, everything would blow up in our face. Eden then admitted that all he and his friends had for evidence for The Company's actions was me. They would not use me as evidence as that would put me in far too much danger, and it would be all too easy for The Company with that massive influence of theirs to twist the situation around so it looked like Eden was the bad guy.

So though I had then been reassured that I would be safe in Berrybrook County, I couldn't help but to be afraid. Eden finally worked his hand away from mine when we reached the festival. There were all sorts of things that I had no idea what they were. I kept my mouth closed. Eden had warned me not to ask too many questions when we were out in public. It would be strange for me not to know so much. I had to wait until we were alone to find out what stuff was.

Eden and I walked closer to the center of the park. It was as we did when both of us spotted the people we were there to meet. A man, bright red and smiling widely, smiled wider still when he noticed us. A boy of the same color followed behind. When Eden and Blaze reached each other, they attempted to give a high-five. However, their hands barely hit.

     "Your hand-eye coordination is as terrible as always." Blaze chuckled.
     "I think you need to increase the prescription of your glasses there. You missed. Not me." Eden retorted back sarcastically.
     "Pfft. I'm not the one who couldn't graduate high school at fifteen like he wanted because he couldn't pass gym."
     "At least it was just that one course and not the other way around like how it was with you. I fear you'd still be sitting in Mrs. Nectar's oh so fun science class if I hadn't been there to get your lazy butt studying."
     "I only had to retake it twice."

Back and forth the two of them continued to jest. I was content to hide behind Eden and let them ramble on. Perhaps they would tire themselves out that way, and then Eden and I could go home. Sadly, I had a feeling that hope wasn't going to come true. When I noticed that Amaranth kept glancing my way, I made sure to keep my eyes locked on the ground more than ever before. Unfortunately, his determination to catch my eye, and my determination to not let that happen, brought Eden and Blaze out of their initial conversation.

     "So, this is Meadow, huh?" Blaze asked.
     "Yeah, she-"

Eden cut off when he looked to his side where I had been before only to see that I was no longer there. He twisted to see me, but I moved in the opposite direction each time.

     "Come on now." he prompted.

I shook my head and stuck myself closer to his back.

     "Shy little thing, isn't she?" Blaze said kindly.
     "Well, she certainly wasn't like this earlier. I couldn't get her to stop talking on the way into town."

Eden smoothly and quickly stepped behind me so I was exposed to Blaze and Amaranth. If I had had the courage, I would have glared up at him with all my might. I was instead so stricken with fear that I could only stand there frozen solid.

     "Meadow, this is my friend I was telling you about earlier. He's Blaze Vivid, and this is his nephew, Amaranth." Eden introduced us anyway.

I nodded imperceptibly.

     "At least say hello."

I tried as hard as I could to open my mouth. I knew Eden wasn't going to let me leave until I did what he wanted.

     "Hi Meadow, I'm Amaranth. You can just call me Am though."

Somehow, I managed to lift my head up just enough to see Amaranth's expression. I thought he was going to be looking at me like I was weird, but he was smiling nicely. He held his hand out.

     "H-hi." I whispered as I shook his hand.

And I was wholly unprepared for what happened next. Amaranth didn't let go of my hand- not even when I made more of an effort to shake it free. His grip was so strong I had no choice but to try and keep up as he hurriedly began leading me away from Eden and Blaze.

     "We're gonna go play now!" he announced to them.

I expected Eden to stop him or make some sort of protest, but I only heard him laughing to himself while Blaze simply told Amaranth to not leave the park.

We must have rushed across the lot in a blur. At least, it felt like we did. My head was certainly spinning enough, although that might have been from fear. I had wanted Amaranth to let go of my hand, but I held onto it as tight as I could when he led up me up a small flight of stairs to a little playground. Four other children were there, which didn't help me to be any less afraid. However, I was more terrified of passing out. I knew I had to get a grip on myself or else that would definitely happen. I managed to gain a little bit of confidence by telling myself over and over again that surely I could trust others my own age.

     "What are you two doing?" Amaranth asked the two who were playing some strange hand game.
     "Seeing who gets to have the extra member on their team." the yellow and gray girl explained.
     "Looks like we might get to play with even teams for once though." the blue boy pointed out as he gave me a smile.

Somehow, I was able to give a small smile back.

     "Yeah, who's this, Am?" the orange girl asked.
     "This is Meadow Yonder. She's just moved here." Amaranth explained, finally letting go of my hand.
     "Ah!" the orange girl exclaimed, "You must be the one who moved into that green house right across the street from my place."
     "I-I think so." I said quietly.

There had indeed been a large, all orange house on the other side of the street that I had spotted.

     "Meadow, is it?" the last boy asked.

I nodded as I tried not to stare too much at him. I knew his skin was pink. His hair and his eyes...they were purple? They seemed to be a lighter shade of the rug that had been in the small house Eden and I had stayed at. I knew better than to ask to confirm though.

     "Great. We finally get a sixth member for our group, and she's a Solid."

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be insulted or not. The boy spoke in a manner that obviously meant his words were supposed to be taken as a joke, but Amaranth certainly wasn't amused.

     "You can ignore this idiot over here," he said, "His name is Allium Charm. He thinks he's funny, but he's not."
     "You can call me Al. Or Charming, if you'd like, for I certainly am."

Though Amaranth said he wasn't funny, I found myself suppressing a laugh.

     "I'm Frost Chill." the blue boy went ahead and introduced himself, which refocused my attention.

     "I'm Sunflower Morning." the yellow and gray girl went ahead and said before I could make any sort of response to Frost.
     "And I'm Sunset Glory." the orange girl added.
     "We call Sunflower 'Flower' and Sunset 'Set' though." Frost explained.
     "That way you can just say 'Sun' if you want to address us both." Sunflower finished.
     "A-alright." I agreed quietly.

I was hoping I could manage to remember everyone's normal names at all, let alone what I was supposed to call them.

     "We're about to play a game of tag. You want to join us?" Amaranth asked.
     "You can play on our team," Sunset offered, "It'll be the girls against the boys."
     "That means we're definitely going to win!" Allium cheered.

Everyone ignored him. They were all too busy staring at me waiting for my answer. I shifted under their gaze. I was still crazy scared beyond all belief. However, I also began to find myself really liking being around the other children. With the six of us together we formed a pretty much perfect rainbow. To be a part of such a vibrant array of colors was an exciting idea.

     "I'll join you," I answered with more confidence than before, "My brother and I play tag all the time. I'm pretty good."
     "Great." Amaranth said with a big smile.

I became very confused at what happened next. Sunset, Frost, and Sunflower said they were going to go to the other side of the park to spread themselves out. Amaranth, Allium, and I were to do the same on the side we were already on. That's when the fact that they had mentioned being on "teams" multiple times finally sank into my thick skull.

     "What kind of tag is this? I've only ever played it the normal way." I asked hesitantly.
     "Boy, you're in for a real treat then." Allium said.

I had a feeling I wasn't actually in for a treat.

     "It's only one of the most complicated games we play," he continued, "Most people don't like playing it with us because if someone breaks one of the many rules then they have to do something really embarrassing in front of everyone. Frost had to run about in his underwear once."

     "Eh?!"

The little bit of confidence I had gained was rapidly slipping away.

     "Give it a break, you big fibber!" Amaranth reprimanded Allium, "Seriously, Meadow. Ignore him. He's just teasing you."
     "Oh."

I hardly felt any better. It was easy for me to read Eden, but I was already struggling at getting a grasp at what they new people in my life actually meant.

     "Team tag is really easy. It's boys against girls in this case, so us boys try to tag you girls and you girls try to tag us boys. If you get tagged, you're frozen. That means you stand still wherever you are. You can be unfrozen and continue to play if someone on your team tags you again. Whichever side manages to freeze the other team first is the winner." Amaranth explained properly.

     "Okay. I can do that."
     "Since it's almost three, we'll start the game once the bell at city hall begins to ring." Allium added.

Amaranth nodded to confirm that Allium was indeed telling me the truth now.

I tried not to let my heart race too much as I stood alone in that little playground as Amaranth and Allium moved to the corners of the park. Though I had said I was good, I realized I had no way of knowing if that was true or not. Eden wasn't the most athletic person on the planet. It was more likely my average running skills made it only seem like I was good because he was so clumsy. What is Sunset and Sunflower got mad at me because I made us lose? I was regretting my choice to play so intensely that I was completely oblivious to the bell tolling. It was only when I saw both Amaranth and Allium sprinting madly in my direction that I recalled my need to run. Something else I hadn't been aware of- starting on the side with two of the boys meant I was in a bad position from the very beginning.

I bolted for my life. I did not want to get tagged. Amaranth and Allium were persistent until Allium broke away to help Frost who was getting cornered by Sunset and Sunflower. Amaranth continued to follow me. And then he kept on following me. And then he still wouldn't leave me be even when he had the opportunity to tag Sunflower as she nearly ran into him. I was his only goal! Sunset and Sunflower were too busy fending off Allium and Frost to help me. I was the one having to unfreeze them so I didn't have to deal with all of the boys on my own.

Me having to deal with Amaranth, Allium, and Frost was exactly what ending up happening. Both Sunset and Sunflower got frozen, and I had no way of getting close to them. The lone moment I received any moment of reprieve at all was when Amaranth patrolled between the other two girls when he momentarily lost sight of me. I had hidden behind some bushes. Frost eventually discovered my location when I began laughing. I had managed to tag Allium, and Amaranth had been running right past him as he chose not to unfreeze him for a while.

When Frost found me was when Allium was set free. I really was in a pinch.

     "Get him off me!" I cried to both Eden and Blaze as I ran by them foolishly thinking they would help.

Eden and Blaze laughed instead.

     "Fast little bugger, isn't he?" Blaze called after me as I dashed by.

I panicked when I saw that Frost was waiting for me. Honestly, I have no idea how I avoided him. He gave me no choice but to run right towards him. All I knew was that I did some sort of spin at the last second and Frost was left to stand there in confusion as I had miraculously danced around him. There was no time to celebrate. Amaranth still had his eye on me.

     "Looks like your sister has the agility you completed failed to inherit." I heard Blaze tease Eden before I got too far away.

     "Oh, shut it!" Eden responded.

It was far too long later when I realized I was going to lose if all I did was keep running. I had forgotten that I could freeze the boys just like they could freeze me. Somehow, I got both Allium and Frost. I tried then to get Sunset and Sunflower, but Amaranth remained right on my heels as always. As soon as I unfroze either he instantly froze them again. The game of team tag whittled down to the two of us as I prevented him from rescuing Allium and Frost as well. We ran like crazy- determined not to be the one to give up.

And Amaranth was the one who gave up. I had chased him to the corner of the park where Eden and I had entered when he slowed, hunched over as he panted heavily, and made no resistance as I tagged him on the back. However, the reality that I had just won the game became irrelevant to me as a strange something flying above in the sky caught my attention.

     "What's that?" I said eagerly, not noticing that I was actually asking the question.
     "Huh?" Amaranth said in confusion, still panting heavily, when he looked towards what I was pointing towards, "That's a helicopter. You've never seen one before?"

I flinched. I had gone and done exactly what Eden had warned me to avoid doing. It was I who became frozen as I had no idea how to respond. Apparently, I was supposed to be very aware of what a "helicopter" was. How was I supposed to say that I had never seen or heard of one and give a reasonable explanation as to why? Thankfully, Amaranth brushed off the matter. I think he was too tired to care. He just said we should go back to the others to tell them the game was over so he could go ahead and get a drink of water.

Us girls had a victory snack from the picnic lunch Sunset's mom made while the boys had to use their pocket money to buy food from nearby vendors. I blushed a lot as Sunset and Sunflower kept complimenting me. They revealed how terrible they were at tag and how they often caused their team to lose. They were ecstatic to have won for once. The two of them also laughed loudly when I told them of Allium's lie of Frost having to run about in his underwear. I was starting to relax until Sunset and Sunflower started to ask me questions.

     "So, it's far too late for you to come to our school this year, but you'll be joining us in the fall, right?" Sunflower asked.
     "No. I'm home-schooled." I revealed.
     "Aww, that's no fun." she whined.
     "How come you're home-schooled? Overly protective parents or something?" Sunset asked next.
     "No," I repeated, "Actually..."

I quickly understood that Sunset and Sunflower thought my hesitation and awkwardness about answering that question was me genuinely not liking bringing the subject up. The truth is that I was just nervous about making sure I told "Meadow's" background story correctly.

     "I attended normal school until this past year," I began with a quiet voice, "But, then...my parents passed away. I started struggling, so Eden decided to have me home-schooled until I was comfortable with things again. When it was determined that we had to move here, he extended the length of the time he would be my teacher to make sure I would be okay first."

     "I'm really sorry. I wasn't even thinking." Sunset apologized.
     "It's fine."
     "But this means that you're like Am then." Sunflower said.
     "Is he home-schooled as well?"
     "Not that. His parents have passed away too. They died in a car crash before he was even a year old. Blaze has been raising him ever since."
     "Oh. I had no idea."

     "Speaking of Blaze," Sunset began, probably purposefully leading the conversation back to a more pleasant topic, "Make sure you call him that. He hates being called Mr. Vivid. He'll chase you around and whack you on the head with a newspaper if you do."

     "No way." I laughed.
     "It's true! Am does it to him all the time to rile him up."

Amaranth, Allium, and Frost came to collect us just as we were finishing our afternoon snack. A "magic show" was beginning in the performance area in the middle of the park. Eden had told me that magic was only fantasy, but I didn't know if I could believe him after seeing the things I saw! Bright sparks flew from the magician's hands! He had flowers emerge from nowhere! He even put Sunset's mom into a big box, made her disappear, and then made her reappear again! I could have stood there and watched him all day. I didn't notice my feet getting sore from standing so long at all.

However, Eden called for me. Actually, he had to call for me three times. It was easy to remember I was "Meadow" when the new people I met called me that, but I supposed I was so used to Eden calling me Ethereal that I forgot about "Meadow" when he said it. Sunflower had to give me a nudge to realize Eden was trying to get my attention. I went over to him expecting him to be mad again, but he only smiled.

     "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I've got some stuff I really need to take care of back at the house. Normally I would trust Blaze to bring you home, but just for today I want to make sure you stay close." Eden explained.
     "That's okay. I understand."
     "It looks like you were having a fun time."
     "The best!"
     "Good. I'm glad."

Eden smiled a relieved smile. He offered his hand, and I took it instantly. I waved goodbye to Amaranth and the others as Eden began leading us out of the park and back to our home.