Rane looked different now. He was a few inches taller, a year older and now he wasn’t starved and grimy. He ran around the yard with the other orphaned-children, laughing and smiling, his past forgotten – if only for a moment.
Eventually, even the children’s bountiful energy was exhausted. They settled around in a circle, sheltering themselves in the shade of a tree. Rane sat down next to Dan and then stretched himself out on the grass, yawning. Staring up into the sky, Rane frowned. “Do you think that they’re watching, you know the gods?” He asked, gesturing vaguely towards the sky.
Dan looked over at Rane.
“Of course they are, I mean everyone’s blessed by them – so why wouldn’t they be watching?”
Rane sat up suddenly, his face contorting to a frown.
“What?” he asked, confused.
“What do yea’ mean, what? Every time someone’s born a god like, blesses them. That’s what my parents said, well when they were…you know,” Dan lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. One of the unspoken rules of the orphanage was that you didn’t talk about your parents or what had what happened to them or to you. It was better for everyone that way. The kids squirmed around awkwardly, before one curly-headed girl spoke out. “Yeah, Eddera was my goddess. My da’ used to say that while he was holding me for the first time, a picture of a mirror – that’s Eddera’s symbol – just popped over my head.” The other kids started nodding in assent, and their voices started ringing out.
“Mine was a hammer,” a squinty-eyed boy said.
“That’s lame, mine was a sword,” another kid said, while standing up and puffing out his chest in an attempt at mock bravado.
The voices got louder and louder and then it was impossible to differentiate one from the other. Rane looked around the circle in bewilderment.
“Wait,” he said. “This is real, like you guys aren’t just trying to trick me again, are you?”
Dan, gave Rane a look. “No, we’re not. Weren’t you?”
Rane dropped his head and stared sullenly at the ground, suddenly interested in plucking out strands of grass.
“No, I don’t think I was,” Rane muttered. The kids around him erupted in laughter. They started chanting.
“Rane is godless, Rane is godless!” Even Dan joined in. Rane did nothing; he just kept staring down towards the grass.
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