DAWN OF SHADAWN

Chapter 05

It's funny how yesterday sounded so far away, was Shadawn's first thought as he opened his eyes with great difficulty. As usual, he felt drained, mornings never did do him any good. Being an insomniac as well as a light sleeper made sure he woke up with eyes that beat a Chinese panada.

The rays of dawn filtered through the thick window illuminating the room with a golden hue so warm that for once, Shadawn felt content. As simple as it was, the golden rays lifted his spirits, even if it was for a couple of minutes, Shadawn felt like he could look forward to his future. He internally chuckled at the thought of being named after dawn itself, as if the universe knew dawn would truly make him this happy one day. Curiosity won over his exhaustion and he dragged himself across the room to the glass window that faced a lovely dense forest that was colored in shades of orange. The Fernandos' backyard ended with a short white wall that separated it from the rest of the forest. To the far right of the yard stood three stoned figures that Shadawn couldn't quite grasp clearly due to his bad eye sight.

His attention was suddenly grabbed by the shadows of a few wobblers gliding across the green grass as they chirped in greeting welcoming the new day. Shadawn longed for the happiness he saw in the family of wobblers. Gliding across the sky, wobbling and hopping from place to place, playing with each other without a care in the world. As if all they knew is happiness. Suddenly The singing of the wobblers was interrupted by a much more verbal voice.

"Oh you're up! Good morning!"

Shadawn tore his eyes away from the wobblers to find a sleepy-looking Hyaté swinging his legs off the edge of the head while ruffling his hair to wake up.

"How was your sleep?!"

He asked as energetic as ever. Shadawn simply shrugged in response, not wanting to go into to detail, that he in fact hadn't slept that much as all.

"It's quite early, so I don't think breakfast is ready yet, if you want I could heat up some left overs if you're hungry."

Hyaté suggested while opening his wardrobe, grabbing a pair of shorts and a hoodie he makes his way to the door. He turns around to look at Shadawn expecting an answer, to which Shadawn shrugs.

"Not hungry yet?"

He shook his head no, turning his head away peering out te window, trying to spot the family of wobblers again. Hyaté's presence made reality dawn upon him. He suddenly remembered where he was and the situation he was in. The golden rays of sun that filtered the room gradually moved away with each passing second. He wanted to hold it tight within his grip, but the impossibility of holding on to it proved how pathetic hope really was.

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Shadawn skipped breakfast. The last thing he wanted was to be sitting in between all of them as they tried to engage him in conversations they had to do out of duty, for the sake of keeping up with reputed politeness. He had cooped himself up within Hyaté's room snuggled against the extra large and heavy blankets. He had done absolutely nothing for most of the day.

When Hynata had informed about plans to spend the afternoon helping Cynthia with grocery shopping, he had instantly declined the offer to tag along with the twins and Hyacynth. He could not imagine himself cooped up in a tiny space with all of them, things were moving fast and he felt overwhelmed at the changes that were thrown his way in such a short span of time.

Around one pm the house was absolutely quiet. He saw all three vehicles that had been parked in the garage pull out of the drive way at different time slots indicating that everyone had left, and he was alone in the house.

The quiet and peaceful atmosphere, built in Shadawn urges to go beyond the room he was allocated. Getting off the soft mattress he opened the wooden door to find himself in the corridor. The deafening silence unsurprisingly did not unnerve him, infact he welcomed the morbid feeling with open arms. The stairs were narrower than what he was used to but not too constricting.

As he stepped down from the last stair he felt the touch of an earthy breeze blow past his tangled messy strands of long ebony hair. Sunlight washed through the wide open doors filtering through the dancing transparent white curtains leading to the Fernandos' backyard. He walked outside the gaping doors to find the three stony figures he had seen earlier through the windows up stairs. They stood there almost intertwined, their hands joint with each other, two of them gazing into each other's eyes while the other gazing at her hand connecting to the one on her right.

"If I'm being honest, I didn't think anyone else would find them as interesting."

Shadawn jumped at the intrusion of an unfamiliar voice, staggering back he spun around, almost falling into the pond that surrounded the statues.

"Woah woah, becareful. Sorry of I scared you"

Looking up Shadawn realized it was Nikolai's brother.

He looked just like his father and brother, brown skinned, Asian looking, however he was more towards the tall, lean and lanky side when comparing him to Nikolai, who was well built. Something else that set them all apart was the fact that he had pitch black eyes, black as soot that had been smeared on a white wall.

"Everyone else was weirded out by their almost nudity. But-"

"It's art"

Shadawn completed the sentence surprising the man as well as himself. The man smiled softly, turning back to the statues.

"It was dream of mine you know. To own a Greek styled sculpture I mean. Do you perhaps know what this is?"

Shadawn in fact did know what it is. So he nodded deciding to give into conversation this once.

" Primvera- Sandro Botticelli"

He answered in a mumble, but the man did catch his answer, as his face brightened in enthuciasm.

"You do know it! I guess you're the first person to ever name the scene after seeing this. Botticelli did do quite a masterpiece."

Shadawn did not mention that this was in fact one of his most favorite pieces of art. Having access to a vast variety of leather bound books did get him to fall in love with art and history. 'Primvera' meaning spring in Latin always managed to make him feel at ease, as if he himself was experiencing a spring of that kind. Back in the day he always thought that he'd make it to Rome, at least once to see all of these paintings. Even now he longed to take that train ride that would lead him to the eternal city. However everything in his life turned out to be far fetched dreams.

"The three graces are quite underrate-"

The man began, but Shadawn could not hold himself back from interrupting.

"It could also be the three fates or three muses."

The man stopped and looked at him with an expression Shadawn could not decipher. Not that he was actually looking at him in the eye in the first place.

"You're right. Looking at a painting without a standardized explanation is the only way to really interpret it. I unfortunately read the interpretation before interpreting it myself. I clearly see how your interpretation works though."

Shadawn nodded. He didn't feel like talking again. He had spoken more than he intended to already. After a few minutes of comfortable silence he was brought back to reality when he heard the sound of a vehicle enter the garage. Taking his eyes off the sculpture he made his way to the door that would take him back to Hyaté's room.

"Hey hold on. I guess I'm the only one who didn't introduce myself. I'm Meghaal, Rohaan's second eldest"