Hamlet || Variable nine

When Sorrel Cave arrived in front of a hamlet, she stopped on the paved road, which divided the residential area from the educational quarters. She waited for all the students to get closer.

Yew looked toward the hamlet - at the cottages near the paved road. They were made of the same white stone as the school buildings, but their roofs had green moss growing on them. Each cottage was roughly ten by ten meters in size, and had only one floor.

Where several cottages stood in a row, there was no more than two meters of space between them, filled with flowering bushes instead of a fence. Yet, where the three-meter wide alleys weaved through like rivers, the distance between cottages grew considerably.

At each side of every alley, there were gardens of perennial flowers and shrubs growing beneath vast marvelous treetops. A narrow path made of flagstones led through the garden, and connected the alley to each cottage porch, which had two stairsteps and a roof.

Sorrel gave a compassionate smile toward the students, who began showing signs of fatigue. Many chose to sit down on the ground instead of standing. Some also took out snacks and drinks, such as juices, bottled teas, and flavored waters.

Growing up in a village, Yew was used to walking kilometers without a break, but today even he felt tired. He had been up on his feet early in the morning, before anyone else had woken up. He rode the carriage to another settlement, then spent hours on a train, before he walked to the school and through it.

Sorrel pointed at the hamlet on her left side. "There are a total of ten hundred cottages in here. This year, we have more than twenty-two hundred students, so we also borrowed the adjacent hamlet. Most students have already unpacked, but more are to arrive tomorrow and overmorrow, so please be considerate of your roommates and neighbors, who are already living here."

She pointed at the number engraved in the gable of the nearest porch. "All cottages are numbered, and you should follow the numbers to reach your new home. However, if you get lost, there's a hamlet map in your guidebook. Always remember to carry your guidebook with you until you get familiar with the schoolground."

Sorrel had already told them this previously, but years of experience had taught her that she needed to repeat it, because students rarely listened.

"I'll now present you with your cottage number. If you share a cottage, then I'll read both of your namehoods together. Come up, if you hear your names."

She looked at the long papersheet in her hand, and read two namehoods.

Yew observed two girls, who received one card each, and a simple set of instructions. He sat down on the ground, expecting to be the last person called, and waited patiently, while watching others. Indeed, when Sorrel finally read his namehood, there were no other first-year students on the road.

He approached the teacheress, who circled his namehood on the papersheet. The circled piece smoothly cut itself out, and grew into a card no bigger than his school badge.

She handed him the card, which had his namehood and his cottage number forty-four-hundred thirty-six.

"Take the alley in front of the cottage forty-three-hundred seventy-nine, and follow the numbers."

Yew thanked the teacheress, and did as told. On his way, he was surprised to see kids being lost - walking confused, trying to help each other, or desperately looking at the map. He didn't find the numbering system that difficult, although it did get convoluted at the meandering crossroads. But in the end, Yew managed to find his destination all by himself.

His cottage was the third one in a row of cottages, numbered from forty-four-hundred thirty-four up to forty-four-hundred thirty-nine.

Several minutes ago, when he arrived in front of the first cottage of the row, he looked at the number on its gable, and instantly got blinded by the sun, which hovered above its roof. He looked away, then moved into the shade, where the thick foliage of tall trees obscured the rays.

After confirming that it was the number forty-four-hundred thirty-four, he felt relieved at being just two numbers away from his new home. He looked forward to getting cozy in his bed after a long day of travelling.

As he was passing the cottage number forty-four-hundred thirty-five, he heard someone shouting.

"It’s here! I found it!" A boy with an open guidebook in his hands, came running from the other direction and stood next to Yew, looking at the cottage forty-four-hundred thirty-five.

Yew recognized him from the school orientation, because he stood next to Yew among the magicless students.

He had a cheerful smile on his face, which contrasted with his dark cherry red hair. Even though his clothes were tidy and of good quality, his hair looked as if it had been trimmed by an inexperienced drunk hairstylist.

He looked at Yew, then sneaked a peek at the number on Yew's card.

"Forty-four hundred thirty six. We’re neighbors." He showed Yew his card, "my cottage is forty-four hundred thirty five." He held out his hand, "I’m Spruce."

Yew lazily took his hand, and let Spruce vigorously shake it.

"Yew Chirabilva Araukaria Sky," he introduced himself in a solemn tone in order to discourage any amity. He was holding back his annoyance due to someone trying to become his friend. All he wanted at the moment was to get into his new home, and relax.

Spruce was blind and deaf to Yew's disinterest, and his response was filled with elation. "My namehood is Spruce Phalahi Menteng Fire. It’s so nice to have another magicless student as a neighbor," he looked at Yew’s cottage, which stood adjacent to his.

"Yeah," Yew agreed, but in reality he didn’t care. He didn’t want to chat, so he responded mechanically, "sorry, but I’m tired. Can we talk tomorrow?"

"Sure," Spruce cheerfully accepted.

"See you," Yew quickly waved a bye, then headed straight for his cottage, ignoring anything else Spruce was saying or doing.

In no more than thirty steps, he arrived at the porch of his cottage. He opened the door, which appeared to be unlocked, or maybe it was the school badge, which allowed him to enter. Either way, it wasn't as important as the fact, that he had finally arrived at his new home.

He scanned the tiny entry room, lit only by one round window next to the exterior door. There was a wardrobe on the left, and a hutch on the right side, with someone’s shoes already present on the bottom shelves.

Intuitively, he opened all the furnitures in order to familiarize himself with the place. Inside them, he found only the usual clothes - jackets, hats, gloves, and shoes. Yet this was a definite evidence, that his roommate had already arrived, and unpacked all of his belongings.

Yew put down his backpack, and from within he took out his slippers. He hadn’t wanted to take them, but his mother had forced him to.

"You're not some animal to walk barefoot," she had scolded him.

"Monks walk barefoot," he had rebuked.

At that she had scoffed, "once you're a monk, I'll allow you to walk barefoot."

She had known that Yew had no desire to become a monk. Thus in the end, Yew had to squeeze the slippers into his backpack, and now he was glad that he did.

He didn’t know what to expect from his new roommate, but in order to have a good start, he decided to be as polite and well-mannered as possible.

He put his slippers on his feet, and left his outdoor shoes on a bottom shelf of the hutch.

He opened the interior door and walked through, facing the living room, which was the biggest room in the cottage. It had a decent appearance - nothing too impressive, but Yew already liked it, because there were no parents around to tell him what he can and cannot do.

There were shelfcases on the right wall, and two study desks on the left wall separated by a curtain. In the middle, a sofa was placed under a large window, and an armchair stood next to a sofa table.

All the furnitures were made of wood of different kinds, but they oddly matched with the white stones of the exterior walls. Whereas, the interior walls, the ceiling and the floor were all made of the same golden brown wood.

Without walking into the living room, Yew turned leftward into the hallway.

He passed by a large wall painting, which presented a scene of a green forest shrouded in mist. Then he stopped in front of the fridge at the end of the hallway, and looked around. On his left, he had a wide doorless entrance to the kitchen, while on his right, he had a nook with three doors.

He tried the first two doors on each side, where he had found the restroom on the left, and the bathroom on the right. Up to this point he had found all the main rooms of a house except for a bedroom. This led him to believe that it was located behind the last door.

Assuming that his roommate might be inside, he knocked. Yet there was no response, so he opened the door.

Just as he expected, it was the bedroom. Two wardrobes stood by the door, one on the left and the other on the right side. A tall window was wedged between beds at the far end of the room. Underneath each mattress, there were three layers of wooden drawers, which formed three stairsteps at the foot of each bed.