A few hours later, 1:00PM—
Syla was sitting with her mom, eating a snack of dried meat, she sat on her mother's lap while reading a book. On the other hand, her mother was watching over Syla, her body still has the Flarebloom leaves sticking to her skin, fortunately the burning sensation has significantly subsided, usually when the burning effect goes away completely, it means the healing effects also stopped, like an energy that had been used.
"Do you like this one?" Syla's mother said while pointing her finger to one of the illustration that Syla had been curiously observing.
Syla nodded in response, the image she was observing is a sickle made out of carved stone and wood that was used for cutting grass, Syla finds the tool quite fascinating because not only it was used for farming, but it can be a deadly weapon when needed.
"Sic-kle— So cool.." Syla said quietly.
'If i can make a giant sickle– No, a scythe.. That will be cool as hell!'
Her mother chuckled as she watched Syla's face, her eyes looked bright as if a ray of light was coming from it. The two of them kept reading the book for a few more minutes when a footstep was heard from outside.
Knock knock!
'Hm? who's coming at this hour? isn't the snow still falling?' Syla thought, feeling a bit annoyed.
Someone knocked on the front door of Syla's house, curious as to who it might be, Yulia moved her daughter aside and opened the door. In there, a familiar face waited at the doorstep, it was Ferin, Yulia's close friend.
"Ferin?! What makes you come here!" She said with a big smile, happy to see her neighbor.
Ferin however, only spared a few glance at Yulia, her main attention wasn't her friend, but rather someone else in the house. She peeked at the inside of Yulia's house and quickly noticed Syla's presence on the couch, reading a book as usual.
"Hm?" Yulia was confused at first by her friend's unusual behaviour, that's when she noticed something beneath, there was another pair of legs behind Ferin, judging from how she was searching for Syla, Yulia finally knew why Ferin came to her house.
"I see— Why don't you say so!"
Yulia crouched to greet the mysterious toddler, calling him out with a gentle tone.
"Hello, nice to meet you, Lud."
Soon, a face appeared from behind Ferin's thighs, it was a boy, approximately the same age as Syla, with his hair and tail being dark brown, and his eyes similar to ashes in color. The boy kept his ears droopy and covered most of his face, he was obviously shy to meet with other people.
"Hahaha, sorry about that, you know he has always been a shy kid, that's why i want to try to make him play with other children around his age, i tried to make him play with the other boys, but he keeps ignoring them, so i thought maybe he'll act different with a girl." Ferin said, laughing playfully at her silly son.
"The kids in the village were playing outside with the snow, i thought maybe this can be a good chance for our kid to make some friends, considering that both of us have 'shy' children." Ferin smugged at her words, enticing Yulia with the opportunity for her daughter.
"Haha, you're always good with words– Syla! Auntie Ferin have a surprise for you! Come here!" Yulia said as she called Syla from the doorstep.
Syla, who heard her name being shouted, looked at her mom's direction and saw Ferin, she thought that it was just a food that Ferin made for her, or a toy, and not expecting anything else.
'Auntie Ferin have a surprise for me? Hm, is it gonna be another food? or a toy..' She thought as she reached down from the sofa and landed on the floor, she then walked over to her mother and that's when she noticed the other pair of legs behind Ferin.
'Another person? Wait, no– That's..'
Ferin then moved aside from her spot, revealing her son, Lud, to Syla.
"Syla, say hi to Lud!" Her mom said, she knew Syla understood what she was saying because that's how much she believed in her intelligence.
Syla stared at Lud for a few seconds, seemingly analyzing his appearance, before waving her hand lightly and said. "Hello.."
Being greeted by Syla, who was a stranger to Lud, made him incredibly nervous, he quickly tries to go into hiding again behind his mother's thighs, but Ferin kept moving to another spot, exposing Lud to Syla's gaze. He didn't know what to do as this was a first time for him, for a 2 years old child, this was like a test of courage.
'— He's Ferin's son, hmm.. Looks alright to me, why is he so shy though, am i scary to him?'
The two children stared at each other for a solid 20 seconds, their mother watched them with worries in their eyes, that's when they decided to intervene and guide them.
"Lud, come here." Ferin said as he took Lud's right hand.
"Syla, look!" Yulia also took Syla's hand.
And both of them made their child shake hands for the first time, bouncing them up and down as an introduction to one another.
'Well, mom did said i should make some friends, so i'll just go along with it for now.' Syla said to herself, remembering her mother's words in the past, her mother said it as a joke reminder, but what she didn't know is that Syla understood what she said.
Syla let out a faint smile towards Lud, showing her calm atittude as calming and safe, Lud's ears who previously drooped, now slowly began to rise, his cheeks was visibly redder, and he accepted Syla's handshake. Together they formed their first bond.
After Lud felt a little comfortable around Syla, he was suddenly got dragged by her, Syla pulled Lud's hand to the center of the living room and made him sit down on the floor. She then grabbed the weaponsmith book that she was reading before and gave it to Lud, encouraging him to look at the book together with her.
"Where are you going Syla?" Said her mother after seeing her pulling Lud inside the house.
"Look!" Syla said with enthusiasm as she placed the book down, opening it with her hand.
Lud was confused with Syla's strange behavior, this was all a first time for him, but Syla remained calm and told Lud to look at the illustrations with her.
Soon, they both were immersed with the book, they laughed and occassionally chat with each other. Syla teaches Lud everything she knew about the book before him, and Lud who was a shy kid before quickly felt close with Syla, she was the first children that he met who didn't immediately scream at him or invited him to run around the village. As it turns out, all he needed was just another quiet children that he can talk to, and not play.
"— Did you know this would happen?" Said Yulia to Ferin, who was also watching Syla and Lud bonding together.
"No.. I thought it would take more effort." Ferin replied in disbelief.
"Good grief, now your son will also read books all day long." Yulia half-jokingly said, seeing as how Lud was not complaining at all with how he was doing. "Maybe it's not so bad.."
'I thought he'd be bored soon, but everytime i explained something new to him, he seems to be getting more and more curious, could it be that he's the real genius here?' Syla thought while she pointed her finger at the illustrations for Lud.
Time passed on rapidly, the sun had already reached to the other side of the hemisphere and they day was coming to an end, Lud goes back to his house along with Ferin, before they parted, Syla waved her hand slightly at Lud, the time they spent together wasn't as bad as she thought, and in the future, Syla expected both of them to be close friend when they grew up.