Poko walked through the corridors of the building, the sunlight shining through the dusted windows.

'Sigh..' She had a hunch on where Meta would be. Whenever he got upset, he would always retreat under his bed covers.  

She remembered the first time she met him when she was still fairly new. She was assigned to a few kids - one of them was Meta. 

From what she was told, he was dropped off at the orphanage at 2 years old. There wasn't anything else known about his past, except that the parents stated he was prone to illnesses and had a failing heart condition, not allowing him to fully manifest magic. 

Why did the parents abandon him? No reason was really given, although it was pretty clear they thought of him as baggage. She didn't bother asking any further though, after all, all that she could see was the child hiding under the tattered blanket filled with holes - of course, she had it replaced, or else it would've been far too cold to sleep with at night.

During that time, he didn't have any caretakers, only those that were available would come to him, so she imagined those days would've been quite lonely, until at least she was assigned to him.

At first, he would hide from her, retreating into his dorms. He wasn't always seemed to be quite distressed and kept to himself even after she spoke to him for a while.  

What she noticed, though, was that he was very into flowers. She would see him stare at the flower shop at the marketplace for a prolonged amount of time; It was the reason why she pestered the Head for a garden in the first place. 

She asked him why once, and he told her, "Because they're pretty, and they talk to me." She wasn't very sure about what the second part meant, but it was probably just a child's creativity. 

She arrived at one of the rooms in the East Hall, and knocked.

Knock Knock

The door opened and a child with rough, messy hair opened the door.

"W'ssup?" He asked.

"Hi Anthold." Greeted Poko. "Had a nice nap?"

"Yeuh." He slurred.

"Is Meta in there?"

"Uh-huh. He under th' covers." He nodded towards one of the beds, "Woke me up an' all dat." He scratched his head.

"Sorry about t-" Anthold's stomach grumbled, interrupting Poko.

"If you're hungry they still have some fried peas at the cafeteria." She said.

"Fo'real?" His eyes widened, "Ok, I'm outta here." 

"Okay, have a nice lunch." She said as the boy paced up his walk. She found Anthold to be pretty mature, despite his age and odd speech.

He and Meta were roommates, even though he was slightly older. He was a probably not gonna be here much, if at all though, because soon he would be attending the Academy.

She appreciated his laid-back personality, as he didn't really care much about anything going on around him,  making him the perfect room-mate for Meta despite them not talking to each other.

"Meta.." She called out to the lumped under the covers. "Are you okay?"

She sat down next to the boy, uncovering his head.

"..I thought they wanted to be friends." He mumbled.

"What about Analyn? You get along with her don't you?"

"Yea.. I guess.."

"And Anthold? He's not mean to you."

"Yea, but he doesn't really like me either."

"That's not true, I'm sure he does."

".." 

"You know, when I was younger I didn't have much friends either. But I had my family, and my best friend Ellie. And I'm sure we weren't liked by everyone, but that didn't matter. I'm just saying, that maybe it's ok to not be liked by them, as long as you have people that like you, and you should focus your attention on them, instead of the negative things." 

"But I don't have a family like you." He replied solemnly.

Poko felt a bit stricken by the reply. She knew this, yet she said something inconsiderate. 

"Well.." She paused, "Aren't I just like your family? You and the other kids even call me Auntie."

Meta remained silent.

"Meta, I've been your Auntie for 7 years now. We're family, even if you aren't related to me. I want you to know that, ok?"

Meta nodded.

"I'll take you to the flower-shop and bookstore tomorrow, how would you like that?" 

"Really?" Meta turned to face her.

"Yep. I promise." 

"Awesome!" Meta beamed.

"And you forgot your Flower." She took it out.

"Ah.. I forgot about it."

"I told you I would tell you about it right? Do you still want to hear it?" She asked.

"Yea!" He exclaimed.

"Okay. It's named after the Hero who paved the path for 'the Lower Races' to step onto the world stage and inspiring heroes to unshackle themselves from the grasp of Titan's."

She stood up, shot out one of her arms high up into the air and clenched her fist. "Cool, right? He did a pose just like this."

 "Cool!" Meta stared awkwardly.

She sat back down and continued, "Back then, they had horrible lives. They weren't treated like living beings at all, and they couldn't even have meat!"

She gestured violently, "But Riveta, after all the things he had to go through, kept walking forward and kept hoping; he always envisioned his dream of being free, but unfortunately, he failed. He couldn't liberate mankind himself, yet even in death he remained hopeful, that's why he became the reason why so many Heroes rose up and lead the way towards a new era."

"That's why this glowing, white flower," She continued as she rolled the flower between her finger and thumb. "Is called the Riveta flower, because it stands for the hope that glistens in the dark, just like Riveta."

"A beautiful story, for a beautiful flower." She handed him the flower. 

Meta stared at the flower, the glow reflecting on his eyes. He grabbed the flower and held it with a gentle firmness.

"Did you like it?" Poko asked with a smile.

"Yea, it was awesome." Meta spoke quietly while still staring at the flower.

"Ok. I'll leave you alone for now, you can have free time for the rest of the day - but just sleep early, ok?" She said as she stood up.

"Ok." Meta replied, laying down on his stomach as he rolled the flower around, still seemingly captivated.

Poko giggled at this quietly, and left without making a sound.

Meta stared at the flower for a long time, and the glow started to dim, then glow brighter, and dim then brighter again, like a beating heart.

Meta's mouth gaped open as it started to beat faster, encasing him in beating lights.