"Where am I?" Nagi''s mother muttered as her eyes twitched, and she looked around in confusion.
She seemed to be in a room and was lying on a bed.
''How warm'' she thought as she made sure to imprint the feeling of warmth, which she hadn''t felt in a long time inside her mind.
"Oh, you''re finally awake," said the elderly woman from earlier as she walked closer to the bed she was lying on.
"What happened to me?" she asked.
"From what your son told me, thebination of both the cold and starvation probably got to you and made you pass out," said the elderly woman.
"I see," she said with her head down, disappointed at letting her children see her being weak.
"You''re really amazing, you know, to be able to endure everything you must have gone through while still trying to stay strong for your children," said the elderly woman with a smile that radiated pride.
"Thanks," she said, feeling happy at having her efforts acknowledged.
But it didn''tst for as long as she asked.
"Where are my children?"
"Don''t worry about them; they are in the living room and are enjoying themselves."
Hearing this, Nagi''s mother got up from the bed, as she said.
"I''m extremely sorry to have disturbed you like this; we''ll now take our leave," she bowed as she apologised before trying to move away.
But before she could do that, she was stopped by the elderly woman who asked.
"Why not join us for a warm meal to celebrate Christmas?"
She seemed hesitant to ept her offer, as she felt she would be intruding on their home if she stayed any longer.
And while she appreciated the hospitality, she felt like she would be taking advantage of the kind elderly women if she asked for anything more than what she had already been given.
"Come on, even if you don''t want to, don''t you think your children deserve a good and warm meal, at least for today?" the old woman pushed her a bit more to ept the offer.
It seems the mention of her children was the push she needed, as after a bit of hesitation, she finally epted.
"Fine"
"Perfect, oh, and dear, what is your name?"
"E Briar, and what should I call you, ma''am?"
"What a pretty name; it suits you, and you can just call me grandma."
**
As E and Grandma came out of the room, they were greeted by around 22 children, including Nagi and his little sister and grandmas husband, all sitting on a dining table made up of wood, besides a very cosy-looking firece.
Seeing his mother, Nagi handed his sister off to a kid sitting beside him and ran to hug his mother.
"Mother, you''re fine," Nagi said as he hugged E, who patted him on his head with warmth emanating in her eyes.
"Yeah, I am," E replied.
"Come, mother meet my new friends," Nagi said as he ran back to the dining table and introduced E to all the other kids.
"He''s such an energetic child" grandmamented.
"Yeah, he is" E replied.
Once Nagi was done introducing all the kids to E, grandma said.
"Enough guys, take a seat. I''ll go get food for everyone" she said as she moved to the kitchen.
"Let me help you, ma''am," E offered as she joined Grandma in the kitchen.
"Thanks, dear, how thoughtful of you," grandma said.
And after a few minutes, E and Grandma came out of the kitchen holding hot and warm food and ced it on the table.
"Come sit here, dear," grandma offered E to sit on the chair closest to the firece.
E felt bad for taking the seat, but she thought it would be rude if she tried to refuse the offer, so she just sat down quietly.
"Well, dig in everyone," grandma said.
As E took a sip of the vegetable soup in front of her, small tears came out of her eyes as she remembered all the happy memories of her family back when her husband was still alive.
Her husband used to really like vegetable soup, and she used to cook it often for him.
But ever since he died, she had never cooked or drunk it.
She missed those happy memories and times back when her family was still together and they had a roof over their heads and food on the table without her needing to sell dolls on the streets every day.
At the age where most kids go to school to study, Nagi was instead apanying her on the streets as she sold dolls, all because she didn''t have enough money.
"There there, it''s fine, dear," grandma patted E on the back to calm her down.
After a few minutes, E finally stopped as she wiped her tears and said,.
"Thanks a lot, grandma; we really appreciate it."
"Don''t worry about it, dear; this is nothing."
"And you know, I''ve been thinking, Why don''t you join us?" grandma said
"Pardon?" E asked in confusion.
"I run an orphanage, and these children you see are all kids I adopted."
"While it''s fun and rewarding, it''s a bit hard for me and my husband''s old, fragile bones to take care of so many little cretins."
"We''ll give you your monthly sry, shelter, and food three times a day , and your children could learn from the tutor I hired to teach all these kids."
"So, what do you think? Are you interested?" Grandma asked.
E was a bit stunned to hear the offer which sounded too good to be true but afraid that the grandma might change her mind she said.
"Yeah, I am. Thank you so much, ma''am." E said as she held the grandma''s hand to express her gratitude, "
"Don''t worry, dear, now how about we enjoy the meal before it goes cold?"
After this, everyone enjoyed the food while asionally talking andughing in the presence of the fire.
As the warmth of the fire spread through the air against all odds, William managed to form a thought from inside Nagi.
''Fire is warmth and kindness''
Almost as if waiting for his enlightenment, the same voice from earlier asked inside his mind.
''Do you now know what fire is?''
''Yeah, I do,'' William replied as his vision went dark and he stood in front of the entity responsible for everything he had been through in the past scenarios.