In a Civilized Manner

The first time Edris saw Roos was fifteen years ago.

The boy opened his eyes to find himself lying on a chill, rugged surface, the rough texture of stone pressing against his shoulder blades. His inhale was interrupted by a clogged throat, and the scent of damp earth drifted in his nostrils, complementing the whisper of water echoing his surroundings.

He blinked, disoriented, his vision adjusting to the dim light filtering in from somewhere above. As his senses returned, he became aware of the dried blood that caked his skin, the parched dryness in his throat, and the unfamiliar ache in his bones.

He shifted slightly, trying to make sense of his surroundings, only to wince as pain coursed through his bones. He was in a cavern, the walls lined with rich, glowing moss that illuminated the space with a pale green light. Nearby, a small pool of water shimmered serenely, its surface perfectly still.

His gaze travelled across the cavern until it landed on a woman sitting cross-legged on a stoney platform.

She was dressed in a loose, white robe that pooled around her. Her head bowed slightly, as though asleep.

Edris tried to sit up straight, but the mere motion was enough to make his head spin. The sound of his stirring seemed to rouse the woman. She lifted her head, revealing a face that was sharp yet oddly serene. Her dirt-green hair was tied back in a high ponytail, the strands reaching well past her waist. She studied him with calm, dark eyes, Edris instinctively avoided her gaze in unease.

Only to return the eye contact the next moment.

The reason?

Edris was injured. Besides his name, he had no memories of how he got here, why he was here, or even who he was. He quickly evaluated his current situation, only to realise that there was a great likelihood that he would lose his life in the next few imminent minutes.

Edris thought that even if he were to die, he’d die knowing precisely who killed him, so that if he remained a soul seeking vengeance, he’d know who to perch on.

For a moment, they simply stared at each other in silence, neither one speaking. Then, in a matter-of-fact tone, the woman broke the stillness.

“Your name is Edris,” she stated, her voice reverberating throughout the moss-filled cavern. “And my name is Roos. Just moments ago, I rescued you from death, so I am now officially your saviour.”

Edris opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything, she straightened her posture, adjusting her robe as if preparing for a formal introduction, expression unchanging.

“You may now call me ‘teacher.’”

“...”

Edris stared at the strange woman before him, then glanced down at his reflection in the still waters of the pool. The face staring back at him was young, much younger than he felt. It was a face he didn’t recognise—a foreign face, even to himself.

The realisation struck him with a cold sense of detachment: this face wasn’t his. Or rather, it didn’t feel like it was his, not with the hazy fragments of memory—or lack thereof—floating aimlessly in his mind.

“How did you know my name was Edris?”

“You told me.”

Without waiting for his response, Roos stepped off the stone platform, her movements smooth but willful. Her robe trailed behind her, brushing the ground as she walked past him, her bare feet silent against the stone-made ground.

A daunting aura oozed out as she walked towards him, and Edris found himself tensing up at her passing.

Just as they brushed shoulders, Roos paused, glancing down at him with a hint of impatience.

“What?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Do you want to remain a caveman instead?”

Edris didn’t reply, his mind struggling to keep up with the situation. Although the woman didn’t exactly exude an air of reliability, he found himself with little choice. With no memories to guide him, he had no one else to turn to, and he needed answers.

The woman led him out of the cavern, and as they stepped outside, Edris was hit by a rush of fresh, cool air. They were standing on the edge of a massive cliffside, and before him stretched a vast expanse of sky, the horizon painted in hues of vibrant blue as the sun hung high above their heads.

The sight was sublime, breathtaking in its beauty, and for a second, Edris could only appreciate the sight, almost even forgetting about his loss of memories.

Almost.

Unfortunately, his appreciation didn’t last long. Before he could fully grasp the scene, he felt the woman grab onto his collar. He turned to her with a look of disarray. Roos shot him a smug grin, a glint in her eyes.

“Ready?”

“For?” Edris managed to stammer, only for his breath to hitch by a whiff of wind that came crashing down his throat.

Roos had leapt off the edge of the cliff, without a single word to spare, a child hurled under her arm.

Unfortunately, Edris was the child.

His stomach lurched as they plummeted through the air, gusts roaring in his ears. He was a child, amnesiac, and probably still injured, judging by the bloodstains on his clothes. Yet, none of that seemed to matter to the woman as she hollered in exhilaration, her laughter mingling with the wind.

The world spun around him, the colours of the sky blending into a dizzying blur. The last thing Edris saw before darkness claimed him was the woman’s wild grin as they fell together, the land rushing up to meet them.

And then, all faded into darkness.

***

When Edris woke up, he found himself lying on a makeshift raft, drifting along a gentle stream that meandered through a passageway of greens. The canopy above filtered the sunlight, casting dappled shadows on the water’s surface.

Taking in the raft that seemed to be steadily moving towards who-knows-where, Edris felt an unprecedented sense of exhaustion—an exhaustion that stemmed not just from his injuries, but from the sheer absurdity of the last few hours.

Less than ten minutes after waking up in an unfamiliar cavern, a strange woman, deeming herself as his “saviour” and “teacher,” had taken him on a dive off a cliff, plunging them both into the sky without warning.

For a brief moment, Edris even wondered if this was the afterlife.

But even a thought like this brought him little comfort, especially since he was apparently stuck with the same woman even after death.

He turned his head toward the end of the raft and saw Roos sitting there, cross-legged and meditative. Her back was straight, her eyes closed, and her chin tilted slightly upward as she enjoyed the breeze that carried them downstream. Her long, dirt-green hair flowed around her like a cloak, swaying gently with the movement of the raft.

Edris, however, was in no mood to appreciate the scenery. Mustering what little energy he had left, he kicked at Roos’s calves with his foot.

“Hey,” he called out, his voice tinged with irritation.

Roos didn’t open her eyes, her expression as placid as ever. Edris exhaled through his nostrils, fed up by her indifference, and kicked her again—this time with more force.

Before he could register her reaction, he felt a sharp pain at the back of his leg. He winced and quickly looked down to see a strange creature latched onto him, something resembling both a shrimp and a fish with a broad, puckering mouth and coiled lowered body.

“That’s a puckerfish.” Roos’s voice echoed coolly from her position at the end of the raft. Her eyes were still closed in the same position. “They feed on fluctuating emotions. Although their bites are not poisonous, if you don’t want to lose any body parts, I suggest you zen with me.”

“Zen, you say?”

Edris scoffed under his breath, rubbing the sore spot where the creature had bitten him. Despite his annoyance, something in Roos’s tone told him she wasn’t joking about the “body parts” aspect. With no better options, he decided to obey, mimicking her cross-legged posture and closing his eyes.

The adult-child pair floated in silence for what felt like hours, the raft moving slowly along the stream’s current.

Occasionally, Edris broke the silence with a question, trying to subtly gauge his current situation. Roos, however, seemed content to give him half-answers, offering little in the way of clarity.

“You said you’re my teacher?” Edris asked, still not entirely convinced.

“Mm-hm,” Roos responded, lounging across the log surface.

“Since when?” he pressed.

“Since today.”

“But we met today.”

“Officially,” she clarified, as if that explained everything.

“Did you know of me before?” Edris tried again.

“Kinda.”

“What does that mean?”

“Half and half.”

Edris stared at her bleakly, half-resigned at this point. “What do you know about me?”

“About you?” Roos finally opened her eyes, meeting his gaze with a calm expression, and Edris thought something useful would finally come out of her mouth.

“That you’re my student,” she said, pointing to him, then redirecting the finger towards herself. “And I’m your teacher.”

“...”

Edris sighed deeply. Probing any helpful information from the woman was going to be an uphill battle. He eventually decided to give up on the questioning for now, lapsing into a subdued silence as they continued to drift downstream.

After what felt like an eternity, they reached the edge of a small village. The raft slowed as they approached a wooden boardwalk that jutted over the water.

“Let’s stop here,” Roos said suddenly, breaking the quiet.

Edris looked around with a frown. “How?”

Roos gestured to a coil of rope lying on the raft.

“Tie that rope to one of the wooden pillars on the edge of the boardwalk,” she instructed, flipping her wrist around lazily. “As my student, you should at least be able to do this much.”

Under his internal complaints, Edris tied the rope onto its own end, somehow managing to toss it right over one of the pillars and bringing the raft to a stop. He was about to step off when Roos’s voice, now laced with uncharacteristic seriousness, stopped him in his tracks.

“Hold on.”

Edris froze, suddenly alert.

“What is it?” he asked, his mind racing with possibilities.

Up until now, his impression of Roos had been that she was a strong, if slightly unhinged, lunatic who had taken an inexplicable interest in him. For one, the woman didn’t seem to care about common sense—or safety, for that matter. After all, who in their right mind would jump off a cliff with an eight-year-old just like that?

Roos kept her serious expression as she looked at him.

“Help me up,” she said flatly.

Edris blinked twice.

“My ankles are fractured from the jump,” Roos admitted, not a hint of shame in her voice. “I can’t get up.”

“...”

Then why did she jump?

Edris stared at her in disbelief, his mouth parting and closing as he struggled to find the words. Finally, he managed a single, incredulous thought:

What is wrong with her?

But even as that question hung in his mind, he found himself reaching out to help her up. At this point, nothing seemed beyond this woman’s recklessness.

Footsteps interrupted him, and Edris retracted his hand. He glanced around to see a villager hurrying their way. The man was an elderly man. His face was lined with deep wrinkles, but his eyes twinkled with a friendly, senile cheerfulness.

“Oh, Roos, it’s you!” the old man exclaimed as he approached, only to step back in surprise. “How did you end up like this?”

“Pa…” Roos smiled sheepishly. “I jumped off a cliff.”

The old man, who she called “Pa,” let out a hefty sigh. “Look at you, being reckless again!”

Edris wasn’t sure if “reckless” was the fitting word for the situation. He watched as the man bent down to assist, his movements surprisingly spry for someone his age. Ultimately, he decided to give her a hand. Together, they managed to get Roos to her feet.

The three of them made their way through the village, with Roos leaning heavily on the old man’s shoulder and her hand pressing against Edris’s head. As they walked, they attracted quite a bit of looks from the other villagers. Nearly everyone seemed to know Roos. They greeted her as if they were used to her strange antics, though some raised their eyebrows at the sight of the young boy accompanying her.

“Roos! Back from another one of your fanatical spurs? The Willow Cavern this time ’round, was it?” one villager called out, while another chuckled and added, “I see you’ve brought someone back with you!”

Edris received his fair share of attention as well, with several villagers commenting on his appearance (calling him a “pretty boy” and things of the sort).

From the little snippets of conversation Edris managed to catch, it became clear that this was the first time Roos had brought back a stranger with her. The realisation made him feel even more out of place, though he tried not to let it show by keeping his gaze on his footsteps.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a small hut that appeared to be Roos’s dwelling. The structure was modest, with a thatched roof and a wooden door, but it exuded a sense of comfort and simplicity. Inside, the space was sparsely furnished, with only a few essentials—a bed, a couch, a table, and a couple of chairs—but it felt comfortable, almost welcoming.

Roos thanked the old man as they entered, assuring him that she could take care of herself from here on out. The man nodded, but before he left, he turned to Edris, curiosity glinting in his eyes.

“So? Who might this little boy be?” he asked, eyes shifting from Roos to Edris.

Reflexively, Edris opened his mouth to respond, only for no words to come out. He wasn’t sure what to say—he didn’t want to admit to being her so-called “student,” and truthfully, he didn’t quite know what his relationship with her was.

So instead, he turned his gaze toward Roos, silently hoping she wouldn’t say something too outlandish.

Roos’s response was simple, without a moment of hesitation.

“His name is Edris,” she said.

That was it—just his name, nothing more. Edris had expected something bizarre, perhaps an offhand comment about finding him in a cave or claiming him as her disciple. But Roos didn’t embellish; she merely introduced him as he was.

“Well, nice to meet you, Edris.” The old man smiled warmly and extended his hand. “My name is Panko, but you’re welcome to call me ‘Pa,’ just like Roos.”

Edris hesitated for a moment, then reached out to shake Panko's hand, which was full of callouses but radiating warmth. The gesture felt strange, but also oddly reassuring. It was the second skin-to-skin contact he’d had upon waking up.

After Panko left, it was just the two of them in the hut. The silence between them stretched, broken only by the distant sounds of the village outside.

Edris finally exhaled slowly, breaking the tension.

“Roos,” he began, but she immediately cut him off.

“It’s ‘teacher’ to you.”

“So let’s say I am your student,” he said, not arguing the point but retorting with a question of his own. “What exactly will you be teaching me? You’ve got to be somewhat competent to be a teacher.”

Roos didn’t answer immediately. Instead, a mysterious smile curved her lips, one that sent a shiver of unease down Edris’s spine.

“Well…” she started, drawing out the word as if savouring some private joke.

Edris suddenly had a bad feeling about this.