You are a notail.

From the moment you were born you were considered far more adorable than the other children. You were given a lot more love than the other kids. Today your favorite caretaker takes you over to the room of faces. You being only 4 years old have only heard about this room. The caretakers told you that when you are finally ready to be sent outside that you get to pick your own face.

You're 4 years old so you barely understand what they mean by "outside" and the importance of this whole event. Your caretaker lets go of your hand and points you to all the faces. "You can take one, but only one. I will be back, I trust that you will be good while I get the other children. I wanted to make sure you were able to pick first. I have good hopes for you young one. UuU"

You're left in the face room. This could be your first of many faces, or the one you'll wear for the rest of your life.

Being a child the faces in here are fairly simple, no more than 3 symbols long to say. What face will you grab off the wall, and what is your class and number?

You are an E-class notail, and as such you are far sturdier than most notails. You reach up and pick up a face you like, a simple =3. It may be plain, but there were only a few of them there, and frankly you liked it the best.

Your caretaker comes back with all the other children who start running about, excited to get new faces that weren't so plain. Your caretaker walks over to you, they seem delighted at your new mask. Maybe not ecstatic but excited still! "What a delightful mask E-2732 I'm proud of you." They open their bag and fish for something in it.

They hold out something small, smooth, and sleek. They press a button to the side and a sharp knife pops out. It's a pocket knife. They press the button again and it slides back in. The hand the pocket knife to you. "You know what a knife is, so please be careful with that. I'd hate to just give you a knife but I want to make sure you have something to protect yourself with. Things are.....not going very well at the moment...UuU"

You can tell they want to say more but you're a 4 year old who wouldn't understand the tense social state going on right now and how that impacts your life. They take out a stack of tickets, every child gets one that tells them where they're going. You can hear them mumbling. "Oh, I dearly hope you didn't get one of the horrible villages, this round one of the best villages opened up, but the other two you could be sent to are the worst.....UuU"

They trail off as they look at your ticket. They hand it to you without saying anything more. Maybe you got the worst village and they didn't want to worry you. "Well the buses are here, and I'm sure you want to get the best seat! UuU" They give you a quick hug before looking at their stack of tickets to give to the other kids.

You ask when you're coming back.

Your caretaker looks at you and shakes their head. "You're never coming back E-2732. UuU"

-

You stand looking at all 3 buses. You really want to go back inside but one of the bus driver assistant's thinks you're having a hard time reading your ticket. They casually walk over and snatch it out of your hand. You feel like crying and the assistant doesn't even attempt to comfort you as they take a closer look.

There are three villages today.

There is Crow's Reach. All you know about Crow's reach is that it's one of the biggest villages. It's so big that the village ended up having to build around one of the capture creature labs that was next to it.

The next is Crane Toll. It's a medium sized village named after the giant crane statue that holds a bell. It's said that if anything horrible were to happen they run to the bell and ring it, summoning a legendary capture creature, the thunder crane, from the skies. You don't know if that story is true but you do know that the village has a permanent N-class living in it, as oppose to just being visited by an N-class time to time.

The last village is Albatross town and it is one of the smallest villages in the whole world with only a total of 200 children living there. It was once Albatross village but apparently a few years ago a notail trade route was formed that accidentally went right through the village. Instead of moving the trade route or the village it is now a stopping point for notails moving supplies, as such there is a much higher adult to child ratio in the town, where other towns are 1 adult to 50 children, Albatross town has 1 adult for every 10 children. Even if most of them are just passing by.

Well you saw what was on your ticket, and even though you're about to cry you want to show them that you can read. What village did your ticket say?

"I'm going to Crane toll. =)" You tell the assistant, trying not to cry. They look from your ticket to your face and hand it back to you, rather roughly too.

"Then next time don't look so confused kid. Also you don't use that face anymore. It's equals three now. ^O^"

"=3......"

The assistant points you the way to your bus and you get on. You're the first one on because your caretaker gave you a head start so you take the best seat in the front so you can see outside the driver's window. As you take a seat the driver laughs and looks at you. He is extremely friendly.

"I swear the first kid never wants to take the best seat in the house! They always see me and get scared. =w=" Even though the driver is wearing his face you can see that jutting out are angry looking black spikes from his mask to the middle of his neck.

"That's what happens when it gets a little greedy." He says pointing at his head.

"Adults don't mind cause it ain't too rare but the kids really get freaked out! =w="

The trip to Crane toll goes without any issues. The bus driver talks to you the whole way, tells you you really dodged a bullet there. Crow's Reach is having horrible supply issues and due to the size of it is basically collapsing in on itself, he doesn't know why they're still requesting even more kids, and worse, why the orders are being approved. Albatross town on the other hand isn't a bad place, but it's easy for kids to get neglected and says that the trader notails are a horrible influence on kids.

Crane toll on the other hand? A dang safe haven. One of the few kid villages that isn't having issues in these tough times, and it's all thanks to the thunder crane and the N-class that lives there.

=

Once you leave the bus you're briefed on the rules. A few kids cry, wanting to head back to their caretakers, you try your best not to but one of the caretakers knows you're in distress and picks you up, telling you things to calm you down.

As you get older kindness like this will become rarer and rarer.

In a day you learn about your room, and your chores. They're simple for now, going outside and picking random plants. As you're outside you hear a yell.

"HEY! SAME FACE! =3"

A notail who is at least 2 years older than you puts his hand on your face before talking again. "We have the same face so we're best friends! =3"

It's been less than 24 hours of you being here and some notail has already decided you're their best friend. He helps you pick plants and then drags you around the village, showing you and telling you all he knows. You feel a bit smarter due to this.

He points to the board next to the Crane toll and says that nobody is allowed to ring the bell unless something bad is happening. If they do the thunder crane will fly down and gobble up the kid who broke the rules! All those slashes on the board represented a child killed by the thunder crane for playing a prank. Before you both head back to the shared housing unit he points to the church.

"Shuuush, don't tell anyone but in that building is a monster. All the adults love her but I think she's scary. =3"

=

In your room your new best friend starts opening your drawers without asking and digging around. You're starting to feel like a pushover compared to this bossy, yet well meaning kid.

"Hey! Hey want to see something cool? =3" He says taking out a little device from your drawer. You didn't even know that was in there.

"This is a Notail encyclopedia! If you point it at an animal you can see info on it if it's catalogued. Here hold it and point it at a creature I caught! =3"

He shoved the device in your hand before taking out a device and ejecting a creature out of it. You scan it.

You're amazed as the device works and tells you what the creature is and info about it. Your friend seems mighty proud of the 5 inch harmless bug he caught. Even though it likely hopped right into the palm of his hand. He hands you a device called a capture cage.

"This is a capture cage for kids like us, we can only catch things smaller than one foot with this. So lame! I can't wait till I'm 8 and I get to have a real capture creature. I'm going to be first in line! You can have that capture creature cage. They don't let you have them until you're six but as your friend I gotta share with you. =3"

You two talk for a bit more, and by you two you mean that your friend talks about all the cool things he's doing and what he's going to do, before he leaves.

Your first year here is going to be simple, they just want you to get used to everything so they'll only be sending you on tiny quests that take you an hour tops to do. You have a lot of free time and you have a feeling you should spend it wisely.

What sort of things are you going to be doing for the next year? Maybe you'll learn a small skill, or train with your knife. The possibilities are endless. You may be 4 years old but you're a determined 4 year old.