“Wake up!”

Baharam felt someone shake him, but his tired eyes would not open.

“Wake up! We’re going to be late!”

He heard Arran’s voice, felt his small hands shaking him, and in the darkness of the early morning, he found consciousness again. Arran’s exasperated face filled his vision. In his groggy, half-asleep state, the sight startled Baharam and he jumped, almost hitting Arran in the face. He let out a canine yelp that scared both him and Arran, and when he realized what was going on, began to laugh at his own noise. Arran was not amused, and lightly slapped Baharam on the shoulder.

“Stop doing that!” Arran growled. “Let’s go, we’re going to be late!”

Tiredness crept back in to Baharam’s limbs, and he slumped back into his bed. He would have fallen asleep again if Arran hadn’t grabbed him and shook the rest of the tiredness out of him. “Alright, alright!” Baharam finally shouted. “Stop already!”

“Get dressed,” Arran said, turning to leave the room. “Let’s go.”

Baharam quickly threw on his school clothes, a light grey robe that covered him from head to toe, over which he draped a navy blue tabard, a golden sun embroidered on its chest. He tied a dark red sash around his waste, which kept the robe and tabard neat and tidy. As he was about to leave his room, he realized he had forgotten his sandals, and ran back to his wardrobe to grab them, slipping the dark brown leather onto his feet.

“Baharam!” Arran’s voice rang from outside of his room. He sounded angry.

Baharam rushed out of the room into the dark hallway of the house he lived in with his parents and brother. At the end of the hallway he could see Arran, surrounded by the light coming from the common room that connected the hallways to the different bedrooms in the house. Baharam ran towards Arran, hoping to placate his brother’s frustration by rushing to join him. Arran turned around and lead him through the round common room, past the couches and fine rugs arrayed in a circle around a small fire pit, from which sweet-smelling smoke gently drifted up, filling the house with a fragrant incense.

From the common room, the house of Baharam and his family became a series of rooms intended to host guests or provide personal sanctuaries for prayer. Another long hallway lined with small rooms took Baharam and Arran around the house’s inner courtyard until they reach the main gathering place, a large, square room filled with all kinds of chairs and couches, arranged so that they formed groups where people could sit or lie and talk to each other. Tables dotted the room as well, where trays of food or drink could be laid for guests to fill themselves physically as they filled themselves spiritually and socially.