A middle age man could be seen walking down an old ally holding a small bag.

He was tall with broad shoulders, big arms and a substantial belly, the tell tale sign of someone who clearly enjoyed his fair share of alcohol. He had long black hair and a roughly trimmed beard, in witch a few streaks of grey could be seen starting to appear,

he walked along humming a surprisingly melancholic tune despite the relatively lively atmosphere that surrounded him. Vendors called out advertising their best products, merry shouts came from taverns and bars with their doors left ajar, inviting the tired workers and soldiers to enjoy themselves a bit with plenty of alcohol and possibly a glass or two with one of the waitresses if they were feeling particularly generous that evening.

He passed a group a group of old women chatting as they strolled along with what seemed to be their grandkids, one of them wearing a sash on witch the symbol of a tree flourishing under the sun and moon was visible, indicating that she belonged to the communion.

But none of these scenes seemed to really bother or intrigue the man who, on closer inspection, seemed to have a bit of a vacant look in his eyes. Indeed, if one looked closer, they would see a small lag in his step, or the way he occasionally glanced at the families that walked by or that he passed.

Eventually his tune ended and he walked in silence, continuing down the seemingly never ending street until he saw a girl no more than 18 holding a baby as she walked down the road happily with a similarly young man.

-''It's not fair...   not fair at all.''

he mumbled as he kept walking, but no matter how he tried he could not get the scene he had witnessed earlier out of his mind.

Eventually he arrived at a rather high end store with the name Sander's Sandbox written on the window beside the door. The inside was well kept and clean, with gleaming metallic trinkets lined up on the shelves: little metal people that would walk once wound up, a ball that would roll around on its own if left on the floor, and a music box that played any music it heard back at you, etc.

the man put the bag on the front desk as he went through a door leading to a hallway that led to two more doors. He begrudgingly entered the door on the right, the one on the left leading to his workshop, the only place he could tolerate being these days without feeling the need to smash his head on the wall until he fell unconscious. 

As he climbed the stairs behind the door on the right, he muttered to himself:

-''Breakout my ass. It's impossible that this keeps happening every few decades, whatever it is, it's not a coincidence.''

He entered the room at the top of the stairs. The inside was surprisingly luxurious with another door leading off into another room on the side .Their was kitchen, a nice wooden table with four matching wooden chairs around it. Their was also a dark green goat fur couch in one corner that matched nicely with the curtains of a similar shade drawn across the windows, obscuring the warm glow given off 24/7 by the '' Star'' a massive yellowish crystal that hung from the ceiling of rock hundreds of meters above the city. 

As the man passed the chairs he stopped to look at them for a moment;

''Guess I may as well sell them, some rich prick'l probably buy it for twice the amount I did.'' He thought to himself as he ran his hand across their finely polished backs. He looked at the dust on his fingers and scoffed.

The man passed through the door separating the two rooms. Inside was even darker than the main room, and a figure could be seen on the bed, along with another much smaller figure in a crib on the other side of the room. The man went to the window and opened the curtains just a crack and, moments later, the figure on the bed shifted and began to speak in a raspy, broken voice:

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-''Back already old man?'' the voice said, the smile in it's voice evident.

-''Just passing through, don't mind me.'' He snorted, but in slightly better spirits than before.

-''Did you get it?''

-''Yes, it's downstairs, wasn't easy though. Pharmacist made a fuss, telling me I had to pre-order it at least two months in advance, then when I offered to pay triple she threatened to call the red-capes and tell them I was coercing her. It was almost funny...      almost.''

-'' Sounds rough, you should've brought me along, I would've charmed her into giving it to us for free.''

-''Looking like that? Not likely.''

-''I will have you know that solely relying on looks leads to impossibly shallow relationships, and that poor pharmacist that you bullied deserves much better than that from an expert like me!''

-''It's been what, like, 3 and a half weeks? Sal would turn in her grave if she heard her husband talking about moving on that quickly. In the end you were a bad choice after all...''

-''Hey, hey old man I'm joking alright! Tch, become so old you can't even take a joke?

The old man just smiled wryly and looked out the window. now that the light penetrated the room the figure on the bed was finally visible: dirty blond hair that had begun to fall out, intelligent green eyes, a sharp and elegant nose along with high cheek bones, all of witch rendered him quite an attractive man. 

But there was something overwhelmingly wrong about him. The way he moved his head was stilted and unnatural, he couldn't move his legs at all and, when he did turn his head, nearly half of his face was a dull grey that slightly reflected the light coming in through the window.

with a distinctively different and more serious tone of voice he sked the man:

-''How much longer?''

-''You haven't been counting?'' the man replied

-''Would you be willing to count down the days you have left to live? Besides, days just kind of blends together ever since I've been cooped up in this room.''

-''Guess not. About 3 days, give or take a few hours''

-''Damn, I did pretty good. Better than most anyway.''

-''Have to give credit where credit is due I guess. By the way, what about him?'' said the old man, pointing at the crib.

-''What do you mean? He stays with you, after all your his only living relative. Besides didn't you tell me you always wanted a son? Teach him how to walk, talk, run, work, laugh and all the rest. He's all you've got and your all he's got so it shouldn't be too hard right?''

The man looked at the crib in silence for a few more moments and then turned to the young man and asked:

-''What should I tell him about you and Sal? He will get curious and overly curious kids are the worst kind, get into all kinds of trouble.''

The young man lay there in silence for quite a while pondering the question until he finally opened his mouth:

-''Tell him she shined brighter than the star could ever hope too; tell him her smile could melt even the toughest metal, but her punch could crack open the thickest skulls; tell him she would talk about all the different areas of Argus that we would all go see together, and all the tasty meals we would share; Tell him he would've had at least four siblings, maybe more, and we would all go to the moss fields outside the walls to picnic. Tell him she was too bright for this bleak world, so it decided to send her somewhere far away where she can laugh, sing and dance to her hearts content forever.''

The man stared at the young man for a while and nodded, then after a few moments he asked:

-''And you?''

The young man stared out the window and said:

-''Tell him nothing ''

The man looked at him before turning away while saying he had to go open the shop, but as he was about to exit the room the young man stopped him:

-''Swear it.'' He told the ma, but the man remained quiet.

-''SWEAR IT !'' The young man shouted before breaking down into a violent fit of coughing.

The man just stood there, watching him and, when the coughing subsided, he left silently.

The man descended into his workshop after changing the closed sign to open, sitting down and running his hands through his hair. He had lied to the young man, he would die sometime in the next 8 hours, but he figured it would be less painful if he didn't expect it. He pulled out a little silver disk about the size of a pocket-watch from his desk and began fiddling around with it as he thought about what he was going to do, staying up for hours before finally falling asleep.

The man woke up several hours later and, after some contemplation, climbed the steps and entered the room, finding the young man motionless, seemingly asleep. The man knew better though, and covered his head with the blanket, before turning to the crib and approaching it.

Inside was an infant no more than 3 weeks old, with whisps of dull grey hair on his head and an innocent look on his sleeping face. The man watched the child for a while before taking out the disk he had been working on earlier, this time it had a thin chain attached to it and he placed it around the child's neck.

on it was an assortment of strange markings and symbols, but in the centre was just one word:

NOAH