Far, far away, in a distant land of this planet. In a distant continent shrouded in mystery, there was a race called Draconians.

"Come forth" -- They, who were powerful enough to enslave the monsters invited the still-primitive races of the Old Continent.

The races that responded to their call named themselves as the Elves, the Beastkin, the Dwarves, and the mysterious race the Draconians named the Shades.

Before long, when all of the Draconians decided to leave their continent for another, a ship reached a certain peninsula.

There was a baby; the only survivor on the ship.

The Draconians left one of the Shades behind to protect the baby's life.

The race the baby belonged to named themselves the Humans, Draconians recognized them as the fifth race that arrived in Draconia on their own, and sent off a certain message.

"Humans: the child of your destiny is here."

--------------------------

Bump, bump, bump...

On the vast sunny beach on an unnamed peninsula in the south, the sound of something hard forcefully hitting against something even harder resounded around the quiet surroundings.

It was a young boy, beating a coconut against a rock.

Bump, bump...

"Ha!"

Crack!

"Gulp, gulp."

Finally splitting the coconut open, the young boy vigorously drinks the milk.

"Haa~"

He lets out a satisfied voice after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

After drinking all of the milk inside the coconut, he starts eating the coconut meat. As he is about to gulp down the last small bit of the coconut meat, he pauses. He then turns around, holding the coconut meat and extends his hand towards his shadow.

If there were any people who saw him, they would think he must be crazy.

However, the shadow's jet black hand suddenly reached out towards the boy's hand and took the coconut meat, plopping it into its mouth.

"Hehe~"

The boy smiled after seeing the coconut meat disappear.

Leaving the residue of the coconut behind, he walked around the shore.

Naturally, he was looking for more food.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

The beach is completely empty. Aside from the shadow following after him, there's no other person to be seen. It has been like that for all ten years the boy has lived here. He doesn't have parents, friends, not even a name. He was alone for as long as he remembers. Just him and his shadow.

It's a mystery how he survived as a baby all alone on this beach, but scavenging for fruits for nearly the whole day has been his daily routine.

Wake up, scavenge, eat, scavenge, eat, scavenge, eat, sleep, and repeat.

Today is actually the first day he ever left the small area he operated in for all those years. After leaving, he regretted not leaving earlier as he soon found an abundant coconut tree. Stuffing his belly until it was bulging, he resumed his scavenging.

"Hoi!" The boy suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

What a weird thing, he thought.

He has seen birds before. Needless to say, he was very scared of them.

However, he never saw anything like this.

A creature with the color of unripe coconuts with something resembling a stone on its back was slowly paving its way towards the sea.

It was a turtle.

The boy jumped down on the ground and crawled towards the turtle.

When he was close enough and noticed that the turtle wasn't paying him any attention, "Huu..." he sighed of relief and observed the slow moving, green thing.

Poke. He tried poking it.

"Hii!"

The boy got startled. The rock on the unripe coconut colored creature felt very weird.

Gathering his courage,

Poke, poke. He poked the turtle again.

Seeing how the turtle doesn't retaliate in any way, a smile crept on his small face.

Grab! He swiftly grabbed the turtle in his hands.

However, the turtle which looked so lively when trying to get to the sea suddenly stopped moving.

"Hau?" The boy tilted his head.

He couldn't understand.

What happened? Why has the weird creature stopped moving? He slowly opened up his hands.

Although he didn't understand what happened, he noticed that the rock on the green creature's body was cracked.

He used too much strength.

The boy doesn't understand death. This is the first time he saw a creature suddenly ceasing to move for no reason.

"Hrr." The boy frowned.

Not knowing what to do, he ran towards the sea, trying to release the turtle into the water.

However, soon after putting the turtle into the sea, the waves brought it back onto the shore.

Seeing the boy's frustration, the shadow manifested beside the boy.

"Hue?" The boy tilted his head. He doesn't see the shadow coming out on its own often.

The shadow looked at the turtle, then at the boy, and finally pointed at its mouth.

It must have seen people eating these creatures before.

"Huu...?" The boy understood the meaning of the shadow. But, he wasn't convinced. This creature looked more bizarre than unripe coconuts. Can he really eat it?

Nevertheless, there was unconditional trust in his heart towards the shadow.

So, being the good boy he is, he picked up the struggling turtle and,

Crunch! ... Crunch, crunch, crunch... He started crunching on the turtle.

"Beeh..." He didn't like it much. It didn't taste anything like coconuts.

But, it was something new. It didn't make him feel sick, and it filled his stomach.

He was now convinced by the shadow's unparalleled knowledge... the unripe coconut colored creature was food!

He looked towards the beach with his new realization. This yellow, warm place was a big coconut tree all this time!

Gulp.

He gulped and to the place he found the turtle at.

"Ha!"

Just as he thought, he found more of these small creatures trying their best to get to the sea.

Without stopping, he pounced towards one of them. Then, just as he was about to stuff the turtle into his mouth, he got an idea.

The rock on this creature's body is nearly as strong as ripe coconuts.

What if he... the boy looked for big boulders.