My name is Cana Alberona and I am six years old right now. I grew up with my mother whose name is Cornelia. I never knew who my father was because mother never told me. But she did say that father was a very brave and strong mage. She also told me how they met and fell in love with each other.

Listening to how they met always made me excited. Because that was when I heard of my father and that was when I always dream of how I will meet my future spouse. Although that is also the reason I want to one day find my father so that we can reunite as a family.

My dream is very simple actually. To live a happy and fulfilling life with my father and mother and hopefully my own soul mate. Aside from that, I never thought about anything else. I like spending time with mother and listening to bed time stories. There isn’t much I don’t like. Anything that is harmful to mother, I don’t like it.

One day while we were cleaning around our small house, mother fell unconscious. I ran all the way to the nearby village to get a doctor only to hear the worst thing possible. The doctor said that mother was down with an illness he has never seen. He also said that unless we find a cure her life could be in danger.

After that day, I started taking care of mom and did all the chores around the house while going to meet the village doctor from time to time to see if he found any cure. Every time he would give me a negative answer and after a week or so he gave up and told me to focus on mother.

After that, I stayed inside the house and took care of mother. Mother was getting weaker and weaker each passing day and I tried to not let mother see the worry I was probably letting my face show. But each time I see mother having difficulties to breath or she starts a coughing fit, I can’t seem to hold my tears back. And whenever I cried, mother like always gives the gentlest of smiles and lightly rubs my head.

Days pass like this and one day when I went to drunk some water, I found it was empty. I thought it was strange considering the last time I checked it was still half filled. But I didn’t have time to think about it as mother might wake up soon and I should have the water pot refilled before that.

So taking the pot I walked to the small lake near our house in the forest. As I was walking, I felt like the forest was eerily quiet today. Like some sort of predator was out hunting. I was getting scared so I hurried my steps and soon reached the lake.

I was in the middle of refilling the pot when I trembled as I heard a low growl behind me. I could feel an ominous presence which was almost waiting for me to turn so that it could devour me. Trembling, I turned around slowly with my eyes closed. When I fully turned, I opened my eyes to see a bull like beast crouching on the ground. It was glaring at me while letting wind out of its nose and the low growl from before was still coming from it.

I stood there petrified and unable to breath. My mind was blank and the only thing in it was the eyes of that beast. The pot in my hand fell down when I lost any strength in me. The pot hitting the ground was like a signal as the beast charged at me. Even though I want to run I couldn’t muster up any strength in me and I just stood there watching as the beast running at me.

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It seemed like time had slowed down either from fear or hope as a boy appeared between me and the beast. But when I saw that the boy seemed my age from his height I wanted to tell him to run away when I saw blood bloom like a flower in front of the boy. I once again closed my eyes grieving over the boy who sacrificed himself for me. Only to hear the sound of the boy speaking to me like the first rays of sunlight on a cloudy day.

“You alright? Can you stand up?”

I opened my eyes at that as I couldn’t hear any fear or pain in it, only concern. But now that the danger was gone, all of the fear I just felt returned like a tide making me unable to respond and just sit there trembling.

When the boy saw my condition, he went on his knees and pulled me into a hug as he started calming me down. The concern and worry he had in his voice and face, I found it very soothing, just like when I’m with mother.

After a while I calmed down enough and I thanked him for saving me. His face showed a complicated face at first but then turned into a smile as he said it was no problem.

“My name is Cana. Cana Alberona. Um, if you don’t mind, can you tell me yours.”

“Ah, Cana huh. That’s a nice name. my name is Ray Cross. You can call me Ray.”

Ray. Cana and Ray. It sounds nice. Anyway, after introducing ourselves I insisted that he came with me to my house so that I could introduce him to mother and properly thank him for saving him. He kept refusing at first but when I tried something mother taught me he relented. I didn’t think the ‘puppy dog eyes’ thingy that mother told me about actually worked.

After bringing Ray to the house I introduced him to mother. Mother had a very hateful smile as she studied Ray making him awkward and after a while she secretly gave me a thumbs up. Geez, mother I know he is handsome but can you be a bit more secretive.

After hearing about how Ray saved me mother insisted on him staying here so that we can repay him. After his constant refusal, mother and I shared a look and both did the ‘puppy dog eyes’ thingy with a please at the end. He gave a bitter smile and once again relented. Wow, this really works.

After mother and I managed to convinced Ray to stay, I went into the kitchen to make lunch. It has been a while I was this happy so I put my heart into what I was making. Mother taught me how to cook though she never let me do it just taught me by letting me watch. So even though it was not as good as food mother makes, it was still very good.

At the table when Ray saw the food he watched both me and mother for a while and then started eating. The same happened at dinner again and then we went to sleep.

The next morning, I found Ray’s bag there but not Ray himself. I was wondering where he went all morning when around noon he came back with a lot of bags with fruits and vegetables and necessities in it.

He drove me out of the kitchen telling me to talk to mother while he prepares lunch. Although at first mother and I didn’t want to let him work since he was here to let us thank him, that went all out of the window when mother and I ate his food. It was so good. After that, Ray was in charge of making food while I took care of the other chores.

Days passed like that and two months later, I woke up to the most heartbreaking event of my life. Mother passed away. She laid there with a smile on her face and I kept calling out to her while crying. After hearing me cry, Ray came inside and hugged me to calm me. But now with mother gone, I don’t know what to do anymore. I have only Ray to rely on now but first I have to bury mother.