Ryu and I have always been close friends. We met at the lowest points of our lives. I just lost my father, and he had lost both of his parents. That Incident… The bandits attacking Greenwood… No one talks about it anymore. It’s like an unspoken law. So many lost their lives on that day, way too much to count. If the witch of the forest hadn’t saved me, I wouldn’t have survived either. All my life, I’ve been saved by others again and again. I guess that’s what it means to be a child. It’d be my time to save others soon. But how was I supposed to save them? I guess there’s still some time left for me to figure that out. The roof of my house was always the place where I would go when I wanted to be alone. I just sat down and looked at the sky, letting my mind wander. As I heard someone climb up the wooden ladder, I didn’t turn around. Only few knew that this was my favorite place to hang out and relax my mind.

“Ahh, found you. Are you thinking about the future again?”

I knew who was approaching; this energetic voice was unmistakably Ryu’s. I would recognize it anytime.

“Yeah. I wonder when I will get my skill. Even my little sister has one already.”

Ryu approached me and put his hand on my shoulder.

“We’re not living in the future Kuro. You need to stop overthinking, or you’ll end up like old Gil.”

His voice sounded like he was joking, but I couldn’t laugh.

“that’s easy to say as someone who got his skill two years ago.”

He frowned.

“I just want to make you feel better. It hurts seeing you like this. We had so much fun back then…”

I found myself unable to respond. Thinking about the past hurt too much.

“You’re not still sulking about being rescued by your sister, are you?”

He laughed at me. My face turned red like a tomato, so I buried it in my knees.

“That’s not it, shut up!”

He sat down next to me.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m worried about the future as well. I just don’t want to think about it. Back then, in that cave… I thought we’d die. I hated myself for convincing Shizuka to come with us. But when your sister saved us… I realized that my worries were useless. That’s why I stopped worrying about anything.”

“There won’t always be someone to save us”, I replied to him.

“We will soon get strong enough. I’m sure you’ll get your skill faster than you think.”

I frowned at his words. The first skill was usually acquired when a child reached puberty. I was 15 years old now, and despite hitting puberty at 12 years, I didn’t get my skill. The first skill is the same for every person. It’s the “status” skill that allows someone to open their status window. In the status window, you could see all acquired skills and abilities of a person. That skill was necessary to become an adventurer.

“I hope you’re right.” I answered him.

We looked into the sky for a few minutes. I felt that something was on Ryu’s mind when he turned to me.

“Do you think we will ever be as strong as your sister?”

I stared blankly at the sky, unable to provide an answer to his question. As I finally answered, I made sure to pick the right words.

“We don’t have much of a choice, do we? I aim to be the strongest mage in sural, and you the strongest swordsman. Layla has mastered both arts, so we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Ryu raised his fist to the sky.

“I will get stronger. Not just that. I will make my dream come true and become the strongest swordsman!”

That last claim came out a little louder than Ryu intended.

“Annoying Brats! Stop disturbing my sleep! Why can’t you have some respect for the elders?”

We looked over to the other houses to see the old Gil scream out of his window.

“Sorry Gil, I didn’t mean to scream that loud!”

As Ryu apologized to him, Gil muttered something into his beard and closed the window. We laughed.

“it’s been a long time since we had so much fun.” As I said that, I tried focusing more on the present. Ryu was right. There was no use in worrying about everything all the time. Ryu got up and walked towards the ladder.

“I have to go now, there won’t be any food left if I return as late as I did yesterday.”

“Yeah, you better go fast.” I replied to him. We said our goodbyes and he left me alone on the roof. After looking into the sky for a few more minutes, I got up and made my way towards the ladder. I climbed down and walked around the house, searching for my key. I opened the door and entered the house. The aroma of my mom’s delicious vegetable stew filled my nose and my mouth started to water. I entered the kitchen and saw my mom stirring the stew in the pot.

“Hey Mom, I’m home.”

My mother turned around and welcomed me.

“Kuro, welcome back. You’re late.”

“I know Mom, I’m sorry. I was spending time with Ryu.” I replied to her.

“Why didn’t you invite him to have dinner with us?”

“I didn’t know you were making your vegetable stew, I didn’t want to poison him,” I mumbled.

My mother threw the wooden spoon she used to stir the stew at me. I tried to dodge it, but it hit me right in the face. Ouch.

“Make yourself useful and bring some to your sister.”, my mother said as she gave me a bowl of stew.

I took the bowl and brought it upstairs. I knocked on my sister’s door and entered.

“Hey, are you alright?” I asked her in a soft Voice. My little sister Anna was paralyzed. She suffered from an unknown illness and lost the feeling in her limbs one year ago.

“I’m not feeling good.”, she replied to me. I approached her bed and put the bowl down on her nightstand. I sat down next to her and touched her forehead to feel her temperature.

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“You have a high temperature, that’s why you don’t feel well.” I told her. I took the bowl in hand and used the spoon to feed her.

“Is it too hot? Should I wait a bit?”

“No, it’s perfect.” I could hear her stomach growling.

I continued feeding her until the bowl was empty.

“Big brother, can I ask you something?”, she looked at me with big eyes as she asked that question.

“You can ask me anything.”

“When will I be able to walk again? I want to play with the other kids again.”

As she asked me that, I couldn’t help myself and tears started streaming down my face. I smiled at her and tried to answer as calm as possible.

“I don’t know. I wish I could tell you. I promise to find a cure for your illness, Anna. Please hold on just a bit longer.”

“Am I a burden to you brother?” As she asked me that question I started crying like a baby. My heart felt like it imploded in my chest.

“No, of course not,” I managed to get out.

I stroked her hair and she smiled at me. I stayed with her until she fell asleep, stroking her silky brown hair until she entered the world of dreams. I covered her slender body with the blanket and left her room. After I left her room, I walked down the stairs, sat down at the kitchen table and ate my portion of the vegetable stew. I finished my meal and went to bed. I was so tired that I didn’t even wish my mother a good night. As I closed my eyes, I almost instantly fell asleep.

I had a very strange dream. I found myself in a gigantic cave. I remembered this cave exactly. Ryu, Shizuka and I were kidnapped by goblins when we were playing in the forest a few years ago. They brought us into this cave and wanted to eat us, but my older sister Layla saved us. She followed our trails and killed all the goblins. In my dream there were no goblins. There was a huge lake in the center of the cave. I sat down and looked into the water. I could see my reflection perfectly. The mature features my face developed, my black hair and my blue eyes. My perfectly symmetrical nose and my mature chin. I stared into the water, captivated by my reflection. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen myself so clearly. As I studied my face in the water, I heard a voice behind me and turned my head. For a moment, I thought the woman in front of me was my older sister, Layla. She was around 160 centimeters tall, which was 10 centimeters taller than I was. She wore a black dress that covered her body almost completely. She wore her long white hair in a high ponytail with long side bangs. The most impressive aspects of her appearance were the black horns on her head and the black wings on her back. When I saw that, I realized that this wasn’t my sister. She looked like one of the demons the old man Gil was always talking about. I tried to move a bit further away from her. I hoped that what old Gil told us about demons wasn’t true.

“What are you doing here boy?

I lost myself in her voice as she asked me that simple question and couldn’t do anything but stare at her beautiful face. Her appearance and her voice left me speechless. She approached me and waved her hand in front of my face.

“Hello? Can you understand my language?”

She was talking very slow, as if talking to a child.

“Y-yes, I can understand you.” I managed to stutter a short reply.

“Let me ask you again. What are you doing here boy?”

“I-I do-don’t know…”

I couldn’t think clearly in her presence. It was not just her voice that was enchanting me. Her body, her face, her movements, her posture, everything about her captivated me. She sat down next to me and held her open palm over the water. Droplets of water flew through the air and formed a ball of water in her open palm. She played with the water in her hand and let it fall back into the lake.

“I was sure that I wouldn’t get the chance to talk to someone ever again.”

She looked up to the ceiling of the cave with a sad expression on her face as she said that. There was a huge glowing crystal where she looked at. It seemed that this crystal was the light source of the whole cave.

“How long have you been here?” I finally managed to get something out.

“Here? This is my first time. I’ve never been here before.”

Her answer left me speechless again, I didn’t know what I should say next. There was something that I wanted to know about her though.

“Are you… a demon?” It kind of felt like a taboo question. I looked at her face as I waited for an answer. She threw her head back and laughed.

“What, have you never seen one before?” She looked at me with a smirk on her face, as if I was a little stupid.

“I haven’t.” She had a puzzled look on her face as she heard my answer. Her face turned red, and she looked away shyly, as if she just had an embarrassing thought.

“Are you afraid of me?” She kept looking away even as she was waiting for my answer.

I thought about my answer for a short time. Then I replied.

“I’m not afraid. You don’t seem like a bad person to me.”

I winced as she suddenly took my hand and turned her head to me. She showed me the warmest and most genuine smile I had ever seen.

“Will you be my friend then?”

That simple question caught me off guard. Could I be friends with a demon, even if she didn’t seem like a bad person?

I looked deep into her purple eyes as I tried to find the right words. She just looked at me and held my hand as she waited for an answer. I smiled back at her when I finally answered.

“Sure.” That single word ignited a bright fire in her eyes. I could swear they shined brighter than the glowing crystal for a moment.

“Thank you. I’m sure we’ll be good friends.”

As she showed me that captivating smile again, I felt something tug at my consciousness. I heard someone call my name and looked around. As my mother pulled me out of the bed and I hit my head on the floor, I finally woke up. I looked around the room, still groggy from my dream. I could still see the woman’s smile. I shook my head and gathered my thoughts. It was just a dream, no reason to get all worked up. I followed my mom downstairs after changing my clothes and ate breakfast with her. She baked fresh bread and brought fruits from the fields. We ate our breakfast in silence, my head was still foggy from the dream I just had. I left the table as my mother went upstairs to feed Anna. I wonder if it was normal for a boy my age to dream about beautiful women. I left the house and started to walk the stony path to the town’s church, forgetting about the dream and focusing on what we had planned for today. It’s been a few days since I’ve seen Shizuka for the last time. Maybe she’s had a new prophecy that she can tell us about. It bugged me a bit, that she already had two skills while I didn’t even have my first. The world sure is cruel sometimes. As I walked past the marketplace, I noticed that the travelling merchants were back in town. I didn’t have any money on me right now, so I’d just have to come back later. As I finally reached the church, I spotted Ryu and Shizuka sitting on a bench next to the church’s door, waiting for me.

“Looks like I’m late, sorry about that.”

I apologized to them and hoped they didn’t have to wait long. Shizuka looked up and fixed her hair behind her pointy ears.

“We didn’t wait long, don’t worry.” She got up and fixed her dress. Ryu got up as well and gave me a fist bump.

“Have you thought about what I said to you yesterday?” I didn’t know whether he was trying to tease me, or if it was a serious question. I decided to answer it anyway.

“Yeah, you’re right. I really should stop worrying so much. I don’t want to end up like Gil after all.”

Shizuka had a puzzled expression on her face.

“What do you mean? What does Gil have to do with it?”

As I was searching for the right words to explain it, Ryu answered for me.

“It’s a joke between Kuro and me, you wouldn’t get it.”

Shizuka crossed her arms with a salty look on her face. It was obvious she hated being left out.

“Whatever, I didn’t want to know about it anyway.”

Ryu and I laughed again. We decided to tell Shizuka what the joke was about so she would stop being mad at us. After explaining it to her, we made our way to the library to check out the new books the travelling merchants brought. We’ve got a lot to catch up on and had a lot of fun on our way to the library. I wished every day could be as fun as today. As we entered the building, we agreed on a table to meet at, once we found a few interesting books. I walked around and looked for interesting books among the shelves. I felt drawn to a small book in a violet cover. I reached up, took it out of the shelf and looked at it. There was nothing on the cover, not even the name of the book or the name of the author. I opened the first page to see what the book was about. It was written in a mysterious language that I have never seen before. I wanted to put it back, but something told me that I should take it with me. I checked if someone was looking at me, then put it in a pocket on the inside of my coat. I found some adventure guides, grimoires and books about skills and abilities. I took the books to our table, where Ryu was already waiting. He had only two books, an adventure guide and a book about the importance of skills for swordsmen. I sat down next to him. As Shizuka finally came back, she brought almost ten books with her. She was sitting on the other side of the table so I couldn’t see what her books were about. She took her reading glasses out and immediately started reading. I always thought it was funny that a half-elf needed glasses to read. Her ancestors were hunting in the forest, killing animals with bows over tremendous ranges. Good eyes basically had to be in her DNA. And still she was sitting there, needing glasses to read. I looked to the side and saw that Ryu has started reading his books as well. I opened the first book, “how to become a great adventurer, Volume 1”. Even though I didn’t believe that there’s a shortcut to becoming a great adventurer, I still gave the book a try.