It was late at night when an old couple was awoken from their sleep by the sound of heavy rain pelting its way onto their roof, the male of the couple was quick to jump out of his bed, hurrying his steps as he rushed to the rack by the door to retrieve his coat, he pulled it over his night gown and quickly collected the lamp his wife had just lit for him.

He opened the door and left his wife standing there as he rushed out into the night, cursing himself at his stupidity, he couldn’t believe he thought he could leave the fish out through the night and nothing would go wrong, he should have just brought it in like his wife had told him too, the woman as naggy as she was, she was always right and she could read the weather better than he could read a book.

He huffed as the rain soaked through his coat and his night clothes eventually soaking his skin, he was bound to catch a cold but there wasn’t going to be a day off for him, no such thing for a fisher man. He finally reached the dock where he had left the fish out to catch the sun and then he cold air so by the morning he would have some proper salted fish to sell, but he guess his customers would just have to wait till the afternoon.

He took the tarp that the fish had been lying on and rolled it up, using a string to tie it quickly, he hefted it onto his shoulder, thanking the heavens that his health had not declined thanks to all of the hard work he had done throughout his life, otherwise he would have had to hire someone to keep his business going and that would have been money out of his pocket.

He hurried his steps to get back to his house even with the weight on his shoulders, but as he neared his house he suddenly found himself falling over and landing face first into the wet sand, he let out a curse as he turned to see what the cursed thing he had just tripped over was. His eyes widened and his mouth hung open at the sight of a naked child lying halfway on the shore halfway in the water as the rain pelted onto his pale skin.

The man was no longer concerned for his fish as he quickly rushed to the child and picked him up; the poor thing was shivering and from what he could tell, barely breathing. The man pulled the child’s small frame to his chest and quickly ran to his house. His wife frowned at him when she saw that he returned without the fish and moved to ask why, but he rushed past her and into the house.

She quickly followed him in and watched as he placed something on their bed, she looked him up and down before rushing to his side and gasping when she saw the child, it didn’t take long for her instincts to kick in as she quickly rushed to their vanity and pulled out one of her shirts and a towel, she ran back and dried the child off as quickly as she could, pulling the shirt over him while her husband finished building a fire in their chimney.

He came and collected the child wrapping him up in a blanket before setting him down in front of the fire and moved to change his clothes while his wife moved to cuddle the child against her. When the male was finished he quickly set a kettle on the fire and placed some of the fish broth they had eaten before going to bed to reheat, they had to get the child  warm and quickly if they wanted to save his life.

“”””

The sun was now rising in the sky when the man awoke, he looked next to him and his wife was still asleep but she had the child bundled up and tucked against her, he smiled at the sight reminding him of a time when his children had been babies, his wife would never let them sleep far from her, even when two had come at the same time, he had found himself sleeping on the ground by the fire as his wife and children stole his bed, but he could never be angry at them, as long as they were comfortable he would be fine.

He shook his head to clear his mind, it was thirty years ago that they had their last child and that child was now captain of the guard for the royal guard, a great achievement for someone as young as he was. He looked back at his sleeping wife and moved over gently shaking her, it didn’t take long for her eyes to open and when they did he gestured to the child and she nodded.

Soon they were both up and dressed for the day, eating out their buns and broth from the night before, when they were finished, the woman wiped the child down and pulled on back her shirt on him along with a jacket and a pair of socks and then they were out the house. The man locked up the door and then helped his wife to get up in the carriage while she held the sleeping boy.

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It was an hour before they had reached the small port town but instead of setting up his stall like he did every morning he headed straight into town and to the clinic. The doctor in charge of the clinic greated them and he told her what happened the night before, she nodded and took the child from the woman before leading them further into the clinic.

She stripped the child down and frowned at the sight of him, she looked over at them before running her hand through his rose gold hair. She moved it aside so she could take a peek at his ears and her frown deepened when she saw that they weren’t pointed, or big and floppy or anything of the sort. She had never seen ears that were small and round like his and that made her more curious about the child.

She quickly moved closer pulling up one of his lids to reveal light brown eyes hat had a dash of green in it and she stepped back rushing over to her shelf and pulling out a book, she flipped through it but could not see anything about the child ears or eyes or even the form of his face. She shut it and decided to would be best to just focus on the child’s wellbeing than trying to find out his origins.

She quickly checked his temperature and nodded, he was warm enough and luckily didn’t have a fever, she checked his heart beat and frowned at how slow it was beating but also that the fact that this would mean that he was close to death but he showed no other symptoms. She asked the couple if he had woken since they found him and received a shake of their heads in return.

She ran her hands through his hair and nodded when she found a bump in the middle of his head and moved back to pull a blanket over the child “okay well from what I can see the child was knock unconscious and probably won’t wake until the bump is gone and his heart is beating a bit slower but that may depend on what species he is, but other than that he is as healthy as can be.”

The woman smiled at her and nodded “well that is good to hear, I’m glad we were able to help save the little one… but what do we do with him now, I know we were the ones that found him but I don’t think we’ll be able to provide for him like we did our own children and I’d feel horrible if we just left him on the side of the road or something.”

“Oh you can just take the child to the temple, I’m sure the Grand Priestess will be happy to have him there in the meantime while they look for his parents.” The doctor beamed with joy as she mentioned the Priestess and the couple nodded, they had time and the trip was supposed to be have a day, so they could travel now and be home in the night.

The couple thanked the doctor and quickly dressed the child, they bundled him up and was quick to get on their carriage after collecting a note from the doctor that would make it easy for them to be able to see the Priestess right away.

“”

They got off the Carriage the man taking the child from his wife as she stopped to stare up at the white temple that stretched into the sky with bits of gold running along its surface. The place was simply magnificent and seemed to give off a glow that would draw anyone to it. The man placed his hand on his wife’s chin and closed her mouth before ushering her into the temple.

A young woman dressed in a long white dress with a hood that was drawn over her head and a mask on her face passed them humming something as she went, she stopped and turned to face the elderly couple giving them a light bow before tilting her head in question. The man was quick to tell the girl what was happening and handed her the note.

She collected it and read it quickly her eyes widening before she gave them a small bow and turned running out of the room, leaving them to stare behind her in shock. They didn’t have to wait long before a tall woman dressed in blue robes that had gold trimming, gold ornaments adorning her platinum white hair and long white ears that stood stiff into the air.

Her dark eyes seemed to stare into their as her rose pink lips drew into a frown, she walked up to them and the bowed receiving a simple nod s a sign for them to raise their heads “I understand this child is not yours and you wish for me to find his family?” her voice was soft and it seemed to soothe away the worries they had.

“Yes Nǚ jìsī, we found him on the shores by our home last night and today we were told to bring him to you.” The man was quick to speak as he raised the child up for him to see.

She stepped forward moving the blanket so she could look at his face “well now who would leave behind such a beautiful child, how cruel.” She clicked her tongue and collected him from the man “don’t you worry little one I’ll find your papa and mama for you and if I find out that they really did leave you behind I’ll have this world cleansed of them.” The older couples eyes widened and she looked up at them with a smile “thank you for taking care of him but I will take it from here you may go.” With that the Priestess turned on her heels and vanished deeper into the temple.