Nestled between the nurturing arms of valleys is a village hardly worth a dot on the map. A stone's throw away from the healer's home, if you ignore the constantly bleating goats you will notice two kids half-hidden in the lush, tall green grass, lying on their backs - a girl and a boy.

The boy raised his hand towards the crimson sky and tried grabbing one of the blue clouds, of course, nothing met his hands. He wondered how soft it would be, maybe like the coat of a sheep or a cotton ball.

"Hey haven't we been out long enough, let's go back the sky is quite red, Ashfall will start any time soon," the girl broke his chain of thoughts with a voice dripping with concern and lethargy.

"Why are you always so boring Zoe? Learn to enjoy life, kay! Hey, do you know why the sky turns red before an Ashfall ?"

"If I knew I doubt I would be your friend," Zoe replied callously, although it didn't affect the boy a bit.

"Aunt Berry once told me a story about Ashfall, you wanna listen?'

"No," Zoe replied in such a low voice that it could have qualified as a whisper.

Pretending to not have heard his friend he continued, the corners of his lips tugged upwards as he slipped into the wild world of imagination, "Long, long ago waaaaay before the first humans even walked on earth gods lived on Erza, there homes were castles this big," he outstretched his tiny limbs as far as he can to emphasize the size, "they were so big that their height could only be measured in miles, the sky god Ouranos and the sun god Helion were best friends even brothers just like you and me," at this statement his smile spread even further, "both shared a single roof since millennia but Helion's new wife, the moon goddess Luna wasn't happy with the situation, she wanted a home of her own" the smile shrunk and he took a momentary pause, "she threw a mighty tantrum and begged and pleaded and cried. Soon Helion, gave in and asked the God of creation, Vish for help. But he refused, apparently building one more of those massive structures would have resulted in an imbalance of power and would have split Erza. So the only choice left for Helion was to fight his own brother." His waned smile morphed into a dejected face.

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"Zoe, are you listening?" he asked, eyes trained on the murky moon. He got only a dismissive grunt in reply, but he took it as a sign of assertion.

"But Ouranos being older than the two was powerful so Helion and Luna would take turns fighting him, resulting in day and night. One day Helion somehow managed to injure Ouranos and before he could finish him off Luna betrayed and attacked Helion. It seemed that she was looking for an opportunity to kill both her husband and Ouranos but it backfired as even though they were gravely injured, they repelled her attacks. Angry and desperate the goddess called her kin for help - the Stars and they together attacked Ouranos and Helion, it is said that the war is going even in the present time...."

He stopped mid narration as he realized something, "Wait how is this even related to Ashfall? Maybe I have forgotten something, what do you think Zoe ?"

But he didn't get any reply. Without tearing his sight away from the crescent moon spoke, "Hmph. If you don't talk, then I won't too."

Still, there was no reply, as the wind blew they both laid there in silence. A smell reminding him of old coins tickled his nose. Giving up, he sighed and raised his other hand towards the sky and thought, my hand is the same color as the sky, huh. Same color!!! Red.

His mouth went dry as realization set in. Red. Blood. The warm deep red liquid dripped on his face as he held his hand above him in shock. Small rivulets of blood flowed over the arm and elbow, greedily absorbed by the sleeves of his white tunic.

He immediately stood up and looked at his side. He was greeted by the sight of Zoe twitching, lying in a pool of blood. A bunch of small dark hunched figures the size of infants huddled over her paralyzed body. They were busy ripping off chunks of flesh of her still alive body with bare hands and teeth putting her in mind-numbing agony. One of them looked at the boy and their eyes met.

The eyes of the creature met that of his, they were brown, round, and beautiful, just like the eyes of an infant child. But deep within it was not innocence but malice and hatred.

For a moment, he was unable to move, even though every cell of his body was screaming danger his muscles refused to budge. Zoe's eyes swiveled as blood and tears poured through them. Her lips parted and a small agonized voice stumbled out, "E...ren...Ru..."

His knees buckled and he fell on the ground with an audible thud. But that small shock stimulated his numbed brain enough for him to get into action.

Eren gathered the last bits of sanity he had left and ran towards the village faster than any twelve-year-old could. He wanted to scream but no words came out. His arms flailed and legs shook as he scampered, his body still not able to believe the sight it had just encountered, but Eren still pushed through and ran with all his might as her dying word echoed in his mind. Alas, the grim whirlwind of suffering, sorrow, and pain had just sucked him in.