“My child” were the first words he heard. They were words filled with happiness, but he could feel the anguish behind them. He opened his eyes when he realized his senses had returned.

Before him was an incredibly frail woman, with crystal blue hair and eyes, who was cradling him in her arms. A blissful expression was all that could be seen on her when she turned to look at his cold indifferent eyes.

‘Who are you? Who are you to treat me like your child?’ He attempted to ask but all he could hear was an indistinguishable noise coming from his mouth.

He then moved his limbs, attempting to push the woman away, to no avail. He could hardly even turn his head but had still noticed how small his hands were compared to the woman.

‘Those three! How dare they turn me into an infant!’ He roared in his head.

“My child” She voiced out once again. However, this time, he could not feel a single shred of sadness from her voice. There was only an immeasurable amount of joy coming from the woman. With great effort, she forced herself to stand with her feeble body and started walking.

‘Where are you taking me!? Release me!’ He could not help but be agitated. Because he already knew from the prior attempt that it would not work, he did not rely solely on his voice. He forced his surroundings to swirl around the two of them, creating a force strong enough to annihilate everything in its path, and charged it straight at the woman.

To his surprise, ice had been the element to form, but that did no compare to the shock he received when his attack completely stopped right before it collided with the woman. Before long, shock and awe crept up on his face, replacing his annoyed look as he looked at her.

As if the woman knew his thoughts, she smiled sweetly at the him. “There is a cabin over there.” she pointed forward. “It is almost dark out. Let us rest inside.”

Feeling no ill intent from her words and learning from his prior two failures, he quietly let himself be taken away.

♦

When they reached the cabin, the sun had long set.

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He could see from the widows that the entire building was well lit. Peering inside, besides the bare essentials of a household, he only found large amounts of items meant for children, such as cribs, clothes, books, and even toys. Strangely enough, there were three different sets of items, yet there was not a single child in sight.

The first thing the woman did after entering the cabin was walk towards a large mirror hanging on the wall. Placing one of her hands on the mirror, she spoke, with a strong sense of urgency, “Owen, It’s Elaine. Come here as soon as possible.” before she taking her hand off the mirror.

After completing her task, the woman named Elaine quickly put all her attention on the boy. She first fed him a meal, bathed him, and then clothed him, not once taking her sight nor hand away from the child. Everything she had done screamed of inexperience but had been done with great deal of care. She had been cheerful the whole time.

Unlike her emotions, there was only a resounding silence between the two. She had not asked him a single question about his prior actions, and in turn, he, who had the body of a child, quietly accepted her care.

By the time Elaine had finished, it was time for bed. She wrapped the child with a thick blanket, placed him beside her as she prepared to sleep, and cradled the boy tightly in her arms, as if he was unwilling to let go.

Much to the child’s surprise, Elaine had already fallen asleep. He had thought, with how close the woman had stuck to him, she would have waited until he dozed off before she did.

As he felt his blanket dampening, he took a quick glance at her sleeping face, only to find tears falling from her eyes. He could not help but stare at the woman who had such a delightful look only to start crying when she slept.

He probably did not know why himself. Maybe it was the way she had tried her best to care for him, or maybe he felt sorry for the crying woman, but he allowed himself to fall deeper into her embrace, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

♦

“Since when was I this pathetic?”

An ominous voice rang loudly in the boy’s head, waking him up. He looked around himself, finding the woman named Elaine to his left and an unknown man to his right. Despite how big the bed was, the man too, similar to the woman, was sleeping right next to him with a hand over his body, as if afraid he would disappear.

He gave himself a soft smile before finally pushing himself away from their light grip.

‘I should figure out what they did to me … yes … I should’ He repeated, trying to convince himself.

Willing the air around him, he allowed his body to float away towards a wall. As if the wall did not exist, his body shifted past it with no resistance, bringing him outside.

It was already dawn. He had spent the entire night resting inside without a single notice of what was happening around him. This just strengthened his desire to leave.

Because he did not have a set destination, he moved towards a random direction where large amounts of life could be felt and fell back asleep.