Birds chirping. Trees swaying gently in the wind. A small brook gurgles and passes on by. A deer takes a small break from hopping around to take a drink from the brook.

It would be the deer’s final meal.

From the shadows of a bush, Soleil takes careful aim at the deer’s chest with a wooden bow and arrow. She signals her partner to get ready to intercept the target if it decides to run away. Soleil takes a deep breath, tenses the bowstring and releases. The arrow whizzes through the air, striking the deer right in the chest. The deer lets out a yelp of panic, but before it can make a quick getaway, Soleil’s partner in crime, Ezra, swoops in from behind a tree and strikes the deer down with a hunter’s knife.

Soleil exits the camouflage of the bush to take a look at their collective catch. Ezra grins as he ties up the legs of the dead deer, “We’re eating good tonight, Soleil!” He holds out a hand for a fist bump which Soleil does.

“Gramps will be happy with the catch for sure. I’ll go get the horse so we don’t have to lug this massive thing around with our bare hands,” Soleil leaves the boy alone to do as she says.

Ezra finishes tying up the dead creature and takes a couple steps towards the small brook, looking at his reflection in the water. His frizzled dull pink hair cut in a messy undercut and sun-kissed face look back at him. He contemplates his hair for a moment, runs a hand through his locks, questioning whether or not he should go see Karla the hairdresser to conserve his perfect, stylish hairstyle. No way was he gonna let Gramps cut his hair like last time; that was a disaster.

A soft neight and a harsh cough bring him out of his thoughts. He turns around to see Soleil looking at him with a coy smile and a sly look in her eyes, already prepared to pick up the deer and put him on the horse. “As great as it is to see you contemplating your reflection, Ezra, I’d suggest you help me carry this deer on top of this lovely horse here before I decide to ‘accidentally’ let you fall into the brook.”

An audible gasp escapes Ezra’s lips, and he scurries over to help Soleil place the deer on the horse’s back. The task complete, the duo begins their trek back to Acre Falls, the small village they grew up in.

“So what do you think Gramps wants to talk about tonight?” Soleil asks her childhood friend.

Ezra shrugs, “I dunno, he’s probs gonna talk to us about ‘adulthood’ and what our future is looking like. I don’t need Gramps to tell me I’m going to become a hunter for the rest of my days though.” He pokes the deer and scrunches his face at the disgusting squishy noise the skin and whatever’s inside of it makes.

Soleil laughs softly, “But don’t you think we could be meant for something else? A destiny greater than that of a hunter or a farmer? Maybe Gramps will tell us we’re meant to fulfill a grand prophecy, I mean, we’re both eighteen now!” Soleil’s soft violet eyes gleam as she daydreams of what could be.

“Eeeh,” Ezra doesn’t seem on board with that idea, “I don’t think that’s what we’re meant to be. Besides, you’ve been reading too many stories and legends, we’re from Acre Falls, a village with like… twenty inhabitants; not from the great city of Ryuulong or Jaeyon.” Ezra kicks the dust as he mumbles out that last part.

“They’re not legends,” Soleil looks at Ezra judgmentally, “They’re true stories of the brave soldiers who fought during the Great Chaos or the Dividing War. These people also thought they were nothing, but they accomplished fantastic deeds that even the Goddess recognized.”

“Right, right, and hunting down a deer is definitely going to get me into the Goddess Hall of Fame, I’m sure.” Soleil slaps Ezra on the arm. Ezra massages his arm and sticks his tongue out in Soleil’s direction.

Soleil looks off into the distance, the soft afternoon breeze letting her long auburn ponytail flow with the wind, “I want an adventure too…” She says softly, mostly to herself. Ezra says no more and they walk in silence the rest of the way back to the village.

Acre Falls, a small remote village to the far East of the Litian Kingdom, was known for two things: its wide fields of wheat all over the many small hills of the village and the imposing backdrop of the Dividing Mountains that loomed over the villagers day after day, separating the Litian Kingdom from the Darkian Empire. As imposing as the mountains were, there was always a certain solace to them; as unmoving as they were, they were always a constant in Soleil’s and Ezra’s lives, they could rest assured that the mountains would always be there to greet them in the morning.

The moment they arrive in front of Gramps’ village home, they unload the deer, hang the animal in the cooler room of the kitchen to let the meat mature for tonight, and meet up with Gramps who was sat on the front porch of the home in a wooden rocking chair, reading the newspaper.

“Wassup Gramps?” Ezra plops down in the seat next to their elderly guardian, “What’s the newspaper gotta say today?”

“Not much Ezra,” Gramps replies, turning a page, “Just speaks of big city news we’re too far removed to understand.”

“But we could visit the big city eventually,” Soleil points out, leaning back on the pillar. She hears Gramps sigh, his weathered face looks at Soleil in a disappointed manner. “We’ve already had this conversation, Soleil. There’s no need for you to visit places like Hariq or Ryuulong. They’re too far anyway and would take weeks of travel by horse.”

“I get that… but there’s got to be a way! If the problem is defending myself, then that’s no problem, I’m good with a bow and a knife, and I’m agile on my feet!” Soleil protests, repeating the same arguments she’s said over and over again. She kneels at his feet, “I’m an adult now, Gramps. You can let me go.”

Gramps’ mouth is a thin line as he shakes his head solemnly. Soleil grits her teeth, stands up abruptly and stomps off in the direction of the fields. Ezra prepares to stand up to chase after her, but Gramps holds out his hand, shaking his head once more, “There’s no need. Soleil’s a good soul, but she’s got a short fuse. Just give her some time.”

Ezra looks at Gramps with a quizzical look, “You two have been this argument constantly though. It’s gotta stop at some point. You know as well as I do that sooner or later, she’ll leave and you won’t be able to stop her then.”

There’s a beat. Gramps rocks back and forth slowly in his chair. There’s the faint noise of a sheep bleating in the distance.

“Ezra,” Gramps begins slowly, “Go grab Soleil, you two should pick up the ingredients to make a delicious stew to mix with the deer meat tonight.” Gramps rocks back and forth once more as Ezra reluctantly stands. He stretches before leaving in the direction of the fields.

At the bottom of one of the many hills of Acre Falls, Ezra sees Soleil laying at the bottom of a hill, reading one of her many beloved novels. Ezra prances over to her position and stands right in front of her. He notices dirt and kicked grass to the left of Soleil. Her boots are dirty. Her general demeanor is calm now, so Ezra attempts casual conversation.

“Which story are you reading this time?”

Soleil doesn’t look up from the novel. “My favorite one,” she says, a soft smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “The story of Elicia Orel, the first queen of the Litian Kingdom. She appeared out of nowhere during the Dividing War, her skills unparalleled to even the strongest general at the time.”

Ezra waves his hand, “Yeah yeah, I’ve heard you explain it a hundred times. I personally believe Mirza was better though. Certified badass, blessed by the Goddess, and a hottie. He even married Elicia as a bonus and became the first King, there’s nothing cooler than that.” He sits down in the grass next to her, looking passively at the seemingly infinite rows of wheat that lay before him.

Soleil looks up from her book, rolling her eyes at Ezra’s statement, “You’re objectively wrong, Ezra. Although we can both agree Mirza and Elicia were the best first rulers a kingdom could ask for.”

“Absolutely.” They sit a minute in silence, with only the sound of flipping pages filling the air. Seeing that Soleil seemed to have cooled off thanks to the story, Ezra decides to state the reason why he came.

“Gramps asked us to pick up the ingredients for a stew to go along with the deer tonight, you coming?”

Soleil ignores the question and there’s the distinct noise of another page being flipped. Then a sigh escapes Soleil’s lips, “Fine. The market should still be open, let’s go grab some vegetables.” She stands up, closing the book, and placing it temporarily in a pouch attached to her hip.

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The two head off to the marketplace, investing their pocket money in carrots, potatoes, onions; anything they can get their hands off before the shopkeepers close their stall for the night. There’s much bartering, especially when it came to the potatoes, for some reason, the shopkeeper thought it was completely fine to sell them at twice the price Ezra was used to.

“What a greedy bald man,” Ezra grumbles on their way home. “Who sells a pound of potatoes for 10 gold pieces, those potatoes aren’t fresh from the soil!”

Soleil laughs, “Please, he could’ve fooled me, I don’t know the difference.”

“Well, I am the master chef of the family after all.”

They idly chatter until they arrive home where Soleil becomes awkwardly quiet once more. Dinners were always awkward when Soleil and Gramps fought. Ezra hopes it won’t impact whatever news Gramps had for them.

Ezra takes complete control of the kitchen, everyone is at his beck and call. He handles all the slicing and dicing, he was always the quickest and most accurate of the three. Soleil handles the deer, she delicately skins the animal and collects everyone’s favorite part of the deer. Gramps creates his signature stew sauce which always gave a mouthwatering smell throughout the house. All the ingredients ready, Ezra takes Gramps’ pot, already prepared with the necessary amount of water and sauce, and he places it on the stove, carefully adding in the meat and vegetables little by little over the next hour.

Once the masterpiece is finished, as can be told by the tender color of the meat and the delicious smell that wafts through the air, Ezra takes the pot and brings it over to the kitchen table to enjoy. “One deer stew coming right up! Not gonna lie, I think I outdid myself tonight,” Ezra states proudly, serving his two housemates.

They all dig into the food, nothing’s heard except for munching and slurping. Soleil eats the fastest, devouring the stew and letting out a satisfied sigh when she finishes, “That was delicious, that’s incredible Ezra.”

Ezra’s ego boosted once more, all he does is snicker proudly in reply. The remaining two finish their meal right after Soleil. As Gramps sets his bowl down, the duo feels that he’s about to say something.

“Soleil,” Gramps begins. The room immediately tenses up. Soleil eyes her guardian carefully; Gramps weighs his next words carefully. “It’s not that I don’t want you to travel…” Soleil interrupts him, “I have a compromise to make.” She blurts out the words, “Let Ezra and I travel to the Goddess’ Shrine in Rosemire. If the Goddess gives us approval to travel, then you can’t object. Plus, if Ezra comes along, it'll be safer.”

Ezra nods approvingly, that did seem like a reasonable plan. Gramps remains stone-faced. “Soleil, let me finish.” He sees Soleil retreat in her seat, arms crossed, “Look at your ribbon, the one you use for your ponytail, look at its inscriptions.”

Soleil takes the ribbon out of her hair. The golden yellow ribbon has been with her as long as she could remember, she’s always worn it, and she never lost it. Inside the smooth silk of the ribbon, Soleil could faintly make out inscriptions, they looked like runes, writing from time bygone.

“There have always been people after you, Soleil. That ribbon you have is proof of that, it’s been blessed by a God of some sort to keep you safe. That’s why you’re here. It’s to keep you safe,” Gramps explains.

“So…” Soleil doesn’t take her eyes off the ribbon, “This ribbon was blessed by the Goddess?”

Ezra takes a look at it, “I dunno, the runes don’t appear like the one on the Goddess’ Shrine.” Soleil sends him a confused look, “A Darkian God blessed this ribbon?” She’s getting more lost by the second.

Gramps shakes his head, “That would be strange for a ribbon such as this to be blessed by a Darkian God. The point is, you need to stay out of danger, and you have, for the past 18 years. The same goes for Ezra, you’re both here to stay safe.”

“Me too?” He points at himself, eyebrows furrowed, “I don’t have a ribbon blessed by the Gods though, that’s not fair.” He pouts, earning a small chuckle from Gramps.

“Just because you don’t have a ribbon to identify you doesn’t make you any less valuable in the eyes of certain people,” Gramps says cryptically.

“But why?” Soleil continues to ask for answers, “What does this ribbon identify me as? Are you saying I can’t go ask the Goddess for her blessing to travel?”

“You’re not going anywhere. I can’t tell you what this ribbon means; you just need to remain safe.”

Soleil gives one last long look at the ribbon in her hands, at the runes weaved so finely inside the silk, before she ties it back up in her hair. She stands from the dinner table, grabbing her bowl and placing it in the sink.

“I’ll do the dishes,” Gramps says, “You two can go to your room if you’d like, get some sleep.”

Ezra nods silently, bringing his own utensils to the sink before heading up the stairs to his shared room. Soleil is already in the attic bedroom, pacing back and forth slowly, deep in thought. Ezra closes the door slowly behind them.

“What do you think Gramps is hiding?” Ezra muses out loud. “I can’t tell if he’s trying to get us to discover our own identities for ourselves or if he just told us to mess with us.”

Soleil places the book from her pouch on the small bookshelf she keeps next to her tatami mat. An idea hits her, “Let’s go to the library.”

“It’s definitely closed.”

“Doesn’t matter, the owner always forgets to lock the back window,” Soleil says. “Let’s go find some books. If this ribbon is so important, there has to be info about it somewhere.”

Ezra doesn’t look convinced, “Why don’t we wait until morning, this seems a little rash…”

“No. Let’s do it now,” Soleil is already opening the attic window, “Not only as an act of defiance to Gramps but also because if I don’t get answers now, it’s going to eat me up.”

Ezra looks back at the door, then sighs, rubbing a hand through his hair anxiously, “Fine, but if Gramps catches us, this is all your fault.”

Soleil just shoots him a grin in reply, before going on the ledge of the window and jumping into a nearby pail of hay meant for the cows tomorrow morning. Ezra follows suit.

The two head off to the central street of Acre Falls. The night air is settling in; Ezra feels the cold bite of the wind. There’s a lump in his stomach when they arrive at the library. This felt weirdly exciting. Soleil circles the building and nudges at all the square windows until one slides open.

But just as Soleil is about to jump into the library, a massive flash of light erupts in the nearby forest.

“Did you see that?!” Ezra’s eyes are wide open as his face is glued to the forest. They’d never seen that before.

Soleil clutches Ezra’s arms, “We have to check it out.”

Another pillar of light flashes in the forest.

“It’s definitely magic,” Ezra mumbles. He weighs his options. They could ignore the light, trespass into the library and spend their night looking for answers; they could also investigate the light and maybe make a life-changing discovery about the forest; or they could go home, forget everything Gramps told them and live out the rest of their boring villager lives.

Ezra groans, “Of course we have to explore that light, let’s go.”

Soleil’s eyes are gleaming with joy, she’s basically skipping alongside Ezra as they make their way into the forest.

“On second thought,” Ezra whispers aloud, “Should we have brought weapons just in case?”

Soleil shakes her head, “There’s no way an evil entity is in the forest, it’s probably just a harmless magical creature like a pegasus or something that wandered here.”

“I don’t remember pegasus shooting out pillars of light,” Ezra mumbles to himself.

They shuffle to the location hidden by the shadows of the trees. They approach a small clearing but find nothing. The air is perfectly still. Soleil leaves the protection of the shadows to analyze the clearing. Soleil squats to look at the grass. She notices squashed grass and some blades of grass appear burned…

She stands up, turning back to Ezra. She barely notices the panic in his face before the wind is blown out of her by a powerful spell, her entire body sent back into a nearby tree. Ezra can’t feel his legs anymore as he sees the person responsible for the pillar of light appear in the clearing.

It’s a man with shoulder-length, staggered white hair and cold, piercing blue eyes that shake Ezra’s soul to its very core. The man had just created a spell with his bare hands that had caused Soleil to be thrown back wildly as if a bull had just run into her. He was Darkian. Only a Darkian could use spells without a weapon to aid them.

What was a Darkian doing in such a remote region of the Litian Kingdom?

The man begins to approach Soleil who’s currently trying to regain her breathing. She’d never felt such ache in her bones before.

Ezra’s thoughts are racing. What was this Darkian going to do to Soleil? Ezra feels his belt and lets out a small gasp when his hand feels his hunter’s knife holster. He had kept it. In a moment of terrified determination, Ezra exits the safety of the trees to sneak up behind the Darkian. If he could just stab in the leg, that would give Ezra enough time to grab Soleil and run.

He brandishes the knife, about to stab the Darkian, when suddenly his arm gives way and he can’t move his body anymore. The mage turns around, piercing cold eyes digging deep into Ezra’s very being. Ezra can’t feel his surroundings, he feels as though his life might flash before his eyes.

With one hand still using the spell that paralyzed Ezra, the mage takes the opportunity to grab Ezra’s knife and place it right at his throat.

There’s no emotion in his eyes when he speaks. “Sorry, but I was given orders that there must be no witnesses. Don’t take it personally.”

Ezra’s eyes widen in fear. Was he about?

Behind the mage, Soleil hears what the mage says, and takes a giant leap towards the Darkian, effectively pushing him, ruining the mage’s concentration and freeing Ezra from the spell.

“Run. Get Gramps, tell him I’m sorry,” Soleil says before pushing Ezra in the direction they came from.

“Tell him yourself,” Ezra says before running in a wobbling manner towards the village.

Soleil sees the mage regain his attention and points a finger at Ezra. A laser manifests on the Darkian’s hand, and Soleil holds out a hand towards Ezra, “NOO!!!”

Soleil’s fingertips begin to glow, and a rift in space appears in front of Ezra for him to fall into right as the concentrated laser beam transpierces his shoulder. Ezra disappears behind the rift, and the rift closes before the mage can load another spell.

Soleil runs. She can’t feel her legs, only adrenaline is giving her the will to keep going. The mage is no doubt behind her, probably about to paralyze her just like what he did to Ezra. She hears the wind howl in her ears, as she resorts to her last plan.

She feels a spell whizz right past her, probably that same laser spell. The Darkian is trying to stop her from running.

She holds out her hand one more time, right as she runs straight towards the tree. She sees a rift in space appear, and, without looking back at the forest for one last time, jumps in eyes closed. The rift closes.

It’s as if Ezra and Soleil had never wandered into the forest in the first place.

Gramps rocks back and forth in his rocking chair. He looks up to the night sky. “May the Goddess protect them from harm on their travels.”

A star twinkles in response.

Gramps smiles softly, satisfied.