Tick Tock, Tick Tock as 'He' watched the sands of time pour out of the hourglass, each grain the first and the last breath of worlds. Time means something different entirely in this eternal plane. "What am I?"...., "Who am I?" this thought echoed in his mind endlessly.
'Amaranthine...., Amaranthine', this name echoed in the halls of time. "Is that my name? Who's voice is that? " He asked himself. 'AMARANTHINE!!' he no longer doubted that this was his name, for the godly echo of a female voice stopped the flow of the hourglass sands as if to say, "I am talking to you."
"You need to return home, Amaranthine; Mother demands it," said the female's voice. However, Amaranthine was finally having some sense of curiosity, something he had not yet experienced. So he decided to incarnate himself into one of the worlds he so indifferently watched begin and end in an attempt to feed this newfound feeling and hopefully escape those that would seek to stop his newly awaked sense of curiosity.
He woke up in a meadow of grass plains as far as the eye could see. He noticed massive mountains in all directions, in the distance covered in thick snow, suggesting that the season had changed around the area he appeared. He got up, looking at his hands with a pure thrill in his eyes as this had been the first time he had seen his body but "did... I always have a body? " He asked himself, seemingly unable to remember his ethereal form.
On the road untravelled through the valley of winters, a merchant, a senile old drunkard by native standards riding a rustic carriage drawn by a single black sheep the size of a bull with two tails coming from the market in Nordel, a town to the north of the valley.
The drunk merchant stopped to speak to the young boy standing naked in the middle of a valley that should have endless blizzards. "Did this boy do this to this land?" the merchant asked himself. Then, with a tremble in his voice, he uttered, "Hey kid, who... what happened here, and if you don't mind explaining why you walk around without foot gloves? " Amaranthine slowly looks at him and walks towards him with the joy and hesitation a child has meeting a new potential friend.
Amaranthine tries to open his mouth to speak. Still, the drunk merchant interrupts him and says, "I know just what you need 'see,' I am the greatest merchant around these parts and specialize in foot gloves for all seasons. These here are the top-of-the-line foot gloves for someone of your fine fashion taste." Then, pulling out a pair of socks that seem to glow with extreme passion. "That will be 30 lyraks," he said, to which Amaranthine responded, "What are lyraks? ".
Realizing the naked boy had no means to pay, he put his prized creations away, muttering to himself in discontent. Next, he pulled out a pair of used socks with holes, throwing them at Amaranthine, and said, "That will be 25 lyraks, but you can pay me later. My name is Sebal, the greatest foot glove merchant of our lifetime. here wear this coat. You can't walk around naked. Oh, that will be another 25 lyraks. I'll just put that on your tab. By the way, what is your name, kid."
With confusion over what had just happened, he replied, "I am Amaranthine." Gleaming with embarrassment for being unable to pronounce the boys' name, Sebal responded, "I will call you Amara, short and sweet and a much better name, in my opinion." Amaranthine gleefully mutters to himself, "Amara," and smiles Sebal offers to give Amara a ride for a measly 50 lyraks as Amara had mentioned that he did not know where he was. Sebal thought he might find some answers and suitable lodging in the next town.
Sebal told Amara that the journey to the next town would take them three days, indicating that they would need to camp in the forgotten woods. Without the slightest understanding of the implications uttered by Sebal. Amara showed indifference to the idea, while the whole encounter had Sebal nearly sober. The mere fact that he found this unknown young boy in the middle of the valley of winters suggested that he was no ordinary child.
The valley of winters, a land inhabited by dangerous creatures covered in a perpetual raging blizzard that keeps the valley unlivable to all but Ice-born, was remarkable in itself. However, considering he was in a section, unaffected by the blizzard nor showed signs of the Ice-born creatures who inhabit that region was an even more intriguing mystery. Sebal watched Amara gleefully gazing at all around him as if it was the first time seeing the world before him. He smiled as these were not the kind of lands that ordinary people would dare admire for their beauty.
Day turned to night, and Sebal stopped the carriage setting up camp for the night in the forgotten woods; Sebal made a simple fire, the now sober Sebal took out a small to medium-sized animal and began to prepare and cook it over the fire. Amara watched the flame as he had watched the sands in the hourglass but now, with every fiery spark jumping out the flame, he watched with absolute wonder and excitement. Once the food was ready, Sebal handed Amara a piece of meat; Amara began sniffing it at first, as if, to inspect its purpose, Sebal ate his meat prompting Amara to mirror him upon taking a bite into his meat. His eyes filled with tears, and he took another bite and another; Sebal asked if it was tasty enough to warrant such tears, to which Amara could only nod his head, sniffling and eating. "You are a weird kid Amara, but I've decided that I like you. " Laughing out loud, pouring himself a giant pint of rum, Amara hearing his laughter, awkwardly mimicked Sebal and began laughing, eventually turning into a genuine laugh of his own.
Their laughter echoed throughout the forgotten woods. These lands had long since grown accustomed to the sounds of fear and terror.
Amara being unable to sleep with all the excitement of the day he took an interest in the black beast that Sebal calls Elu and asked Elu(Black Sheep), "does he use your hair to make these wonderful foot gloves? pointing at the hole-ridden things on his feet". The black sheep licks his face as he cuddles inside its fluff and falls asleep.