In Lightleaf Town, the weather was much hotter than it was most of the time. The sun overhead was making the townspeople, leaving the shadows, sluggish and overwhelmed within seconds. There were only two things that comforted the townspeople on such hot days: the cold brook water flowing through the middle of town hundreds of miles to the south, and the second was the shadows of the great old trees in the town. These trees were planted generations ago by the ancestors of the townspeople.
All the farmers throughout the town were waiting for the later hours for the sun's rays to decrease a little bit. The women did not even think of stepping out of their houses, while the children were enjoying the refreshing water by the creek that was flowing at a very slow speed.
However, there was someone who disrupted this harmony throughout the town.
A young boy was walking along the path between the two fields. He had a veil over his head to protect him from the sun's rays. He was pulling a wheelbarrow loaded with about thirty logs. The young boy was sweating heavily from the hot weather and exertion, it looked like someone had poured a bucket of water over his head.
This young boy had short auburn hair and light brown eyes. His eyebrows were slightly thinner than the general male profile. His slightly curved nose was not large and fit his face perfectly. Everyone around him agreed that he had a very handsome face. Moreover, his height was well above the average height of the other men in town, but his physique was indistinguishable from a boy's. His arms and legs were so skinny that there was no place on his body that had decent muscle mass anywhere.
"Bastian! What are you doing out there in this heat?"
The young boy stopped walking with the sound he heard and turned in the direction of the sound. The owner of this voice was the town blacksmith Tenn Alor. The back of the horse carriage he drove was filled with water barrels.
"I've been slacking off work for the past few days,so it's all down to today." The young boy smiled bitterly.
"Haha! Old Elgon complains every time that you're mischievous. You shouldn't give him a chance, you'll only put more strain on yourself if you put off your responsibilities." Tenn Alor said goodbye to the young boy across from him after talking some more.
This young boy was known to everyone as Bastian. He was the grandson of Elgon Renslow, one of the town's elders. He was n't actually his grandchild, but he had raised by him since he was a baby. The identity of Bastian's parents was unknown, Elgon had found him abandoned in the bushes about fifteen years ago. Thanks to Elgon, Bastian had never from a lack of love. This was undoubtedly a great luck for an orphan boy.
Bastian glanced over the middle-aged blacksmith, who was walking slowly, and squinted at the sun overhead, sighed, and started walking. It had taken him less than half an hour to reach his house, but no doubt it had felt like ten hours to him.
When he arrived in front of Elgon's low-fenced house, he quickened his movements and walked straight to the backyard woodshed. After leaving the wheelbarrow and resting for a few minutes, he began to lay the woods one by one.
After finally placing all the wood, he took a long breath and started walking towards the entrance of the house.
Elgon's house was quite similar to the other houses in town. Wood and light stones were used in its construction. It was two floors high and had small windows that didn't let in much daylight. It had a small balcony upstairs. Despite being a typical townhouse, this house was the definition of tranquility for Bastian.
"Grandfather?" Bastian called out to Elgon as he entered, but he heard no sound.
His brows were furrowed for a moment, but then they suddenly relaxed. His grandfather must have gone to the center of the town to hold a meeting with the other elders of the village. Before he left to collect wood in the morning, his grandfather had told him something about the matter.
"After traveling under the scorching sun, my brain turned into an egg…" Bastian muttered and smiled bitterly.
After undressing, he went straight to the bathroom and jumped into the tub after it was completely filled with water. The water that filled this tub was cold stream water, so although the young man shivered for the first few seconds, over time he got used to the cool water and began to enjoy it.
After Bastian had thoroughly cleaned himself, he stepped out of the bathroom and put on some clean clothes. He lay down on his bed tiredly and soon fell into a deep sleep. There wasn't a single part of his body that wasn't tired, so it didn't take long for sleep to overtake him.
***
From the summit of a gigantic mountain, a blue ray could be seen piercing the clouds and advancing to the borders of the sky. The dark clouds in the sky assimilated the color of this ray and caused intermittent illumination of the surroundings.
There was a constant wind and many fires around. This wind carried the ashes of burnt trees, plants and various creatures on the mountainside to all parts of the mountain. On the lower side of this mountain, elephants the size of a small hill and unprecedented creatures were walking on the corpses of people who had died miserably. The agonizing cries that had previously been heard relatively clearly were slowly giving way to the cold silence of death.
Amidst all this chaotic environment, a woman was slowly climbing the stairs towards the top of the mountain. Her whole body was covered with a black tulle, her feet were completely bare. Her tall and slender figure looked as slender as a rose and she felt like she was going to be swept away by the strong wind. However, although every step this woman took seemed quite graceful, she also seemed unshakable.
When she finished climbing the stairs, she was walking straight towards a completely hollow crystal ball. A baby's cry could be heard as he neared the globe. When the woman reached the side of the globe, she stopped and looked directly at the crying baby, her long hair waving from the strong wind, obscuring her face.
Her pearly white and long-fingered hand approached and touched the crying baby. The baby's crying stopped for a second and he looked at her with his moist eyes. The woman withdrew her long-fingered hand and inserted it into the black tulle covering her body. When she took her hand out again, she seemed to be holding a curved black dagger in her fingers.
The woman began to move the dagger slowly towards the baby. Her long-fingered hand did not tremble in the slightest, it seemed as steady as a rock.
"No!"
Bastian jumped awake as a heaven-shaking shout echoed in his head. His heart was beating madly and he felt it was difficult to breathe. After just sinking into the wall for half a minute doing nothing, he left his bed and went to wash his face.
"This damn nightmare again..." Bastian muttered.
The cold water with which he washed his face had helped him regain his consciousness. He had seen the same nightmare many times before. Even though he had the same nightmare every time, down to the smallest detail, he could not overcome it. Each time he felt the same fear, despair, and sadness.
After washing his face, he went to the window of his room and looked out. It was still completely bright, it had not been long since he had fallen asleep. The fresh fatigue in his body was already proof of that.
"I'd better try to sleep again." Bastian yawned and headed back to his bed. He tried to fall asleep thinking about other things so he wouldn't remember the nightmare he had had. While he was busy with various thoughts for a few minutes, he suddenly remembered that today was the training day of the beast called Harald.
Bastian sullenly got up from his bed, took the wooden sword by his window and went downstairs. Every step he took was like an expression of his reluctance and fatigue. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford to disrupt Harald's training this time because he had pissed him off last time.
If he repeated a situation like this, Harald would most likely stab his wooden drill sword up his ass!
That's why the young man reluctantly left his bed and went downstairs. Looking around, he realized that his grandfather had not arrived yet. This was normal, it hadn't been a long time since he left anyway.
He left the house and began walking through the wide streets to the place Harald had designated to train them. He was sure that the training would turn into torture as usual, and the fact that his body was already tired made him even more frightened.
Harald Federick was the town's innkeeper and the best swordsman. When he had nothing to do during the day, he trained the young boys in the town and operate his inn in the evenings. Although this man had a tough personality and discipline, all the young boys in the town liked him very much. He was sacrificing his own time to educate the youth of this town and not demanding anything from them in return.
Although this man was almost forty years old, he had the look and energy of a young man in his twenties. He had black waves that reached his shoulders and black eyes that looked like them. Although his nose was slightly curved, it was interestingly in harmony with the structure of his face. He was the most popular bachelor in town because he had a unique charisma.