In the middle of the forest, a lone figure was walking by themselves on a log that was being used as a bridge over a small river.
The lone figure was a young boy with pale skin, short black hair and mismatched eyes (his right being grey and his left being green) humming to himself as he treads through the quiet but dark forest. He was bored, he was just kicked out of the last village for stealing some food, again.
"Those people suck." He complained as he sat on the log and place his hands on his cheeks, staring at the stream flowing in front of him. "I was starving, it's not my fault that they're food was stolen. It was sitting on top of the window, and no one was watching it so what else was I supposed to do?" He grumbled as his stomach growled causing him to frown.
"Now where am I gonna eat?"
Just before he could say anything else, he smelled something delicious. The aroma filling his nostrils as he quickly climbed off the log and out of the river into the forest once again. After a few steps running, he found himself in a clearing where he saw a campfire with some delicious meat in the middle being rotisserie.
He quickly walked to it and stared at the meat with wonder and hunger setting in his system.
"Ooh, look at that, tasty food. Must consume meat." Soon, he reached his hand inside the fire, ignoring the fact that his hand was burning and was about to grab the meat until someone came in the clearing.
"Hey! Don't do that!" He felt someone pull him away from the fire and was sat down on a rock. Looking up his eyes met a pair of tortoise eyes staring at him with worry.
"Huh?" The boy called out as the woman sighed.
"Good heavens, please don't put your hand in a fire, you could get burned." She scolded him as he gave her an apologetic look.
"Sorry, I was just hungry because the last place I stayed at didn't feed me and people were being mean, so I didn't have any food for awhile." He apologized causing the woman to loosen her scowl and morphed into a frown.
"You poor thing." She said as she heard a ding go off, looking down at the ground where her bag was and saw that her timer going off indicating the food was done. She turned to the boy and saw him about to walk away but stopped him.
"Hey." She called out as he turned to her as the former patted the rock beside her. "Come sit, I have enough for two." She said as he smiled brightly before running over to her.
The woman gave him a giant leg and he gently bit into the meat, his eyes widening in awe before immediately chowing down on it, earning a giggle from the woman.
"My, you must've been quite hungry." She commented as he nodded his head in agrement.
"Mhm, I haven't eaten good food like this in a long time and been mostly eating scraps so thank you for this nice lady." The young boy thanked before diving back into his food, the chicken leg now half gone causing her to chuckle at him.
She then thought about him saying he ate scraps for a long time and that made her feel worried about him.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked slowly as the young boy gently swallowed his food and let out a sheepish chuckle and rubbed his neck.
"I mean, I've been eating on scraps since I was five years old." He stated as the woman eyes widened in shock.
"What, but why!? Did your parents not feed you properly!?" She asked as the boy eyes shifted away to the right.
"You mean if I had any to begin with." He admitted and the woman let out a silent gasp as she realized that the boy in front of her was an orphan. "From what I was told, I have no idea who my parents are or what they look like, only that they left me in a basket as a baby. I was raised along with other kids until I was four, but I was always picked on by them and the adults didn't do anything, so I ran away." He said with a pout on his face.
If the situation wasn't so serious right now, the opal-haired woman would pinch those adorable cheeks of his.
"I've been living on my own, sneaking around and eating scraps from dumpsters and trash the best I can without getting caught. Well at least now… the last town I just left got me and chased me out." He finished.
"You've been living alone for two years?" The woman asked as he nodded his head.
"Yeah, but it isn't so bad. I've got the whole world to explore and there's so many things out there that I want to learn." He said with a bright smile trying to lightened the mood.
"The whole world, you want to be an explorer?" She asked with a smile on her face as he shook his head.
"Yeah, I want to see all the cool things that are out there and become the greatest adventurer of all time!" He declared with enthusiasm.
"I see, okay how about this? Would you like to come with me?" She asked him as he tilted his head.
"Huh? Go with you, where?" He asked.
"To my home." She clarified as his eyes sparkled.
"R-really!? I can go with you!?" He asked in shock as she nodded her head.
"Well, I can't just leave you out here. I would hate for a child to be out here in the cold by themselves." She said with a comforting smile on her face. The boy gave a huge smile to her before he jumped towards her, causing the latter to catch him as he hugged her.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" He thanked unintentionally burying his head into her cleavage though she did not mind at all as she hummed in delight and gently rubbed his head.
"When do we leave!?"
"Right now, we'll find a good place to sleep and then we'll head out bright and early tomorrow." She stated as he nodded his head.
"Okay." He said with a bright smile before he suddenly realized something. "Oh, that's right, I need to tell you my name." He remembered before pointing to himself.
"My name's Itsuki!" He greeted her as she gave him a smile and did the same.
"Itsuki, that's a wonderful name. My name is Gaia." She responded as he nodded his head.
"Nice to meet you pretty lady Gaia." He said as the latter wanted him to call her just Gaia but decided against it and let him. After finding a comfortable spot in the forest, Gaia and Itsuki both got a good night rest up until dawn. Once they woke up, they then headed out to Gaia's home where Itsuki's life would change forever.