A boy's face with short bluish black hair that fails to hide a sweaty forehead and a pair of blood red eyes with a curious gaze. That's what Corvin saw as he stared at his reflection on the water's surface absentmidedly. After coming back to his senses, he drank his water and started to carry the firewood he collected for the upcoming winter to his house. Getting out of the Tarlen forest, he passed near the various farms of the Tarlen village with villagers working on the fields.
The village, with a population of about a thousand people, is connected to the Demice city, supplying about a tenth of the food feeding the city. The village is between Demice city and the Werga mountains at the south of the city, and gets its name from the forest near the village.
After passing by the farms on the way back home, he notices a man in his 60s riding a horse carriage filled with boxes.
"Huh, Uncle Connor! Are you selling in the city today?"
"Yes, do you want to come with me Corvin? I'll give you some pocket change if you help me. Working is five times more annoying when you get old like me. I need help. And you need money right?"
"Thank you Uncle Connor, I will come back as fast as I can so can you wait for me? I need to carry these to my house first."
"Okay, I'm waiting dont worry. Sigh~, I wish Matt was as mature as you. All he does is laze around in his free time.", said Connor as he stopped the carriage.
"Don't say that, he at least does his tasks right? He just doesn't like doing extra work."
"Yeah, I know Corvin, he is my grandchild after all. Now don't keep me waiting. I want to come back early, tomorrow is gonna be busy."
"Sorry! I will be back quickly."
After defending his best friend like any good friend should, Corvin ran towards his home on the dirt road.
He was saving money to move to Demice city to learn. He always felt like stuff around him didnt make sense. No one around him knew why something as weird as magic existed, where monsters came from or how do they suddenly pop into existence in places with no humans. Most didn't even ask why. That's why he decided to move to Demice city, the biggest city of the Vyolor Margravate, to study.
Next year he will be 15 years old, old enough to get an education that isn't just the basics he learnt in the village. It would be great if he had talent in magic, then he wouldn't need money, but to this day he didn't show it. There were not many ways to find out if you had talent other than using it accidentally or other expensive methods nobles used.
While thinking about what he would do once he moved to the city he reached his home, left the firewood and ran back to Connor. They sold their products and came back to the village without any problems. Corvin, satisfied with the money he made today, went home really tired. After a bath, a dinner and some small talk with his family he quickly went to his room to sleep.
*****
As soon as he started to see what was around him, Corvin realized he was seeing a dream. His body was moving and talking on its own, he couldn't control it at all.
He was in a mostly white room with windows covering one wall, showing the outside. He was in front of a group of people of aging from mid 20s to late 50s sitting around a white table, some of the people had metallic folded rectangle things in front of them. He didn't know what they were. Behind him was another shining rectangle with shapes and letters on it. He didn't know what language it was but he felt like he knew what was written on the things. He slowly started to hear what he was saying. He was speaking a language he didn't know, but was somehow able to understand what he was saying.
"....logy, we might actually create an artificial general intelligence, with human emotions."
"....."
The people in front of him had very mixed expressions. Some looked excited while some looked terrified. Corvin didn't know what they were talking about, but he was curious.
"Can I ask a question Mr. Crow?", asked a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and deep green eyes.
The moment Corvin looked at her-
'Huh?'
- inexplicable emotions exploded in him. He didn't know where they came from or why he feels like this. The only emotion he understood right now was a sense of relief, like he found something he was missing for a long time.
"Please, Ms. Lily."
"What will you be using this technology for? Running it is expensive, could be dangerous and its uses are very few because of the cost."
"This is just a stepping stone for me towards my actual goal. Something that will be much more useful and easier to access. But developing it is going to be really hard which is why i want to join your organi...."
As the sounds slowly started to go quiet, he undertsood he was waking up.
*****
After waking up with raging emotions he decided to take a walk to the forest to cool his head. Outside, the sun was just starting to show itself, and no one in his home except him had woken up yet. While walking he was thinking about the weird dream he saw. He didn't know where the dream was in, who those people and especially that woman were, but for some reason he felt like they weren't strangers.
Sometimes, just as he was starting to calm his head, that woman he called Lily would pop up in his mind, and his heart would start beating wildly again. It was like his brain was telling him not to forget about her. But he eventually calmed his heart and headed back to his home to actually start his day.
Walking back home, he encountered an orange haired boy about his age, running away from the village with tears running down from his dark blue eyes. his clothes were stained by blood, and his left leg had an injury that looks like a bite, but doesn't look like any animal's bite at the same time. It was Matt, his best friend, in a bad condition.
"Huh? M-Matt? What happened to you?!"
"Corvy.....run away...from...the village."
"W-What are you talking about Matt, what happened?!!?"
"Eye...a giant eye....attacked the....village....and a fire....started.....Most...people are dead. Please....dont go back.....to the village."
After hearing Matt's out of breath response, Corvin suddenly felt like his brain stopped working.
"..?M-My mom? Dad? Are they okay?!"
"Your dad was trying to find your mother under the debris but-"
"Then I am going to help him! Thank you Matt, you should go to the city and find a doctor, I will find you after this is all over."
"Huh?! No, Corvin, that thing is still ther....-"
Corvin didn't listen to his friends plea as he ran towards his house as fast as possible.