On a bright and sunny day, the sky was free of clouds, the heavens were observable in all their blue glory, and on this day in a certain village a child had just been born.

The cries of a newborn could be heard loudly through the walls and the door of the simple wooden house, within one could observe an exhausted looking woman, with long brown hair, holding this crying child tightly to her chest, her face however shone with pure happiness and warmth as her eyes firmly gazed at her baby.

She was lying in bed, her lower half covered by bedsheets, and her upper body was propped up with several pillows.

On a chair next to her sat a burly man, with short black hair, wearing a loose shirt and pants with suspenders, he too had only eyes for this child, he wore a bright smile on his face as he kept adjusting the position of his head, at one moment looking at the baby, whereas at the next he would look at the woman, after some time he could no longer contain himself and reached out with both of his arms to embrace the woman that was holding the newborn "Oh my lovely Margareth! Look at this healthy boy! Our boy!" he exclaimed with joy "Not so tight, not so tight!" his wife Margareth scolded him with a smile "Don't make her overexert herself right now, Markus." a third voice chimed in, although it sounded like helpful advice and not an order, the man, Markus, gave in and lessened his grip around his wife, however, he would not let go of her, afraid that this moment would slip and disappear like a dream.

This third voice belonged to another woman, her disposition differed from the other two's, she was wearing a white gown, and as if her job here was done, she had walked towards the door to leave, only stopping at the door briefly to leave behind those words "Thank you truly, Liz, without your help his birth wouldn't have gone this smoothly." Markus lowered his head and soon raised it again as the door to their home had opened, he continued "If you are ever in need of something, do come knocking at any time of the day!" the freshly appointed father had a hard time truly expressing how happy he was that neither his wife nor his child had been in any danger during the delivery, so he could only offer his services in return; he was a carpenter, the only one in this village, although there rarely were any big jobs for him, every now and again people would ask him to repair their doors, windows, bedframes and such. His wife, Margareth was a seamstress, she would buy wool from the local farmers and create various clothing, tissues, and sometimes even more formal gowns, like the one Elizabeth, or Liz for short, was wearing.

Elizabeth was an experienced midwife, her true profession was to be a priestess in the local church, and she would usually help all around the village whenever there were soon to be new additions to the number of villagers, she never asked for payment, but people felt so greatly indebted to her, that they would offer donations to the church, offer fruit or meat at the altar to thank the gods for having sent such an angel to this remote village, or provide free services from their own profession.

"What shall we name him, dear?" Margareth asked as her eyes looked away from the young child for the first time since his birth, pure adoration could be seen as she instead gazed at her beloved husband.

The burly man fell into thought, holding his chin with his hand and caressing his beard, then he slammed his fist onto his palm, seemingly having found the answer "Frey!" he exclaimed "Frey?" Margareth displayed a puzzled expression, pondering over how well this name suited their lovely boy "Yes, Frey. Meaning 'free'. I can tell that our boy won't be tied down in this village like us old folks." Markus said and chuckled. "Frey." Margareth called out towards the boy in a gentle manner, which assured Markus, though she wouldn't admit it, she liked this name, and the meaning behind it.

A mischievous smile slowly surfaced on Markus' face, Margareth faced him and smiled as well.

At that moment Markus believed that he had seen a goddess, his smile freezing in place as his heart skipped several beats; he may have just fallen in love with his wife all over again.

With loving and caring parents like these, Frey's childhood was filled with warmth that could rival the sun.

Over the first few years Margareth neglected a majority of her work in order to properly care for her firstborn, talking to him all day, trying to teach and give him information even before he was really ready.

Many of the villagers came by their home now and again to offer gifts, the main contributor were the farmers, the baker, and his wife, but many others would also often stop by for the exchange of some banter and gossip.

It was a small village, everybody practically new everybody, as well as everything about them, even the smallest differences in someone's usual behaviour could cause a wave of rumours to spread, of course, the boy Frey was a hot topic for a long while, he was the newest addition to the village after all, and his future prospects were unimaginable… people liked to dream big.

By the age of three Frey started walking, and by the age of four he was able to speak many words, by the age of five he was soaking up information like a sponge, the villagers talked about him even more often during this year than when he was born, to them he appeared like a little genius.

At the age of six Frey often attempted to interact with the other children within the village, however their behaviour towards him was usually less than positive, not just the difference in their age, which was only two to three years, but also because Frey gathered so much attention, these children were secretly jealous.

None of them were ever talked of as geniuses, so why was this stupid little boy in the limelight?

The group of boys was always accompanied by a lone girl, Cindy, she was the younger sister of the boy that appeared to be the leader of this group, Jake.

Unlike the boys, she didn't seem bothered by Frey.

Left with no better alternative or chances to socialise, he often alternated between reading the books his parents kept at home, or walking around the village and its edges, observing the beauty of nature, or approaching the farm-animals.

He would often stick his arm through the fence in order to pet them, the first time he did this he ran home crying because he had been bitten, but by now the animals had accustomed to this uninvited guest and started to accept his presence.

By the age of seven Margareth was finally able to resume most of her seamstress work in full force, as Frey was rarely at home.

This allowed their house's income to increase by another margin, as a caravan of traders often travelled by the village to buy and sell what one couldn't get rid of within the village.

One day as Frey stopped by his favourite spot among a patch of grass he glanced through the various beautiful flowers, only to see that there was a lone yellow flower that had started to wilt.

Frey wasn't sad at the sight, the knelt down and smiled at the flower like the innocent child he was "I hope you get well soon!" he told the flower as he lightly caressed it.

He didn't know whether his cheering would be of any use, but there wasn't any harm in trying.

He sat among the tall grass for a good while, gazing off into the distance away from the village, observing the far-off horizon, as well as the nearby edges of the forest.

Frey never wandered outside of the village, he wasn't afraid, he just felt that there was no point, he felt like he had all the knowledge in the world inside of those books he had lying at home, he was more than content with what he had.

He looked forward to the future where he could assist his father, Markus, as well as his mother, Margareth, with their work, and perhaps even succeed them.

Frey returned to the same patch of grass on the following day, there he found that the wilting flower had regained its health!

He was overjoyed, he didn't care as to why the flower had returned to its healthy state, he was simply happy that it did.

Frey carried a smile on his face for the rest of the day, many of the villagers he encountered were influenced by this smile and showed a kind expression as they passed him.

On his way home he encountered the baker's wife, Miranda, she too smiled at him, however lowered herself to his height and asked, "What are you smiling about, little Frey?" Frey stopped in his tracks, he looked somewhat uncomfortable with this interaction, however he wasn't raised to be rude, so he answered, "The flowers are blooming.".

As she heard this Miranda's eye lightly winced, however her actions were indiscernible to Frey's innocent mind "I see, I see. Well, off you go then." she ushered him on as she couldn't help but think to herself 'I finally understand why the other children avoid him, he acts so unlike them…'.

Without any further obstacles Frey returned home, however he stopped in front of the door to his home involuntarily as he was able to hear his parents converse to one another within "Apparently, he hasn't made a single friend so far." Margareth spoke with a worried voice, her motherly love oozed out of those very same words.

"Don't worry, he is only seven, just wait until he grows some more, he has your face and my beautiful black hair, he'll all but stun people in the future with just his appearance alone!" Markus comforted his wife and both of them chuckled "But still, it isn't healthy for him to grow up with just us to speak to." Margareth added with a more serious tone after the laughter of the two had ended, however before this conversation could go on, they both heard knocks on their door, it was Frey, he opened the door right afterwards and was welcomed home by two bright smiles that acted as if they never even spoke about him in the last couple minutes.

Frey also acted as if he hadn't overheard the conversation and simply went ahead and ate the meal his mother had prepared for him.

This behaviour of Frey went on for another year, his ability to read and write slowly solidified and became even better, while his social interactions continued to stagnate.

He read many stories, some about past events, some about fairytales: heroes and heroines, triumphantly slaying fearsome beasts, some about people falling in love, about betrayal, friendship and many other kinds of stories.

Whenever he went to bed, he imagined himself in all of these scenarios… Frey the slayer of dragons, saviour of the lands, and friend of everyone!

He couldn't help but smile at the thought, but quickly shook his head in order to return back to reality.

By the age of eight Frey would sometimes go to the village's church, Elizabeth was a kind soul and was more than happy to accommodate this child, allowing him to roam throughout the entire place, and read all kinds of books about the 'gods' that he often heard people mentioning.

These gods were so incredibly mighty, they could raise hills into mountains, turn ponds into seas, change night into day and vice versa!

Frey happily absorbed all the information he could get, to him they were the only means of finding out more about the world outside of the village, as he was disinclined to go and bother the travellers.

As he was browsing the books, he soon found some common points between the legendary characters within his stories and those godly figures within the church's books.

As he pointed this out to Elizabeth she scolded Frey for the first time, it was an unfamiliar feeling for him, his parents had only showered him in love until now, and although the children in the village avoided him and acted with disdain, they had yet to verbally abuse him or worse.

Seeing Frey turn all sad Elizabeth hurried to apologise, however she quickly gave him her reasoning "I am sorry child, I shouldn't have acted this way towards you, however comparing the gods to people in made up stories is not something any priest or priestess ever wants to hear. You should keep these thoughts to yourself." Frey nodded in understanding wiping away his tears, he now understood that certain thoughts should not be said, that people preferred not to hear his true opinion if it would displease them.

The still young boy sized up all the decorations inside of the church once more, the big hall with an eye-catching altar where a lone statue was displayed, the statue showed not just one god, as they were labelled, or one creature, but a conglomerate of all sorts of beings merged together.

Many faces and many limbs could be seen protruding from all around the statue, however the entirety still resembled the body of a human overall.

With this final gaze Frey left the church like he usual does and headed back through the village, he soon arrived at the back of the bakery, his newest most favourite spot within the village.

The baker started producing a new and much sweeter kind of pastry, which smelled simply heavenly, and Frey just so happened to find a hole within the back of the building, just big enough for a rat to fit inside, from where this smell would often emanate.

The smell alone would make his mouth water as he closed his eyes and imagined himself taking large bites out of the expensive dish.

He was so immersed within this daydream, that he almost couldn't feel as something was crawling up his leg.

Frey slowly returned from his immersion and as his eyes wandered over his legs he spotted a rat-sized brown creature making its way up his feet.

Without taking a proper look at what this creature was he jolted in shock, screamed out, and kicked his feet all around to throw the creature off.

He succeeded, and immediately backed off some distance in order to observer the creature without having to be too close.

Next, he couldn't believe his eyes, the creature he shook off wasn't a rat, in fact, it wasn't any kind of hideous monster attempting to eat him, the brown thing resembled a tiny human, with two legs, two arms, a body and a head.

Frey was taken aback by this discovery, he even took a step closer again, so that he could properly take a look, and he once again affirmed what he had seen.

The human-looking thing no longer moved towards him or away from him, simply tilting its head to look up at the towering giant that was Frey.

"W-What are you?" Frey asked with a shaky voice, though he had calmed down a little, he had never seen such a creature before, the unknown was even more terrifying than any rat he had ever seen.

The brown creature waved both of its arms at him, then turned around and headed towards the hole in the wall of the bakery.

Frey couldn't help but be curious as his footsteps closely followed the creature, a moment later the thing had disappeared through the opening.

Frey gathered all his courage at this moment and decided to lower his head and body down to the ground in an attempt to glance inside with a single eye of his.

Inside he saw how the brown creature was hurriedly carrying a kind of cake above its head, making for a comical sight, as the pastry was almost bigger than the creature itself.

Frey backed off from the hole in the wall, but not before he could hear a scream from within "Ah! A rat!" it was a female voice, most likely belonging to Miranda, who had discovered the brown thing, but couldn't clearly make out its appearance.

Before long the creature escaped through the hole, forcing the pastry through this 'gate' and finally presenting it to Frey himself "Fo- For me?" he couldn't help but stutter out those words, this entire situation was too absurd, as if he was reading one of his books.

However, he didn't stand on ceremony for too long, accepting the dish before Miranda had a chance to run out and catch them red-handed.

Though he knew he had to get rid of the evidence as quickly as possible, at the same time he felt that it was a shame not to savour the sweet taste.

As Frey finished eating, he looked down to his feet and wanted to say, "Thank you little guy." but before he could do so, he realised that the creature had disappeared already.

As expected, Miranda came running out of the bakery to inspect the outside of the building, seemingly having found the hole in the wall.

As she spotted Frey her steps become slower but heavier, it wasn't hard for her to spot the cream and sugar bits that were still all over Frey's mouth, but the 'how' weighed deeply on her mind, thus she decided to ask, "Little Frey, have you perchance seen a brown rat stealing one of our Sweet-Cakes?" but Frey simply shook his head in response, the words welled up in his throat, he was afraid of being caught and couldn't bring himself to say anything in the end "I see, a shame." Miranda said as her brows furrowed, she turned around and left without saying another word, her anger was obvious, but not to Frey.

Miranda had always acted nice towards him; he would never dare to imagine any of the villagers ever harbouring a single evil thought.

Once Miranda had truly left, Frey walked around this spot of his, trying to find the curious creature that had stolen the Sweet-Cake and offered it to him, but his search was fruitless, it appeared as if the human-looking thing had disappeared off the face of this world.

Frey became a little dejected, he knew that what he saw was real, Miranda had seen it too after all, and although he didn't notice, some more evidence was smeared around his lips.

He decided to head home, where Margareth was already waiting for him with open arms, however before she embraced him, she first wiped off the remains of the pastry "Now where did you get that from?" she asked Frey with much curiosity, she had hoped that the boy-group finally accepted him and perhaps even treated him to something sweet "…" Frey was silent for a moment, a mix of expressions washed over his face before he responded "I found it by coincidence.".

Frey remembered his interaction with Elizabeth earlier this day, and he decided to apply his newfound knowledge immediately.

It was not that he didn't trust his mother, or that he was worried about making her angry, but he had no proper way of explaining what he experienced today, so he rather kept it to himself.

"Hm?" Margareth answered unconvinced, but she wasn't going to interrogate her son "Well, dinner is ready, I hope you are still hungry.".

Her words triggered eagerness from within Frey, he nodded his head and happily took a seat.

On the following day a rumour had started to circulate throughout the village. 'Frey stole from the bakery.', is what the people were saying, Margareth could feel a headache coming and informed Markus of what her impression of Frey was like on the prior day, neither of them would ever believe this rumour, of course, but others were far easier influenced.

As Frey went about his day, he felt a lot more stares on him than usually, he did not mind of course, because he was still unaware of the rumours at that point.

As he was sitting within the same patch of grass as usual, several people approached him.

Frey noticed them rather late, but once he did, he stood up and turned around to face Jake, his sister Cindy, and five other boys who looked like a bunch of ruffians in the making.

"You are a lot braver than I thought, stealing from the old Kirk and his wife Miranda… perhaps I misjudged you." Jake told Frey, for the first time his gaze towards him was free of contempt "We were gonna explore the spooky hut at the edge of the village near the forest. What do you say, want to join us?" the leader of the group of boys offered, though he still looked very much arrogant while doing so.

"I stole?" Frey was taken aback by the sudden accusation, his face displayed complete innocence, which caused Jake to chuckle lightly "No need to play dumb with me, everyone in the village is talking about it, apparently Miranda saw you do it. Anyways, let's go." he said, and just like that Frey's choice was gone, it had been decided for him that he would come along.

Although he thought about refusing, even though he had very little social interactions outside of his family, he could feel the invisible pressure that the group in front of him was emitting.

Frey followed them from behind, the group was walking ahead as Cindy slowly fell behind, soon walking at the same pace as Frey "So, you like flowers?" she asked him as she kept looking forward.

Frey turned his head towards the usually indifferent looking girl "Um, yeah, I like all the lively colours they have. Especially the yellow ones always bloom so brightly." he answered, Cindy didn't bother to meet his gaze in return, and after his answer their conversation died down again, and for a while there was only silence, until a shabby and rotting hut could be seen some distance ahead of the entire group, the wood was already slowly growing moss and assimilating with the nearby edge of the forest.

It looked as if no one had lived here for centuries, and as Frey was wondering about the reason for their visit Jake spoke in front of him "Here we are. Some days ago, the village chief issued his punishment to that rut of a dog that was roaming all around, after it bit one of the travelling merchants in retaliation to it being kicked and abused." Frey couldn't help but raise his eyebrow after hearing that "Are you here to visit the dog?" he asked, he assumed they were going to feed it, but as they heard his question the group laughed out loudly, except for Cindy.

They all stopped and turned to him "Not us, you." another boy within the group said as he snickered "You are gonna prove your bravery to us once more. I want you to head inside and bring one of the dog's teeth out with you as prove." Jake explained his intention in bringing Frey here. As Frey heard this, he couldn't help but take a step back, almost bumping into Cindy while doing so "No, no! I am not doing that!" Frey wanted to back out of this, but the boys quickly surrounded him and started to forcefully drag him to the hut "No, please!" he begged, but it was no use, he was dragged and pushed through the doors of the old hut, falling to his knees after tripping along the floorboard.

The door behind him slammed shut, he quickly got up, then banged against the door and tried to open it but he was met with firm resistance.

Frey started sobbing involuntarily, he was forced into the scary hut against his will, and now he was locked into a dark room with some ferocious dog with no way out!

He started inhaling and exhaling loudly, only then barely managing to calm down a bit as he turned around to look for the dog, he hadn't heard a sound yet, which was good for him, but also bad at the same time; what if the dog was preparing to ambush him?

Frey's eyesight slowly adjusted to the darkness over time, allowing him to see a bit more, as the outlines of some objects became increasingly clear to him.

He took a step forward, and then another, a table and a chair entered his vision, then he took another step forward, and yet another, until he saw an odd object at what appeared to be the end of the hut, it wasn't very big after all.

The object had the shape of a cube, and there were several individual lines that connected the bottom and the top of this object.

Frey quickly realised that he was looking at a cage!

He breathed out a sigh of relief, if there was a cage in here, then the dog was surely locked inside, he had escaped immediate danger.

As he closed in on the cage, he saw the outlines of the dog, it was rather big, some liquid was flowing out of it, the liquid spread throughout the cage, Frey could smell the scent of iron, which he was familiar with due to the tools that his father was using day in and out.

"Is it hurt? Oh no…" Frey said his thoughts out loud as some sweat gathered on his forehead.

He had read within his books, that an injured beast was the scariest, they would often retaliate brutally!

His hands started to shake as he slowly reached towards the space in between the bars of the cage, but before his hand passed through, he stopped, he saw a familiar figure right in front of the cage spreading its arms wide… it was the small brown human creature from yesterday!

"You are back!" Frey said with a smile, he still remembered the taste of the pastry he received, yet to fully link it and the rumour of him stealing together.

"Give me a moment, I just have to get a tooth from this dog." Frey openly told the thing what he was doing as his hand continued moving, at the same time the dog started to gnarl, but the brown creature did its best to make itself noticed by swinging its arms up and down "Huh? Do you not want me to continue? If only you could speak." Frey said and stopped again, looking at the creature with a hopeful gaze; this situation was already quite magical in his eyes, he wouldn't be surprised if it could really talk.

Although he waited for some moments, he was disappointed to realise that the creature did not start speaking to him.

Just then the brown thing walked into the cage and approached the dog itself "What are you doing?" Frey called after it, but he obviously wouldn't get an answer from the creature.

It kept getting closer to the dog, unlike to Frey, the dog didn't react to the creature as it came closer.

The brown creature disappeared within the darkness of the cage for a while before it returned to Frey, a small canine tooth being carried by both of its hands.

Frey's eyes opened wide "You got a tooth?!" he was surprised at how easily the procedure appeared to have gone.

He happily accepted the tooth and lifted the brown creature up within his hands "Thank you! Thank you!" he laughed, his unease about this situation vanished entirely, he had achieved what Jake ordered without getting hurt in the process.

Frey then gazed at the creature intently "You look like one of those beings that are described in my books, a spirit is what they call you… are you a spirit?" he asked the creature in his hand, expecting a nodding or head-shaking, as the creature had shown much intelligence, but the creature only tilted its head, it appeared just as confused as Frey himself.

"So, you don't know either? That's fine. Are you going to disappear again?" he followed up with another question, he was afraid of losing this first friend of his, but the spirit merely tilted its head in the other direction "You also don't know? Then, can we be friends at least?" he asked after sighing, and for the first time the spirit nodded its head.

Frey's face immediately lit up with a bright smile "My first friend!" he couldn't help but blurt out, but he quickly got embarrassed as he looked at the spirit, which didn't seem to mind his outburst.

"Do you have a name I can call you?" he asked, as he was a little uncomfortable with calling the creature 'spirit', if he didn't know whether it truly was a spirit.

The spirit shook its head "If you don't mind, I'd like to give you a name." Frey asked the spirit for its opinion, and after receiving positive affirmation, he continued "From now on I'll call you… Lu!" he said after some quick thinking "Is that alright with you?" Frey asked for its opinion once more, and received another positive response, to which he couldn't help but smile even brighter "Haha, Lu and Frey, best friends!" he laughed, but at the next moment his heart skipped a beat in fear as his expression froze.

The door to the hut behind him had forcefully opened, the doorhandle loudly knocked against the wall and Frey immediately turned to face the bright light that shone in from outside, all he saw was a small figure roughly his height.

The figure was holding something in its hand, something that looked like a walking cane, and a moment later Frey realised who this figure belonged to.

"You scoundrel! I said it was forbidden to come here no matter the reason! This is an isolation cell and not some open pub!" the old voice was furious and shouted at Frey, he knew who this voice and this figure belonged to… it was Grandpa Dom!

He wasn't Frey's real grandpa, but the village chief, so everyone just called him that.

"What's that in your hand?" Grandpa Dom asked, and Frey's heart sank further, he didn't want his new friend Lu to get in any trouble, however as he looked at his hands Lu was already gone again, only the canine tooth remained there.

"So, you came here to attack the dog, even going so far as to pull out one of its teeth! You really are an unforgivable scoundrel, wasn't stealing from the bakery enough for you?" the old man became increasingly furious, but whenever Frey attempted to explain himself, the old man stopped him firmly, he got closer and grabbed Frey by his ear and started pulling him back to the village.

Outside of the hut Frey realised that all the boys, as well as Cindy, were gone… Grandpa Dom dragged Frey back to the village, he often called out in pain "Ow, ow, ow! Ouch!", but the old village chief did not relent in the slightest.

The old man took Frey directly to his parent's house, where he impatiently knocked on the door several times before Markus appeared from behind them, he had just returned from fixing a stool for one of his clients within the village.

"Grandpa Dom… and Frey? Is something the matter?" he couldn't help but ask, the situation appeared quite odd, Frey's earlobe was incredibly red, and he didn't look comfortable at all.

Markus instinctively thought of the robbing-incident, but he didn't expect that the village chief would take action against Frey personally, since even if Frey truly stole, this ordeal should have been resolved between Markus, Margareth, and the bakery.

"Something is the matter indeed, first your son is accused of stealing, now he is going around attacking helpless animals! Whether he truly stole or not, I was going to turn a blind eye to it, but this child of yours is becoming increasingly bold! It seems your parenting is lacking, Markus." the old man said with a stern voice, as if he meant to scold Markus himself, he even held the canine tooth up for Markus to see.

Markus shook, this situation was way beyond his expectations "Attacking animals? Did you see him do it yourself village chief? If not then I would like you to think back on all the times Frey has visited the farm animals before, he never hurt them either. And most importantly, Miranda is the only witness who claims to have seen Frey steal, so you have a severe lack of evidence to go around accusing my dear child!" Markus rebuked him, obviously standing up for his child, who he firmly believed to be innocent.

Grandpa Dom's eyes darkened and his brows furrowed, he was not just displeased with Frey, but now Markus was also antagonising him "Very good! Very good! No evidence? We'll see about that! But mark my words, if Frey causes any more trouble, then I will have to punish him." the village chief formulated a threat as he let go of Frey's ear and slowly walked away with his cane.

Each time the cane hit the ground Frey shuddered, he couldn't help but imagine what punishment would await him, since he had just seen how the village chief dealt with the dog… solitary confinement, injured to great extent, and most likely malnourished as well!

Who knows how long the dog had been in there, and how long it would continue to stay that way.

Markus scratched the back of his head as he watched the old man leave, whereas Frey massaged his earlobe, the pain still lingered.

Markus then sighed and turned to Frey "Let's head inside. Then you are going to tell me all about today, as well as yesterday, okay?" Frey sniffled in response and silently nodded his head.

Inside of their home the two of them sat down, and Frey started recounting his experiences the last two days, this time he did not hold back on the truth, he revealed the existence of his friend Lu, and how he stole the Sweet-Cake for Frey.

Then he went on to explain how Jake's group approached him, and why they led him to that hut at the edge of the village.

Afterwards Frey mentioned why the old man was so infuriated, something about him forbidding entrance to the hut because of what the dog did.

"And the boys were all gone when you left the hut?" Markus asked while squinting his eyes, as to which Frey nodded his head "I can't believe it… they set you up." Markus followed up "Set me up?" Frey asked, unable to understand the meaning behind those words.

"Yes, they approached you with the intention of getting you in trouble with the old chief. One of them likely told Dom that they saw you going up to the hut, not mentioning their involvement at all." Markus explained as he shook his head, he felt as if the entire village had started to turn their back on his family.

"And this little friend of yours, he appears and disappears at will, I believe you when you say that he exists, but just like you I have neither seen nor heard of such an existence. Don't tell any of the villagers about Lu, I shudder at the thought of how they may react." Markus said.

On the following day new rumours spread throughout the village 'Frey attacked the helpless and locked up dog.' as well as 'Markus shouted insults at Grandpa Dom after being overcome with anger.', the result of these rumours was that the village lessened their interactions with Frey's family.

Margareth had to pay a higher price to buy some wool, and Markus suddenly lost several of his clients, all of them giving vague reasons and excuses.

This cold treatment went on for another year, and at the age of nine Frey was often the victim of bullying, led by the group of boys.

His things started to disappear, his books had ripped pages, or were entirely destroyed; not even his favourite patch of grass was left unharmed… the entire surroundings were trampled on, destroying the beauty of the flowers, and the scenery, however strangely enough, among this trampled patch of flowers, some of the yellow ones were ripped out.

Frey couldn't help but notice, he knew the arrangement here by heart.

Even though they were being ostracised, at least the village chief's threat of finding further evidence was an empty one; though he certainly attempted to, they found nothing to link the theft to Frey, other than Miranda's accusation.

One day as Frey was tending to a new patch of grass, a lone boy approached him, unlike last time, Frey noticed his arrival much earlier.

On one hand Frey was used to the group of boys approaching him to make trouble, but on the other, the approaching boy's footsteps and loud seething could not be overheard "It's you! It's all you! What about you is so special!?" the boy screamed at him, almost hysterically.

"What do you want?" Frey asked him, his mood unpleasant because he and the others often made fun of him, but Frey dared to retaliate because the boy was alone this time.

"What do I want?! I want Cindy! But when I confessed to her, she told me she liked you!" the boy said and quickly grabbed Frey by his collar.

"Cindy likes me-?" he asked, but his thoughts moved on from that notion just as quickly "She even picked some of those stupid flowers to give to you eventually…" the boy said, and his expression turned into a devious smile.

"And you know what I did? I got so angry that I had to let my frustration out on the rest!" he said and now it was Frey's turn to grow furious "So it was you?!".

Frey's mind raced, countless thoughts zooming by, and by the end he was left with just one… he formed his hand into a fist and punched the boy in his face, causing him to let go of Frey's collar and stumbling backwards, inevitably falling to the ground as he landed on his butt.

"You-! You dare!" the boy shouted and got up again, but before he managed to retaliate another voice shouted over at the two from afar "Hey! What are you doing?!" one of the farmers happened to pass by and oversaw bits of the situation.

He quickly got closer and separated the two young boys, however from the look on his face it was clear that the farmer had a very poor opinion of Frey at this very moment.

"Little Frey, I can hardly recognise you! What happened for you to become so cruel?" the farmer said, his voice contained a mix of sadness from past memories as well as light fury.

The boy that initially attacked Frey realised what was going on, a smile creeped up on his lips, but vanished just as quickly, as he exchanged his expression with a pitiful look "Thank you for stepping in, he just wouldn't listen to reason!" the boy said, trying to fan the flames and make Frey's situation even worse.

The farmer turned his head to look at him with a much warmer smile "It's alright, let me handle this. You can go home Steven." and Steven happily obliged, though he didn't show it on his face.

This situation was a lot better than simply taking his anger out on Frey with his fists.

"Come, you are following me to Grandpa Dom." the farmer said as he looked back onto Frey, who shuddered at the mention of that name "No! He started this! He trampled my flowers, and all of them keep harassing me!" Frey attempted to reason with the man, however he just shook his head in response "Still, you shouldn't lash out and harm others. Also, I have never seen Steven doing anything as bad as what you described." the farmer answered, and strange emotions started welling up within Frey.

He immediately compared his accusation of Steven with the one he had been faced with by Miranda, he started to realise that his words alone wouldn't help him get out of this situation, but the only witness to this scene was the man in front of him, and he too only saw Frey attacking Steven.

Without any further ado the man grabbed Frey by his arm and started to pull him back into the village, Frey attempted to resist at first, but soon noticed his lack of strength when compared to a fully-fledged adult.

In his head dark clouds started to form, he became increasingly more worried as he kept thinking back to the punishment the village chief had threatened him with.

After some walking the two arrived at Dom's residence, many of the villagers observed Frey being dragged, all of them whispered to another what new problem he had caused this time, none of them had any pity or sympathy in their gaze, just ridicule.

"What do we have here?" Grandpa Dom asked with contempt as he opened his door to meet with Frey and the farmer, and he was quickly informed of the events the farmer had seen, Frey striking Steven square in the face.

"He destroyed my flowers!" Frey shouted in his defence, but the old man didn't seem to care in the least "That is no reason to cause harm to your fellow villagers, I am sure he didn't do it on purpose. However, you have tested my patience one too many times little Frey… I can no longer overlook your actions, it seems that you will only understand the error of your ways after receiving a punishment." he said and nodded his head, as if he was affirming his own words.

"No! No! Anything but that!" Frey shouted out in fear, this commotion quickly attracted all kinds of villagers all around to witness his outburst. "Frey!" a woman among the crowd called out with worry as she forced her way through the people in her way.

It was Margareth, and she quickly kneeled down to wrap her arms around the boy "What is going on?!" she asked the chief, flames practically spewing out of her eyes.

"Your son has once again committed a crime, and this time there is more than one witness. There is also evidence." Dom answered as he pointed into the crowd, the people around all looked towards that direction and were met with a pitiful looking Steven, not only did he have a bruise on his face, but also on his neck, arms, and once he pulled up his shirt, there were even some on his stomach "Huh? I didn't know Frey was so ruthless. I only saw one punch…" the farmer that dragged Frey here mumbled under his breath, and at another spot within the crowd a young boy was wearing a smile on his face, it was Jake, the ringleader of Frey's bullies over the last year.

"I don't want to be punished; I don't want to be punished-" Frey started to repeat himself, talking to himself as his eyes started to lose focus "Hmpf! Are you not even going to apologise for your devious actions?" the village chief lightly scolded Frey as he reached his hand out towards Frey's, however as he was about to touch him an unexpected scene played out in the sight of everyone present: a small, brown, human-looking creature appeared between Frey and Dom, which slapped the old man's approaching hand, in order to deter him from coming any closer.

The surroundings became extremely quiet, the people held their breaths for a moment as their eyes locked onto the creature "DEMON!" the first shout of many escaped one of the villager's mouths, and soon enough the silence was completely replaced by expressions of fear, worried conversations, and the sound of footsteps that distanced themselves from Frey and Margareth.

"So, this is the reason for your abrupt change in personality! You have become a demon-worshipper! Even going so far as to summon one to attack me!" the old man exclaimed in exasperation, his words made the surrounding people tremble even more, as their village's leader affirmed their worries.

"Kill the demon! Quickly!" Dom shouted afterwards, and before long several people came forward with either farm equipment, or other tools and started swinging them at Lu "No! Lu isn't a demon! He is a friendly spirit! He is my friend!" Frey had tears in his eyes, his only friend was getting attacked while protecting him, and was even accused of being a creature that killed humans for fun! At first each of the strikes passed right through Lu, as if he was nothing more than an illusion, however after enough of these attacks Lu no longer regenerated into his original form, like mist that dissipated and slowly vanished.

"We have defeated it!" the villagers happily shouted, assured of their victory "Lock up the worshipper!" another one said "What!? Stop! Don't come any closer!" Margareth screamed as she attempted to protect Frey behind herself, however before long she was unable to hold on and was overwhelmed by the number of villagers that tried to snatch Frey, pulling the two apart, and binding Frey's hands behind his back. "My son is no demon-worshipper! If there is anyone to punish then it's me! If it wasn't for my parenting, how could he possibly end up like that?" Margareth pleaded, attempting to push the blame for this situation entirely upon herself, and her words seemed to resonate with the crowd, even old Dom "Hm. That does make sense, however what about the fact that the demon appeared to stop me from reaching little Frey?" the village chief wasn't going to let this opportunity go so easily. After hearing his words Margareth bit her lips, she was hesitating, but she soon came to a decision "I summoned the demon. To protect Frey." she said as she lowered her head.

The onlookers were taken aback, this sudden revelation dumbfounded all of them 'Margareth was secretly a witch!' although this situation seemed absurd, they chose to believe this to be the truth.

A young boy like Frey shouldn't be able to come into contact with any malicious sources within this remote village, so it was more likely for Margareth to have been a witch even before they settled down here.

"Very well. Frey's punishment will be given to you instead. I decree that you, Margareth, are hereby sentenced to one week of solitary confinement!" Frey shuddered as his ears picked up on the fate of his mother, the worst possible outcomes appeared within his imagination.

"This shall be your punishment for today's incident, however! The fact that you are a witch remains. Over the time of your confinement, I will notify the church as well as the Lord of these plains, it will be up to them as to how to proceed with you afterwards." the village head declared, but Margareth immediately accepted these terms.

"As long as you promise to leave Frey out of this-" she said but was immediately interrupted by the shout of her child "No! Mom don't!".

At this point Dom was nodding his head with satisfaction "We shall do just that.", after hearing this Margareth finally breathed a sigh of relief, she gazed at Frey and smiled "Don't worry. One week will blow over in the blink of an eye…", but Frey's tears were streaming non-stop, even now he was being held still by some men and was thus unable to run up to her.

Others then approached her to apprehend and bring her to the ominous place she would be held captive at, however within Frey an extremely uncomfortable feeling was growing ever stronger, it was like something was trying to escape his stomach through his mouth.

He felt like puking, but the sensation slightly differed to that… he was looking on as his mother wanted to peacefully walk off with the villagers to get her punishment over with, but the string that held Frey's composure together snapped "STOP!!!" he shouted, his voice echoed throughout the surroundings, like a wave that spread in all directions.

All noise ceased, the wind no longer blew, and all the humans came to an abrupt halt in their actions, as if they turned into puppets on a string.

Time seemed to freeze for just a moment before everything returned to normalcy; or at least it should have.

"Wha- What was that…? What just happened?!" Grandpa Dom turned back towards Frey; his gaze revealed true fear… he was terrified!

Terrified by this situation Frey seemed to have caused!

"Did we just… stop? After Frey ordered us to?" the villagers were just as confused and fearful, "He is a demon himself!" one of the people within the gathering exclaimed, and the men quickly let go of Margareth as they instead pressed Frey towards the ground and covered his mouth.

Frey too was blinking his red, teary eyes in confusion, but he knew that he had saved his mother from certain doom "Frey!" Margareth called for him, but her voice was swiftly drowned out by the hurried conversations by the others.

"Take him away, quickly, quickly! Before he brings anymore danger to our village!" the chief ordered with a shaky voice, and the men quickly abided his commands, dragging Frey along the ground as they marched in the direction of the lone hut outside of the village.

Frey was audibly sobbing along the way; although he had achieved his goal, now he had to endure the punishment, not to mention whatever the people of the church would do with him afterwards.

Once the group arrived at the hut they opened the door, and subsequently the iron cage inside.

They dragged out the rotting remains of the already dead dog, which had been imprisoned for the last year, without any access to food or water.

Frey closed his eyes; he didn't want to see… seeing would only give his mind inspiration for even worse fates.

Soon enough the cage was once again locked, with Frey inside, lying still on the ground, like and obedient dog himself.

"You have a full week to yourself, think long and hard about why you ended up in this place, then repent to the church's members once they arrive." Grandpa Dom left him with these words, as did everyone else.

The door was closed behind them, and Frey had been left alone within the dark and quiet hut.

Two men were stationed right outside of the hut, in order to ensure that this little demon wouldn't be able to escape, while the rest returned to the village, in order for the head of the village to write a report to the respective forces in question, one being the church, and the other the Lord of these plains, a Baron, who these lands had been ceded to, in order for him manage them, and to turn them prosperous.

Meanwhile Margareth returned home, after she closed the door behind herself, she slumped to the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks, as she was desperately trying to stop herself from collapsing entirely.

"What's wrong?" Markus immediately stepped up to her, to help and support his wife, but no matter what he did Margareth wouldn't look him in the eyes.

"They took him… they took him!" Margareth managed to say in between her sobs.

"Took who? ...Don't tell me… where is Frey?!" Markus asked her, desperation now also visibly in his eyes, his expression uneasy.

Margareth breathed in deeply, trying to calm herself enough to properly recount what had happened today, and she did.

Markus was left without a response, various feelings spreading throughout his entire body, but the strongest of them all was anger!

How dare they do this to his family?!

Wasn't their attitude towards his family bad enough already?

They took things too far, and Markus wouldn't accept this situation no matter what, he helped up Margareth and carried her to their bedroom.

"Take your time, try to get some sleep. When you wake up, I'll be waiting for you here with Frey." Markus confidently reassured his wife, but the latter's expression of worry only worsened.

"What if they lock you up as well? I can't lose you either!" Margareth told him, but he just smiled and then kissed her forehead "I promise that won't happen.".

And with those words he got up and left the house, with loud and quick steps walking towards old Dom's home.

Once he arrived, he hammered against the wooden door of the house with his fist, loud thuds resounded until an old voice spoke from within "I am coming, have some patience will you.".

Then the lock of the door clicked, and it opened to reveal the village chief inside, his expression was peaceful, but that changed just a moment later as he met Markus' angry gaze "Mar-" Dom attempted to say his name but was interrupted by the very same man.

Markus fiercely grabbed the old man by his collar and slightly lifted him off the ground as he intruded into his home "WHERE IS MY SON?!" he spoke through his clenched teeth, seething with rage.

"Markus! Listen to me! That thing is not your son! Surely you noticed his odd behaviour, your son has been replaced by this demon, Frey is not in control of his own body!" the village chief dropped this bomb of an argument onto the loving father in front of him.

Markus recoiled inwardly, he did not want to believe that this could ever be the case, but Frey's unnatural powers shouldn't exist for no reason.

"Impossible! Frey never left the village; he often went to the church! Tell me, how could he possibly have met a demon, much less become possessed by one?!" Markus began to argue back, not just to change Dom's mind, but also to reassure himself, to affirm that his son can't possibly be a demon.

"Such magical creatures are beyond our understanding, at least us mortals, which is why I have notified the church to dispatch knowledgeable people to confirm this matter. Markus, you must understand the severity of this situation. I cannot put the others within the village at risk, just because you and your wife believe that your son is innocent!" the chief tried to persuade Markus to give up on freeing Frey.

"I know my son best, let me visit him. He had no one except for me and Margareth to talk to for most of his life, isolating him now is too severe of a punishment!" the father demanded, but he was met with firm resistance.

"No can do. He is able to control people with his voice alone, what if he controls you in order to break free? I cannot allow for such a risky endeavour!" Dom argued.

Markus' breathing slowly stabilised, his grip on Dom's collar also lightened "You will deliver food and water to Frey during his confinement." he ordered through clenched teeth yet again "The weaker his body, the less we have to worry abou-" Dom tried to reason with Markus some more, however he quickly noticed the dangerous glint within Markus' eyes and decided against finishing his sentence.

"Fine." was all the old man answered with in the end, and Markus finally let go of him, before turning around and leaving his home.

Grandpa Dom patted his neck and collar, making sure that there were no lasting injuries before he glanced at Markus' departing figure.

Markus soon returned back to Margareth, his heart heavy, as he was unable to fulfil his promise to her, however much he wanted to forcefully bring Frey back, he knew that further alienating the villagers would mean exile.

They had nowhere else to go, and what's worse, is that Markus couldn't shake the thought that the current Frey might not be the son he had been doting on these last years.

He was afraid of Dom's words actually being the truth, it would break his heart, and especially Margareth's.

Markus returned to Margareth's side at the bed, she was sleeping soundlessly, her brows were furrowed, it looked as if she was experiencing a nightmare.

He caressed his wife's face as sadness welled up within him 'How did everything end up like this?' he sighed to himself.

In the meantime, Frey had curled up on the cold ground that the cage provided.

His stomach rumbled from the hunger he experienced, and his throat felt increasingly drier as the time passed.

He had no idea how long he had already been in here, as there was no way to tell the time, no sunlight, no noises, nothing.

The scene of his prosecution kept on replaying within his mind, over and over again, as his mental condition kept on deteriorating.

The stationed guardsmen outside of the hut conversed with one another, as a third person showed up "This is for Frey." a female voice informed the guards, it was Margareth, she held a plate with food in her hands, some soft meat with bread, a dark orange sauce all over it, along with bottled water.

The men nodded and received the plate, then waited for Margareth to leave until they continued their conversation "Should I bring it inside?" the first one asked his comrade "No need. You can throw it into the forest. Grandpa Dom's orders." the second man responded.

Hours upon hours passed, Frey had trouble sleeping due to the cold and unpleasant environment, but staying up wasn't any more pleasant; his perception of time was completely warped, and after a while the pain he felt within his stomach started to lessen, until he no longer felt hungry.

His body was completely out of liquids, not even his mouth produced anymore saliva; each time he tried to swallow due to his instincts, he felt truly uncomfortable, every time he was reminded of the delicious food and drinks his mother used to make for him.

Everything felt so distant, as if it had been months since he last saw his parents, last ate something, last saw the sunlight.

He missed talking to somebody, he missed reading his books.

For the first time in his life, he felt this dejected, this unmotivated to continue going.

Frey was no longer angry about the bullying he had to endure, about his destroyed flowers, about the cold attitude the villagers had towards him until they had discovered Lu…

'Lu…' Frey's eyes would tear up, if only his body could produce them.

"I am sorry." he whispered to himself "Forgive me." he hoped someone would hear and release him "I will never open my mouth again, please forgive me." his body started to shake, both the cold and his unstable mind were heavily affecting him.

Soon Frey's vision started to turn blurry, it wasn't just his surroundings that were black, but he felt that his own eyesight started to grow darker, as if he would soon fall unconscious.

His stomach was completely empty, and although he did not feel any corresponding pain, his mind was going crazy instead.

"Please let me out. Please forgive me. I am sorry. I am sorry. I just want something to eat, something to drink. I will never act out again. I will stay at home, you won't have to see me, so please… let me out…" Frey mumbled to himself, his voice was coarse and rough, hurting his throat, it hurt to even speak, but saying these things lessened the worry in his heart.

Even more time passed, and Frey began to hallucinate the smell of fire, his mind wandered, and he began to imagine fresh meat being grilled, he could almost taste it, his mouth would normally water at these thoughts, but in his current situation nothing of the sort happened.

The smell became increasingly more intense, until the next phase of his hallucination began… he saw Lu slowly walking towards him, towards his cage, pulling something behind his body.

The scene seemed almost real, especially with the sounds that made it appear as if Lu was actually dragging something along the ground "Lu… I am sorry…" Frey mumbled, he felt weaker with each passing moment.

This hallucination of Lu however came closer and closer, until it arrived at the edge of the cage, and Frey finally spotted what his dead friend was carrying 'A keychain.' Frey realised, and he thought that this was his end.

His only friend had come to unlock this cage, and to bring him to a better place; Frey smiled, all the negative emotions within him wandered towards the back of his mind as he gave it his all to get up from the ground.

He had very little strength, he almost blacked out by the time he had managed to get on his knees, but he persevered, he didn't want to let his friend down.

Frey got closer to the edge of the cage and reached for the keychain that Lu had brought to him "Thanks, little guy." he praised this loyal friend of his as he unlocked the cage and began tumbling towards the door of the hut.

The hut itself wasn't locked, and Frey easily opened the door, beautiful moonlight blinded his sight for a moment, before he finally saw the source of the fiery smell that engulfed his nostrils until now…

Smoke was rising into the sky, the sound of horse-hooves hitting the ground could be heard, as the village in front of Frey's eyes was brightly burning in stunning colours, red, orange, yellow, and many hues in between.

Frey usually was one to appreciate such a colourful display, however his face was ashen, and his mood heavy, as he realised that neither Lu, nor the scene in front of him was a hallucination.

He fell to his knees, his gaze fixed upon the burning buildings in the distance, the feelings inside of him were varied, he felt deep sadness, but somewhere inside of him there was elation… some part within himself felt free; he had wished to be freed, to be forgiven, and now there was no one left he needed to ask forgiveness from.