Her

The face of a certain cute little girl popped into my mind as soon as I heard Uncle Danulo's description.

The structure of the Leer Kingdom was very simple, the king, our wise ruler, headed the royal court and governed the Royal Academies for both the warriors and the mages.

There was one Crown Prince and one Duke, both with the power to represent the king's authority to a certain extent.

The Duke was also a powerful grade-4 mage, strong enough to kill people from more than 100 meters away with a wave of his hand.

Then below these two were those aristocrats who managed the little territories of the Kingdom and assisted the King with the collection of taxes and implementing the law.

Of these aristocrats, the two Marquises of the kingdom held immense power and influence within their territory. One of these two Marquises was my father.

Since the noble class was small and elite, there were a lot of pretentious gatherings. The fifth birthday of the children of the most influential nobles is one such relatively important pretentious gathering.

Around one year ago, it was the birthday of the Duke's only daughter, Cecilia. It was rumored that her affinity of water element magic was so great that she could manipulate water at the mere age of three, without any formal training or even any advice.

Along with rumors, her talents were hyped up even more as the consistent exaggeration made her seem like a fairy or an angel in the world of mortals.

The Duke, happy and proud of his daughter, ordered a grand feast and even decreed his guards to serve commoners who came to his gates with high-class food and wine.

I wanted to avoid any trouble and so I kept sitting at a lonely corner of the grand and lavish hall where the feast of the nobles was held. But, without anyone to talk to, I soon got bored which prompted me to leave the room in silence.

Since my father was busy talking to other important figures and nobles of the kingdom at that time, no one paid any particular interest in the whereabouts of a random 5-year-old kid.

Though, I was quickly lost in the Duke's grand mansion as I was exploring. I panicked a little and started running around. The guards were also enjoying their merry time and so most of them neglected my presence while the rest

of them just looked at me with curious eyes but didn't take any action.

My panic kept increasing as I soon found myself in a large courtyard. Just the amount of well-maintained bushes present there reminded me of how poor my father was in comparison to Duke as only the maintenance of that courtyard would probably cost duke more than what my father paid all of our servants combined.

I quickly found shade under a large tree and sat there, resting my hurried breath. My heartbeat was erratic and rushed but it soon calmed down like the gentle breeze and the auspicious songs of the birds started affecting me.

I felt one with nature, like a part of something purer and bigger. Perhaps, I might have even had some enlightenment that day, if not for a shaky voice that broke me away from my reverie

"W-who are you?"

I opened my eyes and got flustered as soon as I saw a little girl around my age nervously clenching her skirt tightly and staring at me deeply.

She was wearing a blue robe that seemed to scream of lavishness, with some golden embroidery of a Divine Phoenix burning in fury. It was definitely a treasure but seemed ill-fitted on her.

The highlight of her appearance though, was neither her sky-blue eyes nor her oval, adorable face but her beautiful white hair that shone with a bright golden hue as sunlight reflected upon them.

It didn't seem to phase her much though as she scrunched her little brows when she saw me not responding and merely assessing her. Her voice still betraying some of her fear, she tried to appear confident and said

"This is my garden, why are you here? I want to play with the birds a little, go somewhere else, whoever you are."

My nervousness burst forth when I heard her authoritarian tone. My words fumbled and I ended up saying something my mother used to say to me whenever he wanted me to stop annoying him

"There's a golden sun above your head, a silver breeze surrounding you, and metallic soil below you. Fly to the heavens, or bury yourself in the ground, just leave me alone for now."

I said it in a clear, uncompromising, and bubbly voice, making my intent clear.

My words hurt the little girl like needles as tears threatened to spill out of her eyes. Just as she was about to cry, I forced my nervousness down a little and tried to assert control of my thoughts and words.

With a forced smile, I tried to coax her to stop her from crying

"Hey hey, don't cry, hey, let's play with the birds together. Hehe let's be friends.. yeah let's be friends hehe."

I kept trying to lighten the mood and it appeared to work as the little girl wiped her damp eyes, nodded her head, and said

"I'm Cel-Cecilia, who are you."

"R-Ryne"

We were both anxious and stuttering but as she came towards me and sat by my side in silence, the awkwardness began to fade away.

She was like a spirit of nature, a little fairy, as birds danced around her and perched on her shoulders, pecking her lightly.

We didn't talk much during that time but I still enjoyed her soothing presence a lot. Only when some time passed by did I realize that she was the star of that night's grand feast.

She didn't take it seriously though. Wanting to avoid meaningless, pretentious, and tiring social interactions with the other children of the noble class, she hid behind that tree.

I shook my head and smiled a little as I remembered my time with her, thinking, 'How is this possible? Perhaps, I'm just so nervous that I want her by my side, to calm me down. Ah, what's uncle Danulo talking about.'

He didn't notice that I was zoned out and was off-handedly telling me that since I was weak and alone, he would take me along with him to his Zaputa tribe, the place I would call my home for many years to come.