The Different One

I had always known that I was different. With my white hair and sky-colored eyes, I stood out among the other peasants of Miden village like a snowflake in a field of wheat. Even my little sister Akari, with her black hair and night-colored eyes, looked more like our father than I did. I was twelve years old, and Akari was just seven, but already she had begun to show signs of her wind magic abilities.

But it wasn't until I started exploring the fields and forests around our village that I realized just how different I was. While Akari and the other peasant kids my age were content to play in the dirt and chase chickens, I was drawn to the wild, untamed places where the giant ants roamed. I wanted to see what was over the next hill, or beyond the horizon.

Our mother, Tsumugi, was beloved by all in Miden for her kindness and her strong water magic abilities, which she used to help the peasants yield their fields and tend to their animals. With just a single drop of her blood, she could create enough water to nourish the land for a whole season. But she was also wary of the well-dressed kids who sometimes passed through our village, on their way to hunt low-rank monsters or play games out of the holy city of Antochitoria. She warned me to stay away from them, and whenever I asked about our past or about Antochitoria, she would deflect my questions or change the subject.

I knew that she had once been someone important, someone called the Moon Princess for her pure white hair and stunning beauty. But that was all I knew, and it wasn't enough to satisfy my curiosity.

My father, on the other hand, was a man of few words but great skill. He didn't have the same magical abilities as my mother or sister, but he was an expert swordsman and had mastered various martial arts. He had always dreamed of pursuing the Edge, the mysterious place that was said to be the source of all monsters and the Abyss of sinsters. No one had ever reached it and returned, but that didn't deter my father from wanting to discover its truth. He often went missing for months at a time, searching for a way to reach the Edge, but he never gave up on his dream.

The others in Miden used magic to help with their daily tasks, like harvesting crops or cooking food. But their abilities were nothing like the power I saw in my sister or our mother. And as I grew older, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to my world than the life I knew in Miden.

But for now, I was content to spend my days exploring the fields and forests with my father, learning the skills of a hunter and swordsman, and dreaming of the adventures that awaited me beyond the horizon. Maybe one day, I would find the answers to the questions that had always nagged at me. But until then, I was just a powerless kid with white hair and sky eyes, trying to find my place in a world that seemed determined to keep me in the shadows.