5 Years Later

-February 2435-

-5 Years in the Future-

--Orion's Perspective--

"Come here, Orion!" My beautiful wife said. Moonlight had only gotten prettier throughout the years and hadn't aged one bit. She looks as beautiful as she did when she was eighteen.

I was now nineteen years old, but that wasn't the only thing that changed. After Zeal's departure and the things I overheard from him through the gate that day long ago, I took the lead as the leader of the group and everything has gone surprisingly well. I've learned to fight, love, and defend.

Over the years, we've had several invaders try to steal what we had built, so we formed a trap within our old base and moved north, deep into the reaches of the cold. Everybody followed me and we built a civilization here, living in a town center together and working with each other to establish a life of peace and prosperity.

Nobody ventures here because of the temperature, but deep into the large glacier we all climbed to make a city, we have been able to keep everybody warm, using the technology Zeal left behind. It helped us all and kept us away from invaders. That was one of the only good things Zeal left behind for us.

I slowly learned the traits of Zeal's true character. He was a murderer, a person who could never be trusted, but he told everybody that because of the unique power he got from being a White Stone, he was destined to be their leader. He beat anybody that stood up to him... he became a tyrant to these people. I was lucky enough to be the reason that they stood up against him, knowing that somebody else had his power and wasn't a tyrant like he was.

"What is it?" I said to Moonlight, crouching down by her side.

"It looks like a baby down by the forest! He's just sitting there," Moonlight said, pointing down the glacier and onto the border of the Redwood Forest just beyond a shallow river. The river split the glacier and forest apart, to separate the two biomes.

Moonlight shoved a grappling hook into the side of the glacier and slowly slid down the edge of it.

"Be careful! It could be a trap!" I said, sitting at the top, ready to pull her up at a moment's notice. After thirty seconds of sliding down the glacier, she fell into the shallow river and ran off to the base of the forest, looking to pick up the child.

I closely watched around, but even being my perceptive self, I couldn't see anything. It was safe to my knowledge, so I eased up.

"It has a name on the blanket!" She shouted up. It looked like she was mumbling to herself, but she was way too far for me to hear anything. Moonlight spent some time looking around, then walked back over to the rope. Holding the baby in one of her arms and the rope in the other, I pulled her up with the grappling hook.

"Mizu, huh? Let's get her someplace warm. Why would somebody just leave her on the forest line? Damn people," I said. I put my bare hand against her soft head and felt around. She had a little bit of hair, but not enough to be considered anything but an infant.

"Well, we have a kid now. We can search the vicinity for the parents, we'll find something," I reassured her, but Moonlight almost looked disappointed. It was surprising to see. Could she have possibly wanted a kid?

"Yeah, we'll find your parents' little girl... Mizu." I told the baby. Moonlight mimicked my movement, caressing her head as we walked back to the city center.

Mizu seemed to be a unique child. She had hair color I'd only seen once before from Nova, so long ago. I didn't know some people could have red hair other than Nova. I was impressed, it was like her appearance in front of us had been lucky on our side. She was one of a kind.

"Just wait, Tavian and Dante are gonna be impressed with you," Moonlight said to Mizu. Mizu seemed playful for her age, with no crying, just silent obedience, the complete contrast from a normal baby.

Moonlight and I returned to the town square and asked around if anybody knew or had any connections to Mizu. I didn't think people would, considering they didn't have the same red hair color as her.

We walked over to Tavian and Dante, the main defenders of the Isle and leaders of our hypothetical army in case of invasion. Tavian and Dante spent time getting to know everybody in the city, so they would know about Mizu and her parents if they were here, I was almost certain.

"Hey, you two. What's new? Woah! Where did that kid come from?" Tavian asked, walking up next to Mizu.

"We were hoping you knew this little girl's parents. Her name is Mizu," I told him. Tavian looked at her for a second, squinting his eyes as if it would help him.

"No, unfortunately. I don't know who her parents could be. Where did you find her?" He asked. We explained where Moonlight and I found her and even he seemed confused and disgusted.

"That's terrible. Well, no matter. I'll take care of her Orion if that's what you're asking of me." Tavian added. I shook my head, but Moonlight was much more exuberant.

"Don't worry! We'll take care of her!" Moonlight's chipper voice spoke up against Tavian's and he smiled.

"That was my next idea of course! I'll let you know if anybody claims Mizu to be theirs. Was that all you needed?" Tavian asked, to which I nodded.

"You sure seem eager to get rid of them Tavian. You think they're annoying or something?" Dante playfully teased Tavian and the two went off bickering as I left the situation with Mizu and Moonlight.

We walked out of the town square, arriving at our small cabin. I was excited to be a family with Mizu and Moonlight now, but I couldn't help but feel bad that we stole her from her original parents. This was still the right thing to do, but I wouldn't want anybody to take my future children away from me.

I opened the door for Moonlight and she happily walked in, sarcastically calling me a gentleman as she set Mizu down to see what we could make for her to eat.

"So, you're Orion Danafall." A voice said from our couch. I pulled the sword from my hip and put my arm up in front of Moonlight.

"Who the hell are you?!" I yelled out, tilting the tip of my blade toward his face.

"The name is Genesis. I come from a civilization on Earth led by Zeal. He told me you'd be here." Genesis said. I locked the front door to make sure that prick couldn't come into my home and quickly ran back over to Genesis ready to kill him.

"Geez, so he never taught you any of the White Stone rules, had he?" Genesis asked me. I shook my head. Maybe he said them at one point, but I couldn't remember them.

"Well, no matter. We're holding a meeting for all White Stones, and Zeal wants you there. Will you show up?" Genesis asked. I instantly shook my head and he sighed with an irritated look.

"Okay, I won't force you, but you should go before you're deemed an enemy and hunted by Zeal and his other friends. He's established a hierarchy, he says you should show up, that means you should show up. I did all I could." He said again.

Genesis got up from the couch and walked off with his hands in his pockets. I didn't take my eyes off of him, even watching him unlock the front door to leave.

"Mizu is adorable, isn't she?" Genesis said, closing the door before I could think about how he knew her name.