Ever since I was born, I could only ever remember the world being a cold place.

A permanent winter permeated throughout the lands with the climate only seeming to vary between cold to freezing depending on the seasons and the location of where one was. And this cold seemed to affect the people too; huddling in their homes for warmth and safety, cautious to anyone unfamiliar and keeping mostly amongst themselves.

It wouldn’t be fair to solely blame the cold for affecting people’s demeanour to one other, after all; monsters lurked this cold world, hiding within the snow, and devouring the unprepared that dared to venture across the lands.

But, I lived in the small village of Pilut on the outskirts of this world, where monsters were few and the need to travel anywhere else simply did not arise at all. So safe and so self-contained was the village that I had thought I would live and die a perfectly content life in the village.

Until that day happened.

~x~

“Rei!”

My mother’s voice called out to me and I opened my eyes from the bed, staring up at the ceiling made of wooden logs.

“What is it, ma?” I called back and climbed out of the bed, heading out of the bedroom to go downstairs to heed my mother’s call.

When I reached downstairs, I saw my parents standing by the kitchen table, a white cream cake sitting on the table with candles perched atop the cake.

“Happy eleventh birthday, son!” My father grinned down at me. He was a man with wild hazel hair, broad shoulders and a stature like a bear. 

“T, thanks…” I said, feeling sheepish from my father’s grin. It wasn’t often that my father would smile at me like that. Most of the time, my father was a stoic person with a face like a rock.

My mother was side-eyeing father with pursed lips, her neat and delicate features contrasted my father's ruggedness greatly, “I thought we agreed that we would say it together on the count of three.”

“Jeez, does it really matter?” Father sighed, shaking his head, “Are you really going to argue about that?”

Hearing father’s response, mother began launching a tirade at him, whilst father continued to shake his head and sigh.

I laughed, walking over to the kitchen table. Despite how it looked, arguing was just the way that father and mother communicated. None of it was ever said in a personal manner.

Just as sudden as mother had begun arguing, she stopped, and her eyes suddenly got teary.

“M, ma…?” I said, staring at mother.

“H, hey, you okay there?” Father said to mother.

“I, I’m sorry… it’s just… I’m just so emotional cause I’m so happy our son is finally eleven…!” Mother bursted into tears with her hands at her face. “It only feels like just yesterday I was teaching him how to walk and now he’s already eleven…!”

My father and I stared awkwardly at mother for a few seconds, neither knowing what to do, until father walked up to mother, pulling her into a warm embrace.

“There, there, you crazy woman…” Father sighed, patting mother on her head.

“S, soon Rei will be all grown up before I know it, and then he will say he wants to leave mother to live on his own…!” Mother cried into father’s chest, “I don’t know what I would do when that day happens…!”

“I won’t ever do that, mother…” I laughed weakly. “I will live with you here forever, mother…!”

“You say that now, but when you’re older, it’s going to be a different story!” Mother said, lifting her head from father’s chest to peer at me with teary eyes.

“Normally, parents would be happy when their children are finally able to look after themselves…” Father grumbled a bit too loudly, and mother turned an icy glare towards father.

“A, anyways, let’s just eat the damn cake, shall we!” Father grunted, stepping away from mother to pull out some utensils from the kitchen cabinets for the cake, “We’re supposed to be celebrating Rei’s birthday here…”

Mother strolled over to me, hugging onto my shoulders from behind and gently guiding me to where the cake was.

“Baby, it’s time for you to make a wish!” Mother said enthusiastically, and I laughed meekly. No matter how old I was, it seemed my mother was intent on calling me ‘Baby’, even in front of all the other kids in the village.

Closing my eyes in front of the cake, I whispered a wish to myself.

‘I wish I could live a peaceful life with mum and dad in the village here for the rest of my life.’

Then, I blew on the candles, opened my eyes, and heard my mother clap next to me.

“Waah, you did it, baby!” Mother cheered.

“Dammit, woman!” Father said from behind the kitchen counter, “Rei’s eleven years old now and you’re still calling him ‘baby’?!”

“Do you want me to throw this cake in your face that badly?” Mother replied.

Father and mother continued rambling on to each other, whilst I laughed, watching my parents from the sidelines.

~x~

In the dark of the night, I snapped awake, drenched in sweat and feeling smouldering heat all around me.

Clouds of black smoke was seeping through the gaps of my bedroom door and I hurriedly pulled the pillow sheet out, wrapping it around my mouth to filter out the smoke.

Then with shaky feet and a pounding heart, I stumbled over to the bedroom door, opening it and almost burning the skin of my palm on the door handle.

Something was clearly very wrong.

‘Was it a fire? But there was already so much smoke! I need to hurry up and wake mum and dad up!’ I thought, and ran out of the bedroom to go to my parent’s bedroom.

The door to my parent’s bedroom was open, but there was no one inside.

“Mum…! Dad…!!” I yelled, my voice muffled by the pillow sheet I was holding to my mouth.

I ran down the stairs of the house, then froze mid-way down, my heart stopping.

On the floor of the living room were the unmoving bodies of my mother and father. Blood was everywhere on the floor, and I glanced shakily at the open wound on my mother’s chest where her heart was. Her eyes were lifeless, no longer holding the usual spark and energy from mere moments earlier when they had been celebrating my eleventh birthday together.

My teeth clenched, fighting back tears, and I threw myself down the stairs, tossing aside the pillow sheet and falling down on my knees next to my mother, “MAAAAA!!” I screamed.

I held my mother up from the ground, feeling her warm blood dripping down from my hands that were on her back.

I didn’t know what to do. I tried shaking her lightly, my tears now falling uncontrollably from my eyes.

“Maa…!” I choked, my vision blurring, “P, please… please wake up… I, I beg you…”

Her pale face remained still, lips purple, and her eyes stayed closed.

“Ma…!” I spluttered, squeezing my eyes closed, hardly feeling the black smoke beginning to clog up my throat.

“Rei…”

I opened my eyes. It wasn’t my mother’s voice. It was my father’s.

I turned my head quickly over to my father’s body and saw him lying there, his eyes half-opened and gazing at me.

Lowering my mother’s body to the ground, I quickly crawled over to my father’s body, my breath stopping when I saw the huge gash penetrating the centre of my father’s abdomen.

“Rei…” My father called out weakly to me and I stared down at my father’s face, feeling my whole body trembling.

“P, pa…” I stuttered, “I’m here… it’s me, pa… I, I’ll get you out and then we can get help--”

“Listen to me, Rei,” My father breathed out, his voice serious as he stared up into my eyes, “I’m dying. There’s nothing that can help me. But I need to talk to you, Rei...”

“Y, you’re still alive… we can still…”

“I need you to be a man now, Rei.” Father said sternly, mustering all of his strength to speak to me. “Mother is… she’s gone too. And once I’m gone, it’ll just be you, Rei.”

“N, no…!” I felt my shoulder shaking, tears welling up.

“Please, Rei, listen…!” Father said, “I know. You’re still young. But you need to listen to me, you need to get out of here, Rei. You need to stay alive.”

I took a deep breath, trying my best to hold back the hiccups, then nodded.

“There’s a secret compartment underneath the kitchen cabinet, inside you will find a sword there.” Father said, “It’s my sword. I’m giving it to you now, Rei. Use it to protect yourself and those you love.”

I nodded shakily, even though I could barely make sense of his words in my current state. Did he say sword? Swords were usually only carried by knights, warriors or travellers, and for my whole life, I had never seen my father even leave the village.

“Take the sword, Rei, then get away from the village, run as far as you can.” Father said. “The bandits could still be here, and they’re no ordinary bandits. If they catch you, you will die, Rei, do you understand?”

Again, I nodded.

“Good boy…” Father gave me a weak smile, “Mother’s going to kill me in the afterlife if you die, Rei. So do me a solid and don’t die.”

I chuckled shakily in tears for a second at my father’s joke.

“Be strong, Rei…” Father muttered, his weary eyes gradually closing. “Stay alive, my son…”

“Pa…?” I said, then upon hearing no response, shook my father lightly, “Pa…!”

...

No response.

My father was gone, his weary eyes had finally gone to rest.

Weeping quietly to myself, I picked myself up from the ground, heading over to the kitchen cabinet as father had said.

I had to be quick, as I was now coughing, my lungs filling up with the black smoke. It appeared the house was burning from the outside, cracks beginning to sound from the structure becoming unsteady.

Opening the kitchen cabinet, I found the usual kitchen items, rummaging around for the sword that father had spoken of but found nothing.

‘Father said there was a secret compartment under the cabinet…’ I thought.

Seeing a hammer hidden at the side of the cabinet, I pulled it out, then used it to smash the wood underneath the cabinet, breaking the bottom to reveal the compartment that father had been talking about.

Just like father had said, there was a sword inside.

It wasn't just any sword either. The sword was as thick and as big as an adult male, looking comically large next to my scrawny figure as an eleven-year-old kid. Rough cuts and wear were visible across the blade of the sword, indicating that whomever had used it had used it frequently.

Grabbing the handle of the sword and pulling it out of the cabinet, I almost fell down to the ground, feeling the heavy weight of the sword against me. However, I still had a bit more muscles than a typical eleven-year-old, having performed a lot of manual labour for the house alongside my father.

Mustering all of my strength, I carried the sword and stumbled towards the door of the house. However, debris fell from the ceiling, falling down onto me and I fell down screaming in pain as I was suddenly set aflame by the debris.

Crashing through the door of the house and falling face-first into the snow, I heard the roar of fire raging all around me and the house crumbling behind me just as I had gotten out.

“Ma… Pa….” I whimpered to the snow at my face, barely feeling the flames on my body began to dissipate from the snow.

Then I glanced up blankly, seeing the village that I had lived in my whole life set ablaze in wild flames, sending black smoke up into the cold night.

~x~

“Hey cap’n, there’s a survivor!”

“A boy’s trying to escape!”

I heard voices shouting from around me in the distance. My body was covered in terrible burns all over and aching with agonising pain but I had to get himself away from the village just as father had instructed. My father’s sword that I was towing behind me with both hands was slowing m,e down, but I refused to let go despite the terrible blisters on my hands.

‘I have to get away…!’ I thought to himself wearily.

But the voices grew louder and before I knew it, I was surrounded by a group of at least fifty rough looking men, dressed in feral traveller’s clothing.

Bandits.

“Just a boy? And he’s half-dead at that.” A man at the centre of the bandits emerged, atop a horse. This man was different to the rest, wearing red plated armour that was heavily armed. The man glared down icily at me with eyes as sharp as a hawk, then turned his horse around, “I’ll leave this to you lot, we need to move out of here quickly.”

“Aye aye, cap’n,” The men said, and the man in the red plated armour they referred to as captain rode away swiftly on his horse, leaving with around ten of the bandits.

There were still forty bandits surrounding me, but I was staring darkly at the back of the man in the red plated armour.

“Y, you!!” I let out a maddening yell, calling at the captain, “You killed my family!! I’ll never forget you…!!”

But the captain didn’t even glance back as he disappeared into the distance.

I roared in anger like some wild animal, picking up my sword to chase after the captain, but ran into several of the bandits that pushed me back with ease, shoving me down into the snow.

“Where you going, little boy?” The bandits taunted, their laughs echoing around me.

“The boy’s sword is even bigger than himself, and he thinks he can swing it?”

“Let’s just hurry and slaughter this boy so we can take the goods we took from this village and get out of here.”

The burns on my body was causing me too much pain to even think now, and all I could hold on to was the seething rage inside my mind, keeping me from falling unconscious.

I glanced up at the bandits that surrounded him, seeing one of them towering over me with a sword in hand, preparing to stab it down into my chest with a snide grin on his unkempt face.

Then, something white fell from the sky, hitting me on my face gently, and I raised a weak hand touching it, feeling icy cold on my fingertips.

‘Snow…?’ I thought tiredly to myself, watching snow begin to fall.

Suddenly, the bandit towering over me let out a terrible scream, and blood erupted from his torso, sending his body falling down stiffly to the ground.

“W, wha--?!”

The bandits stopped, glancing around in panic and confusion, and a white figure jumped down from above, slicing at the bandits, darting from one bandit to the other with such speed and grace that my eyes couldn’t even follow.

“What is tha--”

“Kill hi--”

“Help! I can’t—"

It was as though the figure was dancing in the air, cutting the bandits down with ease before they could even react, whilst blood exploded out of their bodies, their agonising screams filling the night air.

Soon the night was silent and the bodies of the forty bandits laid unmoving on the snow that was tainted in thick red blood, a lone figure standing amidst the scene, dressed completely in white, patches of dark red blood staining their clothing just like the snow.

Despite the gruesomeness of the scene, I stared in awe at the figure and couldn’t help but to think the word:

‘Beautiful...’ 

Long flowing silver hair that almost seemed translucent against the snow, an unblemished face with pale white skin, a slender nose, petite pink lips appearing feather-soft, and scarlet red eyes that glowed distinctly like the blood around her amidst the whiteness.

A girl that appeared no older than her late teens stood at the centre of the violence, dressed in a white flowing outfit, long fabric brisking gently against the cool wind, her hands holding onto twin silver blades that were stained with blood.

Her vivid scarlet eyes were staring at me from where I laid on the snow, before my vision began to blur and I blanked out.