I would never forget this moment.

The moment her tiny feeble hand wrapped around my finger. She seemed to think it belongs to her as she was giving quite a bit of an effort in her tugging. I relented to her wish.

"Be careful okay, Seth? She's more frail than she looks."

My mother told me so as the doctor gently lower small baby into my readied arms. Oh? She was really light. My mother was right about her being frail. I felt that I could crush her bones if I wasn't too careful. My sister was so meek but it just adds to her adorable charm.

Yes, she was my sister, Aria. She was only a few minutes old. I had the privilege of being the third to hold her in my arms. She chuckled adorably when I twirled my finger around her belly. She hated that I stopped moving my fingers but she was pushing my finger away when I resumed. Such a fickle sister.

Envious gazes were send to me as everyone in the room was dying to have a turn to cradle her in their arms. With permission from the village doctor, I passed my sister into the arms of Josh.

Josh was only seven years old, five years younger than me but he wore a façade filled with sublime wisdom. Wise beyond his age, that was how everyone described him. He was an orphan but his uncle from his father’s side had been his guardian for as long as I had known him. It kinda stings when I saw how much everyone had a more relaxed expression towards Josh than when I was the one cradling Aria.

Josh gave her a smile and his curved lips was meet with gasps. Not to say he was a gloomy person but his smiles were as rare as a blue moon. He even tapped the forehead of my sister gently and playfully while uttering a single word, “boop.”

“Give me, give me!” A girl with an energetic smile was pleading while hopping. Ruu was next in line to cradle Aria. She lived just next door to Josh who lived next door to me. She was younger than me by two years but her height said otherwise. The changes in the adults’ face were severe, to say the least when she had Aria in her arms. Everyone in this room knew just how clumsy she could be. While she was frolicking over my newborn sister, everyone was holding their breath, including the taciturn Josh.

“My turn?” asked Ronac who looks frightened at the opportunity.

“You’ll be fine,” replied Ruu without a single hesitation.

One could label Ronac in the same category as Ruu but unlike her, he was very well-aware of his faults. He lived just across the street from us and he was the same age as Ruu. They were even born under the same moon. His turn came to an end faster than any of us but the adults didn’t have a dire reaction like they did for Ruu. I remember how she dropped an antic vase even though she was only standing still. The vase was safe since it landed on a flowerbed. I was more surprised how that event had vanish from her memories.

After these three childhood friends of mine, it was the turn of my aunts and uncles and their children. The other adults’ turn comes after them.

All the while, everyone was gazing at Aria warmly. Surprisingly, Aria had only cried when she was given birth. She seemed fine in the arms of others. I could vaguely remember how much Ronac flailed in the arms of others when he was just born.

I can tell she will grow up to be a person braver and stronger than her brother.

After everyone’s turn has ended, Aria is once again passed into the arms of mother. She chuckled when my mother swung her slightly in her embrace.

“What a smart girl she is. She knows the arms of a mother are the best,” remarked my aunt, Loraine, who was also my mother’s older sister.

“If she had any more guts, she might be able to become a Dragon Knight.” Loraine’s husband made a boorish joke.

I don’t know if it was meant to be a joke but the bloodshot gaze my mother gave him sure ain’t one. Thankfully, everyone treated it only as a joke. Everyone laughed after that, except for Josh of course.

I would never forget this moment. A truly joyous occasion.

While everyone was basking in the ephemeral lovely mood, a door swung open brutishly. In walk a man drenched in sweat all over his tunic and towering everyone else in the room. Instead of being intimidated, only woeful groans of displeasure came out.

“Lily!” The huge man yelled out and made a beeline to the bed. The eyes which were solely directed at Aria cradled in mother’s arms, were tearing up. Both Ruu and Ronac joined the adults in a woeful groaned with rolled eyes.

“I-is this m-mine?”

Mother sighed. “No dear, it’s ours.”

“Thank the G-Gods!!” he shouted out.

That would be my father, Carrick. He was one of the village’s woodsman and huntsman. A giant of a man but the wits of a maiden. His tears and drools were everywhere on his face. Everyone could only shook their head regrettably, thinking what a waste of a person. He likes to put on a tough front but mother never failed to break it on every occasion.

I thought it couldn’t get any worse but when he tried to take Aria into his arms, she flinched away from his undulating fingers. That act itself, brought absolute destruction to his status as a father. He literally had his hands and knees on the floor while cursing himself for not being the father Aria likes.

The celebration went on until the third bell for the night echoed throughout the village. This was usually the sign for the children’s bedtime and it was also the sign for the celebration to come to an end. Everyone looked satisfied but Ruu, she looked downhearted. She wanted to play with Aria some more but mother told her that Aria needed her rest.

Just as everyone is leaving the bedroom to give Aria and mother their much needed rest and I was following suit, I heard a loud gasp from behind.

It came from mother.

“It c-can’t be….”

I look back to see the stunned expression mother had. Before a question could leave my mouth, I paused on my words. I also came to share and equally stunned expression.

Bright lights filled the room.

A strange runic symbol has drawn itself onto the back of my sister’s right hand with lights as its ink. It was shaped like some sort of fruit.

Personally, I had never seen this symbol before but it was a too well-known of a story to be ignorant of it. For each generation, she will appear. She comes bearing the grace of the Gods. She is benevolent and powerful, a Saintess adored by many. However, she is also sought after by many who bears ill-will towards the world. She is the miracle child of the Gods, she is an eternal incarnation. She who bears the sigil of the divine fruit on the back of her right hand, shall be chosen as the incarnation of the Divine Maiden.

I would never forget this moment.

The moment when I realize my sister had her fate sealed and imprinted onto a difficult path. And I vowed to myself to protect her from anything or anyone that would try to do her harm.

And I knew there was only one path that I could took. The Divine Maiden in the legends always had elite noble warriors as her shield. I just need to become one of them.

I would never forget this moment.

The moment when I decided to become a Dragon Knight.