The water continent, the hometown of every water element user, in the summer of the year 1030 in the main village, a village that has only two colors, the white of snow and the brown of wooden huts.

A young tall man with silver hair was walking on the snow, Gabrel, while hearing the sounds of kids running and chasing pleasingly, he was heading straight to the biggest hut that was standing alone at the end of the village.

One of the kids ran crossing Gabrel’s side, he then slipped and closed his eyes, he opened one eye only to see the ground, he didn’t even touch it, he was floating in the air.

The kid felt power was trying to help him stand again, he then saw it with wide eyes and opened mouth, there was a light-blue piano floating at the side of the Gabrel.

The young man continued walking normally and the floating piano vanished, he left the kids without any attempt to explain what happened, is it normal to see a floating piano appearing from thin air and then vanishing again without a trace?

“Knock knock.”

Gabrel arrived at the doorway of the hut, a man with blue messy hair and half-opened sleepy eyes opened the door, the signs of annoyance are obvious on his face, but it wasn’t Pohg.

“Hey, Trenos, are you ready?”

It was Trenos, Pohg’s older son.

Gabrel was looking at Trenos with a delightful smile while Trenos was looking at Gabrel with expressions of “Oh god, here we go again.”

“Why are you here?” said Trenos with a furious yet calm tone.

“What? Did you forget about our mission?”

“No, I didn’t, it’s just that we have to move at 9 A.M and it’s still 8, so you can turn back and go home.”

“Hmm, can I have breakfast with you today?”

And directly after this annoying question, Trenos slammed the door on Gabrel’s face like there wasn’t anybody in front of the house, Trenos didn’t have enough energy to play along.

“Who is at the door, Trenos?” said Pohg from the living room.

“No one, father.”

“Good morning Mr.Pohg, I’m ready for our first mission.”

Said Gabrel from behind the door.

“You already came, Rel.”

“Yeah, sorry for coming so early, I was just too excited.”

Still behind the door.

“Open the door for him, Trenos”

Trenos headed to the door with a sigh, he wasn’t a big supporter of the idea of letting Gabrel inter the house at this early hour since he’s loud, but his father’s orders have to be obeyed.

“cra~ck.”

“Thanks, Tre.” said Gabrel with the same undying smile.

Gabrel then looked around and asked “Hm? Where’s Eva?”

Eva, Pohg’s younger daughter, and Trenos’s sister.

“She’s still sleeping, you came too early, Rel.” said Pohg while sitting behind a table.

“Y-yeah “giggle” sorry about that.” replied Gabrel while rubbing his back head.

“I hope you don’t consider this mission a game, Rel, its dangerous mission and you need to focus.”

“And that’s why I don’t recommend Gabrel to participate, father.” interrupted Trenos.

“Come on, Tre, trust me a little.” put Gabrel his hand on Trenos’s shoulder, Trenos shook off Gabrel’s hand and said.

“Of course I won’t, you’re irresponsible, reckless person, your top priority is to have fun and you’re not a wise choice for this mission.”

“Enough, Trenos! I chose Gabrel for a reason, you maybe don’t know, but he got the potential to be an important member of this mission.”

“But we can’t choose people based on their potential that they MAY have, he’s a kid, his behavior is enough to prove of that!”

“HEY.” Gabrel interrupted Trenos, he can’t stand quite hearing this offending words, he then continued with a firm voice.

“You didn’t have to offend kids like that, have some respect for them!”

….this is, the best self-defense line Gabrel thought of, Trenos moved his gaze to his dad and said.

“He’s a complete idiot! I don’t know why you are defending him that much.”

Pohg didn’t answer, just looking at Trenos, Trenos then let a sigh and continued calmly.

“I’m going upstairs to check my equipment.”

Gabrel got closer to Pohg while watching Trenos getting upstairs as he said.

“Wow, that was weird, I’m not used to seeing him arguing about something that much.”

“Sorry about that, Rel.”

“No worries, Pohg, I can understand him in a way, he’s just a little tensed because of the mission, we’re going to sneak to one of the enemy’s headquarter seeking for top secret information after all.”

“Yeah, like I said before, it’s a very dangerous mission, you still can change your mind if you want to.”

“No pohg, I already made my decision, I have to know who’s the one responsible for my village destruction,…and my parent's death.”

“Are you still seeking revenge?”

“Yeah, I don’t have better things to do, the regret will chase me ’till death if I didn’t do that.”

Gabrel’s face turned from delight to depression in a second, he sat in front of Pohg with the table between them, then silent came over, Trenos was upstairs, Eva still asleep, and Gabrel was swimming in his thoughts.

Gabrel was recalling the 5 years old events, his face was getting worse and worse through time, with a single glance, Pohg knew Gabrel was remembering his most hated memories, he tried to bring his conscious again from past.

“Rel.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Can you please go upstairs and wake Eva?”

“Y-yeah, sure.”

Pohg understands, he knows very much Gabrel’s feeling, the feeling of losing someone dear, he tried to distract him from thinking about the painful past.

Pohg didn’t drop his gaze from Gabrel as he went upstairs, then a sigh of relief came out of Pohg.

And then, Gabrel started his line of thoughts again.

After the day of the battle between the village and the enemies, Pohg has decided to go to the village to search for any survivors, and Gabrel insisted on coming with him.

They went to the village to look for survivors, but the only thing they saw was destruction and nothing else when they went to the battlefield on the shore, they only saw tens of bodies, the dead bodies of the villagers and the enemies as well.

A carpet of bodies covering the whole land, even the former white snow turned to crimson red, for a 10 years old kid like Gabrel, it was a scene full of horror, but the real nightmare was waiting for him.

After a while they discovered Hala’s and Elmos’s bodies, a great sadness was unleashed from Gabrel’s insides, screaming to the sky with eyes full of tears, poor Gabrel couldn’t do more than hugging his parent's dead bodies.

After a while of discovering Elmos’s and Hala’s bodies, Pohg buried them with a help of Gabrel, there wasn’t any tombstone on their graves, Pohg fixed that problem by taking wooden parts from a destroyed house.

Pohg inscribed their names on it and stood in a moment of mourning alongside Gabrel, Gabrel was looking at his parent's graves like he was waiting for them to get out of their graves and come back to life, that’s what he wished.

Turns out the day of the attack against the village wasn’t the worst in his life, it was the day when he saw his beloved family under the ground.

Gabrel was already in front of Eva’s room when he came back to reality, he firstly knocked, but she was still asleep apparently, so Gabrel opened the door and said.

“Eva, wake u…” Gabrel stopped and his sorrowful face turned to a calm smile.

Everything was normal, a 16 years old girl with pure skin and innocent cute face sleeping while hugging her pillow, she was like an angel sleeping.

“Who can believe this sleeping beauty is a fire demon when awake?” said Gabrel while getting closer to her bed.

Gabrel started to examine every inch of her face, her snowy baby-like skin, her small nose, her tiny cute mouth, and her deep blue hair, Gabrel wished to see her ocean-blue eyes as well, but all this cuteness was already overwhelming his heart to the level of only thinking of one line.

“Yup, she’s like a sly fox posing as a sheep.”

….sorry, maybe “fear” was a better word than cuteness.