4 years later 

“ Dad, look, dad, look!”, said a boy excitedly, “ I did, dad, flames.” Indeed, in the middle of his little hand was a bright red flame. 

The father chuckled, “ Ha, ha, ha, you are truly my son, being able to use ick at this young of an age.” Only 4 years had passed, but, from the looks of it, the head of the Season family had aged quite a bit. His once pure black hair now has streaks of gray and he had some bad eye bags under his eyes. Years of worries and bad sleep was now catching up to him. The scars on his body were starting to throb as if they were fresh wounds. Despite all of that, he was shining brilliantly, a twinkle in his tired golden eyes and a bright smile on his aging face. He grabbed his son in his arms and swung him from side to side, making Winter laugh. 

“ Stop, you’re going to make him sick”, a silver-haired woman said as she stepped out of the house and onto the balcony. 

“Yes, darling”, he put Winter down.

“ Mom! Mom! Look, look, look, I can control ick!”, Winter excitedly ran into the arms of his mother. She hugged him and gave him a kiss on the forehead.  

“ Indeed, you did Winty”

She aged quite a bit too, her once blue eyes were heavy, her perfect posture was showing flaws, she lost a lot of weight and her once beautiful jade face showed a lot of wrinkles. Like her husband, she never lost the twinkle in her eyes and the smile on her face in front of her son. 

“ Honey, they just called”, the mistress said with a grimace, “ This is our chance.” 

Luke turned toward his wife, a determined look splattered from his face. “ Guess this is it, uh”, He walked up to Winter and kneel beside the confused little boy. “ Mommy and I are going on an adventure! We won’t be by your side for a while, so grow up to be a bright, kind and strong man, Winty.” 

“ Adventure? Ohhh, can I come too?” 

“ No Winty, it’s far too dangerous.”, Luna Season said whilst trying to hold back her tears, “ This is something that daddy and mommy need to do. You are still too young.” 

“But, I don’t wanna be away from daddy and mommy!”, the boy screamed, tears welling up in his eyes. 

Luke put his hands on Winter’s shoulder, “ We won’t be away for long, this is our duty.” 

The word duty was always used to explain the sudden disappearance of one of the boy’s parents. It was normal for mommy to suddenly go away while they were out on a family outing or for daddy to run out of the house in the middle of the night. Those were “duties” for Winter, but never had he been separated from the both of his parents at the same time. Even if he was only 4 years old, he knew, in the back of his mind, that this wasn’t a normal “duty” and something bad was going to happen. He could feel the darkness and heaviness in the air amidst the fake joy that his parents desperately tried to put up to not scare their young child. He looked to his father then to his mother, the both of them were trying hard to not lose their composure. 

“ Okay”, he replied shakily as he wiped his tears

“ Good, now I want you to stay inside the house until grandma and grandpa come, got it Winty?” Luke hugged his young child. 

“ Goodbye Winty, my beautiful, beautiful child.”,  Luna kissed Winter’s forehead “ We will always be proud of you no matter what.” 

They turned their backs on Winter and left, tears running down their faces; they knew that this would be the last time they ever see their son. 

***