Hello, my name is Vell, and to be blunt, I'm miserable, and that might even be an understatement. You might wonder what I mean in particular, but it wouldn't make sense to go into the details of my current position. Instead, I'd rather start from the beginning.

3 years ago, I was where I am now, in this forest; of course there is a house, a two-story house at that. I wasn't alone, of course; there was my mother and my father. My mother's name was Lilia; she was beautiful; she had long black hair and deep cyan irises; she used to be an artist, a musician to be precise. Even now, I remember the times she used to sing to me whenever I had trouble sleeping. Then there was my father, Johann; as far as I remember, he had always been a mess. He had messy black hair and gray irises and always wore these round glasses. He used to be a great and well-known scientist who had studied and discovered a lot about magic. He even used to live in the capital, which I'll talk about more some other time maybe. However, we ended up in this forest. Isolated from the rest of the world. We didn't always live here though; from as far as I remember, we were always on the move until we settled at this forest when I was around nine years old. It was a big change, and I've always missed traveling. I truly miss those times. But nothing lasts forever; the life we had was starting to crumble three years ago. 

I was on the swing in the garden daydreaming when suddenly my mom called me. “Vell! Get over here!” she shouted. I went over slightly annoyed, asking, “What is it?” “Prepare the table,” she told me, and as I let out a sigh, I told her, "Fine." As I was preparing the table, my mom asked me with a gentle smile, "So, are you excited for your birthday?” “Well, that depends on whether dad will actually be here for once,” I replied. “Don't worry, I'm sure he'll get down from that stinky room,” she told me, with a raised voice making sure my dad heard. “I'll even bake a delicious cake,” she adds. “But I guess as long as I'm not alone... I'll be happy,” I told her. “I'll be there; of course you can count on me! She replied. 

After I finished preparing the table, I went upstairs, stopping at my father's office door. I knocked once on the door, telling him, “We're going to be eating dinner." I waited... but no response as usual. I went back downstairs, looking forward to dinner. "Alright, let's eat,” my mom told me, then I sat down at the table, which had rice with rabbit served and a salad on the side. We mostly had rice to eat, and we caught rabbits and other animals with traps we made outside. Besides that, we had a garden going with plenty of vegetables. I took care of the traps while my mother worked on the garden; we had a fireplace where we cooked the rabbit. 

My dad contributed in the beginning, when we first settled here; however, he slowly grew more distant from us as time went by, consumed by his work. But I never noticed my mother bothered by it, but I did eventually. I wondered what he was working on that had him so busy, and that too I eventually found out. 

It was the next day; my birthday was in 4 days. At first everything seemed normal until I talked to my mother. “Morning mom,” I said; she replied “Morning” but seemed bothered by something, so I asked, “What's wrong?” She said everything was fine, but there definitely was something bothering her. 

Anyway, I didn't ask her any further and went outside a bit. I always usually went for a walk in the forest for a while, but not too far from home; however, I was always tempted to go further, exploring more of the forest and beyond. But my parents always made it very clear that I should always stay within a close radius, and so I did. But while I was walking, I heard something in the distant. It didn't sound like an animal; instead, it sounded like a person. I was tempted to investigate, but I had a bad feeling, so I ran. I quickly ran back home earlier than usual.

I eventually got back home looking for my mother. I had to tell her that I might have heard someone. While looking for my mother, I heard her upstairs, but I also heard another voice, my father. I snuck upstairs and tried to listen, and that wasn't too hard since they were arguing. My mother Lilia shouted, “LIKE I SAID YOU WILL COME DOWN HEAR AND TAKE PART IN VELLS BIRTHDAY." My father responded with, “Stop shouting at you; I have more important matters to deal with.” Then she even louder shouted, “MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR SON'S BIRTHDAY?”. He responded with, “Yes, YES EXACTLY, I mean, have you forgotten what I've been working on? It's for his sake,  goddammit." “No, I know and I haven't forgotten; I think it's you who has forgotten what's truly important,” she told him. “AND WHAT WOULD THAT BE?” My father frustratedly asked, “VELL BEING HAPPY, I mean, at this point you're doing this all for yourself... for your own goals!” My mother responded. Then there was silence... my father turned his chair away, back to his desk. My mother also left and told him, "I hope you see what's truly important here” before leaving. I quickly left home again after that, before they noticed me. I thought to myself, What was that about? For my sake? What did my dad mean by that? Is he working on some crazy birthday gift or what? I'm going to ask them myself; I decided. 

After a while before it was getting dark, I went back home again. My mother already prepared the table and was serving the food. “There you are; where were you?” She asked me, "Oh, I'm sorry I lost track of time." He replied, “I'll be right back; let me just get dad.” I added, and my mother curiously watched me go upstairs, probably hoping my dad would come down for once. I knocked on my father's door, telling him dinner is ready; as usual, there's no reply, so I further told him, “I heard you and mom arguing." Suddenly, the doorknob turned, and my dad revealed himself with his eyes wide open to me. “You heard us?” he asked me, and I nodded. He paused for a bit; he then grabbed my arm, telling me, “Let's go." We got downstairs and sat down at the table. 

My mom looked happily surprised and just sat down with us. “So, you decided to join us for once,” she said out loud. My dad didn't say anything and just looked at his plate; he then turned his head to me. My mom looked at the both of us, asking, “What's with you guys?” “Mom, I have a question for the both of you,” I told my dad and my mom. After a short pause, I asked, “What were both of you arguing about?”. Mom stopped eating and paused for a moment. “Oh that? You know I was just telling your dad to get his ass down here for your birthday,” she told me. “I know that much, but dad said he was being busy for my sake... what's did he mean by that?”. There was utter silence, until my dad finally spoke up: “I think it's time we tell him; he has a right to know." I looked at my father concerned, asking him, “Tell me what?”. My mom looked terrified and seemed really stressed. I diverted my attention back to my father. "Alright, I'll tell you." My dad said “no.” My mom shouted, but that didn't stop my dad. “Your sick, Vell." I remember being surprised and wondering what he meant by that, so I asked him, “What do you mean? I'm fine”. Meanwhile, my mom just started crying, and everything just seemed terrible. “To be more precise, you don't have a long time to live, Vell." I looked over to my mom, but she couldn't take it anymore. “SHUT UP, STOP TALKING!” she shouts as her tears run down her cheeks. My dad didn't care and just told my mom, “He should know; it's his life after all." “Vell, you may be fine now, but as time goes by, you will notice your body getting more tired, running out of energy and mana,” he told me, but I couldn't accept what he was saying. 

“What do you mean? But I'm completely fine." I told them, "Mom, why are you crying? I said I'm fine." I told them again and again and again, but I knew this wasn't a joke; I knew that, and my heart would just go on and beat faster and faster. I then further asked him, “Why do you think that anyways? I mean, I feel fine; you can't be serious, right?”. My dad looked me straight in the eyes and told me, “The reason you don't have much time left is because... a Void, there is a void growing inside you; I don't know what it is; no one else is affected by it; it's something that runs only through the side of my family; however, this only seems to occur once every second generation... and the last person affected by it was my father's uncle. Either way, I've been trying to study it and understand what we're dealing with here." 

As he was telling me all of this, all I was able to think about was, “How long? “Four years, probably,” he responded. After that, my mother jumped to mean just hugged me, “I'm sorry, Vell. I'm so sorry." I forced myself away from them from this whole scene and quickly left home before they could stop me. My mom tried to stop me, but I forced my way through; I had to leave, running through the dark forest... and I didn't care to stop.