Normal and ordinary

Countless stars in the night sky. Not a cloud in sight. Light blue moonlight supported by white starlight shining down on a small village in the woods.

What a wonderful sight, if not for the rivers of blood flowing on the ground.

Corpses and severed limbs could be seen everywhere.

Every house was either on fire or completely destroyed.

Not a sound could be heard, apart from the roaring flames or the screams of agony and despair.

In the midst of all this carnage laid a young child, no more than ten years old. It was a rather girly looking boy with half long black hair. He would have been a pretty cute child if the right side of his face wasn't almost completely burned off.

His right hand had only three fingers left, the thumb, index and middle finger. The left knee was gruesomely bend to the side. There was an obviously big wound on his chest. When he wanted to escape the house earlier, a beam had hit him there.

Though, these were only the physical injuries. His mother didn't even get a chance to escape and burned to death, while his father got crushed when he sacrificed himself to push his son outside. You could even see his hand stick out from under the debris.

He had seen both his parents die a gruesome dead. This would physically scar any ten year old child.

Yet, no screams or shouts escaped the boy's mouth, he just silently watched the moon and the stars with his cyan colored left eye. He looked to be in a trance. Or maybe he was just in shock.

Breathing slowly became impossible because of the smoke filling the sky and his lungs, so they felt as if they were on fire.

At the same time, the smoke also clouded his vision. He already had lost eyesight in one eye, and now the other wasn't of much use anymore either.

In the distance, soft sounds of fighting could be heard. The young boy didn't know who was fighting, or why his village got attacked, or rather massacred, in the first place. All he knew was that at some point in this silent evening, soldiers suddenly came and started killing everyone out of nowhere.

After some time, the fighting came to an end. Not that it really mattered to the little boy. He was sure he was going to die anyway. His inner organs are almost destroyed and even his heart had received a big impact. It was only a matter of time until it gave in and stopped beating.

Waiting till death took him away from this place, he silently kept watching the night sky. Ever since he was young, he loved watching the stars at night. Sometimes, he imagined being one and shining down so others could look up to him as well.

Other times he felt as if they were calling out to him, but that was impossible. It was just his imagination running wild, nothing more.

From the corner of his left eye, the boy saw a person coming over to him. Because of the smoke, he couldn't see any specific features, but what he did see was that the figure held a scythe.

'It seems death has arrived, but I thought I had at least a few more minutes left. I must be in worse shape than I thought.'

When the figure came close, he noticed something weird. It almost seemed like it had wings, and rather big ones at that. Also, the figure was a bit smaller than him, which he thought was rather weird. Well, it was not like he had seen death before, so who knows.

After the figure arrived by his side, it raised the scythe and swiped horizontally. The boy was sure he would die the next second, still, he didn't close his eyes. Instead, he continued watching the stars, trying to watch them as long as possible.

Contrary to the boy's expectations, the scythe didn't swipe at him. Instead, it swiped above him. And at that moment, something strange happened.

'Why is everything going in slow motion.'

'My mind feels clear.'

'No, it's not my mind that feels clear, it's something else.'

'And how can I even think that fast, this shouldn't be possible.'

'Also, why am I so calm about all of this.'

After what felt forever to the boy, the figure finished swiping the scythe. Immediately after that, the smoke was utterly blown away.

The boy could see clearly again, and his vision went back to normal. But what he saw stumped him. It felt like he was dreaming.

"Beautiful…"

The boy muttered unconsciously, after which he shut his mouth as fast as possible.

In front of him stood a girl around the same age as him. She had indigo hair and dark magenta eyes. A slender face with a little mouth and lips the same dark magenta as her eyes. Her skin was as white as snow, and her slender right hand held a black scythe.

However, none of those things where as breath taking as the gorgeous fuchsia butterfly wings on her back. They had a flowery, deep pink pattern on the surface, reached out half a head above the girl and almost reached the ground. They were around the same height of the girl, only positioned a little higher. The wings were as wide as three times the girl's body width.

But the boy felt as if something was off with the wings. It almost seemed as if they were as dangerous as they were beautiful. He didn't understand why he felt that way, but he was sure about it.

Naturally, this beautiful girl was not a human. But the boy had lived his entire life in this simple village, so he had no idea what she was.

He did know, however, she wasn't someone he should mess with. The white robe she wore was almost turned entirely red because of the blood of the soldiers she had killed in the fight earlier. The only way he could tell the dress was originally white was because of the few patches of white that still remained here and there.

There was blood dripping from the scythe as well so that didn't really help.

But the boy wasn't the only one who was mesmerized. Obviously, the girl wasn't stumped by his appearance. At the moment his appearance couldn't be described anyway else than that he looked like shit.

No, the girl was looking intensely at his eyes. Or rather, his left eye since the right one got destroyed together with that half of his face.

Outside the boy's knowledge, his left eye had totally changed appearance. At this moment, it didn't have the cyan color anymore. No, it looked exactly the same as the night sky.

After looking at each other for a few seconds, the left eye started to revert to the cyan color again.

After his eye returned to normal, the girl finally spoke, "You're fated to die here."

Of course the boy knew he was going to die, there was no need for the girl to tell him that. But something about the way she phrased it was off.

"What do you mean with fated?", asked the boy.

The girl, however, ignored him completely and swiped her scythe at the rubble behind him. He didn't really know what to expect, but when he saw her blow the debris away, he was lost for words.

All that remained were two corpses, his mother's, which was turned into charcoal, and his father's. He felt his heart getting torn apart by that sight. Most of all, he had wanted to die without having to see his dead parents.

Still, he didn't look away. They had loved him with all they had, so he thought it to be disrespectful to look away.

'Maybe I can bury them before it's my time to go. No, I have to bury them before that.'

But just as that thought reached his head, he saw the girl stretch out her left arm. After making a grabbing motion with her hand, she started to chant something in a language the boy couldn't understand.

Almost immediately afterwards, the remaining blood from his parents corpses came flowing out. A spere of blood formed in the girl's hand, and very soon it started to condense.

"What do you think you're doing!", the boy wanted to shout with rage. Unfortunately, he didn't have the strength to do so. Still, his glaring eye told enough.

The girl understood what he meant, but she didn't stop the process as the boy kept glaring at her with more and more rage building inside him.

Those were his parents body's!

They were turning in nothing but empty husks right in front of his eyes!

This was nothing but desecration!

The girl finished condensing the blood into one drop, and simply said, "I can't change mine, so I'll change yours instead."

She slammed her hand with the drop of blood into his chest, right where his hart resides.

The drop of blood penetrated into his heart and started to flow together with the rest of his blood, after which the boy felt immense pain. Even the physical pain he had felt all night couldn't compare in the least to what he felt right now. It felt as if his body was being torn apart from the inside out.

The girl started another chant in that strange language and used some kind of purple energy on her left hand. The energy entered the boy's bloodstream and started to control it. It started leading the blood towards the destroyed inner organs, which started to heal miraculously.

The boy kept screaming in pain, but he had realized what was happening by now. Still, he had mixed feelings about it. On one hand he was glad that he could survive, but on the other hand it was done using his dead parents blood. He was torn between those feelings, but all he could do was accept, since he wasn't the one who made the choice.

After some excruciating minutes, which felt like hours, the pain finally subsided. His inner organs had actually been completely healed.

He wanted to open his mouth to say something, but the girl was faster, saying, "Before you ask, this was the only way to save your life. I apologize for using your parents like that, but there was simply no other way."

"Also, you are probably wondering what I did. I condensed their blood into blood essence, and the energy it contained was barely enough to heal your inner organs ."

"Blood essence?", the boy couldn't help but ask.

"You'll learn more about those things when you start your Path", the girl answered.

This only resulted in more questions for the boy, though. But he kept them inside, since it didn't seem like the girl was going to answer anyway.

The girl then continued, "Go to a place where you can start cultivating. A small city should be a good enough place to get started. Also, what is your name?"

"My name is Aether, and yours?", the boy asked.

"I am Violet", the girl answered.

"Violet", Aether said, "I am but a normal human boy, why should I try cultivating. There is no way an ordinary mortal like me can do something like that."

"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not, your life has already completely changed.", Violet said, 'And Fate won't let this go like that.'

She didn't say that last part out loud.

"Goodbye Aether, I wish you luck on your Path."

Violet started to leave after saying that, and Aether didn't try to stop her. He already knew she wouldn't stay any longer.

"Will we ever meet again?", Aether asked before it was too late.

"Who knows.", Violet answered before thinking to herself, 'A normal human? An ordinary mortal? With such eyes, there is no way you are just normal or ordinary.'

'Or at least, you won't stay that way.'