In the outskirts of Ascelyn city, dark clouds gathered above a forest under the night sky. Thunder and lightning appeared and struck the woods. It was as if the ground was an anvil and the lightning was a hammer. A barrage of white flashes came down and with it came a repeated echo of loud rumblings and crashes. Even though it was night time, the flashes of light lit up the sky and acted as the sun.

In a village nearby, people closed their windows and stayed inside, fearing that the lightning would strike them. No one knew how long the thunderstorm would last but as dawn came and the rooster crowed, the storm was over and the villagers stepped outside.

A woodcutter named Roussel Gale ran out of his house and immediately sprinted towards the forest. If the trees were caught on fire that meant the village would have no more wood and no wood means no fire.

Because the village didn’t have any proficient mages, natural resources and labor were required by everyone in order to survive.

Roussel was a burly man who seemed to be around forty years old and it took him a while before he reached the forest.

The man wondered how this was possible. A thunderstorm of that magnitude should’ve burnt this forest to a crisp.

Roussel walked further into the forest and in the middle of the forest was a baby sleeping.

Roussel gasped. “Impossible! A newborn was in the middle of where the thunderstorm was and nothing happened to him?”

The burly man slowly picked up the baby who was wrapped in a thin cloth. The baby opened his eyes and cooed at the man and smiled. Even though Roussel was scared of what his wife would say if he randomly brought a baby home, he couldn’t just leave the newborn here. A wild animal could pass by any moment and devour it.

The forty-year-old man slowly walked back home while cuddling a baby in his arms.

“What is this? You brought a baby home? Where did you get it? Did you have an affair? Who did you do it with? Are you raising this child? Why didn’t you tell me anything...?” A pale-skinned, stern-looking woman with clouded eyes bombarded Roussel with questions.

“Please, Darcy. Don’t just open fire on me with all these questions.” Roussel whimpered.

“Alright, fine. First, where did you find this baby?” Darcy said angrily.

Roussel told his story of how he found the baby in the woods.

Darcy calmed down as she listened to his story.

“Hm…what do we do with it?” asked Darcy.

“I don’t know, I wanted to ask you but I couldn’t just leave him out there so I brought it with me,” Roussel replied.

“We should stop calling it an it.” Darcy grabbed the baby out of Roussel’s hands and unraveled the cloth. There was a jade blue pendant on the baby that shone brightly.

“This pendant has something written on it! As…Astra?” Darcy reached for the shining stone.

BUZZ!

“Ow!” Darcy yelled in pain.

“It seems to be a protective talisman of some sort.” Roussel speculated.

“His parents must’ve been in some danger otherwise, they wouldn’t leave a protective talisman on a baby.” Darcy thought out loud.

Roussel asked, “…Should we take care of it in the mean time?”

“Might as well…Perhaps his parents will give us some rewards when they come for him.” Darcy grinned.

“What do we call him?”

“The pendant says Astra, so I guess we’ll call him that.”