Along the village road, in the outskirts of the village Poz, two figures were moving. One of them, a dark-haired boy. The other, an old, short woman wearing a large blue robe.

As they got closer to the white clay house that Cury knew as his, he glimpsed at the brown roof tiles. A yellow cat was sitting on top, licking its paws and cleaning itself.

Closing in on the wooden fence gate, the cat peaked its ears. Not bothering to give them a glance, the cat simply turned around and walked toward the backside of the roof.

Opening the gate, Cury could hear the sound of wood hitting wood in the backyard.

He, and the old woman tailing him, walked around the corner of the house. Upon rounding the corner, he saw his father’s long brown hair swinging back and forth. His white shirt, drenched in sweat. Those red pants made him seem oddly similar to those sea-thieves his father had told him about.

His father was unusually muscular for a scientist. He made sure to practice his skills with the spear and pole as often as he could. These were old habits from when he was an adventurer.

“Cury, I am glad you are back! I made some crucial advancements with the lucky tear and have been waiting to share it with you!” Pete joyfully said as he turned around and let the pole in his hand fall to rest on one end between his legs, with the other end of the pole still in his hand.

Now, leaning against his wooden pole, his father’s body was trembling. Part from excitement, and part from the intense training he had busied himself with while Cury was gone.

Cury, catching a glance at the ruined training dummy, could clearly see that its arms would never spin again. The wooden arms were smashed right off the dummy, the upper half of the main frame was broken, splinters scattered around the training area.

“It must have been some discovery you made, father!” He said, pointing with his eyes at the dummy.

“Ah, yes. Partly that, and because I can feel in my adventure gut that a little extra training won’t hurt!” His father chuckled.

“Well, my training must have been nothing compared to yours.” Pete sighed in a stern manner, eyeing the dried blood and small injuries covering Cury’s body.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Cury tried to come up with an excuse but failed in doing so.

That’s when it struck him, he could shift his father’s attention from him to the old lady.

“I forgot to mention, there is someone I would like you to meet!” Cury said, fumbling with his hand backwards, waving it in the air as he tried to reach the old lady behind him.

His father stared at him.

“Who are you talking about, there is only you and I here.” His father said, slightly confused.

Upon seeing his father’s reaction, Cury turned around only to be met by… To be met by no one. There was no one behind him.

“You know what, never mind.” Cury hastily let out. ‘She will probably show herself later.' He thought.

Pete stared at his son with an amused look but kept a snarky comment he had readied for himself.

Smiling at his own genius, Pete let out a slight chuckle.

“Oh, right! The lucky tear!” He exclaimed suddenly.

A couple of minutes later, opening the door to Pete’s study room, Cury couldn’t contain his excitement and a yellow glow almost lit up the room.

Pete walked towards his study desk, reaching for the topmost stack of papers. After that, he took a few steps to a drawer and took out a small piece of red cloth.

Pete came back to Cury, who was waiting at the doorstep.

He carefully handed the piece of red cloth to Cury with a large smile on his face. Cury could clearly see the tomato coloured glow seeping out of his father’s eyes.

Cury received the cloth and while holding it cautiously, he could feel something slightly sharp, and solid hiding inside. He unfolded the piece of cloth and as he did, a new light seemed to seep out.

This time, the light came from whatever was inside the cloth. Cury, upon seeing this object, opened his mouth to ask a question but couldn’t bring himself to do it.

His father, with a huge grin on his face stared at his son’s reaction.

Cury stared down, on the red cloth, and what met his eyes was a small, crystalline teardrop.

However, it was not the usual teardrop. Considering the tear drop was crystalline, Cury had every right to be confused. But this was not it.

The teardrop was glowing, radiating a colour. A mix of slightly red, slightly purple. The glow was mesmerizing and seemed to replace the glow of whatever colour Cury was radiating.

Along with the glow, Cury felt that the tear was warm to the touch. A constant warmth that didn’t seem to increase or decrease.

“What is this? How did you do it?” Cury finally said, breaking the silence.

As if everything had been standing still, the world seemed to move again.

“I have named the colour magenta. Beautiful, isn’t it?” Pete first said.

Then he continued, “Well, you see, this piece of crystal that you are holding is my lucky tear from this morning.”

“And?” Cury responded.

“And I decided to experiment a little bit. I’ve always denied magic being the cause of things, as your mother was adamant against. She claimed it was magic coursing through every living and unliving thing. We decided to drop this matter, as you know.” His father began.

“However, this time I decided to mix a few of her ideas about life containing this magic with my research on the lucky tears.” He continued.

“To be precise, I mixed in small parts of my blood with the tear. This however, yielded no results. After that, I decided to go on your approach, that the red sand is, in fact, also magical. I mixed in a few grains. Only a few, maybe 7 grains!”

And then he added “And this is the result.”

“What made you change your mind and try her approach?” Cury said, knowing well that his father had a hard time changing his mind.

“You.” He said.

“Me? What about me?” Cury began saying, then added “Is it about my eyes?”

His father’s eyes opened slightly wider in a moment of shock.

“I… I… I thought you didn’t know?” His father said with a nervous tone.

Cury looked into his father’s eyes. He could feel the embarrassment his father was desperately trying to hide.

Deciding on raising the mood, Cury put on a smile on his face and with a joyful tone said

“Honestly, I didn’t. I didn’t until today, just a few hours ago as I was experimenting! I met up with this old lady who after some time convinced me that it is only my eyes that glow, and that you can see it.”

His father slowly smiled, nodding as Cury continued talking.

“I always thought everyone could see these colours. Nobody said anything about it.”

Cury, seeing his father calming down, decided to add in a piece of information that his father would find very interesting.

“Actually I, too, made a discovery today.”

“You did?” Pete said, now catching a glimpse at the crystal tear resting in Cury’s hand.

“What discovery?” He quickly added, obviously having a hard time containing his excitement.

Pete’s eyes betrayed him, being oddly similar to the ones of a child who was about to receive a new toy.

“It’s actually really great. I thought that we could study this.” Cury began.

“So, how do I put this. This glow that you see coming from my eyes…” Cury continued.

Nodding his head, Pete answered, “Yes, the glow.”

“That you don’t see anyone else give off…” Cury added.

Slightly confused, not quite sure where this conversation was going, Pete nodded.

“Well from my perspective, everyone is giving off this glow.” Cury said.

Pete smacked his own forehead.

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that!? It’s obvious when you think of it, yes! Questioning everything as we do, it’s odd how I never found it strange that you never seemed to question the glow in your eyes. Maybe you just accepted it, strangely enough without questions?” Pete bombarded Cury with his thoughts and theories.

“Yes, remarkable!” Pete commented.

Cury, also happy and excited about the situation, couldn’t contain his joy and his body jolted.

Then he felt it. The crystal tear flew upwards, and away from the piece of red cloth.

Panic rose in Pete’s eyes as he saw the crystal drop leaving the cloth, flying slightly up but in slow-motion changing direction downwards.

The tear fell, approaching the floor. Pete and Cury could clearly see it, but their bodies were too slow to react.

Then, as the crystal was to hit the floor, an old looking hand snatched the crystal. The hand was attached to an arm dressed in blue fabric.

“Be careful there, you wouldn’t want this precious gem to break?” A cranky voice said, and time once again began moving in regular speed.

Staring at the old woman in front of him, Pete was failing to reach the right words. A stranger, who he had never seen before was standing inside his research room. The room containing all his precious notes and books.

“There is no value in being overly cautious” The old woman said, smirking, while handing over the gem to Pete.

Dumbfounded, Pete received his precious crystal teardrop, but a flame was lit inside of him. His adventure instincts could feel a challenge approach.

Cury was about to give the piece of red cloth to his father, but as he reached forward, he saw a very familiar stick appear out of nowhere, crashing towards his father’s head.

“Look out!” He yelled, but before he could even finish the first word, his father had already caught the stick mid-air, stopping it in its track.

“I apologize for not inviting you in sooner. I believe my manner have been out of place.” Pete said, with a taunting grin on his face.

“Oh, a well-mannered man I see. I wonder what happened to this son you raised. Considering he seems to be lacking.” The Seer replied, she too grinning.

Cury stared in confusion as the old Seer, who was only half the size of his father, was throwing obvious taunts at his father.

“The boy is young, he will learn.” His father said, grinning even wider.

“After a few hits with old’ Betsy, I just might believe you” She replied.

Cury, even more confused stared at his father. He seemed to be a different person altogether.

A faint glow of grey mixed with an excited yellow emerged from his eyes.

Pete, upon seeing this, decided to let the challenge rest for today.

“I’ll prepare the guest room for you, make yourself at home!” Pete said with a warm tone. His mood had switched from ready for battle to a stay-at-home father in an instant.

As if the old Seer too felt that his was an appropriate turn of event revealed a basket full of mushrooms and herbs, hidden only she and The Great knows where.

“Cury, how about you light a campfire in the garden, and invite that friend of yours as well. I will make mushroom stew for the lot of you” She said.

She wandered out of their house, and Pete had already left to clean the guest room.

The crystal tear was safely stored in a small case.

Cury stood still. He was at loss of words. Everything that had happened just now was too out of place. His father out of character, and the old lady once again convinced him that she was a Seer. Maybe one day he too would call her that.

No longer sure as to when he began, Cury realized that he was walking alongside the village road. He was heading to Sun, to invite her and her family over for dinner.

Cury smiled though.

His eyes, coloured red.