A crow was picking at the body's eyelids, it has been doing that for the past three hours. The owner of the body felt all of it, unfortunately he was too weak to do anything.

He didn't know why, but he had no strength left inside his body. If he did he would've caught this bird and ripped it to shreds.

But the thing that worried him most, besides the threat of his eyes being gorge out, was where he was. The whole time since waking up all he could see was the back of his eyelids.

This would've all been acceptable if he could've rest his worries away, but every time he relaxed his body and was about to pass out, this cold feeling originating from his chest came out and energized him a little.

At least it gives me some energy, maybe it would be enough for me to open my eyes. These little thoughts were what gave him hope to last through this experience.

And his hopes weren't misplaced, he soon had the energy to at least open his eyes, luckily the crow was gone by now so there wasn't any worry.

Light flooded his eyes as he opened them, it was so bright he had to close them again. It took him awhile for his eyes to finally adjust, like he's been in the dark for years.

When he was finally able to open his eyes again, he found himself in a small clearing, with a forest all around him and a small pond a few meters away.

He gathered what little energy he had to crawl his way to the pond. His throat was extremely dry, so it was quite the happy occasion to finally drink something.

He drank mouthful after mouthful of water, trying not to drown himself in the process. When he finally finished, he looked back at the water and saw his reflection.

His reflection revealed a young boy, maybe 12, wearing a cloak with long black hair, icy blue eyes, and two small black horns protruding from the top of his head.

So this is what I look like? The boy smiled at that thought. But it quickly stiffened and the color drained from his face.

So this is what I look like? The thought repeated back to him, Why didn't I know how I looked?

"Why don't I know my own appearance?" This time he couldn't keep his thoughts contained.

"Why..? Why..?" His voice became shaky, he looked around at his surroundings again, maybe trying to find somebody, anybody to answer his question.

But he found no one, there was no one to help him, there will be no one to help him. "Hey! Calm down, we just have to focus and think, so let's think... Heck I don't even know my own name!"

Focus? How could he focus? There was nothing to focus on. There were no memories to think about or help him. All he had were the clothes on his back.

His breathing became heavy, panic rose from his heart and settled into his bones. His body shivered and all he could do was lay there as tears threatened to break out.

Suddenly, a feeling came over, it was cold but not uninviting. It was calming, and this feeling was actually quite familiar. This was the same cold feeling that didn't let him pass out earlier.

His mind finally calmed down with the help of this cold feeling. He took a deep breath and looked down to his chest, there was a pendant hanging from his neck.

The pendant was a silver chain connecting to a glistening quarter-size green gem with a crack going down the middle. The necklace seemed to be the source of the calming effect.

The boy stared at the necklace, while he was now calm, he was still very much at a loss on what to do. He let out a sigh, he was still too weak to stand.

Out of boredom, he stared at the water while resting, soon enough he noticed something shimmering in the water.

It was a garnet red color, contrasting with the blue water, it was surprising he didn't notice this sooner. The moment he saw whatever this object was, all his hairs stood up.

He grabbed the object and took it out of the water.

When he took out the object, and saw it more clearly, an intense feeling of dread overcame him, he instinctively threw the object back into the water.

He used what little strength, and somehow found more in the process, to back up from the pond, setting his back against a tree. His breath was heavy, and he began panicking again, but it was so much worse compared to before.

At this point he didn't even care how weak he was, he somehow carried his extremely tired body using the tree as stability and tried to run, but he didn't get far, only a few feet until he fell.

But how could he give up when death was on the line, or at least that was the conclusion he bizarrely came to, even he didn't understand how.

It became quite clear that whatever he was doing, wasn't working in getting him to safety, so he completely gave up on running away and focused on protecting himself.

He curled his body into a ball, he didn't even notice when two large black wings came out from his cloak and covered his body as extra layers of protection.

Thankfully, the necklace sent out another wave of the calming effect and his mind was once again settled, but he found his throat to be even drier than before.

The boy didn't find the appearance of his wings strange, but felt them to be rather natural. He felt the same way about his tail that was still being hidden by the cloak.

His tail was much like a lion's tail, except instead of a tan color it was all black and where the black fur would be at the end of a lion's tail was a large black claw.

Hidden away from the boy's view, on the trees something was watching him. Sitting on a branch was a crow observing him with interest.

The crow was all black, but the feathers around its eyes were silver in pattern that was like fire being blown back. Its wings had traces of silver and its tail feathers were tipped in silver.

This was the same crow that was picking at his eyelids earlier.

As the boy's strength returned to him, he finally felt the pair of eyes on him.

He looked around until he spotted the crow on top of the tree, and his face instantly turned pale. Enough energy returned to him to sense that the crow was a two star Caster.

The Caster stage was the first Stage in the Magic Path. The Caster stage had five stars, each star stronger than the one before, but also harder to improve.

Once all five stars were reached, the magic user would enter the flawless Caster stages, where they would have to improve all the other stars to be equal to each other.

When all the stars are equal they would have to merge two of the stars to enter the Core Creation stage, where they will have to merge all their stars together to create a star core and enter the Star Core Magician stage.

The Star Core Magician stage is the stage where someone is truly considered a magic user, since their power comes from their core and not from the world around them.

Any animal with magical power, was considered a magic beast, and possessed human level intelligence, making the crow so much scarier in the boy's eyes.

The boy looked at himself, That Cronix is a two star Caster, I think I'm also a two star Caster, but I'm still extremely weak. The crow flew off the tree towards the boy, landing on his head, causing him to flinch.

The crow didn't do anything else, the boy didn't relax though. He slowly tried to get up, he didn't want to annoy the crow in any way, so he was being extra careful.

But the boy overestimated how much energy he had, his legs couldn't support his weight and he fell. He was terrified the crow might find him displeasing and erase him from the face of the planet.

The crow landed back on his head, it started to gather the magical energy of the world, causing the boy to panic, he immediately assumed it was for an attack.

The boy closed his eyes, waiting for the spell, but it never came, instead he felt magical energy flowing inside him. The boy's expression was filled with confusion, but even more so filled with gratitude.

He looked up at the crow and said, "Thank you."

With the help from the crow the boy finally had the energy to fully stand. He prepared to leave the clearing, hoping to find some kind of civilization. But he hesitated and looked back at the pond.

He slowly grew the courage to grab the garnet colored object again, although there was still some lingering dread.

He inspected the red garnet color object more thoroughly, yet he still couldn't figure out what exactly it was. Its texture was bumpy and it had a two-dimensional diamond shape.

He didn't know what it was about this object that spooked him so much, but he tried to put it in the back of his mind. He put the object away, hoping to find someone who would be able to recognize what it is.

The boy was all ready to leave this place and find civilization. And although he didn't know the exact way to find someone, if he could leave this forest, he would be a couple steps closer.

He looked at the crow on his head, and an idea popped into his mind, he started to flap his wings and his body was slowly being lifted off the ground and into the air.

He felt good to be in the air, but a few seconds later he frowned. From what he remembered there was no indication that there were wings on his back before they came out of the cloak, yet with how big they were, it should've been obvious.

The boy landed, took off his cloak and examined it, inside it was a circle with a complicated pattern, it gave off no magic power.

Cronix was surprisingly able to name what this pattern was, it's a formation!

The boy didn't know nor understand much about this specific formation, but he knew it was responsible for the cloak's ability to hide his wings and tail so well.

Cronix chose to examine the cloak later and flew back into the air. In the air he could see a lot better, in the distance, he spotted a small town. He didn't think much when he flew straight towards it.

As he grew closer, he found it strange when he saw none of the town inhabitants had wings on their back, But people come in all shapes and sizes, so he didn't question much.

He stopped flying when he was in walking distance, feeling it would be awkward if he just flew in there, so he walked.

The streets were bustling, everyone was either buying or selling. He sorta understood the language they were speaking, but it was inadequate, he missed every third word.

The boy's curiosity was constantly growing, he wanted to find out where he was. He tried to call for somebody's attention but nobody paid him any, so he went up to someone buying fruits, "Excuse me!" It took him a couple tries but it eventually got their attention.

"Kid, what do you wan..." the fruit buyer stopped mid-sentence after they got a look at the boy.

Their expression quickly changed into disgust, "Get away from me demi-human!" The fruit buyer pushed the boy to the ground.

The interaction cause quite the commotion, and so it gained an audience. Soon enough a bunch of people surrounded the boy all filled with ill intentions.

The boy was dazed, he didn't understand why everyone turned against him, like they had a mind of their own, his wings surrounded his body and protected him.

"What type of demi-human is that? What animal has wings like that?" Conversations like these filled the plaza.

Soon people arrived wearing armor and holding swords, one muttered something under his breath before a fire appeared out of nowhere and shot towards the boy.

The boy instantly recognized it as fire magic.

The boy could sense that the knight was only in the third star of the Caster stage, but even then, that was enough to overpower the boy's two star Caster magic.

But while that was obvious, the boy wasn't going to easily give in like that.

Spells started appearing in the boy's mind,and he didn't hesitate to stretch out his hand, and cast a spell that created a ball of dark energy.

The ball of dark energy collided with the fireball, and was easily suppressed, thankfully the crow was willing to help.

It created its own ball of dark energy and helped negate the fireball.

While the boy's spell was easily blocked, it did cause a lot of shock from the surrounding townsfolk, "That's dark magic! It's a Demon!"

The boy was as confused as they were, but he used the time that was created by their shock to start running. The guards instantly became aware again and chased after him.

The boy began flapping his wings to gain aptitude, while the crow used its magic to help block the incoming attacks.

Soon enough the boy was in the sky and flew out of sight from the townspeople.

It wasn't long for rumors to start spreading to the rest of the kingdom. Of the demon who attacked the citizens of the town called Verence.