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Who are these two people? This question ran through Noah's head over and over again as he looked at them. It was an elderly couple with darker skin who both had a look of concern on their face. Noah had no words to speak as the cold tears continued to run down his face, still shaken from his nightmare moments beforehand. The woman started to speak.

???: "I'd ask if you were okay, but I can guess what the answer to that would be just based on your looks right now. The better question would be, what happened to you?"

Noah sat in silence for a few seconds, but gathered to courage to speak. However, just before he could start, the old man interrupted.

???: "Now hold on, we almost forgot introductions. I'm Lawrence. This here is my wife, Edna."

Edna: "I can't believe I almost forgot something that important. My age must be getting to me."

Lawrence: "Anyway kid, you can talk to us at your own pace. No need to rush anything now."

The tears had stopped rolling as they talked to him with such kindness that he was able to stop thinking about what had happened, even if only for a brief moment.

Noah: "My name is Noah."

The shaken boy then told Edna and Lawrence his story up until his trek into the woods after the incident had occurred. The couple took deep breaths and had a look of sadness.

Lawrence: "I guess that's nothing new at this point. It has been a couple weeks since that decree to kill magic users was made. They've already hit this village and the ones around us. Most of us were able to stay hidden, but not everyone in the world is a kind soul. Someone probably sold information about your family's location to the knights."

Noah was a bit confused for a second, but then he understood what was just said. It wasn't a pair of evil knights attacking his family, this was a royal order being carried out across the entire country.

Edna: "Well Noah, you've been asleep for a long time, almost the entire day in fact. Let me make something for you to eat. Just go take a seat at the table when you're ready."

Lawrence: "We'll take care of you for now kid, so don't worry about what you want to do next until you're able to properly make that choice. If you want to stay here, we're willing to accommodate. We never had the chance to have a kid of our own so this is a decent opportunity for us."

Lawrence said those words with a painful looking smile, but Noah didn't ask anything further. Lawrence probably didn't want to talk about his personal issues in any regard beyond a quick mention.

Noah sat in the bed for a couple minutes as he was still somewhat tired from the events of the previous night. Eventually he got up to sit at the table. Edna had prepared a small meal for him to eat with bread, cheese, and a cup of water. Noah couldn't really taste anything, but that's mainly because his mind wasn't in a good place. All wounds heal with time, but this one was going to take a long while before he could even start thinking about ways to move forward.

Noah: "Um... I don't have anywhere else to go, so is it really okay for me to stay here?"

As he said that, tears formed in his eyes.

Lawrence: "I said it was fine, didn't I? Eat up and get some more rest for today, and tomorrow we'll show you around the village and introduce you to some people."

Noah nodded his head and continued to eat. He didn't know how well he would fit in, but he would try his hardest to do so. After eating, Noah took Lawrence's advice and headed off to bed.

It was rather early in the morning when Noah woke up, but he could hear the sound of the village coming to life as the day started. He had breakfast with Edna and Lawrence, and then Lawrence took him into town. There weren't really any businesses around. There were a couple farms near the town that sold to the local markets so food was available in the village, but other than that the only business seemed to be a lone blacksmith's forge, which caught Noah's attention. Lawrence noticed this.

Lawrence: "We'll go check that place out last, I think you'll like it there."

Noah was introduced to some of the other kids in town, but since he wasn't good with socializing, chances are he wasn't going to go near them as much. There was a school in the town as well, but Noah had already discussed with Edna and Lawrence at breakfast that he didn't need schooling at this point, and his level of intelligence surprised both of them. This didn't help the social aspect of Noah's new life, but it was a choice he was allowed to make. He wasn't destined to be alone though.

It had gotten to a later point in the day and Noah and Lawrence had visited around the entire village except for the blacksmith's forge. The pair walked into the front door and saw a man leaning on a counter, looking somewhat bored. He was a tall man with short yet scruffy brown hair. He was also rather muscular, probably from the physical labor he constantly endured as a blacksmith.

???: "Oh, so this is the kid you were talking about?"

His deep voice matched his looks, but he came across as a gentle giant type of person, with the ability to be intimidating when he needed to be.

Lawrence: "Sure is. Noah, this is David, he's the blacksmith for this village, and quite the important man in general."

Noah: "Important how?"

David gave Lawrence a questioning look, but then Lawrence seemed to signal as if David could answer the question without fear.

David: "I'm assuming something happened to him for you to allow him to hear this secret?"

Lawrence: "He's a strong kid from what I've seen, and he just went through a lot, I doubt he'll spill this to anyone."

David: "Alright then. As you heard, I'm David. I'm the man who came up with the idea for the eye covers to protect people from being found out as magic users."

Noah had a confused look on his face.

Noah: "Eye covers?"

David: "Basically it makes someone's eye look like a different color, pretty cool right?"

To Noah that sounded absolutely incredible. He wanted to know more about David and become friends with him.

Lawrence: "Can I leave him with you for a bit? The kid needs someone interesting to talk to."

David: "Fine by me."

For about two weeks, each day Noah would go to talk with David. He learned that David was a creation magic user and was able to make materials for his blacksmithing job. To hide suspicion, David would leave his shop each morning for a few hours to pretend like he was heading off to a mine of some sort. The entire village was in agreement that the decree to perform genocide on magic users wasn't just, so they all pretended like David had a secret mine if anyone ever asked about the materials he had. David was also rather impressive when it came to sword play. When Noah asked how he was able to get such skill, David simply said he taught himself. David made swords, so he would frequently test them out, and he needed the knowledge of if a sword was a good one or not.

The time Noah spent with David was a great distractor from all of the trauma Noah had suffered. Each night brought the same nightmare, but each morning helped to remedy that with refreshing conversation. Noah had someone he could call a friend. David had a great impact on Noah, but the one that would change his life the most was soon to come forward onto the stage.

It was a rainy night a few weeks after Noah had arrived at the village. To say it was a storm would be an understatement. Two users of Healing magic are running from a multitude of knights in pursuit of them. They have a decent lead on them, but the deep mud continued to leave occasional footprints showing their path. With them they had basket with a child who had been born around a week earlier. The basket was well covered, protecting the child from the rain. The couple running stumbled upon the village Noah was staying in. The woman with the basket ran up next to the home of Edna an Lawrence and left the basket under the porch in front of the door. To avoid leaving mud on the porch, she briefly took her boots off to knock on the door. She left the child, got back in her boots, and ran away with the man who accompanied her.

It was before Noah, Edna, and Lawrence had gone to sleep when they heard a knock on the door. It took a second for Lawrence to reach the door, and by the time he got there, no one was in sight. Lawrence then looked down and saw the basket with the child in it, crying. Lawrence quickly brought the child inside and sat the basket on a table so that Edna and Noah could see. They found out the baby was a girl, but there was something extremely odd about this child.

She had bright purple eyes.