Fated Meeting Pt. I

 "Whoah!" The child screamed as a big floating eyeball with long sharp tendrils hit his chest with surprising force. 

 The child, alone in the forest, armed with only a knife and stones, got up and readied himself again, before rushing forward, which prompted the monster to wrap one of its limbs around the child's arm.

 With surprising force, the child managed to rip his arm free of the monster, leaving deep wounds around his entire forearm while doing so.

 "Ahhh!... Stop this! Leave me alone!" He screamed to no avail.

 Again the monster attacked, wrapping two of its limbs around the child's hand and leg, but leaving the arm holding the knife free. A fatal mistake, letting the child cut his way through the tentacles.

 "Take this…!"

 The fight continued this way, each injuring the other until the kid was little more than a bloodied mess, while the eye flopped on the ground, without even the strength to fly away.

 "...I…I finally got you!... You damn bastard!" He stabbed his knife into the creature, warm liquids spraying on his body, until sometime later, a phantom of that same monster started rising from its body.

 Not knowing what it was, but also not feeling any aggression, he raised his hand to it, and then it came forward, nesting into his palm.

 "AHHH!!!" Extreme pain shot out from the palm of his hand as the monster was now nowhere to be seen, something was crawling under his skin, his veins bulged, and his eyes became blurry until he started vomiting uncontrollably, at which point he passed out in a puddle of his own blood and barf, not dead but not far off either.

…

 It was a quiet day at the orphanage, but Avis, as most days, stood and stared out the window, looking for anything that could take him out of his boredom.

 He sat on his bed that was placed just under the window. Although, he had to fight his way to this bed, he trained for years in his sword skills to beat the previous owner, and that paid off in a great view overlooking the town, it was so high you could even see some of the ocean.

 Regardless of his current lack of training, the swordsmanship he acquired is still a great asset, a survival skill desperately needed even just outside the towns. But even so, his training seemed to slow down, as he had no more reason, or need, or guidance to improve, this was the last year he would spend here, and he was supposed to enroll in an academy or start working after he became an adult, neither of which was particularly alluring.

 'Almost an adult, huh, I don't feel like one, but I'm almost sixteen, I'll have to attend an academy soon if I don't want to work.' 

 If you asked any of the kids, they would tell you that Avis is probably the closest thing to a genius they ever saw, and they weren't exactly wrong, but he didn't have any extraordinary skills, he just put way more effort into the things he deems needed or fun, more so than other people, at least, and this resulted in him being quite a sloth when it came to other activities, as he spent his days either doing chores, reading a book from the nearby library, or mindlessly staring out the window.

 'What do we have here?' As he looked at the street below, something piqued his interest, the orphanage's carriage, recognizable by its unusually decorated exterior, passed the building and took the corner towards the entrance, leaving his view. 'Seems like a new kid, I hope it's not a toddler, would just be more work for me.' 

 He didn't want to keep standing, and as the window was too high for him to see while sitting down, he let himself fall on his back, just barely tucking his head in so as not to hit the wood at the end of the bed, but after he landed, he extended his limbs, stretching as if he was sore from doing nothing.

 He stood there, eyes unfocused, sprawled on the bed, no one dared to even look at him, but a knock was heard at the stairwell. Without waiting for any kind of answer, the two people entered, and Avis was awestruck.

 First was the landlady, most of the kids called her mother, but the older ones stopped doing so eventually. She wasn't exactly young, but her features aged like fine wine, the fact she didn't have a husband earned her the nickname of Nun Maud, just that she wasn't even a nun.

 The true surprise was the girl who entered after her, the first thing that caught his attention were her blue eyes, strong and bright, standing out against her pale skin, next was her hair, curly, shoulder-length, and blonde, a color that complimented her soft facial structure. She wore a slim black dress with gold accents, not too stuffy to wear casually as a noble.

 Avis would say she was a princess if he ever saw one before, the only nobility that even came close to her beauty was the baron's new wife, who must have been the third at this point.

 The girl's expression wasn't very welcoming, she looked at the people in the room with disgust, the anger in her eyes seeping out, not at them, of course, but at the world, and then she made eye contact with Avis, and she frowning. 

 Nun Maud said something to her, but they were too far for Avis to hear, then she left the room, leaving her to fend for herself in this jungle of kids. With a still mad look on her face, she made her way to the end of the room and stopped before Avis, or more specifically his bed.

 "I want this bed, move." She ordered.

 He tried to examine her face, looking for any sign that a joke was being played on him, but she was very serious.

 "Are you hard of hearing? I said move!"

 The other kids, while some of the younger ones wanted to watch, were ushered out by the older ones, and soon the room was empty except for the two.

 'Do they think I'm some kind of monster?... Yeah, can't blame them.'

 "How dare you ignore me?! Move right now or you'll face consequences."

 "Lady, are you struck in the head? I can't just give this bed away, and I don't want to either. If you are so fixated on it, you'll need to fight for it."

 "You should just listen to me! I can get you executed for this!"

 "I'm willing to compromise, you can have any other bed here and you'll be under my protection, but this is my bed, I don't do this often, you know, it's only because you're cu...!!!"

 *SLAP*