A castle sat atop a hill full of white houses, the grand structure watching over the small island town populated with Keyblade wielders and their descendants. Tram systems that connected to the towering castle jingled softly from afar as the ever-blowing wind spun energy into the large windmills connecting to the towers, some of them coming up into the structure, while others only passed close by only to come back down on the other side.
Chatter came from the marketplace, from the mewling of Moogles trading with the townsfolk to the sound of children shrieking with laughter as they chased each other around with wooden Keyblades and pretended to cast spells under the watchful eyes of their mothers.
The windy isle always had perfect weather—soft, fluffy clouds that hardly ever blocked out the bright sun, a constant breeze blowing through the town due to the ocean that surrounded it...
Nothing ever seemed to occur on this island town—
--and no one seemed to notice something falling from the sky.
At least, no one except a young boy who seemed to have been watching the clouds from atop a window-seat, dark curly bangs being brushed out of his eyes as he rubbed them in disbelief at the sight of the quickly moving figure's descent.
There was a quick swish of robes as he launched himself off from where he had been sitting, stumbling slightly from his sudden movement—however, he righted himself, before tearing down the stairs and trying to pry open the heavy doors to the exit on his own.
His Master was currently out somewhere, he remembered, as to where they had gone, he had no idea. It was too difficult to open these doors on his own, he realized now, his arms struggling to even make these doors move an inch.
It also probably didn't help that his feet were beginning to slide on the polished marble flooring, which made it ever harder to accomplish his task.
Grey eyes narrowed at the doors now, silently cursing his inability to open them.
"This isn't fair," he mumbled, pouting slightly at them before hitting the door lightly with one of his hands.
The door began to open after the knock, which made him jump— and it opened just fast enough that he didn't move out of the way in time and the object bumped into him. The boy stumbled slightly, as the quick pace of his Master's feet padded through the door in what sounded like an urgent stride.
Quickly righting himself, he looked to see his Master standing just beyond the door, looking down to a large object that was wrapped within a thin grey cloth.
"Master," the boy finally spoke up, rubbing his cheek where the door had impacted, "What did you find?"
"There is no time for chatter now, Eraqus," the man told him, turning to shove shut the heavy door before rebalancing the bundle in his arm. "Come with me. We must heal him."
'Him?' The boy—Eraqus—thought to himself- 'Was he the thing that fell from the sky?'
He did not think twice though, trailing behind his Master with hurried footsteps to keep up with his long strides.
This castle was mostly empty—because despite the size of the structure, only two people lived within it- Eraqus, and his Master.
Empty bedrooms, silent halls, and a grand dining room that hadn't been utilized in forever- all covered in a fine layer of dust and dirt, the shine missing from their surfaces.
The sound of their footsteps and the quiet mumbling of the man in front of him was all Eraqus could hear as he was led up the stairs to where his room was.
However, it was not his room that they were taking the unknown figure, but the empty bedroom next to it—the two of them could be roommates, the boy realized.
But...what did they look like?
That was the question running through and repeating in his mind, following very closely to the other as they entered the originally empty room.
The man stopped at the foot of the bed, gently shifting the bundle onto the mattress. Eraqus moved to the side of the bed now, slightly nervous—just who had the Master brought home?
The man's hand reached now to pull back the sheet that concealed the unknown boy's face—
And Eraqus had to avert his eyes, unable to look at the state the other was in.
Cuts, bruises, clothes torn and tattered-
Blood matted in his hair, a badly set arm that seemed to have taken the impact-
Just how did he survive?
Soft chanting came from his Master now, and a warm air spread throughout the room as he began to use a high-level healing spell to mend the wounds this mysterious boy had obtained.
"Help me, Eraqus," He gently commanded, which shook the young boy out of his shock and gave him new confidence.
Kneeling before this unconscious boy and resting a hand against the arm that needed a better concentration of the magic, he tried to ignore the feel of the semi-dry flakes of blood now that had transferred to his fingertips so that he could focus now.
A soft green light began to travel from his hand to the broken arm, and he watched in deep concentration as cuts began to close, bruises lighten, and the arm seemed to shift back into place.
Healing something as simple as an arm was exhausting for him already, but with the added things like the bone and other cuts, it made him a little dizzy as he finally funneled the last bit of the spell through the appendage.
Allowing himself to sink against the bed now and resting his head against the mattress, grey eyes watched as the Master continued to cast spell after spell, the slow magic very carefully clearing away the imperfections that the wounds had given the other and revealed the mysterious child—
A deep tan, and light grey hair-
Strange clothes, although it was hard to tell what they originally looked like-
He scanned over the other's body now, wondering if he would even want to interact once he finally woke up.
Pulling himself back up from the covers now, he pulled his bangs back from his face again so he could see.
"When do you think he'll wake up?" Eraqus inquired, facing the elder man that had finished his spells.
The man could do no more than shrug, shaking his head as he did not know the answer.
Pulling forth an Elixir, he handed the bottle to the boy—and then reached within his robe again to take out another.
Slate-grey hues studied the bottle, watching the outer shell glint in the dim rays of light. The golden orb-like container had a liquid in it that he remembered tasted horridly bitter, with a momentary headache followed by the aftertaste like that of honeyed tea- he never quite liked drinking them.
So instead, he raised it above his head and cracked the Elixir—but unlike how the concoction was when it was within the container as a liquid, it now came down as a mist, which covered him and gave off a soft golden glow before fading.
"We should allow him to rest," the man told him, moving now to stand and help the dizzied Eraqus up now.
"Thank you, Master," He mumbled, stealing one more look at the unconscious boy before following him out of the room.
[A/N: And that's it for the prologue! Let me know what you think, and I'll have the first chapter hopefully posted by next week. Maybe before, but with school and all, it may take me a bit. So I say this now, this story will be slow and have slow updates. Possible Xeha/qus content in this story. Thank you for reading! -Xem]
