Fairyoxus
Yuki still remembers that moment, vivid, surreal as if it were carved into the stars themselves. Once, he believed dreams were nothing more than wild fictions of the imagination, passing illusions of sleep. But that night, standing beneath the tapestry of stars, everything changed.
He was only five years old. And yet, there he stood, small, fragile, wounded, beneath a sky dusted in starlight and floating feathers.
In front of him hovered a vision: a magnificent being with vast, snow-white wings stretched wide as if to shield or perhaps, to imprison. Long, midnight-black hair cascaded down his back, framing a face too perfect, too still, too... dangerous.
His eyes, piercing pools of golden fury glared into Yuki's soul like flames that remembered a war he never fought.
Yuki's breath caught as the sting of a fresh wound reminded him, this was no dream.
And then the angel spoke.
"You really... forgot about me," the voice trembled, not with sorrow, but rage, gritted teeth, golden eyes glinting with something sharp, something broken.
A sword gleamed under the moonlight, pointed directly at the boy's face. It shimmered like judgment.
Yuki froze. Who could blame him? He was supposed to be stargazing, not being hunted down by an angel with abandonment issues!
What divine rule had he unknowingly broken? For all his five years of toddling on Earth, he was fairly certain he'd never crossed an angel, mythical or otherwise.
The angel's expression remained beautifully blank, emotionless, haunting and yet the air around him bristled with danger. Yuki, trembling and pale, stood on the brink of collapse.
White feathers rained down gently from the heavens, serene in contrast to the fury before him.
And in that impossible moment, as innocence met wrath beneath the indifferent stars, Yuki asked himself:
"Am I still dreaming?"