A young man looked out through the window of a cramped room. The outside looked beautiful and perhaps a little dark: it was yet to be dawn. He got up rather early this morning and there was a good reason for that. The name of this young man was Daarc Green. He was from a place called earth, a place where humans lived with the comfort of technology.

But the outside wasn’t earth. It was an entirely different world. A cruel and savage world where everyone was on their own. And yet, the sight from the window still charmed him. It was calm and quiet; perhaps, this is what he wanted. Perhaps not.

I shouldn’t overstay my welcome. He kept thinking about this since last night. He still had his pride and he couldn’t just become a freeloader.

Daarc went for the door only to stop by a small mirror on top of the bookshelf. He instinctively took a look at his face. There wasn’t much light, so half of his face didn’t even register on the mirror. Looks’ like the beard’s still not coming out. He was a bit of a late bloomer but the pores of his beard were definitely poking out. One couldn’t call that a beard even by a stretch though. And I’m going to be twenty this year too. His friends often made fun of him for his lack of facial hair for ages.

Daarc sighed as he stared at his face. His hair and his eyes both were black: not brown, not chocolate, just pure black. It was always like this and Daarc never felt bad about it, at least till now that is. The world around him was different and black hair was rare: brown hair was the norm here.

With another sigh, he opened the door and came out. He wasn’t paying attention and only a second later did he realize that was a big mistake.

“Whoa!” A small girl crashed into Daarc. “Watch where you going, moron! I almost spilled!” She had a small cup in her hands filled with water. But upon closer inspection, that wasn’t water, rather it was a similar liquid named Panora which always glowed in pale light. It was rare, perhaps too rare.

“What are you saying? Aren’t you the one who crashed into me?”

The girl knew that too. But she was too prideful to admit it. Her brown pupils darted around and she tried to brush this whole incident off. “But it’s your fault for not looking before you got out.” she did have a point though.

Daarc didn’t take it too far. After all, he was a guest in this house. “Fine. Fine. And what’s this stuff?”

“This is Panora. It’s expensive and this is all we’ve got in our village.”

Daarc scratched his head. “If it’s that expensive then what is a kid doing with it?”

The girl- Sheila, exhaled and pouted. “I was given the charge of it!”

“Yeah, yeah. Good luck with that.” Daarc didn’t believe a word. The fate of the village, on the hands of this brat? Yeah right. His thoughts weren’t too pure either.

“Hmph.” Sheila just strode by and walked away, wincing a little. Perhaps she could speculate what this young man beside him was thinking. “By the way, we usually have breakfast a little later.”

But Daarc wasn’t out for breakfast. He was out for a different reason. I have to get out of here. He couldn’t trouble these good people any more than he did.. But he was yet to know… the real reason why he was saved.