It was only 7 AM when Nathasia set out for the woods near her home. She loved how the air was cool in the morning and how beautiful mother nature looked, especially when the mist obscures the whole woods.
It has been a while since she strolled through the woods this early, which only made her more excited to visit it again.
"Hm~~hmm~~hm~~~" Nathasia pranced through the woods while humming her favorite tone, trying to look for a good spot to paint.
The mist was still present, limiting her vision to just a few meters around her.
*Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!*
But the sound of something striking against a tree made Nathasia stop humming as she came to a stop, wondering who was cutting a tree at this time.
The sound was quite faint, which meant that the sound was coming from at least a few dozen meters away.
Since the woods were so misty, she wasn't able to see anything at far away distances.
Feeling curious, she decided to check out who was making these sounds early in the morning. She had never heard such sounds whenever she visited the woods in the morning before.
And not only in the morning, but she rarely spotted any people passing through these woods since they were living in quite a remote place without any other people as neighbors or anything.
Even to go to the nearest town, they would have to travel a few kilometers and buy the items they need.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})And the only people she usually had seen were hunters since there were many rabbits and deers passing through the woods, making it an ideal spot for them to hunt.
But just as she walked for a couple of meters, the sounds ceased, making her wonder if that person left.
Still, she decided to continue walking forward when she saw a faint silhouette from afar.
She slowed down her steps and proceeded forward. As she came closer, the figure of a tall man came within her vision.
The man had a scarf around his face and was wearing a jacket and jeans. His black hair reached till his shoulders and in his hand was an axe which he was using to cut the tree, seeing how there were some logs lying beside him.
His figure looked quite muscular with broad shoulders without having a stocky look. However, Nathasia couldn't discern exactly how old he was, considering her vision ahead wasn't really clear, and he had half of his face covered.
But she felt that he shouldn't be too old, seeing his lush straight black hair and figure.
However, she noticed the man suddenly walking forward and crouching down.
Her brows raised when she was surprised to notice a deer had gotten stuck in a barbed wire which was probably set as a trap by a hunter. Not only that but there was also a fawn accompanying it. However, it was not trapped and instead was lingering around its mother in a nervous manner.
Nathasia felt sorry for the deer and its child. But seeing the man crouching before them, she was worried if the man was a hunter who set up the barbed wire trap.
She decided to stop the man if that was the case but found it hard to muster up the courage. However, after a lot of internal battles with her mind, she decided to stop the man from harming the poor deer and its kid.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})If it was just the deer, maybe she might not be this motivated to save them. But seeing the fawn looking so pitiful when watching its mother, Nathasia felt a tug in her heart.
But just as she was about to take another step, she stopped since she saw the man put away his axe and tried to free the deer's legs.
'Eh...is he trying to save her?' Nathasia felt confused, but then, as she kept observing, she saw that he was indeed removing the barbed wire without any plans to harm them.
The man somehow easily removed the trap and caressed the heads of both the fawn and the deer while they stood before him while slightly lowering their head as if they were thanking the man.
Nathasia felt that it was just her imagination. Still, she suddenly felt inspired to capture this moment as a painting in her book.
She immediately sat down before a large tree without caring where she was and took out her long drawing pad and the mini painting kit from her pocket.
The man seemed to have a good time petting the deer and the fawn while Nathasia was busy drawing a quick outline so as to capture most of it in her drawing pad before they went away.
Fortunately, the man seemed to be pretty engrossed interacting with the deer and its child. They also strangely didn't run or anything but instead kept standing before him to enjoy his caress.
A smile unconsciously crossed her lips as she painted, thinking about how the man saved the two and even played with them.
In her drawing pad, she had already finished drawing the outline, and only a few details were left.
Knowing how much the world had changed drastically over the years, she didn't think that she would come upon such a kind person this fast.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})After the Great Calamity, the world underwent a drastic change, especially the humans in the wrong direction.
The strangers she had come upon after that calamity were mostly cunning, evil, and ones who only cared about themselves to the point of even betraying their own family.
She knew it was not a crime to care about oneself but turning their backs on people who once helped them out was lowly of them.
She and her parents had to experience a lot of problems and even sometimes were this close in ending up with a worse fate.
But they somehow made it to this remote place on their own where they needn't worry about much.
She also knew that she was an Ascended one, though a very weak one. Those with superhuman powers came to be known as Ascended since people thought they had ascended the limits of humankind and evolved into something higher.
Before the Great Calamity, people considered the Crimson Devil as the most powerful Ascended one. There was absolutely nobody who could equal or defeat him. And this was also the fact why people felt most safe when he was nearby.
People even gave him the title 'Divine Child' since he had already become a powerful hero to the world when he was a teenager.
Nathasia, herself, also was an ardent fan during the times when he was a hero, watching him always through a TV and not lucky enough to see him in person.
She loved the fact how he always saved people with a kind and innocent smile. The fact that he was so young at that time only motivated her to become someone like him in the future and perhaps be worthy enough to get a chance to meet him.
But she never expected that the Divine Child would fall from his grace to end up as the Crimson Devil...a name that still causes tremors in one's heart whenever they hear it.
However, she only had complicated feelings about her hero, not knowing whether she should hate him or not...or if she should decide after finding out what really happened.
In her heart, she refused to believe the Divine Child slaughtered almost all of the humans on purpose.
She refused to believe anything unless she knew the truth personally, although she thought that she wouldn't get that chance, especially when she hadn't even met him once.
She had no idea why she was suddenly thinking about the Divine Child so much while painting the man and the deer.
But when she lifted her gaze to look up at them, the man was looking at her!
'Shit, he saw me!' Nathasia had no idea why she panicked, but she berated herself for getting caught and quickly hid behind the tree.
She berated herself for getting lost in the mood and not choosing an inconspicuous spot for painting.
She hoped that the man didn't really see her because of the fog, but that was just foolish hope.
After a couple of seconds, she meekly peeped to see whether the man was still looking in her direction. But her eyebrows raised when there was no man there anymore. Even the deer and the fawn were gone.
'Eh, where did they disappear off to?' Nathasia was confused and felt a bit disappointed since her painting wasn't complete. She turned back with a moody expression but…
"Ah!"
She involuntarily let out a cry of surprise when she saw the same tall man standing before her, his intense gaze drilling into her soul.
'How did he even get here!' Nathasia was shocked to see the man disappear and reappear before her. And seeing him up close, she could see that he was a young man despite the scarf covering half of his face.
Nathasia hugged the drawing pad to her chest, feeling anxious and apprehensive, especially feeling an unwelcome gaze from him.
