Chapter Text
Ravens POV
2000+ years earlier...
Legends. What is true about them, If anything? Could they really be fictional stories people made up to fascinate kids? These questions were things a young boy thought of daily,
“Raven! It's time to come inside!” his mother called from the door of their small home. Raven ran up to her and hugged her, she laughed, a warm tender laugh.
“Come on, it's time for dinner.” She said taking her son's hand and leading him into the house. Raven quickly picked the fruit from their garden which was attached to the house. He handed an apple to his mother who started to cut it. He scrambled up onto a stool to help her, it had always been like this, just the two of them ever since his brother left and Raven liked it that way. He had never met his father before, and whenever he asked his mother she’d say he had the same golden eyes as him as well as the same black hair.
“Mom? Do you think stories are real?” Raven asked her quietly, his mother froze for a moment before answering “of course, the ones I told you about Liyue are all true, I learned the stories from some old friends there.” she explained handing Raven the apple slices.
“But I’m talking about the scary stories, the ones about demons and stuff like that.” Raven responded, “the ones your older brother used to tell you? Before he left for school?” his mother asked him, sounding a bit concerned.
“Zeon wasn't trying to scare me, he just told some weird stories about his adventures with his friends.” Raven explained to his mother, “well that's a question for your brother, who knows maybe he’ll come to visit in a few days.” she said as she left the room.
Raven jumped off the stool and sat outside on the porch, he stared at the sky as it slowly started to fade into a navy blue. He had his sketchbook in his lap, which was full of little doodles of stuff he'd seen outside. Raven sat there for an hour before his mother came outside and sat next to him,
she glanced at the thing he was drawing and asked “what is that?” Raven glanced up at her “it's just a bunny,” he said simply while closing the sketchbook. His mother looked up quickly and stared off into the distance, “Mom? What's wrong?” Raven asked her, poking her shoulder.
Then he heard something, the sound of an explosion. His mother grabbed him quickly and took him inside. “Stay here,” she said to him closing the basement door, he was confused and bewildered. But the sounds of screaming coming from the outside, told him something bad was happening. Suddenly another explosion shook the earth and Raven was blown back against the wall, as he blacked out he saw the figure of a person walking through the flames that were once his house. The stranger crouched down in front of him, their eyes the color of blood staring into his eyes. After a few moments of this the person picked him up and carried him away,
“Wait..! Where’s Mama!?” he yelped, struggling weakly against the stranger's grip. They didn't respond, instead they kept walking away from the burning house taking Raven along with them.