Chapter Text
The winter sun that just barely crested the hills surrounding the small idle village you lived in brought out the purity of the heaven-given snow, as if it were a blank page for the people's merriment, inviting their feet to play and their spirits to laugh. Momentarily your (e/c) eyes were drawn to the delicate blooms of crystal snowflakes ranking up your window's glass pane, before you finally set down the mug of hot cocoa in your hand.
Admittedly it was about time you went out to find some more wood for your fireplace, and from the clouds swirling above, you could assume that another blizzard was soon to come, so you were best to hurry.
And albeit you had just addressed that you needed to get going as soon as possible, you couldn't help but linger for a little longer in front of the fireplaces warmth, your cozy blanket wrapped around your shoulders as you lounged cozily on the window seat inside your cozy cottage.
Sighing softly once more, you drank the last sip from your mug and then shrugged off the fuzzy blanket from your shoulders, leaving it in a pile on the window seat, before taking the mug to the kitchen, setting it in the sink so you'd be able to wash it later, before deciding to finally get ready.
Only a few minutes later, now adorned with a heavy coat, your trusty knee-high laced boots and a hatchet for wood cutting, you were making your way through the snow, greeting other early risers inside the small community that the village you had been living in ever since your birth consisted of. Quite literally everyone knew everyone here, so frankly they also knew about your uniqueness.
After ingesting a rather peculiar fruit, you had stopped aging suddenly, and while it gave you no other benefits aside from being cursed to live for the rest of eternity, the knowledge you'd been able to amass over the years had been quite interesting and enjoyable, besides even if you weren't particularly special, the villagers here in this remote little place that was your own personal heaven still viewed you as a sort of guardian, for you watched over each passing generation and offered your wisdom and insight whenever you were asked to.
Even the village elders respected your opinions and valued your input tremendously.
It was nice, that even if you continuously had to watch people die, you would also get to see them live, get to see them experience everything anew, get to teach them things you had learned, watch them grow.
Life was truly beautiful.
Of course, there were bad things too, but even those would not seem as bad anymore if you could find some positivity.
At least, that's how you liked to see things, because if your immortality had taught you one thing, then it was that moping around and waiting for things to get better, while never actually doing something to reach that happiness would do nothing for your mental state, except for ruin it.
You had been there in your darkest moments, times when you would've wanted the whole world to be set aflame for this unfairness, but you had long since surpassed that, learned that nothing was truly hopeless and that there was even still happiness to be found if only you tried to find it. And with the help of the people around you, you came to see the light again.
And while there were still days when you felt hopeless and sad, you knew you could depend on them, just like they depended on you.
Drawing to a momentary stop, you watched a nearby group of children from the local orphanage play together quite energetically in the snow, considering how early it was in the morning, causing a small fond smile to tug the corners of your mouth upward. You remembered days when you yourself were quite so energetic, nowadays you much preferred sleeping in and then bundling up on your window seat near the fireplace with a hot mug of cocoa and some good books.
Once the children had noticed you, they all seemed to cheer up even further, calling out to you in greeting and waving full of energy, throwing smiles and compliments your way as they usually did. One child, in particular, however stood out to you among the group.
A five year old girl with short and quite unruly black hair, her lilac eyes focused on you with a warmth that held a sort of admiration for you. That girl, Rukia, was a special case among the orphans, considering that just a year prior, you had been the one to find her and take her to the orphanage.
Back then, Rukia had only been four years old and had been curled up on the ground near a tree with no traces of her parents anywhere in sight. You had been lucky to stumble upon her when you did, considering that she had been on the verge of hypothermia.
Of course, considering Rukia's young age she didn't know what happened or where her parents had gone, all she had known was that she had suddenly been deep within the large forest surrounding the village you lived in.
A forest that hid your little town well from the outside world, almost completely cutting it off. No outsider knew of its location and it was rare apart from the few traders and hunters within your village to leave the safety of the forest and venture to other towns and cities, because as long as nobody knew of this place, there would be no one that could take away the happiness all of you had been trying so hard to preserve for eons.
So, truthfully while it wasn't strange for someone to get lost within the woods, it was quite baffling how the child had gotten so close to the village, considering that there were only very few paths inside that didn't lead to one's untimely demise, another safety protocol.
Shaking off the dark thoughts, you noticed just in time the small child you'd been thinking about skidding to a stop with a timid smile in front of you, immediately moving to wrap her arms around you and bury her face in your stomach, squeezing you gently. Chuckling at the quite common greeting, you lifted your free hand to gently run it through the black strands of hair atop the girls' head, careful not to disrupt the earmuffs that protected her ears from the cold.
"Hello to you as well, Rukia." You greeted softly, your eyes softening fondly as the child pulled away to beam at you. "Good morning, sister (Y/n)! I hope you slept well!" The kid repeatedly eagerly, taking a step back and looking up to you with adoration filling her eyes.
"I did quite well, actually." You answered her, thoughtfully, before tilting your head to the side causing your (h/l) (h/c) strands of hair to fall into your face, before you brushed them behind your ear yet again. "How did you sleep? Does Father Albus need anything for the orphanage?" You queried in return, watching as the child tapped her chin in serious consideration.
"I slept well too!" Rukia answered the first question easily, before furrowing her brows as if in deep memories. "I don't think so, but are you coming by the orphanage again sometime for our weekly checkup? Jareth is still really sick and he says he misses you a lot." The child blabbered happily, before getting distracted by her friends' calls who were attempting to coax her back to join them.
Rukia hesitantly glanced at you, waiting for your confirmation on whether she was free to leave and return to her friends.
"I'll come by the orphanage tomorrow. Now, off you go, little one." You hummed, smiling reassuringly and watching as an expression of delight spread across Rukia's face, who hurriedly rushed off back to her group of friends.
For a moment longer you watched them throw snowballs at each other, before turning once more and continuing on your way.
And thus without further ado you went into the surrounding forest to collect some much needed firewood.
Time passed awfully slowly that day as you chopped away at twigs and branches to get enough wood, putting it carefully on the small sled you'd brought along for ease of transportation. However, as the sun took its journey around the horizon during the day, eventually you decided that it would be time to head back. Sighing softly, you closed your eyes, stretching your arms satisfyingly, before taking the cord tied to the sled and pulling it along as you trudged back through the snow towards your beloved village.
You had admittedly gone farther into the woods than you usually tended to, since you liked to stick close to the village, though unfortunately most of the wood that would've been good for fires around those parts had already been cut down by some of the other villagers as you assumed, and while you didn't particularly liked straying, you also didn't want your fellow villagers to have to go out too far, so you had taken a bite into the sour apple and decided to go further, leaving the closer areas for everyone else.
Yawning a little, you momentarily stopped in your tracks to rub at your eyes. You were going to enjoy a hot bath once you returned home for sure, or at least that was your plan before you heard a dull thud and pained yelp in the distance.
Usually you weren't the curious sort, you tended to be more cautious than most, especially considering your own uniqueness. However, like the string of fate that was winding before you, you couldn't resist the unexplainable urge to go in the direction the thud had come from.
It started out with small patches of red, signs of an obvious struggle, and footsteps within the snow, before a trail of blood led further and further into the forest. It wasn't far, but by the time you arrived the sight in front of you made your own blood run cold.
The red and purple attire of nothing other than a harbinger would strike fear even in the most vigilante of people. Maybe not vision holders, but for normal people as yourself, certainly it would.
Albeit, when your own (e/c) eyes met the indigo ones of this stranger, all your hesitation faded. The person before you was slender and had a beautiful face, with indigo hair and those strikingly beautiful eyes that seemed to want to draw your breathe from you and leave you speechless, but the man before you also appeared to be severely wounded, judging by the bruises, scars and copious amounts of wounds scattered across his body.
Albeit the most worrying one was the large gash on his side, profusely bleeding and staining the snow beneath his feet a deep crimson. He swayed then, the excessive amount of blood loss obviously getting to him. A foreign panic seized your heart then, as you rushed forward.
And just as his eyes closed and he started falling, you reached him, catching him gently in your arms. And albeit you almost buckled under the sudden additional weight, you managed to remain standing, steadying yourself, before lowering the boy into the snow beneath, ripping off several large pieces of cloth from your clothing, tending to the most severe wounds first to add pressure to the wounds and stop him from dying on the spot.
It didn't take someone of your expertise long, and before all too much time had passed you had already managed to situate the stranger on your sled and were hurrying along to the village to the setting sun.
Harbinger or not, he was still a person, still someone with a life, and regardless of the consequences you'd be damned if you ever let someone in your care die.
And thus you ran like the wind, as fast as you could and almost as if you were being assisted by the anemo archon, swift as the breeze.
Several hours later, freshly bathed and once more sitting on your window seat wrapped in a blanket you quietly sipped the tea you'd made yourself.
After arriving back in the village just shortly after the sun had completely set, you'd immediately rushed inside with the injured stranger and managed to drag him into the room that was set up as something akin to a medical office, holding most of your supplies and herbs, alongside alchemical vials that helped with healing and other similar things and gotten to treat the poor stranger.
He must've taken quite a beating from what you could tell. A severe one that had left him on the brink of death, if you hadn't found him when you did, you were almost sure he would've died in that forest, alone and without anyone to ever find him, considering the raging blizzard outside. He would've been covered up by the heavy snowfall and then he would've been forgotten.
A terrible fate quite frankly.
Sighing softly, you took another sip from your mug as relief settled in your heart, glad that you had decided to go investigate against your better judgment.
The radiant golden flames within the fireplace warmed the house quite sufficiently as your thoughts finally seemed to settle, your back resting against the wall as you gazed out of the window which occasionally rattled with the force of the blizzard outside.
Staying seated for only a couple seconds more, you eventually rose to your feet taking your mug, and the blanket with you to your bedroom, only turning on the small lantern on your desk that stood in the corner of one room. You glanced towards the other side of said room, where your bed was situated and gazed at the stranger that was sleeping within.
He was running a mild fever at the moment, possibly after-effects of the obvious frostbite - near hypothermia - he had experienced, and while you'd done what you could with him unconscious, you couldn't exactly make him take some of your medicinal brews, considering his current state.
At the very least you had been able to change his clothes into something more comfortable, a simple pair of loose pants and a baggy shirt that you had managed to borrow from one of your neighbors. And while most of the young man's clothes had been ruined and was now in dire need of repair, the weirdly large hat he had been wearing was hanging fully intact on a small hook on the wall, keeping it safe for the time being.
Maybe in the morning you'd get started on fixing up his clothes.
Though for now, you sat down at your desk, wrapping the blanket around your shoulders more securely before grabbing a certain indigo notebook.
It was a special one.
Soulmates were a peculiar thing to you, quite frankly, and you were pretty sure that the person that used to be your soulmate must've passed away centuries ago.
Anyway, as far as you were away, every person ended up materializing one of these 'notebooks' on the day of their birth. Said notebook was linked with your soulmates and thus acted as a bit of a messenger between. If you wrote something within, it would appear in your soulmates notebook and vice versa. It was truthfully a beautiful piece of magic. Though admittedly most people didn't leave it lying around as you did, considering that they could materialize the book at will whenever they needed it and make it disappear just the same.
Sighing softly, you opened the book gently thumbing through the many pages until eventually coming to a stop on a blank page. Even centuries ago, your soulmate had never once replied to you. You weren't sure why, but you assumed that they simply didn't want this bond, didn't care for it and thus didn't choose to indulge in it.
When you'd first noticed, you had been sad for quite some time, but as time passed you grew to accept that this was simply the way of things.
You didn't know your soulmate's situation, after all.
And regardless of whether you got an answer or not, you had grown attached to writing down small messages for your soulmate, hoping that even just a little if they were still out there, that it would make them laugh, smile or cheer up. That maybe they'd think about you too.
And so you picked up the pen and gently started writing your newest message into the book.
'Dear Soulmate, today I saved someone from dying. Again! A harbinger of all things! Sheesh and here I was prepared to live all my life in this boring, but oh so peaceful personal heaven of mine! Woe is me.
I don't know this stranger's name admittedly, and he has been passed out ever since we first met eyes, but I managed to stem the bleeding and treat the worst of his wounds, he'll likely take a long time to recover, but it's okay. I don't mind caring for him until he's better.
Still, I can't help but wonder what happened to him, I hope nothing dangerous is lurking near the village. I don't want anything happening to my people.
That's all, really. I hope you're well, wherever you are.'
Thus finishing with her small letter, she closed the notebook, returning it to its spot among the other normal notebooks and medicine tomes.
Another yawn escaped your lips as your gaze once more drifted to the stranger in your bed, wondering about his origins and what had led him here exactly. As your thoughts continued circling around the strange man, you slowly rested your head in your arms on top of your desk, eyes blinking drowsily, before falling asleep.
You'd certainly have one hell of a sore back in the morning.