Prologue
 

Seventeen years ago...

    One stormy night, a box laid quiet and still on the very threshold of the small church in the town of Ardea. If not for the incessant compulsion of the young priest to lock every door and window of the rectory, the baby would’ve never been found. Wrapped in the warmest fabric for a blanket, embroidered with a golden orchid, very small to be significant, it came with nothing else but the soft murmuring of a baby sleeping. 

“A newborn?” The priest questions as he scans through the dark and heavy rain. But not a single soul can be seen through the blur of the stormy night. 

    He looks at the baby again and still even as the thunder crashed and the rain fell angrily, the baby remained unaffected. Still sleeping deeply through the madness outside it’s box.

    What would a priest know about taking care of a baby?  Father Junmyeon wasn’t even fond of children. It’s not like he hated them or anything. It’s just that he never seems to know how to deal with them. And to think that somebody would leave a baby in his care, in the church’s care, was just unbecoming that Father Junmyeon was taken a back. Still at a lost of what to do, he looks not behind him anymore accepting the fact that the baby had been abandoned. He only knew to look up in the sky and hope that God is watching him in that instant. That he would guide him through this.  

    And as if the prayer had been answered, the priest had a sudden thought, an action uncharacteristic for himself. He placed the baby inside his raincoat and trudged carefully back on the sidewalk and straight to the rectory. 

    Father Junmyeon could call one of the nuns, or even ask for help from one of the church helpers even in the dead of the night. He could get someone to help with the baby for the time being or even permanently if he wished it. But he had an odd sense about the situation. A baby left beyond the threshold of a small old church is unlikely location for a privileged cub. Privileged, no doubt, with the luxurious fabric of the blanket and the golden orchid embroidered on it’s corner, there’s no way the baby could just be an orphan from the dilapidated outskirts of the kingdom. 

This cub must be of noble birth. But why here? The inner cities houses three of the most extravagant churches backed by the King himself. So why of all places, would a noble man or woman, leave a baby in the most poorest sector of the kingdom? Father Junmyeon thought.

    After carefully placing the baby still tightly wrapped in the blanket on his small bed, Father Junmyeon finally panics. Pacing anxiously right beside it, he contemplates and debates with himself as to what he should do. He bites the inside of his cheeks and sighs as he paces back and forth in front of his bed. Until a gentle cry had broken his resolve and the baby awakens. He is now flustered unknowing of what to do that he practically runs to kneel beside it cooing and talking to it.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now.” And he unconsciously soothes it with a voice he’s never heard himself use before. He thumbs the small forehead comforting the baby into another lulling slumber. The baby stops and goes right back to sleep as if nothing happened.  Father Junmyeon stays in his place and continued to soothe the baby.

    He takes a closer look and he’s enamored. He doesn’t quite understand how he had always despised or disliked children before because this baby in front of him now looks so cherubic that he swears, it’s an angel sent from a above. Adorable. The baby purses its lips and furrows its brow, its index finger suddenly jerking. Father Junmyeon gasps at the sudden movement but was relieved when the baby continued to sleep. 

“I don’t really know what I should do with you. But god put you in my care, and I’m trusting in him to know what he’s doing. Even if I don’t.” Father Junmyeon whispers softly.

    But suddenly, the priest realized another thing. 

“Too warm...” The priest thumbs the fabric of the blanket and thoughtfully hums matter-of-factly.

    Sitting smack middle of the known land, Ardea is on of the more fair-weathered kingdoms of the land; the South bares the heat and the North succumbs to the cold. The people of Ardea never bothered with both the extremes enough to wear fabric too light or too heavy such as the one he’s holding now.

“From the North? What are you doing so far from home, little one?” He coos again, getting scared of the sudden affection he’s feeling for the baby. 

“You must be in trouble, huh? To run so far from your own land?” He realizes it all as it unfolds right in front of him. 

    He cards his hair messily, blowing a sudden heave of anxious air. There is more to the situation and he knows it. A noble baby from far away land doesn’t just pop out of nowhere especially not at the most dilapidated section of the land. That’s when the idea had come to him. He thought the baby should run away one more time but this time towing him along. Like a protector or a guardian, the priest’s defenses flares up and he knew that there is nothing else to do but run again. But this time, he would need to go with the baby. He had the sudden inclination to take care of it and to protect it as his own, as funny as that sounds to him. He knew God, had brought the baby to his church’s step for one reason and one reason only, for him to protect it.

It. It had occurred to Father Junmyeon that he’d hadn’t referred to the baby as anything more specific. He laughs because he’s almost forgotten to check what gender it was from the beginning. It wasn't like it was his prerogative to begin with. And deciding to take on the task of being it’s guardian had only occurred to him seconds ago.  So in anticipation, he opens the blanket and what he sees, made him gasp loudly to himself.

“You child are definitely not a Daughter of Ardea.” He anxiously whispers to the silent room.