The moon shone down upon the bare forest blanketed in snow. A lonely, wary figure drug his leather boot clad feet through the thick ground of white powder as he pulled his light coat tighter around his frigid body. His breath was visible in the night air; it echoed through the empty land that once flourished with life.

This character was a boy no older than the age of 18 years. He had raven black hair tied back in a sleek ponytail with side swept bangs that framed each side of his face, stopping an inch past his jaw. His eyes were a piercing blue like the freezing cold of the winter that threatened eternal sleep. His coat was not made for winter and was considered more of a casual, gray blazer with mismatched patches sewed on the elbows. His black scarf was tattered at the edges and had holes of various sizes on it. His jeans were enough to cover him, but the cold air went right through it; but then again, the holes at the knees didn't help either.

"Damn this cold," the boy muttered to himself. "There has gotta be a shelter somewhere... Anywhere."

The boy begged to the sky with a pleading glance as he advanced through the teeth chattering cold. The only reply he got was a gentle breeze that felt like sharp blades on his red cheeks. He blinked rapidly and rubbed at his face with his pale, numb hands.

Suddenly, a noise. The boy stopped in his tracks and looked around wildly, his ponytail swinging back and forth as he did. Before he could mutter a raspy "hello?", the boy was greeted by a black creature with crooked antennas and shining yellow eyes. It was the size of a large dog and had short legs with long feet. It had clawed hands with only three fingers. The scariest part about it was that it had no mouth. The boy knew exactly what it was and why it had appeared in such a solitary place.

"A Heartless!" The boy backed away. "No, not now! I don't have the strength to defend myself!"

At this newly found fear, the boy's instincts told him to run. And he did.

Picking up his lead for feet, the boy marched through the snow as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the black beast. He wasn't very fast to begin with, but it was better than doing nothing. The boy wasn't ready to die. He had a brother to find, a two-year-old niece, and a sweet, old grandmother to take care of at home. This wasn't going to be his reasoning of death. He needed to get away somehow. And fast.

Running won't save me, the boy thought to himself as he huffed and puffed through the snow. I should find a tree with branches low enough for me to grab and climb as fast as I possibly can. It's my only chance.

And so the boy began to scan the immediate area with his December blue eyes for a suitable tree. As he ran, the monster drew closer. It was gaining on him fast and time was running out.

Finally, the young man spotted a tree in the distance that fit his needs and he took a sharp right just as the Heartless went to leap on him. The boy avoided the attack successfully and hurried toward the tree. His heart was racing and it warmed his body, but it only helped him run faster slightly. The heavy snow slowed him down which kept him at a huge disadvantage. It almost seemed impossible for him to get away.

As if his situation wasn't bad enough, the boy's adrenaline caused his judgment to cloud over. As he picked up the pace, he failed to think of anything that might stop him other than the snow. Just a couple yards from the tree, the raven-haired boy felt the tip of his boot get caught in an outcropped root that laid frozen and dead beneath the snow. He felt himself thrown into the snow, sucked down by gravity and his clumsiness.

Despite the boy's clouded judgment, he knew that his first thing to do was to move aside. So he chose to roll to his right which allowed him to dodge the Heartless's leap attack once more. He didn't hesitate to quickly get to his feet and start running again. The boy was just several feet from the tree when he felt he Heartless leap and scratch him at the back of his right leg. This sent a sharp pain through his body, but he had to carry on or die where he was.

So he drug himself the rest of the way and jumped to grab the lowest branch of the tree. He used what little energy he had left to pull himself up atop the branch and climb up the tree as far as he could to get away from the beast that stared up at him with its lucid eyes. It tipped its head to the side, then suddenly sunk into the ground like a shadow and skittered around the tree in hopes that the boy would eventually come down.

But this boy had no intention of that. There was no way he was about to fight off that thing with the energy he didn't have.

However, despite his will to live, the boy knew his life was drawing to a close by the dripping of the blood off his calf. The chills all around him suffocated him, making him drowsy. He could feel the frostbite on his cheeks.

"I'm so sorry, Ren," the boy whispered to himself as he tipped his head back against the trunk of the tree. "I couldn't make it to help take care of Liliana..."

As the boy began to say his farewells, he looked up at the full moon and held back his tears. He took a gulp of cold air and whimpered,

"You said you believed in me," his breath faltered. "But look at me now. I couldn't even manage to fight off one, single Heartless."

His eyelids began to droop. Sleep beckoned for the boy to come. It welcomed him with warm, open arms. The sweet voice of death whispered in his ears with the brisk breeze of the wintry night air,

Follow me, Krystian, and the pain will vanish with your worries.

But... How could he just drop all his burdens at this tree and fly away with his last breath? He had so much left to do... So many people he wanted to see before he went...

Was this it?

No...The sound of a warm, motherly voice echoed through the forest.

Krystian opened his eyes and gasped at the sound. He knew that voice. It was the soothing sound of a woman that he also heard when he drowned in the river.

"Mother Moon?" Krystian reached out toward the pale moon. "Is that you?"

As a silent reply, Krystian felt the moon's light concentrate on him and warm his frozen bones. He felt the moon's magic surround him with its motherly love. The magic immersed Krystian in life and lifted him off the branch of the tree and high into the clear, starry sky.

Krystian watched the moon in awe, his scarf and hair floating about as if gravity did not pertain to him. His body felt lighter than air and his sleepiness faded away and was replaced with life once again. The wound on his leg healed instantly, leaving no signs of it ever being there with the exception of the blood already soaked in the boy's jeans.

This was the work of the magic moon that chose him as her child. This mythical woman that floated in the sky in the form of a giant celestial body saved him as a child from drowning in a river near his hometown and marked him as the "Moon Child." From then on, he promised to protect others and free worlds from utter darkness.

"I knew you would always be there for me," Krystian smiled warmly to the silent, pale moon. Somehow, he knew that she was smiling back.

Fear not, Krystian, I will never give up on you and you will never give up on yourself. You have many great things that are yet to be done. So go, my son, and I will watch you the whole way.

The moon's light swallowed Krystian up in a ball of warmth and teleported him away from the frozen prison he was thought to die in. This marked the true beginning of the boy's journey, allowing him a second chance. Krystian knew this all too well and had no intentions of wasting it.

Everyone was depending on him.