Sage would sigh as he settled down onto the sandy shore that was his home of Kilika. Breathing through his nostrils, the child would smile to himself softly as his bare, soft hands felt the stir of the salty air dancing in between his fingers. Bringing said hands back, the dark skinned human would hum and lean back, messy black hair covering his eyes as he did so. These were the days of carefree innocence for the most part. Despite the fact that Sin had returned, the young man had yet to hear of any major incidents from television. Shifting into the warmed sand slightly, the young man brought his knees upwards, blowing a black bang from in front of his light brown eyes to stare upwards at the clear blue sky. An impish grin would form on his face at all the things he could do for the day, at least for the moment.
Perhaps he would go fishing, or play blitzball? Although he wasn't that good at either, he still felt accomplished whenever he grasped one of the slippery sea-critters in between his small hands or whenever he managed to actually connect his foot onto a blitzball, he felt a small amount of pride in himself. Hearing his mother call for him, the child would rise up and run home with a cheery grin; something that he was never seen without and embraced her around the waist with a even bigger smile. She would look down at her child and grin softly despite the fact that her heart was hurting. Her beloved husband had went off to face Sin. It was a fruitless effort, she always had thought, something that she had mused to herself as she leaned down and planted her soft pink lips against her childs forehead. Sage would find comfort in her scent, a rather strange smell of a plant called bellfruit (a rather strange, obviously bell shaped fruit with a fragrance similar to passionfruit and chestnut) and nuzzle into her knees with a childish curiosity on his features.
"Momma?" He spoke up softly, taking his large brown eyes upwards and notching his head to the side. His mother would snap to attention at her sons soft, almost angelic voice. The boy was strange, she decided this early on after having him, always having some sort of strange intuition about things almost too intelligent for his age even. At times he seemed to be a completely different person. But that was something she had always put on the backburner. "When is Poppa coming back?" The question made her grimace softly, her features, which people often said were extremely pleasant saddening with the question. The boy had seen that he had inadvertantly hurt his mother and mumbled an apology, though she took no note of it. "It's fine Orion. Your father will return someday..." She'd smile pleasantly, teeth arranging in a perfect grin as the wind continued to tickle past the pair, causing the elder's raven hair to brush her childs nose which in turn made him giggle, event forgotten in a near instant. "...now, let's go get something to eat hm?" Her green eyes would dance softly in light of that question, her matching brown complexion making her look all the more beautiful. It gained the boys attention immediately, and he would nod softly, taking her hand in his smaller one and heading back to their home.
In his later years, once he was an Aeon and his memories were all but a distant myth to him, Sage would remember this with a grin of sadness intermixed with a rare happiness. Well, true happiness at the very least not only for his mother but for remembering his name after the longest times. "Orion..." He'd murmur, feline ears twitching about as he laid upon the hammock in his recreation of his old home within his personal realm. "..it sounds nice." He exclaimed gleefully, single muddy brown eye half-opened as the memory came to him once more. Memories. How precious they were to him at a time when he could rarely recall his childhood. His mother was a strong woman, the young Esper had learned this years ago from observing her with that keen eye of his. And when he had left, he had inadvertantly broken the woman, sending her onto a path of self-destruction and consequential illness before she had passed and degraded into fiend status. His own fault, although he'd never admit it aloud nor share it with a soul. "..."