Chapter Text
Aether woke up, his head was aching from being suddenly woken up by his twin, and then forcefully being put to sleep by the unknown God.
He doesn't remember what happened back then... His memories were mostly fuzzy. Not only that, he could feel that his power was sealed within him.
He tried summoning his wings, yet nothing came out, he only felt like his back was being teared open again and again, until he could no longer endure it and stopped trying.
Even with his fuzzy memories, there was something he could never forget.
It was the blood like sky that he woke up to, the muffled screams as his twin drags him further and further away. The smell of copper and something burning...
Aether looked up towards the sky, it looked nothing like the sky he remembered.
But the feeling of unease, still lingered from deep within... As if his locked up powers were telling him of something... Warning him...
He shook his head to shake away his thoughts as he looked back down at the sandy ground. He saw a bunch of crabs pop here and there, and mostly watch them to pass time.
He knew that he needed to move in order to find his sister, but the thought of not being together in the first place bothers him. He has never left his twin's side before unless one of them were still asleep, so being alone with no presence of his twin was very unnerving for the woken up Aether.
A splash caught his attention. Turning his head to the source, he could see that something was causing disturbance in the water a few feet away.
He stood up and could now see, that the so called disturbance was not a something, but a someone.
...
"Help!"
Aether was snapped back from his shock at seeing someone just drown out of nowhere. He panicked and tried to use the fishing rod near him to take that someone to shore.
The thought of that someone being heavier than the wooden fishing rod can handle didn't even pass by his mind, he also completely forgot the fact that he can swim. But all things managed to end up well when Aether somehow did get the driwning person into the shore.
After the whole ordeal was dealt with, Aether found himself looking worried at the small figure.
Though he was glad that he saved them, he still couldn't think on how a small child could have ended up drowning in the first place?
Paimon had never felt so unlucky and lucky all at the same time.
Paimon just remembered being tired and then drowning at the next second. It was only by luck that she was saved by someone who happens to be fishing nearby, or else she was probably a gonner by now.
Now that she wasn't choking on water, she could now see the person who saved her.
Looking at him, he didn't seem like a normal fisherman to Paimon. Not with his clothing looking nothing like from one of the seven nations, and especially not with the aura Paimon was feeling from him.
Paimon couldn't tell on what he might be, but she knows that something about him doesn't speak normal.
Paimon should be suspicious of him, but she ignores all the signs. Only thinking of being saved by the said person in front of her.
It also did not help at all when he offered her food to munch on.
Paimon was so happy and glad she decided to help him in return.
He told Paimon his reason of being in the sandy beach alone, and decided to accompany him as a guide.
'This guy must be really lonely after all of that! Such a nice person should no longer suffer for Paimon the greatest guide in Teyvat is here!'
She thought to herself, before setting off to go to the nearest nation and city...
Mondstadt, The City of Freedom.