Nick had been born in a remote village in the northeastern mountains of Sùbīn Province.
His family's circumstances were at least decent by the village's standards. His father was a carpenter who took on the occasional business deal, enough to support their whole large family.
That also meant Nick did not have to spend the best years of his childhood, like the other children his age in the village, wearing himself down on farmwork that seemed as if it would never end.
On summer afternoons when the weather was at its hottest, he would often go to the village's Back Mountain to escape the heat. The shade cast by the dense forest made it much cooler than outside, and villagers often came in to fell trees and gather firewood, so there was some guarantee of safety.
Much of the time, leaning against a tree trunk, lying deep in the cool shade, listening to the rustling of the branches swaying overhead, he would narrow his eyes, and an afternoon would pass.
Of course, a boy's energy was like the stray dogs that ran wild all over the village—no matter what, it could not be used up. Over several years, he had more or less figured out every corner of the Back Mountain.
Near the summit, there was a small pool of water, reflecting the tree crowns, emerald-green and clear.
No one knew where they had come from, but several swimming fish lived in the water pool. They were not very large, about the length of a palm, yet because the pool water was so transparent, they stood out especially clearly.
Like the ignorant young boy who had grown up deep in the mountains, as blank as a sheet of white paper, these fish raised in the secluded pool had never experienced