Chapter 0: Falling Star

“Over here!” a small and hazy figure called out from the top of a steep hill.

It was a gentle and warming voice, defrosting the cold chest bathed by the dusting snow. Yet, the receiver sighed, knowing that the person was up to no good. Something never changes from the passing of time after all, he smiled with a half laugh.

But with snow melting on his redden cheeks and the cold seeping through the clothes of winter. The boy sharpened his brownie iris and followed the voice with his cozy and muffled turtleneck. Breathing onto the fur that left a soothing and accumulating vapor of heat, yet tickled his red Rudolf's nose.

He sneezed, a sneeze that caught the surrounding powder with the howling wind. Snorting, the boy covered his black hair, keeping the furry heat near his ears, and hugged himself as he pushed against the steep and snowy hills, following the figure's trail that lead the sheep astray.

If compared to the broad day with the shining sun and the snow blanket that would not cover his knees. He would not say that this was an ideal weather to go mountain hiking. So why did they have to go so far, there was no reason too. These thoughts filled his mind. As he kept going while the chill crept closer from toes to knees, leaving a trail of snow as he crunched his way before the figure at front of him.

He tried to reach out for her, with his hands and voice, but there he stopped. The breeze took over and from a distance, he gazed at her delicate palms, resting on her thin waist and silvery hair dancing with the freckling crystals. She with the same clothings of fur, who stood at the end of a cliff before a valley. A valley filled with trees and blankets of snow, fallen from the mist above.

With a quiet sigh, he asked, “Fenri, let's head back? It’s dangerous without the adult’s knowledge of this.”

She giggled, held her hands behind her back and turned around, revealing her redden cheeks and doll like beauty like porcelain. Taking a few steps further, she tilted her head and sent a sneer from her full lips. “Oh really? It’s not actually that you’re a wuss and dare not to stride towards me?”

The boy avoided her eyes, fingers icy cold and cheeks ablaze. “Fine.” He said, feets heavy, yet enough to stride with small baby steps towards the edge.

“Aw c'mon,” she said, dropping her arms, and walked with greater strides towards the boy, grasping his shivering hand and pulled him with ease towards the cliffs of the mountain alps. “Now, open your eyes.”

“How about, no?”

“Hmth, I just enjoy it myself then.” she said, pouting as she dropped onto her rear and left his hands alone with the chill.

Searching for her hands, he was left grasping for the thin air and so, his chest started to beat with aching pain. Wobbling, his unbalanced legs bent him like a toppled tree, whilst its roots kept it in place.

"Do it for me?" She said. Few words that swayed his aching heart, giving him balance as he pushed his way through the chained door. Crumbling the tall wall that always brought him down to his knees.

He sighed with the wind before through his worst fear. “I… I’m not afraid.” he muttered with snow chilling his nostrils, yet soothing as freedom filled his lungs with air, as if he soared through the sky.

Nevertheless, with one of the last crystal melting on his cheek. The girl’s full lips curved into a smile, satisfied as her legs swung back and forth. “Yeah yeah, don’t keep me waiting here alone, okay?”

Nodding, the boy sat down beside her while the stars revealed themselves one by one. They were like dreams, filling the sky when each and every person took their deep and cozy sleep.

With time, the final flakes descended upon the twigs and branches. Showering dust onto the blanket of snow. And the moon pushed away the last remnants of the misty clouds. Taking its stage, it illuminated the valley of trees surrounded by mountainous peaks of glinting ice. But never did the setting sun ever give up. Painting the ridge's night in its pastel of orange light. Leaving the two young children in awe as they gazed at the sea of milky stars, trailing after the largest star hid behind the mountain ranges, that which burned itself into a never forgotten image.

But the young boy averted his eyes, glancing at the silky hair covering her rounded face and then, the sky like iris that caught his gaze. The iris that shone brighter than the thousands of stars and the magnetic lips, softer and more attracting than the natural pink roses brought home by many.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, still gazing at the galaxy, and still amazed the boy of how aware she was of her surroundings.

It was like the times when they were chopping logs for the village. Surrounded by the rustling and lushy forest, she pushed her silver bangs to the side and raised her axe towards the bathing sun.

With a smooth and swift motion, she chopped the log resting on the large trunk. Splitting it into two with ease. She then turned towards him, smiling as she swiped her finger across her small upright nose.

It was the signal of his turn.

Leaving him in battle stance as he glared at the log. If he had kept it up, he would have set it ablaze. But he raised his own axe instead, shaky yet steady at the end. With sweat dripping from his forehead, he aimed, and then swung, and chop it went, echoing a wave of crackling wood.

However, the log stood tall, scratched unlike the tree trunk split in half.

Leaving him sulking as he glanced at the work the girl had broken in sweat for. A tower of logs reaching towards the sky, triple the height of his.

How could he shine as bright as her? What was the difference? And why are the boys sullen with sweat from a axe between their thighs? He sighed, if only he was talented, maybe then the other boys would let him join their gang. Or at least, stop calling him a wuss who sides with a girl.

Or so he recalled at least. Never would he had thought that they were actually laughing at him before that incident. Not that he ever mind. “Nothi-Achoo!” He shuddered with a snort.

“Cold?” She asked, meeting her dazzling eyes with his, flushing the boy with blazing cheeks, he who placed his gaze towards the valley below.

“N-no not real-EHhh?”

Warmth filled his upper body and her fragrance of lilies rammed through the blockade in his red nose. Trying to puzzle the recent event together, a jolt gave him a straight back. Her warm cheeks caused his heart to erupt like a volcano. Or at second thoughts, could it be her gentle lips? Either way, the blood pumped into his fluctuating mind as he gazed at her fingers locking themselves around his body.

His soul seeped out of his small gaping mouth. Pondering about it, maybe he was actually the luckiest of them all? No, he would rather die than to have that luck. That was his only wish as the falling star made the world fall, draining all the warmth and colors of the fading memories but him.

***

Silence took over and darkness shrouded the boy with cumbersome breaths that clung to the dampening air. His black hair brushed the wooden and dusty roof as he crawled forward through the thin layer of snow. With each advance, the pulsating heart rose to its peak and the darkness cracked wider, leaving the light shining through the gaps.

With trembling icy cold fingers, he rested his palms against the cold wooden wall. His mind wavered and with no clues of what he should do. He gulped, a mere gulp that shattered the deafening silence into a thousands of pieces as he peeked through the gaps of the crackling planks.

The light of the bright sun blinded his brown iris. It gave him tears, but so did the scene before him, forcing him to blink multiple times before seeing through the fuzziness of reality.

Watching from a safe distance, the boy had his knees on the hardened dirt under a house. Unlike his friends, family and everyone he knew at the village who had their knees on the paved road of stone. The pain and fear unlike his was unimaginable. They were tightened together while tears fell onto their clothings, forced by the chilly and sharp edges resting on their shivering and hoarse throats.

“W-what’s the meaning of this?!” A broad man shouted with bulging eyes. Tense with expanded muscles, he marched with two soldiers who trailed behind as they hung around his sleeves, trying to stop him on his path.

Suffice to say, seeing how they struggled even while clad in steel from head to toe. More soldiers aimed their pointy halberds towards the unstoppable man’s frown. He who stopped dead on his path and with his fists clenched in trembles, the beast within was withheld.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He sighed, “I get to the point, why have you the bishop brought everyone here with weapons pointed at their throats?” he said, still frowning towards someone wearing an embroidered band of golden silk. A red vestment, dragged along the snowy road with its decorated crosses. Shovering envy upon common man.

“That pendant, are you the heir?” The bishop with gray hair asked.

The enraged man threw the weak soldiers onto the halberds, which was raised to the air before piercing their comrades. He grabbed the sword from the stunned victims covered in snow, pointing it towards the bishop as he said, “Do not ignore my question, unless you want the king to hear of this!”

The bishop could not hold his giggle as he cracked a smile onto the soldiers with their white coat of a red cross. Anyone could distinguish them for templars, known for marching throughout the lands sharing their beliefs. However, none had thought that they were these brutal for their cause, if it even was.

The templars bursted out in laugh, “Oh, my holiness, this fool is blind of his surroundings.” a soldier said and gave the orders with his tilting fingertips. Bringing a child towards the open street, while the other soldiers held down the child’s struggling parents.

Fen- Fenri! The boy gasped for air. He had to do something, yet could not bring to move his shackled feet nor his frozen eyes from the scene. Even if he could, what would he do?

“Your people has been blinded by the era of peace for too long. Drop your sword or face the consequences.” The bishop said, raising his nose to the sky as he walked towards the trembling girl. A girl with silky and silvery hair, eyes and cheeks redden as she could not shed yet another tear.

He looked at the reflective sword that was raised towards the sun. Biting his lips, blood coated his tongue, leaving the taste of rustic iron as he averted his eyes. Hoping for the pain to shatter the false and silence dream, as he could do nothing.

But the echos of a sword clanging onto the ground opened his eyes. His tense fingers lost its grip. He was relieved, yet the answer stabbed his spine to soon. It was all just a false hope as the savior fell onto his knees, bowing with his black hair on the road. “I know what you are after, but at least... Let the children live. Please!” he said, giving the soldiers the chance to lock their halberds in a cross around his neck.

Father… No...

The bishop stroked his gray beard, “You do? Then you should know that I must decline.”

“What?!” he shouted and struggled against the sharp edges on the back of his neck. Needless to say, blood dripped onto the thin layer of snow. “Yo-you know that the king will investigate t!-" He stopped, because there he could see the machine like smile, tasteless with no humanity left in every living cell.

“The village was dyed rustic red, bodies completely ravaged until unidentifiable. Angered, retribution was struck upon the threat for our hero’s descendants.” Tears left his eyes, making the villagers bewildered of the act, “Upon further investigation, the villagers was struck unprepared in their sleep. We sent search parties for days, weeks, but none survivors could be found. Isn’t that right templars?”

“Indeed, our search parties could not find a single trace of any survivor. We fear that our hero’s descendants has been wiped out.”

"But we can't leave the remains to rot nor let the nature take advantage of it. That would be provoking the hero who saved us all. Henceforth, let us burn the remains and the village and accommodate a statue to remember them by."

"By your orders, bishop."

“No… No, you can’t do this!”

“Regrettably the victorious can always bend the information. Thus I must at least thank you for confirming that everyone was brought here." He said as he turned around with a smile, "The heavens will welcome you."

And so, ignoring the pleads of the crying villagers, the bishop walked away. While the villagers fought barehanded, nought could they do against an overwhelming advantage. They who painted crimson lines over the snow and walls. They who turned the village into a screaming nightmare, setting it ablaze as it lit the scarlet night. Never to be uncovered ever again.

Though the boy will always remember as he trailed away, with the wind howling a thunderous roar. It covered every footprints he had left behind.

The boy stumbled and fell. Standing up, he continued and stumbled yet again. Falling head first into a pile of snow. There he screamed with muffled cries. Screaming of how unfair this world was, how the weak could do nothing, how he could not save at least one.

With closed eyes, the darkness brought back their bright smile, even the boys who teased him everyday. Their smiles were all still images his desire could never gain nor touch ever again. It haunted him, gave him tears that could form a river. So it was with her magnetic iris, blue like the sky and free like the eagles, yet it faded into the depths of the night.

Time passed and he clenched a fistfull of snow. It ached, burned, yet he could care less. If those with power could do anything against the weak, he would need to grasp that agonizing strength. Even if he had to sacrifices his shivering fingers, his dry eyes sought for revenge.

Raising his head from the pile of snow, cold shudders coursed through his back, he knew that he still had something of importance before he could set his plans into motion. Survival.

The snow had melted into his wintery clothes. Soaking him in water while the breeze of the wind caused the wet liquid to harden into ice. He had to find shelter and quick. But where?

His hand vibrated with the breeze, whilst engulfing it with vapor heat, he looked around and tried to understand the situation at hand. But seconds passed, and the eyes that used to inspect started to dart around instead. His vicinity was shrouded in darkness and neither did the howling dust help.

Taking a step forward could either mean a step closer to his goal, but it could also be his last steps, causing him to fall for his death.

For the first time in his life he was far from his village. At an unknown place where he had no light to adjust and no one to stretch out their hand. Was he about to die here? No! He searched deep into his memories for anything that resembled something he could recall.

Nothing, there was nothing. His mind fluctuated, his breathing tried to gasp for the non yielding air and the black circles grew in size to cover the edges of his eyes. Darkness crept closer and with time it would pull down his legs.

But he could hear it. The faint sound of new footprints being created. Leaving his trembling palm with sweat, fingers numb and a stench that pushed him to pick up his pace through the snow.

A wolf’s howl pierced through the howling storm.

The boy without a second thought, distanced himself as far as he could. Left wandering, he roamed passed trees and bushes. Crunching with every new footprint, yet he kept meeting another tree, and another, and another. As if he was wandering for eternity while the wall of snow increased its height. Leaving his fingers frozen numb, and the snow, now reaching his throbbing chest.

The echoing howl passed his red ears yet again. Louder and closer.

However, he was not afraid of the wolves, he was more afraid of the darkness that followed his every eye motion. Creeping closer to the center of his vision, until it's icy cold fingers stole the warmth of his neck, numbing his body from toe to throat.

He broke down with a collapse, eyes meeting the sky eyes of the beast before facing the wall of snow. Heart still banging in his ears. While the black rings made its way to the center together with the silver furry paws. The dazzling light caught his eyes. Pushed back the darkness, temporarily, but enough for him to smile.

The wolf with its eyes above the blanket, shoveled its way through the cold powder, and revealed its wet nose with a peck of snow. A necklace dropped before the child from its jaws, with haste it circled around him, pushed his back with its furry head, multiple times without stopping.

But the boy kept his fixated eyes on the hand sized object, eventually, trembling his icy fingers towards it and grasped the pendant with the shape of a sword.

“At least, I won’t, be alone.” He muttered with his last breaths. Giving in to the deafening silence that took over his beating heart. Sending him into a deep sleep, as darkness had finally caught hold of his warmth. Leaving the wolf with a squealing cry.

In the end, it was just the vengeance of a child.