Time marched onwards as mountains, valleys, forests, and meadows blurred past them. Kahi and Kenu were being escorted along a route known only to the soldiers guarding them. The trek was monotonous and draining. Mentally and physically. They felt captured and restrained though no ropes wrapped their wrists, only the word of a negligent King was what bound them to these men.

But Kahi quickly found that the mind remains free, no matter what tries to restrain it. He flew like the birds above, across mountains, valleys, and deep into the forests around them. Back to Ledan, back to his adopted family, back to the people who cared for him and his sister. In an odd realization it made him feel powerful. These men, no matter how strong, could never contain his mind.

One evening, after a particularly treacherous day of walking, Kahi found himself leaning against a large oak tree deep in the forest. The soldiers had built a fire for their meal tonight, a rare occurrence. Its luscious orange glow flickered against the bark of his tree, revealing deep valleys and protruding mountains along the gnarled wood.

Kenu lay quietly beside him, exhausted from their constant travelling. Her chocolate brown hair contrasted with her pale skin, almost hiding her weariness in its dark curls.

As he watched his sister sleep peacefully, Kahi felt a flicker of rage build up inside of him. Anger at the fact that they were ripped from their home with such ease and nonchalance. The thought burned painfully inside his head.

He so desperately wanted to protect her. All his life. But she was always far more independent and determined than him. Always the one protecting him. Always the one providing for him. Learning to hunt had made her a ferociously determined woman, quickly earning her place at the head of the village. Now Kahi felt like he had a chance to protect her for once and he was nothing but a cowardly daydreamer.

Even as he berated himself for his constant disassociation, he felt the edge of his consciousness tug at him. The very corners of reality, the place where daydreams occur, was the ever-present bridge between what was real and what was merely imagination. The slight distortion that occurs at the edge of water or the transparent, flickering ripples of a burning flame. Right there, in that tiny gap, was where Kahi’s mind fled. Away from everything. Away from reality. Away from Kenu.

As his eyes slowly shut, he found his mind drifting up into the leaves above him. Surrounded by deep, vibrant greenery. Leaping between the maze of branches and curling wood. A smile growing on his face at the feeling of wind whipping through his hazel hair. His feet planted perfectly on each branch, gracefully launching him through the air. He felt incredible. Unstoppable. Free. Until he wasn’t.

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As he leapt through the air, something made him freeze for a split second, sending his foot shooting out from underneath him. All too suddenly, he was falling. Falling. Falling. Into the inky blackness below.

Kahi woke up with a jolt. Like lightning through his spine, he sat up, rigid against the rough bark at his back. His mind scrambled to bring him back to reality. Kenu grumbled next to him at the sudden movement. Taking a deep breath Kahi laid his head in his hands, trying his best to visualize what he had seen at the edge of the forest.

It was a gradual thing, the death of the flora. Ever so slowly wilting. Not just dying, but being corrupted, eaten, devoured. Bright green leaves viciously crumbling away into grey husks. Dead trees curled into painful formations as decay consumed them. Branches and roots withered till they simply fell to the ashen dirt below. The dirt itself was an amalgamation of rot and decay. Bones, flesh, and soil mixed haphazardly to corrupt the very earth. What he saw was incomprehensible. It was unfathomable.

It was the death of life itself.

Kahi looked up from his sweaty palms, his eyes met with those of Dante’s. Sitting across from the fire, his cold blue pools of ice completely frozen upon Kahi. He could not discern a single emotion from the captain’s stoic stare. Quickly dropping his gaze to the dirt below, Kahi rolled over. Closing his restless eyes as he tried fruitlessly to fall asleep once more.

Sleep eluded him for many days.

As they travelled farther and farther, Kahi began to get wrapped up in his own mind more and more. Colour was draining from around him. The green of the forest and blue of the sky became sickly shades of grey. A deep sadness wrapping him in its suffocating embrace as his mind worked overtime to detach him from reality. Running as far as he could. Or was he just searching? Desperately trying to see that decay one more time. Perhaps to prove its existence? Not even he knew anymore.

Kenu struggled. Her hands constantly twitched, and eyes flickered across the horizon. She was a cornered beast, hungry and desperate. Ready to strike, but never getting the chance to.

From the beginning of their ruthless journey, she would often catch Kahi’s eye and put on a brave smile for him. But as the days stretched so did her smile, until it barely curled her lips. Instead tears often took their place as she looked into the sad eyes of her gentle brother. Soon, Kahi’s gaze began to intentionally wander away from hers.

Marching in front of the men for days on end. Barely taking breaks, and when they did everyone sat in cold silence. Days flew by, the horizons all blurring together. They were well and truly lost.

Until one fateful night. Where the wind whistled quietly, and the birds chirped ever so softly.

The sun dipped below the horizon leaving the forest leaves wanting and thirsting for light. Shadows cascaded across the green leaves, turning the emerald shades into the dark sapphire of the night. Just as the beasts of the day settle for the long dark ahead, the predators of the night awaken, ready for their hunt.

Night stretches on for an eternity to those who cannot hear the whispers of the forest. Carried on the back of the wind are sounds and smells that tell a story of the darkness. A wolf crouches low in a bush. A deer grazes quietly in the moonlight. An owl flickers between branches. But if someone were to listen long and hard enough, they would hear the cries of night, screaming to the heavens of the bloodshed to come on the morrow.