Elliot and the old man were walking through the snow, it had been quite a while since Elliot had the chance to venture out somewhere. Most of the time the old man would go on his own because on the roads there was a chance of meeting a monster or just some greedy scavenger and he didn't want to place Elliot in any kind of danger.

But this time for some reason he took Elliot with him, but he didn’t say where they were going. Elliot was a little bit confused because the old man already sold most of his findings a few weeks ago, which meant that the reason for their venture this time was different than usual.

Walking through the snow for long distances was still hard on Elliot so the old man was pulling him on a sled with blankets, a bag with food, and everyday items.

The wind was cold but the snow wasn’t falling anymore as it didn’t fall for over a period of almost two months, but even though such a long time passed the temperature still didn’t rise.

Time slowly passed and the sky got dimmer and dimmer. A whole day had passed and Elliot and the old man still didn’t come to their destination so they had to camp in the wild. They found a huge thick tree that grew near a mountain that was partly rooted out, its roots created a great cover from the elements.

Elliot was lighting a fire under it while the old man was searching for more wood and if lucky for some food. After a few tries sparks flew out from the flint that Elliot used to hit a small stone and a small flame could be seen forming on a small piece of paper that he prepared beforehand.

The piece of paper was from one of his journals, but most of its contents were already memories by Elliot or not important, so he didn’t mind using it as a good way to light up a fire.

A rustle came from one of the bushes and Elliot jumped up in fright. His hand instinctively went to his waist where now a small knife could be seen in an old leathery sheath, by the looks of it the last accident made him a lot more cautious.

A figure started to walk towards Elliot, “It’s me and I got something great for us.” Said the old man while smiling, he pulled out a dead rabbit from his waist and tossed it to Elliot.

Elliot caught the rabbit and looked at it for a few seconds before he started to prepare it for a meal. At first, he removed the organs, and then he started to skin the rabbit, meanwhile, the old fool was adding more fuel to the fire and giving Elliot some glances once in a while to check if he was doing alright.

After finishing removing the rabbit's organs, skinning its pelt, and cutting off its head and paws, Elliot started to cook the rabbit's back legs while leaving most of the other meat for later, but of course, not before adding some of his personal species onto it. Not even a few minutes passed and a great aroma already surrounded the duo and drool began to accumulate in their mouths.

More than two months passed from the last time they tasted meat so they wanted to devour their meal in just a few bites, but they had to control themselves and eat it slowly while doing their best to memorize those precious moments.

After finishing their meal they took the big blanket from the pelt that was on the sled and used it as a bed, afterwards they slept in shifts while one was resting while the other had to look after the fire and their surroundings.

A few more days passed like that as they walked through the forest, but sadly they hadn’t been so lucky to secure some precious food like the rabbit, just a few roots and berries at best.

One day though when the sun was still setting and something happened, when Elliot was looking around the camp that they just opened a few moments ago he suddenly went further away from it than usual in a random direction and before long he was standing in front of a corpse of an unfortunate traveler.

You would expect a child to scream in fear when seeing someone's cold dead body laying there motionless in front of them but Elliot was different. Not only that he didn’t release a cry or a screech, but he also didn't even panic. He just slowly came closer to the corpse and examined it from top to bottom and then as if nothing happened, he stood up and started to walk back to the camp.

Elliot only took three steps before immediately looking back at the corpse with a weird look in his eyes, he could swear that he heard a voice. It was weak and it was just for a brief moment and sounded more like a wind blowing but he still could swear that he heard it.

After standing there for a minute he chose to pretend it was just the echoes of the forest and didn’t place it into his mind, as soon as he arrived at the camp he immediately told the old man about the corpse.

A weird light could be seen in the eyes of the old man as he told Elliot to show him the way. The old man wasn’t surprised by Elliot's findings, he even expected that to happen but not so soon, because it wasn’t Elliot's first time finding a deceased person and he was sure it wouldn't be his last.

The first time it happened was when Elliot was just four years old, it was summer and they went to collect some berries. As they ventured deeper into the forest Elliot started to pull the pans of the old man as if he wanted to show him something even though he hadn't left his side. The old man didn’t think a lot about it and went after Elliot, there they found a collapsed man that was evidently not breathing.

Until now Elliot found more than five dead people, some of them had died recently and some were ancient, but one of them was still breathing as he died in the hands of the old man while he tried to save their life.

After thinking for a moment the old man went through the man's belongings to find just a few copper coins and a small pouch, the old man wasn’t sure from what the person died but by the looks of it, he died from the cold or starvation.

While doing that Elliot already has started to dig up a grave for the deceased, for some reason the old man thought that Elliot will be a professional dig graver in the future. Was it the posture or the cold emotionless face that Elliot had? He had no clue, but the old man didn’t give it too much thought and came to help Elliot with the grave.

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“No need for that Elliot, I will do it.” The old man took the crude wooden shovel from his hands, in the end, Elliot was only a child and he didn’t want him to walk in his steps or be anywhere close to corpses, but deep inside for some reason he felt that Elliot will see many more corpses in his life that he himself would ever be able to.

After finishing the grave the old man gave a small prayer to the deceased and went back to the camp with Elliot in tow, they ate in silence and after resting for the night they woke up early in the morning to continue their journey as if nothing happened.

At last, after walking for more than five days they arrived at their destination, it was a small village with the name of Athela. A small village that barely had a population of thirty people. Actually, it couldn't even be called a village anymore, maybe in the past but now it could barely be called a hamlet.

The village was surrounded by a short wooden wall that had many signs of decay and even collapsed in many places, by the looks of it no one maintained it for a really long time. The old man and Elliot followed the barely visible road into the village, they went through the broken gates, and just as they entered they heard an old grumpy voice sound from their right, “Halt who goes there.”

A spear stopped not so far from the old man’s face, “Nice to see you too Marmorn.” The old man said as he stopped pulling the sled.

“Old fool is that you? I never expected you to come here at this time of the year.” An elderly person said while holding a spear at the old man’s throat with only one hand because the other hand was completely missing.

His gaze moved to Elliot who was standing near the old man, “Oh if my guess is correct that would be Elliot, hmm he looks exactly as you described him. Are you coming to see Will? If so, remind him that next week his guarding shift begins.” Said Marmorn as he lowered the spear and let the duo pass.

“Will do.” Nodded the old man and continued walking forward into the village, Elliot was walking just a few steps behind. This was the first time Elliot was in a village so he looked around almost obsessively trying to inscribe every part of it into his mind, from the houses to the people and even the stones. But he was a little bit disappointed there were barely any people in the village at all, just a few elderly and kids that couldn't even hold a spoon.

“War.” Said the old man and paused, “War took all of the young men of this village and it didn’t even spare the woman, Marmorn out there is the only one left capable of protecting this place well I guess there Will as well.” He sighed as he continued walking forward.

They continued walking through the village until they approached a big church. The old man knocked a few times at the large door, but nobody answered or opened it.

He could only sigh again as he tried to open it up with force but found out that it was shut tight. He looked at Elliot and said before leaving, “Stay here I go check if the stupid priest went to the graveyard.”

Not two minutes passed as the door to the church creaked open a little bit and a weird-looking priest with short gray hair and with circular glasses looked at him from the crack.

“Go away kid, we have no food to spare.” He said as he looked at Elliot from head to toe.

“I don’t need food. I came here with eem… Grandpa, other people call him old fool...” Elliot still couldn’t call his grandpa by his nickname, he didn’t even know where he got it but he never wanted to call him like that because he never thought of his grandfather as a fool no matter what anyone else said.

But at the same time, he never knew what he was really called, every time he asked him he would get the same answer, “I am just an old fool nothing more nothing else.”

“Oh really...” The priest continued to stand there for a while like a statue in front of the door, while not even blinking it made Elliot feel really uncomfortable, but then suddenly a smile cracked on his face. “Then why haven’t you said so early come in, come in.”

Elliot was taken aback a little bit, because of the priest's weird behavior, but he still followed him inside because he trusted that his grandfather would never take him to a dangerous place in the first place.

“The old fool most likely went to the graveyard to look for me, that idiot I wasn’t there for months, but don’t worry he will join us soon.” Elliot looked around as he walked into the church, it was quite big by his calculation, you would be able to gather more than two hundred people inside it and there would be some more space for a few more to stand.

But the weird part was that most of the church looked neglected, chairs and benches were scattered on the floor, small dust piles were on the shelves, and books were scattered everywhere. It gave him a feeling as if a storm went through the interior of the church throwing everything to the ground except for one area that was located in front of the empty wall.

The wall was suspiciously cleaner than everything else in the church as if something big was there recently but in its place now there was just an old table and a few chairs around it.

It didn’t take Elliot a lot of time to understand what was located there in the past as it was the altar of the church. A weird feeling about the priest popped into his mind, “Did the priest go completely crazy or was he a bandit in disguise?”, Instinctively Elliot looked at the main door to see if the door was still open in case he needed to escape but he found it tightly shut.

“Sit, I will get us some tea.” Said the weird priest as he went to one of the corners of the hall where a small kettle was placed on a small lit campfire and even from afar Elliot could swear that what was burning under it were bible pages.

The priest brought the kettle and a few beautiful cups for the tea, then he placed one for Elliot and one for himself. He didn’t forget to place one for the old man and for some reason he added another one for god knows who. The priest poured some tea into Elliot's cup and said with a big smile, “Enjoy.”

Elliot looked at the cup, the aroma was quite good, but he couldn’t help but look at the priest's empty cup.

“Ah what a fool, I completely forgot to pour myself some tea as well.” The priest tapped himself on the forehead with his hand and poured a little bit of tea into his cup barely enough to fill even a third of it, then with one motion he pulled out a flask from inside of his garment and poured its contents into the cup of tea until the cup was full to the brim.

In Elliot's eyes, the suspicion grew only stronger as a strong smell of alcohol struck his nose, so he didn't dare to take the cup and drink its contents.

“Man the old fool really takes his time, it's most likely that he is digging a grave for himself. Ha ha ha!” He laughed and gave Elliot a big look as if trying to see any emotion out of his expression, but to his disappointment, Elliot continued to stare at him with a deadpan face.

“Ah don’t worry I was joking I am sure he just wants you to meet someone.” The priest took another sip of his mysterious tea after finishing that sentence.

“Well while we are sitting here doing nothing do you want me to tell an interesting story?” The priest cracked another smile.

Elliot opened his mouth but no words came out he would rather go and look for his grandpa but being only a child he didn’t really know how to say no, so he nodded his head.

“Good good, let's see where should I start…” The priest's eyes drifted to the ceiling as he started to remember something from the past.