It was the beginning of the afternoon when Elliot woke up, he jumped in fright as he looked at his grandfather's bed. The old man was breathing heavily, it looked like the fever returned once more.

Elliot placed a new wet towel on his head and ran to make another cup of herbal tea, but before he could he was stopped by a weak pull from behind.

He looked behind to find a weak hand was holding his sleeve, his grandfather was awake and looking at him with tired eyes.

The old man opened his mouth and spoke with a slow and frail voice. “Elliot I need you to get some help, I need you to go to the village we last visited and to bring priest Will to me.”

Elliot's face changed color to white and he even took a step backwards. “No, no you still can make it!”

“Haha, what got you so scared? Have you forgotten the priests are mostly healers and not only grave keepers. Bring him to me, let him heal me.”

“No you can barely move, you won’t be able to take care of yourself.” Elliot slowly shook his head once more.

“I will be fine, just leave me some water, tea, and a little bit of food near the bed.” The old man used all of his strength to raise his body to sit on the bedside and only from that, he already started to breathe heavily, as if he went out for a jog.

“See, I will be fine.” He said as his eyes were going in and out of focus.

“No, I won't leave you alone!” Elliot objected.

It took the old man by surprise. He never saw Elliot be so persistent, but he wouldn’t blame him, he would be concerned to leave him alone as well if the situation was reversed.

“Elliot, as you can see, what I have is not a common cold. If I don’t get any help soon I don’t think I will make it, you need to understand Elliot only you can save me by bringing the priest here. *Cough* *cough* *inhale* Do you understand?” The old man mumbled through his words with a barely hearable voice.

Elliot opened his mouth for a moment, looked down, looked at the door, thought to himself for another, and then he clenched his fists and nodded.

“Good… Good...” The old man fell onto the bed with a thud, he used all of his strength just to have this conversation while sitting.

“I'm going to bring you some herbal tea.” Elliot placed a wet towel on the old man's head before going to the kitchen to prepare more tea, the old man only gave him a small nod before snoozing off once more.

Elliot woke his grandfather to give him his tea but he was barely conscious, only drinking what was given to him without making any other sounds except coughing here and there.

Elliot looked at him with concern in his eyes but in the same eyes, you could see some determination, not taking another moment to rest he stood up and went outside.

Elliot picked up all the edible herbs, roots, and winter berries that he had sacrificed blood, sweat, and tears to plant. Not even letting off the stems of some plants that would barely be digestible, killing all of them in the process.

He went back to the shack and started to stew two portions of soup, one for himself and another for his grandfather, sadly he hadn’t got a spare cooking pot so he used a tea kettle for his portion.

From the smell alone you could tell that one of the soups had better ingredients than the other, in his portion he used all of the barely edible plants and roots while leaving the most nutritious ones for his grandfather, even adding all the meat he stored for a bad day.

After finishing cooking the stews he immediately devoured his portion while taking grandfather's portion to the table between the beds.

He slowly fed the old man, he was still in half a conscious state and most likely haven’t even realized that he was fed, but to Elliot's delight, the fever that attacked the old man got a little bit better and it gave him some hope.

Without much thought, he left the old man another bowl of soup on the table with some tea as he wore his fur coat and took the big sled off the wall. Elliot stopped at the doorway, looked at his grandfather, and said, “I'll be back soon.” As he left through the door.

...

Half an hour passed in a moment and the old man woke up. It was quite dim in the shack but some light still was shining through the small gaps in the walls and the ambers of the fireplace still gave out a gentle and warm glow.

The old man slowly pushed his body up to find a small pot, a bowl of soup, and some tea on the table.

“I guess he already left…” The old man sat there for a few moments before trying to move himself with his hands to the table, only to fall back onto the bed. He tried again to straighten himself up in front of the table while leaning on the wall.

He picked up the spoon that was on the table and started to eat the soup. “It's so tasty, shame it got a little bit cold. I always knew that Elliot had great talent in cooking.” He thought to himself.

*Drip* *drip* The old man moved two fingers on his everlasting smiling face, finding tears slowly falling down his cheeks. “How long was the last time I cried for anything except for my daughter…?”

He slowly smeared the tear between his fingers. ”I can’t remember.”

“I wish I could have at least said my last goodbye.” The eyes of the old man started slowly to close until they were completely shut. He had fallen asleep while he was still leaning on the wall.

***

A few hours passed and the old man started to wake up, as he did he felt the cold breeze blow over his face.

The old man opened his eyes and found his full view filled with bright shiny stars, and a big shattered moon was among them in the distance. It was a breathtaking scene, something he hadn't seen in a long time, he felt as if he was dreaming.

“Is this the afterlife? If it is, I wouldn't mind it…”

*Crunch* *crunch* *crunch*

As the old man was coming to himself he heard the sound of crushing snow. He looked up and saw a small but firm back pulling a sled forward into the unknown.

“Elliot, is that you?” With a shaking voice, the old man asked.

Elliot stopped walking forward, looked back, and said, “Oh you woke up grandpa, good it's almost time for you to drink more of the medical tea.”

The old man was flabbergasted as he looked at Elliot removing the sled straps from his back.

“Elliot where are we?” He asked, completely confused.

“We are on our way to the village to meet priest Will.” Elliot answered as he pulled a homemade thermos that was wrapped in leather straps from one of the bags.

“But… But you left already, why have you returned and even brought me along…” The old man spoke with a weak shaken voice, he was a bit shaken inside.

“I went to bring that.” Elliot pointed at the back rails of the sled where most of the bags were located, on them, there were some slim pieces of fresh meat hanging.

“From wher…” The old man wanted to ask but froze a second later as he saw a wolf pelt laying on his legs. Without a doubt it was freshly harvested, he even could still smell the stench of blood coming from it.

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“You unhurt?” Deep worry could be seen in the old man's eyes as he asked those words.

“I am fine, the wolf was dying from hunger and I just finished the job.”

The old man didn't really believe him but he could only nod and thank god that Elliot was safe. He thought about what to say, as he drank the herbal tea with Elliot's help.

The old man wanted to make Elliot leave him here and continue the journey without him, a week-long journey would be really hard for a six-year-old kid and even harder impossible with dead baggage like him.

“Elliot…” But just as the old man wanted to tell him that Elliot cut him off.

“I will not leave you…” Elliot took a small pause and continued.

“No matter what you say to me I won't leave you.” Elliot's eyes were completely serious. The old man was completely surprised and didn’t know what to say.

In the end, he understood that he wouldn't be able to change Elliot's mind and could only sigh in worry, but with it, a warm feeling filled his chest.

After finishing giving his grandfather the herbal tea Elliot wore the sled straps once more and continued to walk forward. It took a few seconds until the sled started to move as Elliot wasn’t strong enough to pull it from the get-go.

Every step Elliot took his foot would go down twenty centimeters under the snow, it made his movement a lot slower and harder. Not only that but the weight of the sled with all of its cargo was at least three times his own, there was no way for him to pull it up to a small hill, not even talk about a mountain.

Because of that Elliot had to take shortcuts every time he started to ascend, thankfully for him the area where the duo lived was in the mountains, so the way to the village was mostly descending, but it still didn’t make his life easier.

Days passed as Elliot walked forward taking short rests occasionally, moving his grandfather in front of a campfire to keep him warm. He slept only for an hour or two every day because he couldn't afford to sleep as his pace of walking was just too slow.

Elliot already crossed half the way to the village, he was exhausted but he still pushed himself to the extreme. One day as Elliot saw that his grandpa's condition was getting worse, the look in his eyes completely changed and suddenly he stopped resting at all.

Step after step Elliot was moving to his goal, his eyes were full of will but with a hidden tinge of sadness and fear, it's all because of Elliot's “gift”, it was acting up again.

A weak sensation of calling that was coming just from behind him, it was presented on all of this journey, but it was slowly getting stronger and stronger.

Time slowly passed and the old man continued to fall in and out of consciousness, his fever didn't want to resend anymore and his blood coughing got only worse.

Whenever he would wake up, Elliot would give him some herbal tea, meat, and dried roots. Two days passed like that and the old man started to find something strange, even though he fell asleep again and again he never saw Elliot stop to rest.

Only when cooking and making tea would he see him sit for a while, feed him, eat and continue to pull the sled onward once more.

“Elliot, we haven’t made a stop for a long time *Cough* *Cough*, are you alright?” The old man whispered worriedly but to his surprise, he didn’t get an answer even after waiting a few minutes.

“Elliot?” He asked again, but he still got nothing.

He tried to raise his body but found himself completely unable to move, even raising his hand was almost impossible, it wasn't surprising as his body was already wearing off.

It was already the norm for him to have the same high fever for all of the day, even with the help of herbal tea it wasn’t enough to change that.

But the old man didn’t give up, he mustered his strength and managed to raise his hand above his head to pull one of the sleds straps, as he did Elliot came to a complete stop and looked backwards, the old man's heart dropped as he saw his face.

Elliot was pale and his lips were blue in color, the blueish color was even present around his eyes as well. He slowly walked over to the sled and brought up a small pot, he filled it with snow and herbs then started to boil it under a small fire he made from dried leaves, after finishing boiling the tea he gave it to his grandfather.

“Elliot *Cough* you should rest...Sleep a little I will be fine… *Cough*” The old man mumbled after drinking his tea.

Elliot looked at him for a while and just shook his head.

“You don’t understand Elliot *cough*, you can’t go like this, you will perish *cough* and if you perish I will too, please rest a bit… Just for a little bit...” He looked at Elliot with begging eyes as if hoping that he would listen to reason, but Elliot shook his head once more and continued to pull the sled.

The old man continued to beg for Elliot to rest while he was awake and not falling out of consciousness, but it didn’t stop Elliot at all and just like that another day passed.

Elliot continued to walk but his pace completely slowed down, each step he took became harder and harder. He felt as if a small mountain was slowly crushing his body, even his mind was in shambles, he lost the count of time and he was barely able to stay focused on his task.

The old man's state slowly deteriorated, the strong fever returned and the blood coughing appeared more frequently. Elliot started to walk completely alone without hearing anyone's voice, slowly even he started to daze as he walked.

In the end, his small body couldn’t take it anymore and he fell to the ground breathing heavily, two completely different voices were talking to him inside his head.

“I need to rest…” A weak voice said.

“No you can’t if you do, we won't be able to save him.” Shouted another voice.

“Just for a second…”

“No, you can’t!” The louder voice was getting quiet.

“Just for a moment…”

“No… Please…” A small whisper sounded in his head.

Elliot closed his eyes and fell asleep, the cold snow was slowly cooling his boiling blood and soothing him to the world of dreams. Time slowly passed and it started to snow after not snowing for a long period of time as if it was a sign from god.

Elliot's dreams were weird and chaotic, fast moving pictures flew in front of his eyes, lots of people were shouting and screaming around. Loud noises that he couldn’t explain and in the end a bright light.

But then everything vanished and Elliot's mind became completely clear, someone was hugging him from behind and was whispering into his ear.

“You know if you give up now you will regret it forever.” A warm female voice sounded beside his ear.

“I won’t give up…” Elliot said as he opened his eyes and released a heavy breath of cold air, slowly standing up while shaking like a leaf in a windy night.

It took him a moment to come back to himself and shout, “Grandpa!”

He ran to the sled to find his grandfather not breathing, coughed blood was present all over his shirt.

The sensation of the calling of his gift couldn't be stronger, in panic he shook his grandfather again and again, and with a sigh of relief, he found that he was still breathing but just barely and to his surprise, he was even awake.

“Oh, Elliot *cough* you awake *cough* *cough* I tried to wake you up but couldn't *cough*, I am sorry.” His grandfather barely was able to make a sentence.

“No I am sorry we almost got to the village and I…” Clenching his hands and wearing the sled straps he started to pull with all of his strength.

Moving through the cold falling snow that started to fall stronger and stronger.

“Why now of all the times!” Elliot cursed as he continued to pull, he almost was there just a few more hours but it looked like even the weather was against him as snow continued to fall, making it impossible to get there in time.

But without losing hope he continued to pull stronger and stronger, his body starting to heat up as never before. After pulling for more than two hours Elliot started to recognize his surroundings and even seeing the village walls.

“Grandpa we are here! We are at the village!” Elliot shouted with delight, as he continued to pull the sled forward to the village gates.

“Good, Elliot I wanted to tell you this for a long long time, I am really proud of you being my grandson. I am sure you will achieve great things in your life greater than I was ever able to.” Elliot didn’t notice that the voice of the old man sounded too clear even in the strong blowing winds.

“We are almost there, save your strengths.” Elliot said.

Seeing the village gate and a guard sitting on a chair in front of it, trying to heat himself in front of a small fire.

“I am really happy that I found you, my grandson, take care…” Elliot found as tears started to fall down his face for some unexplained reason.

The guard saw Elliot coming and started to move towards him.

“Elliot, what are you doing here?!” Shouted priest Will because of the loud winds.

“Grandpa! Save grandpa!” Elliot shouted back.

Will ran to the sled and stopped just in front of it looking at the old man laying on it motionless.

“Save him please!” Begged Elliot while tugging Will’s pants.

“Ah, Elliot…I am sorry… but I can't, not anymore.”

“What?” Elliot's heart jumped.

“He already passed away…”

“No, it can't be… Just a moment ago, he…” Elliot mumbled as he came closer to the sled only to find his grandfather not breathing. His face had a bluish tint of the unliving, but even now a small gentle smile was across his face.

“No… He was… Just…” Elliot mumbled in panic and confusion.

His knees became weak and he started to fall, everything in front of him slowly became darker and darker until he couldn't see a thing before losing his consciousness.

Will sighted and picked Elliot and placed him on his shoulder, he came closer to the sled to look at the old man for another time.

“How long has it been since I saw you smile so genuinely… Well… Let's go, it's time for you to return to your daughter, old friend.” Will took the sled straps with his free hand and pulled the sled into the village.