“What did you get?” I stepped into Fort Intrepid, reluctantly escaping the warm autumn sun.

“Not much,” Graze said, pulling things from his bag. “Half a loaf of bread and another blanket.”

“No shoes?”

He shook his head. My eyes fell back to my new makeshift shoes, more like thick socks. Mom had made them from torn blankets, and I had to remove them every time I ran, climbed, or even walked over damp grass. Still, this time at least, they were better than nothing. But with winter on the horizon… Let’s just say I wasn’t eager to experience a shoeless winter. Hard to believe more than half a year had gone by… and I still didn’t have proper shoes.

“You?” I think he said as he shoved bread in his mouth.

I smiled knowingly and unwrapped my treasure. Graze’s eyes widened as if trying to escape their sockets.

“No way!” he said, the bread left unchewed in his open mouth.

“I did.”

He spat out the bread and picked up the sword.

“Be careful. It’s super sharp.”

“Lud, are you mad? Won’t they be looking for this?”

“Probably,” I said. “Does not mean they will find it.”

“Thought it’d be heavier,” he said, swinging and thrusting it, as careful as any boy our age could be. “Where did you get it?”

“From the armory. The guard was sleeping on his post, so I just sneaked in. Not that great of a feat if you think about it.”

Graze was amazed, his finger sliding down the blade until his eyes fell on the braided blue leather of the hilt.

We went through our inventory: four blankets, three pillows, two ceramic plates, a dwindling half loaf of bread, a jar of pickled green carrots that, no matter how hungry Graze got, remained unopened, two large shirts, at least twenty good sticks, half a shield, three forks, two rusty spoons, and one Alturin sword.

“Do you think you can get a helm?”

“I do not know. They have plenty of swords but not so many helms. Not all soldiers wear them. I was actually searching for a bow. Maybe we could try our luck with hunting.”

Graze’s hands flew to his belly. “Don’t talk about food. I’m starving.” He picked up the loaf of bread and bit directly into it.

“I did not talk about food. I talked about game.”

He frowned at me. “We should get back,” he said, mouth still full. “Lunch will be served soon. Maybe there’ll be meat today.”

“When we come back later, do you want to visit that rock formation that looks a little like giant eggs?” I asked as we walked back to climb the fence.

He glanced over his shoulders at the barely visible formation of stones further east. “It looks pretty far.”

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“More the reason to do so.”

Graze pursed his lips. “Alright, after lun—”

A flash shone brighter than the sun. We looked toward the city as a trail of lightning faded away. A second later, the ground trembled. We surveyed the sky, heads turning and wobbling, but apart from a fleeing bird, the sky seemed utterly empty. Not a single cloud to be seen. We broke into a sprint as I clumsily kicked off my shoes.

“What was that?” I said, heart racing like a drum as we reached the camp’s fence.

“Bastard’s bother. Did you hear how loud it was?”

“No. Well, sort of. I felt it.”

“It scared the life out of me.”

“You are paler than snow; you know that?”

“Me? What about you? I can almost see through you.”

We laughed, patting each other’s backs for making it out alive.

“Well, now I’m even hungrier,” Graze said and took to climbing.

“Still… after lunch?”

“After lunch!”

On my way, I found a rather annoyed-looking face staring right at me.

“You there,” the face said. “I know you’ve been sneaking around. I have seen you, you and all the other brats. Always up to something.”

I lay perfectly still, like he wouldn’t see me if I didn’t move.

“I’m talking to you. A sword went missing tonight. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would you?” He stepped closer to me. He was the man who’d been sleeping at his post when I took the sword.

I made my best I-don’t-know-what-you-are-talking-about look. How was I going to escape this one? “Sorry?” I said. “Could you repeat that?”

The man produced a rather distasteful expression, like he had tasted something profoundly foul. “You’re the deaf kid. Bastard’s bother. Get on with you.”

I didn’t know why having a disability aided my innocence, but I wasn’t going to contest him. I found Mom waiting in the mess hall with two plates of food. She had gotten thinner, clothes hanging loose as if they belonged to someone else.

I sat next to her, and she slid a plate in front of me. “Mom,” I said, noticing how much more food I had on my plate. “Here, have some of mine.”

She smiled tenderly, a hand coming over my shoulders. “I already ate, honey. This is extra, so you do not have to eat alone.”

I returned the smile. “They were coming with vacancies today, weren’t they?”

“Yes, but they already have enough housemaids and cooks.” She drew a shuddering breath. “I am not worried. I’ll find something soon. We only need to be patient.”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

She tousled my hair. “It comes as you grow, and you have to be patient for that, too.”

“Did you see the lightning?” I asked, but her eyes were already distant.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

“The lightning.”

“Oh, yes. Odd, wasn’t it?”

I nodded and filled my mouth. Graze would be happy. There were at least two pieces of meat on my plate. I ate eagerly, and as soon as I finished, I was on my way, ready for another afternoon adventure.

But Graze did not show up. I grew restless. Had something happened? I headed to his tent and found him talking with his father. His father looked at me, and even though I did not know him personally, I saw deep relief in his eyes. He patted his son’s shoulders and pointed at me.

Graze approached as if afraid to spook me. “Hey, Lud,” he said, hands locked behind his back. “I can’t go today.”

“That is alright. We’ll go another time. It is not like we’re going anywhere.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing,” Graze rubbed his cheeks with both hands. “Dad found a job. We are leaving within the hour.”

The world spun around me like the ground was torn apart from under my feet again. How could this be? I finally had a friend, and now I had to watch him go. I gritted my teeth. “I don’t know what to say. I—I—” I began to stammer.

Graze hugged me, and I returned the hug.

When he let go, I managed to squeak, “I’m going to miss you.”

“We’ll meet again. I know we will.”

“Where are you moving to?”

“I don’t know. Dad is quiet about it. Just that he found a job and we have to leave now. Guess you were right. Pottery is a skilled job.”

“Perhaps you’ll become a potter too.”

“But it’s so boring. Let’s not get too hopeful on that front. Take care of our fort for me, will you?”

I nodded.

“I gotta pack now.”

I didn’t want to linger there any longer, afraid I might start crying and ruin our goodbye. “Yes, of course. Bye, Graze.”

I wandered for a while, not knowing what to do with myself. I should have gone back to Mom. But instead, I followed as planned, climbed the fence, and roamed the flatland, one mindless step after another.