Clear skies stretched north for as far as the eyes could see. To the south, the cloudy Tainted skies of Katoki loomed. But that was not a problem for him. No. Not for Joashden Stalewaver. He was across Leviathan's Helm, living happily in a ridge-top hut in Titan's Valley. He liked the life. It was simple. Unassuming. And the only thing he needed was a hot-air balloon to go into town for provisions every other week and a hoe for his quaint farm. He lucked out, not having been called for the rebellion, and even more so to have avoided the war with the dark elves.

As he lugged the last of his gear into the balloon, the sound of footsteps pattered up to him, and he turned just in time to a be tackled with a hug by the girl no taller than his stomach.

“Are you leaving, dad?”

Josh smiled, ruffling her short brunette hair, taken after him, with green eyes after her mother. A bubbly face of girls her age and a pendant around her neck over a light-brown dress.

He replied, “I'll be back soon. Just going into town to get a few things for dinner. Be a good girl for mommy, okay?”

“Okay!” She hopped and he lifted her up for her weekly kiss to the cheek before gently lowering her to the ground. “Take care, daddy. I love you!”

He got down to his knees and hugged her. “I love you too.” Josh gave one final kiss to her forehead before turning around and climbing into his balloon.

Propellers revved, burner lit, the balloon slowly floated away as the girl waved goodbye from the ground below. He waved back and turned to look at the clouding sky. Rain was coming, but if he hurried, he should make it back home before the pour starts.

Should.

***

The abandoned hut of stone and cement was not the most comfortable of rooms. But on The Walking Path, it was a grand hotel to even have a roof over their head. The southern corner of the ceiling had collapsed over the empty bed frame, but the roof stayed intact enough to keep out the Taint. They slept on the floor of what used to be a kitchen, having managed to start a gentle fire in the firewood left over in the the bare stove, another unexpected luxury.

Josh's stirring was slow. Waking up had taken exponentially longer as he aged, and it was entirely possible he had aged more over the past twelve years than most people did in their lifetime. A decade of crash landings, long, dangerous treks, and battling giant Titans had taken its toll. He did his best to hide it, preferring to use his smarts and wits to weapons and force. Preferring to reactivate a broken giant to fight another giant for him.

Luce, who sat opposite the room, also on the floor, voiced sarcastically, “Good morning.” Jacques slept deeply in her lap, a soft snore carried through the room.

Josh rubbed his eyes opened and after getting the after-image of the bright valley sky out of his mind, asked, “Aren't you supposed to be resting?”

“Aren't you supposed to be on sentry duty?”

He took a breath to answer, but found her logic impregnable. “Well played,” he replied instead. He slowly got to his feet, stretching his arms as he did so, the cracks of his aged bones ringing out through the room.

Luce made a face. “That's disgusting.”

Josh continued to like how straightforward the girl was. Even when being insulting, she did not hide her opinions, which was a rare trait in a world where lying was the best way to get ahead.

He chuckled and replied, “That is called getting old. And one day, you'll get it too.”

“Ugh...” she made another face and subconsciously started stroking Jacques's hair. She started to look around the primitive house. “Stone hut. Wood stoves. How did we lose to such a backwards country?”

He replied almost instantly, “Seracue doesn't have much ores, but they do have a lot more terramancers than we do. Triple our electromancers, in fact.” His voice was almost robotic in reply. He had explained this countless of times before. In his dozen of years as a Guide, whenever someone first sees a Seracuen structure, this was one of the first questions they'd ask. “Metals are rare here, but they have plenty of mine-able stones and movable dirt, so they produce golems faster than we can make mechs to fight them. Which is why our mechs are so much smaller than their golems, and why we have retrieval teams like Shou's and Arnold's. Seracue is a swarm of brute force. Quality versus quantity.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Wow...” she mused. “You're like a teacher.”

He gave a laugh. “I have experience I guess.” He walked to the rubble of the collapsed ceiling.

“Kids?”

“Just the daughter.” He peaked through the gaps of the fallen beam and debris.

“And you're leaving her behind?” She asked really hard questions. He did not know if he liked that.

Within the debris, he managed to salvage a stool. Gently pulling it out to make sure it did not collapse the building further, he plunked down the sitting against the wall, stretching his legs as he did so. He wondered why humans could not just age as well as elves or drakins.

He began, “I'm not from Dogon.” Luce opened her mouth to speak but he cut in before she could. “And I'm not Seracuen either.”

Luce eyed him questioningly. Slowly though, her stare widened, and her eyes opened in realization. “You're from across the Helm...” Somehow, she still managed to continue stroking Jacques's hair despite the shock. It might have been a therapeutic action, feeling the touch of the ones you loved. Josh wished he had his family there with him to try and prove that theory.

Josh smiled at her before looking down to his muddied boots. “Do you know why we don't put propellers or engines on gliders?” He leaned back against the wall, head on the stone, digging into the headache that had suddenly appeared. He massaged it with the sharp rock. “It's because once any kind of propulsion machine reaches the atmosphere, it sucks in all the Taint, damaging them within minutes. And in less than half an hour, you'd crash. Found that out the hard way.” He tried not to think about that night. The storm that caught him or the gust that blew him off course and south to Katoki.

His throat suddenly felt dry. He wanted to walk over to his pack to grab a sip of water, but his legs turned to jelly. Instead, he just sat there, wishing he was back at Ander'z with a cold cup of whiskey. Thankfully, his wish to go home to his daughter was stronger than his want to drown his misery in alcohol, or he might have just told the two girls to 'screw it' and walked back to Dogon on his own.

Looking to turn away from the depressing subject, he asked Luce, “What about you? A Titan Hunter who doesn't want to kill Titans? The army must love you.”

For the first time, he heard her laugh. It was a soft, gentle, almost royally elegant chuckle. He liked how refined the girl was sometimes and wondered if, in a more peaceful world, would she have lived a life in a royal court.

She replied, “Oh, they do. They call me 'The Renegade'.”

Half asleep, Jacques mumbled, “No they don't.” Luce nonchalantly pulled at her hair. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Okay! I'm sorry. I'm awake!” Jacques pushed herself away, rolling onto her back before sitting up. She shot Luce an angry glare and declared, “Sadist.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” Luce looked away and pouted, holding back a grin. “I just played with your hair, that's all.”

He could not help but smile as they argued. It reminded him of his wife and the early days of their courtship. Finally feeling strength in his legs again, he got to his feet, his back creaking as he did. “Ugh...” he voiced the discomfort. “Forty eight years.”

Jacques turned her attention away from Luce and to him. “What did you say?”

“My age. I'm forty eight this year. Getting too old for this shit.”

Luce directed, “Don't collapse on us, old man.”

“I'm not that old.” He took out his mask from within his coat and put it on. He made a move for the door. “I'm going to check the surroundings. Once I see we're clear, we move out, so get ready.”

Sarcastically, Luce replied, “Fine, dad.”

He stopped short of the knob. The words rang like echoes in a cave. He found himself smiling behind his mask and, with a deep breath, turned the knob and swung the door opened. Quickly closing the door behind him, he stepped out into the short night, a cool breeze ploughing through the desolate landscape. East Ampyre laid far to the west, small flickering lights shining from the foot of Central Ampyre. The main city sat atop the jagged mountain, large stone towers jutted out across the landscape while smaller houses built into the mountain littered its sides with light like stars.

What do stars look like? It had been so long since he had seen clear skies. He looked north and the Tainted air stretched thinner as the distance went on, fading into clouds. The waters of Leviathan's Helm was just half a day's walk away, but the shear cliff face that they would have to climb towered in the horizon, cutting off the view of the valley beyond. Above that cliff was the Valley of Titans. The Continent of Eltar. Clear skies and breathable air.

“Home...”