Once Father started fleeing across the grass plains, he didn’t stop once to look back. Still, I did my best to use Sneaky-Beaky Lookie and Scoutie and Adaptative Understanding of Domain to remain as hidden as I could. All the while relying upon School of Hard Knock's Toughness and Beloved Blacksheep Solider to keep me moving forward at a decent rate of speed without needing to stop for food or water during the day.

The sun rose high in the sky and started dropping, yet Father still kept on fleeing and I kept on hunting him. Those fluffy clouds also disappeared, leaving the vast, vivid blue sky devoid of anything to mar its beauty.

Throughout the day I kept an eye on how the grasslands changed not only in distance but in time as well. More animals were up and around during the height of the sun as it warmed the ground up. Birds were more active. There were two main types, I noticed; larger ones which hunted and often dived into the tall grass to catch rodents, as well as the smaller ones which hunted for grains or smaller insects.

Where once I saw the grasslands as almost devoid of life, I realised they were in fact teeming with life. It wasn’t limited to animals or birds either. There were many different types of grass, and each reacted differently to the world around them.

As evening fell, and the light of day fell into the crimson dusk of evening, different animals came out. This time, they were larger animals than the ubiquitous rodents of the daytime. Still, none of them seemed as large as the animals I expected to see. They were all around the size of small dogs or large cats at their largest.

Most of the animals were solitary ones. A few were inquisitive and followed me for a while before they either lost interest or I left their territory.

As the sun faded below the horizon, the sky grew darker and colder. Even relying upon my overtaxed School of Hard Knock's Toughness I got worn down and felt the chill of the night. In the distance, I saw a faint ring of light from the same direction that Father had gone. Unlike the clear rimmed hollow from before, this one had a bush growing at the rim. A perfect place to which sneak up upon him from. Such a perfect place that I knew it would be wrong to do so.

I allowed my body a moment of rest. It really was getting cold out here. My Brother had warned me of this, and we had packed for colder nights, but I really didn’t truly understand just how cold it would get. For a moment I allowed myself stillness to understand the world of the grass plains at night.

There was a different smell at night: the plains still smelt fresh and pure as always, but there was a difference I couldn’t quite fathom. The brightness of the stars as they shone down upon the world was expansive and majestic. And more than ever, I wanted to just lay down and stare up at them, remembering both Silver Moon and the beauty of Whirling Cloud’s starry eyes.

This wasn’t the time for that, though.

I still had a target to hunt, one who had foolishly thought they had gotten away.

Large hunting birds flew silently across the sky. Their passage marked only by the stars they hid as they glided silently on the hunt for their prey. Small, quiet bark-like noises faded into the background of wind-rustled grass. As did the distinctive faint crackling of a fire burning slightly green wood.

Doing my best to fade into the background, I made my way slowly, quietly, carefully towards my Father’s campfire. After edging up to the rim, millimeter by painful millimeter, at an obtuse angle away from the bush, I finally caught my first glimpse of my prey for the first time since midafternoon. I was almost fully behind him. He was facing the bush at an angle to keep it in his view, but at the same time not to be directly across from it. I had made a good choice of where to climb up to the rim of the hollow.

From the way his head was drooping, and the way he had left his rucksack unpacked next to him, ready to grab. He either was too tired to unpack the camp fully, or was taking a brief break before he made his next leg of his trip.

Though it might be nice to play chase with him some more, my body was cold, stiff, and tired. I just wanted the chase to be at an end, to warm up, get something to eat and drink. And maybe get some sleep, if I could trust Father not to escape, a series of naps if I couldn’t.

So with overly great care, leaning heavily upon Sneaky-Beaky Lookie and Scoutie, Adaptative Understanding of Domain, and School of Hard Knock's Toughness to stop me from making any mistakes, I stood up slowly and made my way down into the hollow. Maybe it was overkill, as I was sure Sneaky-Beaky Lookie and Scoutie hinted that he had fallen asleep during my careful journey into the hollow. Never once looking at him, but always past him, at the fading fire in the firepit.

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But I knew, better than anyone, how oddness in the surroundings could wake someone up from even the deepest of sleep if they were wary when they went to sleep. And I was sure Father was wary.

So I did my best to not give anything away on my way down.

I was so successful I sat on the floor next to him. Even with that, he still didn’t wake. Using the light of the dying fire, I could tell the years had both been kind and harsh to him. He was still that strong, solid figure I remembered. But his face, which had previously aged well, was now lined with deep set winkles and tanned in a way which no self-respecting citizen of Heartlands would ever allow.

‘It looks like news of your death was premature, Father.’ I said, speaking towards the campfire. Using Sneaky-Beaky Lookie and Scoutie to keep an eye on him without looking at him.

His head shot up and he reached for a knife he had kept on his belt.

I made no move to draw mine.

‘I told you I had died, so that you would live your life as the next head of Fastidious House. I never once wanted you to chase after me.’ So he didn’t realise I was People’s Defender and not my Brother.

‘That maybe so, Father, but why did you remain so close to our lands?’

‘I wanted to. I wanted to flee far away. But in doing so, I realised I wasn’t as able to forget my heritage as I had thought, or hoped, was possible. Also, I wanted to remain near here in case Fire-Kite came back for me. I love her so much. Just the thought of being with her kept me going through those dark days following your Brother’s exile to Outer Heart.

‘Hearing her tell me she was married, that we could never be together, broke me. In that moment I said things I should never had said. Even so, I am glad you’re the heir. I’ve seen how the settlement around Fastidious House has grown. For that, son, I’m proud of you.’

He stopped talking, looking instead at the fire burning itself out. I remained quiet, too.

‘My only regrets I have are related to your Brother. My main regret was that I could never find a way to bring your brother back home from Outer Heart. Nor could I bring myself to either write to him or journey to see him. To see what kind of man being forced to live as a Tier Three made him.

‘I am sure that he’s still a kind person, that is clear from the reports I used to receive. But does he hate me for not doing more to protect him back then? Was there anything I could do, beyond what I did, to protect him? I’m so worried that he hates me, hates you, hates anything to do with Fastidious House and the Heartlands as a whole.’

With the embers of the dying fire, I saw his eyes well up with tears, then wet streaks ran down his face. His breathing grew ragged. He broke into deep sobs. I remained in silence as he sobbed in the night.

His sobs died away as the fire grew to being bright embers. ‘You would’ve thought that I had gotten all of my tears out of me over the years of wandering these lands. But I did your brother ill, and no matter what I did after the fact could ever repay me for that moment of weakness when I discovered he was, as the Oracle had said years before, a Three Trait.

‘I had years to accept the fact that he would be an unfairly created Three Trait. When the news came, I still froze and fell back upon and said words which no man should ever say about his child.

‘I just hope that he would forgive me for that momentary weakness.’

Momentary weaknesses, I knew them well, and knew they could change an entire family’s direction. That momentary weakness when my Earth father had that accident, which led to my Earth mother having to live in a wheelchair.

After that, years and years of bad blood between them and even older bad blood, exasperated by the accident, led to a feud between branches of our family. A situation I did my best to escape from when I was old enough to.

And I too had moments of momentary weaknesses, both in this life and my previous one. The greatest was that momentary thought of escape into the Fissure which led to the death of Silver Moon. Though those eyes no longer haunted me, they had haunted me for far too long. All because of that single momentary desire for escape and freedom.

There wasn’t anything else I could say, but a heartfelt. ‘I forgive you, Father.’

He looked up from the fire, and at me for the first time. For a moment, his face blanked, and then he threw his arms around me, sobbing once again. All the while muttering almost incomprehensible words and apologies.

Amidst the incomprehensible mutterings, I heard something which shrouded the deepest depths of my soul with dark despair.