Hera loved being in the woods, but she was tired of just walking every day and never being able to play. The strange bald man had told her his name was Burt, but not much else.

Still, Hera was smart, and she had figured out a lot of things on her own, which she was quite proud of. Burt had been teaching her another way to talk, which sounded funny to Hera, but it wasn’t too difficult. There were a lot of words that sounded the same as what she was used to, and Burt was funny to listen to when he tried to correct her.

On top of that, he had taught her a lot of things about the woods, such as how to move through them quietly, how to know where she was going so that she would never get lost, how to leave little marks here and there so that she could always find her way back, or follow Burt if she ever fell behind.

From all of that, as well as the mountains they were moving through, Hera knew that they were moving east, which meant that they were moving towards Farun.

From all of that, Hera had figured out for herself that Burt was from Farun, and he was taking Hera back there. If someone from Farun had been in the woods around Triple Fall, then Hera understood that he had to be part of the “invaders” she had heard the grown ups whispering about.

While the grown ups had always been careful about what they said when they noticed Hera or any of the other kids nearby, Hera had always been good at being quiet and staying out of the way. After Daddy had died, she had spent a lot of time around grown ups, and so she had been able to hear a lot of things that they had wanted to keep from her.

Hera knew that Daddy had gone to be with Ixel, and that he had done it himself. It was something called “atonement,” though no one had wanted to explain what that meant to Hera until she had asked Burt.

Grown ups were funny. Burt would tell Hera what different words meant and teach her things about the woods that other grown ups had said were too dangerous for a child, but Burt would not say anything about the war or soldiers.

The “invaders” were soldiers from Farun, and Burt had been near Hera’s home, which meant that Burt was definitely a soldier, even if he did not look or act like one. He looked like a skinny Mr. Tom, who had not had any home in Triple Falls and had instead slept in the streets or in the woods. The only difference was that Burt still took baths and did not stink, which Hera was happy about. Mr. Tom had always been smelly.

Hera wondered what had happened to her home, but Burt would never say anything at all whenever she asked. Still, even if Hera wanted to play, walking through the woods all day was still better than beng all alone in Triple Falls. At least some of what Burt taught Hera was fun.

She liked making traps and hunting animals, though she did not like trying to shoot the animals with the little bow Burt had made for her, or even worse, cleaning the animals for food. It was stinky and the blood always made a mess. Besides, the animals were cute, and Hera did not want to hurt them. Meat was tasty, but Hera would rather eat grass and some of the roots Burt had shown her than kill the cute animals.

They walked every day, always to the east. Burt would not talk during the day, and would only use hand motions to say anything, but when they were done walking for the day, Burt would then start Hera’s lessons, which were the best part of the day. Hera had to use the funny words that Burt wanted her to learn, but she still was able to learn how to make traps, and fire, and how to track animals or people through the woods. Those were all fun things to learn. Hera did not even need to learn more letters or writing, because she already knew more letters than Burt. She had always hated her lessons on letters with the priests.

Their writing was boring. Hera would have liked those lessons a lot better if there had been stories in them, instead of just stuff about Ixel and the temple. If Ixel was a god, why couldn’t he have adventures? Those would have been so much better to learn about.

***

Burt knew that he had made a mistake, taking the child away from the doomed village. He had become a deserter, which was a death sentence when the army found him. All that Burt knew was that after seeing so much death and destruction during the pointless war, he had felt the need to save the one pure and innocent thing that had approached him.

Burt had always turned a blind eye to what happened after a village was taken, though he had always kept track of who participated in those activities, and then made a point to never associate with them. Any of Burt’s scouts who took part had a tendency to be sent on the more dangerous missions, which eventually caught up to them and saw them become a casualty of war.

While Burt had not seen his nieces or nephews for years, and some of them he had never met, he still remembered growing up with his little sister and taking care of her after their parents had died. Elicia was the reason Burt had become a soldier, as even though he had only been a few years older, he knew the importance of a girl having a proper dowry so that she did not end up an old spinster.

Seeing Hera had reminded Burt of those years that Elicia had followed him through the woods, asking questions about everything he had done—or not done—in the woods, happy and chatting away the entire time.

Hera had been so much like Elicia in how she had followed Burt through the woods, showing him the way to the village and giving him her squished and messy food that Burt had not been able to stand the idea of the child staying in the village when it was destroyed. He knew the fate of the village, especially pretty young girls like Hera, and the mere thought of that happening to the little girl had been so revolting that Burt had suddenly found himself carrying the child through the forest, leaving no trail and erasing all traces of his passage as he fled.

By the time that Burt had understood what he was doing, he had already traveled half a day through the forest, making his way east and slightly north.

Upon noticing his direction, Burt had realized that he had instinctively started heading back towards his own village and Elicia, neither of which he had seen in over a decade.

After realizing that he had already doomed himself in the eyes of the military, as well as the fact that he refused to do anything less than save the child, Burt had realized that his instincts had been quite valid. The village conducted very little trade, and was so small and isolated in the north of Farun that even the tax collectors frequently forgot that it existed. In fact, the village did not even have a name, the dozen or so families that lived there simply referred to the settlement as “the village.”

Elicia and her husband could take care of Hera, and Burt could… could…

Well, he could figure that out later. For the time being, Burt would simply get there and make sure the child stayed safe.

As they traveled, Burt started teaching Hera Farun’s language, as that would be critical for her to fit in upon arrival.

While thinking of what he needed to do, Burt slowed their speed and made Hera walk. To pass the time and help with passing along the language, Burt taught the girl woodcraft and hunting. They slowly foraged their way through the mountains. Burt paced their progress so that they would arrive mid-autumn. That would give enough time to Hera to develop a reasonable grasp of the language, while also hopefully causing any potential pursuit from the military to give up on Burt.

Once they made it to his village, Burt was not at all worried about being found. The only living person from the army who had even a remote idea of where Burt had grown up was Simon, and Simon…

What would Simon do? Would he feel betrayed by Burt? Disappointed? Burt honestly had no idea how his old friend would react. Things had changed so much since their days together as recruits. Simon had become a general, while Burt was still nothing but a scout. The difference in status had invariably caused them to drift apart somewhat, and Simon had always had a patriotism that Burt lacked, and that could change Simon’s response, despite their long friendship.

Still, not even Simon had ever visited Burt’s childhood home, and as the village was not marked on any map, there was no way that Simon would be able to find it easily. Given his responsibilities, Burt doubted Simon would bother trying to track Burt down anytime soon.

“Hey, Uncle Burt, is that the hill you told me to look for?” After weeks, Burt had given up on trying to get the little girl to stop calling him uncle, so he just sighed and moved along to Hera’s actual question.

When he looked up, sure enough, he caught sight of the bluff that he had told Hera to watch for. It was the defining landmark that lay to the southwest of his village, and after weeks of the girl’s incessant questions of how much further they had to walk, Burt had told her to look for the distinctive rock formation, and that when she saw it, they would be just three days away.

“Yeh, that’s it.”

“So, just three more days? Do we need to do anything to get ready before we get there? Is there a stream where we can bathe before we arrive? Do we need to bring them any food or presents? Do they know we’re coming?”

As quiet as the girl could be while they walked through the forest, traveling, foraging, or hunting, she made up for it multiple times over as soon as she was given leave to speak. Hera never asked one question when she could ask five, and unfortunately for Burt, if she forgot a question, it would always come back up before the child fell asleep for the night.

“With how late it is, we got three and a half days to get there. There’s streams all over in these woods, so jump in when yeh like. It’s ‘bout harvest time, so they’ll ‘ave food. We don’t need to take ‘em nothin’.”

It somewhat grated on Burt’s nerves that despite learning Farun’s language from him, Hera somehow managed to speak more properly than him. He knew that his northern accent was regarded as peasant speech, but had never been able to adopt the more refined, stilted speech of the cities. How had Hera managed to pick that up without ever having visited a Farun city?

“Three and a half days? So four days? But you said three days after we saw the rocks! Oh! How many kids does your sister have, Uncle Burt? Are they babies, or real kids? What are their names? You never told me before.”

“‘Era, we’re still walkin’.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The girl grimaced, but fell silent. She might not like Burt’s rules, but she also knew to listen to him while they were traveling. She was stubborn about the oddest things, such as calling him Uncle Burt, or making sure that her blankets were always between Burt and the fire when she laid down for the night. No matter how many times Burt had tried to keep her closest to whatever shelter they had, Hera would always shift over to be between him and the fire. Somehow, she even managed to move there in the middle of the night when he forced her to sleep elsewhere, and yet she never woke him, which disturbed the woodsman more than he would ever admit.

The other thing that Hera remained stubborn about was that she would never speak a word about her past, other than to say that her parents were gone and she did not have any other family left.

Burt was a bit suspicious, but Hera could not have seen more than eight summers, and whatever she was hiding could not be too important.

That afternoon, they made camp, and as Hera set up the fire and dug up some edible tubers for their dinner, Burt went to find a rabbit or something for their dinner. Sometimes he managed to snag something while they walked, but more often than not, he would need to hunt something down in the late afternoon.

After Hera had learned the basics of hunting, Burt had stopped taking her with him, as the little girl always teared up whenever they caught their food, even if she managed to keep herself from crying or refusing to participate. Burt felt awkward seeing the child so distraught, so after he felt that she could at least get her own food in a pinch, he had allowed her to handle the activities she preferred.

He still did not understand how she had managed to find raspberries in early autumn, but there was no denying that the girl’s sweet-tooth somehow helped her to find fruits in places Burt considered such things to be impossible to find.

Sure enough, when Burt returned to where he had chosen for their camp for the night, Hera had a small fire going with some tubers roasting, as well as a small pile of wild grapes sitting on a clean leaf close to her side. From the looks of things, she had already polished off more than a few of the early grapes.

The young girl was practically vibrating in place as she waited for Burt to return. He knew she was waiting to get back to the questions she had asked him earlier in the day. The thing was, Burt was really not sure what to tell her. He and Elicia had sent messages back and forth a few times over the years, but neither she nor Burt could read very well, which meant that they had mostly relied on verbal messages from the rare trader that would visit both the village and the army.

Burt knew that his baby sister had married, which naturally meant kids, but he did not even know how many she had.

Actually, given the number of years that Burt had been gone, his sister had to be in her mid-forties, so she might already be a grandma. That was a thought that Burt did not like to have.

Hera struggled to wait for Burt to clean the pair of squirrels he had caught for their dinner. He used the time to try to piece together what he knew and what he could tell her. He knew she was excited to finally be around more people than just him, but Burt was not certain that he could stay in the village. Would he need to keep moving? Maybe it would be best to see Hera settled in, and then move on.

Finally, when the squirrels were on some sticks and roasting, and Hera looked about ready to explode, Burt finally let out a sigh and looked at her. “I can’t tell yeh much about my village. Ain’t been there since ‘fore you were born. Got a couple o’ messages from El, but just things like sayin’ she get hitched ‘n had her first couple o’ kids ‘n such. Didn’t even get the names o’ her brats, or how many she’s got now. Truth is, her brats might ‘ave their own brats by now.

“All I know is that El’s good people, and the village is a good place to go. Just gonna have to found out the rest when we get there.”

Burt turned back to the fire, thinking the matter was done, but he had forgotten just how many questions Hera was capable of coming up with.

“How long have you been gone? How old is El? Wait, how old are you? You’re bald, so you have to be super old, right? Daddy was old, but he still had hair, which means you’re definitely older than him.

“Why haven’t you gone back to visit? How many people are in your village? Are there a lot of kids?”

Burt started to get lost from the rambling, so he raised a hand to try to slow Her down. “I’ve been gone more than a few years. Don’t rightly know how long it’s been now. Don’t know how old El is by now. She’s ‘bout three, no, four summers younger ‘n me.

“Told yeh I was in the army, ‘n wasn’t able to get back, ‘cept in winter, but the village gets too much snow, which means yeh can’t get to it in the winter.

“I think there’s ‘bout… hundred-fifty in the village, but we’ll have to find out when we get there.

“Now, ‘nough o’ that. Eat up.”

Unfortunately, Burt had not nearly satisfied Hera’s curiosity, and she continued to vomit endless questions about the village and Burt’s family, including questions about cousins, what he had liked to do while growing up, what color Elicia’s hair was, what kind of food they ate, and more. It got to the point that Burt stopped even trying to answer the girl’s questions and instead just grunted at her.

After Hera finally fell asleep, Burt did his usual nightly routine of setting some alarm traps around the camp, checking and banking the fire to avoid any problems, and then laid down himself.

The next three days continued in that same pattern, and Burt genuinely had no idea where Hera came up with so many questions. He just tried to treat it as language practice for the girl, but even so, it was exhausting for him. Not to mention, the girl inadvertently dredged up some old memories that Burt would much rather have remained lost in the past.

On the fourth day, Burt quickly caught signs that they were getting close. A few game trails that were worn just a little more thoroughly than animals would do, and a few signs of recent hunting.

Hera merrily tramped right through the forest without noticing a thing, though Burt knew he had taught her better than that over the last few months.

When they saw the first field of crops for a homestead that was much further out than Burt remembered, he knew they were no more than a couple of hours away.

When they saw the first houses, Hera squealed in a manner that had Burt nearly leap out of his skin, and the girl started hopping from foot to foot she was so excited. Even so, Burt was happy to note that she did not try to run ahead, not even while remaining in sight. That had been the very first thing he had insisted on when they had started their journey.

Just as Burt had expected, there was a small group of people gathered in the clearing in the middle of the village. There looked to be another dozen or so houses that had been built, and while the people still looked as poor as he remembered, they were all well fed, clean, and healthy.

Glancing around, Burt struggled to recognize people. There was Terry, the blacksmith’s son, though he should be the new blacksmith, given the gray in his beard. He also saw Frida, whose unusual blue eyes made her stand out in the village.

However, despite all his searching, Burt could not find El anywhere.

“So, you got old ‘n bald? At least yer not fat, too.” The voice was older and hoarser than he remembered, signs of long hours over cook fires and harsh northern winters, but Burt would recognize it anywhere.

He turned around, tension he had not even noticed draining from his shoulders. “Hey, El. I’m back.”

With that, the entire village devolved into chaos, as everyone started talking and shouting. Burt struggled to remember the various names he had not heard since childhood, but he quickly started putting the older faces with the old names.

Luckily, the villagers were much the same as how Burt remembered, and while they were happy to see him, questions about his years of absence would be asked in more intimate settings.

Before long, it was agreed that there would be a welcome celebration the next day, and the villagers quickly left Burt with Elicia and her family.

Burt actually felt a bit confused, as there were three men with his sister, as well as four women and nine children, with more running around, and he had no idea who all of them were, or how they were related to Elicia.

It was only then that Burt realized that Hera was clinging to his leg. Her previous excitement was entirely gone, and instead, she was warily eyeing the children who were closest to her in age.

Burt shrugged, unsure of what he was supposed to do, and looked at his sister for a hint. As he looked at her, he not only saw the years that had passed, but also saw a tension to her eyes and the glimmer of unshed tears.

Seeing his stare, Elicia nodded off to the side. “You’ll eat with us, and we’ve got some extra room we can share with you. Your little one there can sleep with Flor’s girls, and Jan and Ted’s boys can bunk up to give you a bed.”

Burt felt Hera flinch when she was referred to as his little one, but when he opened his mouth to respond to Elicia, she cut him off, “We’ll talk during dinner. For now, Ted will show you two where to stow your things and wash up.”

There seemed to be something more going on that Burt was failing to pick up on, but it was clear that his sister did not want to talk out in the open.

One of the three men stepped forward, clearly Ted. He was a bit younger than the other two, and Burt guessed the man was in his mid twenties. Burt picked his pack up off the ground, and turned to follow the man, Hera still clinging to him.

“I’m Jan’s husband, Ted,” the man introduced himself while offering Burt a hand. Burt clasped the hand while awkwardly nodding his head, as he had no idea who Jan even was. “This is Hera, but I’ll tell our story over dinner, I guess.”

Ted nodded and led them to a small well with a rope and a bucket. Burt and Hera had bathed the day before in a stream, so they just washed their faces and hands quickly in the cold water.

Ted showed them both where to set their gear, and then led them to Burt’s childhood home, which had since become Elicia’s home.

He saw that several rooms had been added on, the construction solid and the entire building well maintained.

Upon entering the house, they found a storm of bodies rushing about to prepare the meal. Elicia was both cooking and directing the chaos with clear expertise and experience. Burt found a corner, and Hera moved to join him, only to be snagged away by Elicia. “What’s your name, girl? Need you to take these bowls over to get filled with stew, and then start passin’ them out. Got it? Off with you!”

With that, Hera joined the commotion, and the other children quickly swept her into their rhythm and flow. Burt watched from the corner, and nodded his thanks to El. With just a few words, she had already settled Hera in better than Burt could ever hope to do.

As soon as the food was ready, Elicia sent all of the children outside, claiming there was not enough room inside for everyone to eat, as well as the youngest two women, the pregnant woman, and one of the men. Once there was just Burt, his sister, and the two oldest adults.

“We’ve been hoping to see you, but thought you’d get here earlier. How bad was it?”

When Elicia brought up the question, still not having introduced Burt to anyone else in the room, her question left Burt terribly confused. “How bad was what?”

Elicia and the older man glanced at each other, and then looked back at Burt. “Haven’t you been in the army all these years?”

“I… left ‘bout three months back.”

Elicia’s eyes grew large, and the younger man swore under his breath. “Three months ago? Where have you been since then?”

“I didn’t ‘xactly ask to go, so we’ve been travelin’ through the woods. Came from Tamar.”

Burt did not think his sister’s eyes could get any larger, but they certainly tried their best. “You’ve been traveling for three months through the woods? You mean, you haven’t seen anyone in that whole time? You haven’t heard anything?”

Burt’s confusion was only growing, but he just shook his head. “What happened, El?”

Elicia took a shaky breath, squeezing her husband’s hand tightly. It was clear that she needed to work to compose herself in order to answer.

“The Savaren Empire invaded Farun. Guilone fell over a month ago. The kingdom’s gone.”