He found himself walking down a long dark tunnel, that seemed endless, the more he walked, the less sure he was of himself. He can not see where he is going; he does not know what time of day it was - or even what day it was. Help! Anybody!. The only reply were the echoes of his own hollowed out words. The tunnel felt hollow, the words felt hollow, he felt hollow. Time seemed to stand still, yet the further he went the more it seemed to have passed. A bright light glowed at the end of this void, this light came fast, too fast. The void that had him trapped, dramaticly changed to him now being engulfed in a bright light. Just as instantaneous, he fell down deep into an unknown.

Images flashed of the day when Mountain Empire had come into his village and took his father away, destroying his hometown he grew up in. The fear in the eyes of the villagers, the cry of the child his father saved; the look on his father face, he was going to tell him something. Zilian had not noticed it before, the way his father shoulders weighed down, he had many secrets and secrets he wanted to share with his son. The images turned to a haze and soon nothing more dust floating in the air.

Falling faster and faster and faster, the ground coming up close. His heart pounding just as loud as the whistle of the wind whipping his ears. Next second Zilian wakes up with thud. Groggily getting up, he finds himself on the bedroom floor facedown. He fell from his sleep, both literally and figuratively, he flips around to lay on his back. Just another bad dream, Zilian says to himself.

"Hey. You okay?" Erica called from behind the door.

She must have heard him when he fell from the bed. The house has lots of weak floorboards, it would even creak when the wind blowed hard, or when there would be thunder storms. Fortunately, it does not rain often around this area.

He replied, "Yeah, I'm good."

"Well don't hurt yourself, or else I have to bring you back to life again."

He grinned, "Like I'd let that happen."

"Anyway, I gotta go out and do my chores. Ferry has some tasks for you as well. And breakfest is getting cold, get it while it is still warm."

"Ok, be down in a few."

He sat with his legs crossed and slumped his head back, laying it on the bed. His heart beated heavily from the dream, he would not call it a nightmare, bu just as undesirable. Fully awake, threw on a fresh set of clothes fit for laborious work. After he slipped on his cardigan while he buttoned the front, he glanced his book on his little table. He hasn't had the time to even open the book, to learn how to use a sword, ever since they came back from the Festival three days ago. He turns to exit, with his satchel that was hanging on the post of his bed, as he rested his hand on the door; he hesitated, took another glance at the book laying on the table, almost as if it were calling to him and it did not help when a streak of light cut through the clouds and rest on the book.

sigh

He can read a bit while he is on break. He grabbed the book and slides it in his handpack, which has a couple of empty canteens of water and small tools. Now fully equiped for a days work, he heads out into the hallways and goes downstairs. Even before he got into the kitchen, he could smell freshly cooked eggs, and the aroma of baked bread, without a doubt that there would be a cup of fresh homemade butter. When he entered the kitchen, he finds a cup of marilla juice and a plate with what he knew, eggs and bread with butter. He assumed that was his meal because next to his plate, was a bowl of dried hapers. How could anybody could eat that? He may never know, but he did not mind Farame eating it, cause that seems to be all he eats, which in turn meant more food for him. Zilian grabbed his plate, devouring his food in rather ravished manner. Another benefit being on his own, he did not have to worry about manners.

"Ya need to learn to breath between bites."

ZIlian got startled from surprise, he did not hear anyone behind and was not expecting anyone to be there. His arms bounced up by reflex, the way how he bounced sent his food sliding off his plate, he dropped most of his food.

"Ya little a too jumpy today. Ya doing fine?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

Zilian crouched to pick up his dumped food. Back at his old village he'd normally throw his food outside, nature did its thing with food making its way around the cycle. However, when he first did it here, Erica got on his case about. So to avoid any inconvenience, he food in with the trash. They dumped all their garbage in a small, wooden and surprisingly heavy crate and when it was full, whoever put trash in it last had to take it to the compost that was thirty meters behind the house in a flat area.

Farame said, "Very well, I'll leave ya to that. Also, ya make sure horses shoe is still good and his hoofs are clean."

Farame turns away, probably to get to some work or scheduling. Zilian again saw there was a note of ice in his voice, his head layed hunched over, more so then before at least and around his eyes were dark due to lack of sleep.

Zilian tossed out the last bit of trash quickly, "Umm, Farame?"

Farame stops and turns to face him, "Ya boy?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

Farame smiled and cracked joke, "Ya means besides that one? Cause I'd simply tell ya that ya already did."

It was an improvemont over his mood a moment ago, but Zilian knew he was going to break the humor. He crossed his arms, and gave more serious face, he wants to know and he wants to show that he has to know.

"No, I wanna know what happened between you and your brother Mauris."

That seemed to have hit a spot in Farame, because all of sudden he looked pale. That question shook him down to his core. He grabbed a seat to sit down, perhaps for the best if he passed out.

He coughed to clear his throat, "What makes ya think that?"

"Well, first when you gave me the manifest, it didn't say anything about being him being your brother, so I guess you don't view him as one. Second is when we went to the festival, I saw that you were unconfortable there. And third, I guessed that's why you tried to do everything as possible from going to the festival, because you'd knew you go there, you can't go there without visiting your brother."

Farame sat there staring for a long while, "I think ya should know then."

Zilian prepares himself to hear what is the problem.

"Me and my younger brother don't get along very well and I know Erica sees I don't like coming close to him, that is all she seen me do around him. Ya have to know, I am one four. Three boys and one girl. Out of all my siblings, I was closest to Mauris. My other two siblings were them troublesome type, I don't even know where they gone to, haven't heard from them for years. Anyway, Mauris and me, been close at one time."

"So what happened?"

"Well... He killed my son and his wife..."

"Wait?! What?! He killed your son?!" Zilian exclaimed.

Farame rebuked him, "Why don't ya say that louder? I don't think Erica heard yet."

Zilian lowered his voice, "Sorry. I didn't think Erica didn't know."

"Yeah well, she doesn't and it be best ya don't say anything. Anyway, he didn't kill them. I know that. But I can't forgive him either, it pains me to mention their names." Farame sighed heavily, dug his face into his palms, he could see a tear roll down his cheek. He regained his composure, letting go of the momentary weakness.

"Just this once I'll mention it, listen carefully for I will not repeat this story. My son name was Erene and his wife was Kalica. What happened, was this. We were them adventuring kind, we - me, my son, his wife and my brother. We wanted to go up this tall mountain, Erica was a little girl just shy over one year of age, so she doesn't remember this trip. Mountain we chose, was steep, I should've known better. But higher and  higher we went. We were going up on a narrow crossing, and to us it did not seem to be too narrow, at least on a normal day. I was further behind then them, I kept on asking for them to wait for me, but Mauris kept on saying 'ya fret too much brother'. And they kept on going further ahead."

"Not too long after that. An avalanche came through, knocked both my son and his wife over the edge. I was far off, by some ten meters. I feared the worst, but my son didn't fall down into the deep drop. He was holding to the ledge with one hand, while on the other he held on to his wife. Mauris leaned over to help them up, it seemed the landslide bumbed him against the wall, he had an injured arm. Even so, he tried his best to reach for his wife. I was rushing up to them at this point.  My brother grabbed Kalica by her handmade baby sack - that's how she traveled with Erica up the mountain and kept her warm. Just when he grabbed hr baby sack, another avalanche came down, this time taking both Erene and Kalica over. In my brother's hand was Erica, bag torn clean from Kalica, but unharmed. We spent days trying to find my son and his wife. We could find no traces of them, I guess they were buried in snow."

Zilian didn't know what to say, I'm sorry sounded adequate. Although, he knew that wouldn't mean much of anything at this point. He took a seat on the chair, weighing in what Farame truly had to go through, all he could do was lay his palms on his knees. In a moment of relapse, he realized he has not mourned over losing his father, whereas Farame still held close to what happened to his son. Could it be I am still holding onto hope?

Farame avoided eye contact, from being unable to recount the story of filling in blanks in his memory, Zilian can not tell what is going through his head.  

"And to think, my brother just had to listen to me. We'd never have come acrossed that slide, or I could have taken the fall for them instead." Farame said.

Zilian just sat there, he did not know what else to say - after all, he forced him down into this memory. Farame got up without saying a word, simply left in silence and leaving silence behind. Why would there be any need to say anything else?