Their hearts were a flood of emotions, but even then they knew it was a bad idea to travel through the night to get back to the village. They might die if they weren’t careful. The night proved very dangerous, especially for poor village merchants like them.

They decided to turn in early tonight and would set off at dawn. Without allowing Lucien to interject, Miriam and Paul decided to take turns with the night watch. They didn’t want to bother him, and knew that he could do with a good night’s rest. They could handle one night of poor sleep anyway.

Seeing their firm attitude, Lucien sighed and got into his bedroll. “Goodnight.”

“Sleep well Lucien,” Paul said.

“You too.”

Turning to face away from the fireplace, he felt the warmth on his back. He closed his eyes and tried to get some rest. It would be his first night of proper rest in a while, even if it was out in the wilderness. He wanted to make the best of the time he had. He appreciated their kindness, and hoped that one day he could return that kindness.

An unknown amount of time passed as he struggled to sleep. His mind was plagued with images of the destruction of Locham. Flashes of the dead tugged at his heart and kept him awake.

He tossed and turned for what felt like forever, but his mind wouldn’t let him go. It wouldn’t give him rest. His breathing became harsh, shallow, and rapid. The air barely entered his mouth before it was expelled out again. His heart was thrumming in his chest, like it was going to explode through his ribs.

His brain froze on his family’s faces, and he shot up. He clutched at his chest as he looked around in distress. He couldn’t pull himself away from what he saw. He felt his heart being squeezed to a pulp as he tried to claw through his chest to ease the pain. His eyes swelled and reddened as his tears stained the dirt.

Despite the fire not being far away, he couldn’t feel more cold and alone.

A hand clutched at his shoulder. He heard old bones creaking as Paul sat down in the dirt beside him. The two shared a moment of silence, neither of them said a word. Instead, they just stared at each other.

Paul’s eyes were still a bit red from crying, whereas Lucien was an absolute wreck. Everything came flooding back to him, pounding away at his mind and body. It was all too much for him. He couldn’t handle it. He just sat there, frozen in place, unable to move. His body shaking and trembling.

Lucien was perhaps in the most vulnerable state he had ever been in. Even when his father died, it was nothing like what he was going through now. This was a complete upheaval of his life. His family, and almost everyone he ever knew, had been massacred. This was not something anyone should have to bear.

But not only did this happen to him, he was also shouldering the burden of passing the news on. What had happened was far too important to not be made known. With Uther’s passing, it was only a matter of time that war would be at their door, and Lord Whitmore needed to know about it as soon as possible so that he could be prepared.

Lucien’s guesses about Uther had been all but confirmed by his conversation with Aerin. Uther was there to ensure peace and prosperity in the region. But with him gone, who knew what would happen.

Lucien knew he had to shoulder this responsibility. That he had to get this news to Lord Whitmore no matter what. But for tonight, he concerned himself with none of that.

The two sat there for a while. One comforting the other. They didn’t know how much time had passed, but neither of them was going to be getting sleep any time soon. There was still a while before Paul would swap shifts with Miriam. And Lucien wasn’t sure whether he would even be able to get any sleep. Would his mind let him?

Lucien felt the warmth coming from Paul’s frail arms. His body shuddered, and when there were no more tears left to shed, everything started to ease. His heart began to calm. His breathing deepened. The faces of his dead family and friends slowly faded into the recesses of his mind, firmly finding their place amongst the fond memories he had shared with them.

He knew they wouldn’t want to see him like this. He was lucky enough to escape. They would all want him to continue pressing forward. To seek justice for them, and to make sure this wouldn’t happen to anyone else.

He wiped away his tears and looked over at Paul. “Thank you.”

Paul patted him on the shoulder before getting up. “Try and get some rest. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you. I’ll just be over here.” Then he went to check on the fire.

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The fire had begun to peter out, so Paul chucked a bit more onto it to keep it going. Maybe it was because he was old, or maybe because it was still early in the season of change, but the night air was still far too cold for him.

He knew that having a fire going at night would make it easier for them to be found by something dangerous, but he still felt it was for the best to keep it going. “These old bones can’t take it anymore,” he sighed. “Bah, I’ve still got a few more years left in me. Can’t have Miriam going out all by herself. Who knows what trouble she’ll cause.”

Smiling to himself while looking at his daughter, he sat down by the fire, not getting into his bedroll just yet in case something needed him.

Lying down in his bedroll, Lucien looked up at the night sky, his gaze trailing between the moon and stars. How far had his family gone? Would he be able to see them yet? People would call him crazy and say that it was ridiculous, but he felt that he would know from a glance.

Lucien was again trying to fall asleep. Maybe his body had tired itself out earlier, but it wasn’t attacking him as vigorously as before. Very slowly, his mind eased, allowing him to reach a vague semblance of rest. His brain was still too noisy to get any amount of proper sleep, but resting his eyes was better than nothing.

Hours passed, Miriam replaced Paul in watching over the camp, and Lucien had fallen asleep at some point. His body and mind really needed to rest, so eventually it gave in.

The rest of the night passed without any problems. Miriam put out the fire just as the sun began to rise on the horizon, and woke the other two up. After waking and feeding the horses, the wagon continued on its way back to the village.

After a couple hours on the road, the village was finally in sight.

Haderfield was a small village of about sixty people, roughly the same size as Locham. Haderfield was well known in the area for its production of fresh fruit, primarily its expansive apple orchards, which were visible no matter where you entered the village from.

“Let me drop you off at the guard captain’s house. He’ll probably want to know.” Saying that, Paul steered the wagon past his house and drove into the village centre.

The guard captain’s house was a bit more lavish than Uther’s little shack, but not by much. At most, his house was ever so slightly larger than the other villagers’ houses. It sat in the village centre, to the right of the mayor’s house, which also acted as the town hall whenever a dispute needed to be settled between the villagers.

Locham didn’t have a town hall like this. It didn’t even really have a mayor. Uther had been acting as the mayor and overall village leader for as long as Lucien remembered, but he never really cared for those titles.

Those were just titles everyone else had given him. Partly because the village needed a mayor for legal reasons and matters concerning the region at large, and partly because nobody else felt they could do a better job than him.

Quite frankly, everyone who knew even a little bit about Uther’s past was terrified of getting on his bad side, so they didn’t even want to compete. This lead to him begrudgingly holding the position ever since he moved into the village. Funnily enough, his arrival significantly reduced the amount of disputes and arguments between villagers that a mayor would normally have to deal with.

Everyone suddenly felt it was better to solve their problems amicably, rather than getting the mayor involved. This resulted in Uther’s position as mayor being basically useless aside from when the village had to send taxes to Lord Whitmore.

As for why people were afraid of angering him, it was naturally because of his past military exploits. There were rumours that he had killed a dragon with his bare hands. They couldn’t compete with a dragon, so naturally they backed off whenever they could.

All of the bruises on the guards’ bodies from Uther’s training only helped to further keep them in check.

The wagon came to a stop as Miriam came out from the back to help Lucien down.

“It’s alright. I can still do this much.” He waved off Miriam and hopped down from the wagon, landing steadily on his feet. He was getting a bit more accustomed to this new centre of gravity.

Paul stepped down from the wagon as well. “Take the wagon back home Miriam. Tell your mother that I won’t be back for lunch.” Needless to say, he had decided to go inside with Lucien as well.

Hopping up onto the front and taking the reins, it wasn’t long before the wagon was on the move again, now heading back the way it came.

Without saying another word, Lucien and Paul went up and knocked on the front door. After a few seconds, and the shuffling of feet on wood, the door opened.

A young girl, probably about sixteen or seventeen, had opened the door. She had shoulder length blonde hair that was half tied back into a ponytail. A few beads of sweat dotted her forehead, and she looked like she had just finished exercising. She was wearing a simple black undershirt and pants that allowed for easy mobility. A wooden training sword sat at her hip.

“Oh, it’s you Paul. Do you need anything?” she asked. She glanced over at Lucien, wondering who this stranger was. She couldn’t help herself from taking a few extra looks at his missing arm.

Paul took the lead in the conversation to make Lucien feel more comfortable. “Hello Lynn, is your father around? We have some important news to tell him.”

“Who’s at the door?” a slightly hoarse woman’s voice called out from the kitchen.

“It’s Paul. He said he had some news,” she answered.

“Well invite him in, he probably doesn’t want to be standing out there all day. He can join us for lunch,” her mother said, busying herself in the kitchen by preparing lunch.

“Thank you kindly madam, but we really need to know where your husband is. This is rather urgent,” Paul called out respectfully to the woman in the kitchen before returning his attention to Lynn. “Where is your father?”

She could see how serious he was being, and so she stopped paying attention to her mother who was pestering her to invite them in. “He’s currently in a meeting with the mayor. I’ll take you to him.”

“We can go their ourselves, but thank you,” Lucien was the one to speak this time, as he already started walking over.