“I’m sorry, Caine,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Sweat beaded on my forehead, and my legs trembled, but I was too scared to move. It wasn’t the same fear I felt when I first met this man, I don’t think he wanted to hurt me, but he was just so overwhelmingly strong, that I couldn’t help but be scared of him. How could I ever be sure that he wouldn’t turn out just like Saintsworth?

So many thoughts raced through my mind, so many feelings, and I just didn’t know what to do. Should I run? Should I try and fight? Should I just try and find another place to live? Just what should I do? Is there even anything I can do?

“Caine.” He called, snapping me out of my thoughts.

The man knelt, his dark green eyes locking onto mine. “My name is Oliver,” he said, introducing himself “Are you okay?”

I silently stared at him, bewildered by the fact that I could now understand him.

Suddenly, rustling sounds came from the ground below the tree we were standing on. More beasts were fighting one another, their growls and snarls echoing through The Forest.

“Fucking demons” Oliver muttered before picking me up once more; he leapt from branch to branch again, moving faster than before, the rapid motion making me nauseous. We continued this way for some time, until there were no more trees in front of us, revealing the wooden walls of Arzamac.

For the last time, the man set me down, making me lean against a tree. I bent my knees, hugging them to my chest, and rested my forehead on them, fighting my need to vomit. I could feel the gaze of this man on me, but I could not bring myself to look back at him. To my surprise, he sat next to me, resting his hand on my shoulder. I didn’t know how to react.

Should I be grateful for his pity? Should I be afraid? My mind was a whirlpool of thoughts and doubts. I felt like I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t muster any more tears. I needed to focus on something else, anything else or I knew I was going to go crazy but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t think straight. His hand remained on my shoulder, a grounding presence.

We sat there in silence for hours as the suns began to rise once again, bringing an end to this cursed night. The man never once tried to talk to me whilst we sat there, but his hand remained on my shoulder the whole time. I felt scared of him, but for some reason, I didn’t think he would hurt me. Not again.

I was sure he apologised to me earlier, and I had understood what he said perfectly. He tried talking to me earlier, but I was sure that he spoke a different language then. Did he know how to speak our language all along? No, if he did, he wouldn’t have tried so many times to talk to me in his own tongue.

He touched my head, and then the pain started; I remembered everything from my whole life – my parents, my childhood, this night. Did he look into my memories? Was such magic even possible? No matter how hard I thought about it, I just couldn’t find any other explanation for this. That’s all I came up with, he tried talking to me, but he couldn’t, he touched my head, and then he could communicate with me. But that should be impossible, how could one even look into someone’s mind using elemental magic?

I looked up, a few rays of sunshine gently touching my face, and I turned to the man sitting beside me. “You looked into my mind, didn’t you?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied, his face apologetic, “I’m sorry, I didn’t think it was going to hurt so much. I tried to heal you right away, but I’m not sure how much that helped.”

He answered honestly, and with a softness I was not expecting. He fell quiet again, avoiding my eyes, looking as if he was carefully choosing his next words.

“Who are you, mister? Why were you in The Forest? How are you so strong?” I asked, trying to fill the silence. I needed to keep my mind busy. I didn’t want to think.

“My name is Oliver, I am from someplace far away, a place no one in this land has ever heard of.” He answered. “I don’t want to hurt you, Caine. That’s all you need to know.”

He only introduced himself briefly, refusing to talk about himself any further. At least I knew his name now. Oliver. He said I, nor anyone else, would know of his home, so he must be from some land far, far away, it may be a small county, bordering another kingdom.

“It’s not your fault, Caine,” he said unprovoked. “What that man did – you can’t blame yourself for that. You didn’t make him do anything; he chose to do that.”

“He wouldn’t have done that had I not met him. You saw what happened. I bumped into him, I was so desperate to trust him, I told him where we lived… He may have been the one to have killed them, but I am the reason he did it.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It doesn’t matter how hard he or anyone tries to convince me that it was not my fault. I could never believe it; they died because of me, if I acted differently, they would still be alive.

“Mr Oliver,” I called out to him. “Tell me. You saw everything that happened to me somehow. What am I meant to do now? I am all alone, I no longer have a family, there is no one that will be with me. It’s just me now, so what should I do? Is there even anything that I can do? Should I even be alive?”

I looked in his eyes, hoping that he would be able to give me some answers. The fear I felt towards him vanished as I realised that being afraid of him is pointless, whether I am afraid or not, he could kill me whenever he wished, but I trusted he wouldn’t. After what happened, why was I so quick to trust him as well?

This feeling of emptiness, this void in my heart was somehow making me more relaxed. I cried so much earlier, I felt such pain, I just couldn’t feel anything now, this emptiness in my soul just wouldn’t let me be sad or scared of anything anymore.

“I cannot tell you what to do now, Caine, that is up to you. Why would you even want me to tell you how to live your life now? It is your life, you need to remember that you are in control of your own actions, no one else.”

“How am I in control?” I retorted, slightly raising my voice. “I am not in control, there is not anything I can do now, I can’t continue living here, I can’t even do anything to survive, I may be able to eat something every once in a while if someone takes pity on me, but other than that there’s nothing I can do... I can’t be with my parents anymore. It doesn’t matter how hard I try to believe that I am in control, you Demigods can just kill any of us whenever they want to.”

“Tell me, Caine, these Demigods you speak of – do you think they can kill me?” He asked me; his entire demeanour changed, with him becoming more serious, no longer looking at me, but rather at the sunrise.

“Why would Demigods fight each other?” I replied, confusion colouring my voice.

“I am not a Demigod. I am not a God. I am just a man” he responded.

This person in front of me is just a… man? That’s not possible, no man can be this strong. But he didn’t mention a family name, he said just his first name and Demigods are the only ones with family names, only noble families have Demigods.

“How can you be so strong?” I asked, desperate for an answer.

He kept his gaze on the sunrise, ignoring my question. Sadness shadowed his face as if he was recalling some painful memory. Where does his strength come from? I just couldn’t comprehend how a person could become so powerful without being a descendant of the Gods.

“Caine,” he said, still staring at the sunrise. “You need to decide on what you are going to do from now. I know it’s difficult to think about that now, considering everything that just happened to you, but you have to decide. Maybe not in this moment, or today, or even this month, but you need to choose. If you don’t move forward you may as well be dead.”

I didn’t know what I should do, or even what I wanted to do. All I know is that there is one thing I didn’t want: I didn’t want to die.

“Tell me. What if I wanted to kill Saintsworth? Would that be moving forward? Is that something I should do?”

“I… don’t know, Caine. This path you are thinking of walking – it will not bring you any peace. I know.”

He was now looking back at me, a hint of regret in his eyes. I wanted to ask him more about himself, but he already made it clear that he wouldn’t answer. I didn’t know when he would leave, but I wished he would tell me more. Maybe he was right: even if Saintsworth died, my parents would still be dead. If he doesn’t deserve to live, then, do I? After all, it was my fault they died.

“Sir, I don’t know what the right path is. But I do have one request if you’ll allow me” I said, bowing down to him, my knees and forehead pressed into the cold ground. “Please come with me to my home. I need to say goodbye to my parents and bury them. If Saintsworth is around, then just grab me like you did before, and run away. I don’t want you to fight for me. Please, I beg you.”

I wondered what kind of expression was on his face seeing me like that. Maybe pity, sadness, or who knows, maybe even disgust. But that didn’t matter. I didn’t want to die, and if Saintsworth was still around, then he would kill me. I spent some time bowing down, still waiting for a response.

“Fine. I will go with you. Lead the way.” He replied, uncertainty covering his voice for the first time.

We began walking towards Arzamac, no words spoken between us. Every trembling step I took felt heavy, and slowly I could feel the emptiness in me being eroded and replaced with an indescribable sadness. It did not take long for tears to form again, and before I knew it, they were streaming down my face. Regardless of this fact, I did not make any noise, I didn’t sob, I didn’t whimper, I could not afford to do that, from now on, I needed to be strong.

I continued looking up, and then noticed smoke, coming from the direction of my home. My feet were stuck to the ground, unable to take even a step forward.

“Please. Don’t.” I mumbled.

The man grabbed the back of my collar and lifted me off the ground, throwing me over his shoulder once more. He jumped onto the roof of the building before us and began leaping from roof to roof, at such speed that I barely could register what was going on.

It didn’t take long before we reached the walls of Arzamac. He just set me on the ground, and I began running with newfound strength as I held onto my necklace, with him behind me; we ran towards the source of the smoke, hoping it would not be my home. My hopes were short-lived as the smoke was coming from the direction of my home, and a crowd surrounded the hut.

I ran without stopping, and pushed my way into the crowd, trying to get to the front. Once there, my eyes took in the view of my home, burning, flames so strong I could feel their warmth from afar. My parents… must still be there.

Fucking bastard.

I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you.