Year 227 Post Fall
The bonfire blazed brightly before Ren’s vacant eyes. She sat silently as stringed instruments danced upon the wind throughout the town. Their melody lost to her wondering mind absorbed in the flame’s waltz. A few children ran past her while giving her a wide birth. Her gaze followed before dropping to the dirty blond mess of hair belonging to her child.
Gideon’s hazel eyes darted from the children to the musicians as he drunk in the sights of merriment. Ren focused on the light and joy radiating from those beautiful eyes, the touch of a smile tickling the corners of her mouth. Just like Galin used to…
The smile vanished like dust on the wind as Ren returned to the bonfire’s beckoning call. She felt the tremors begin. Focus on ya breathing damnit! Don’t ruin this for him!
She squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled deeply. The scent of charred hickory wood smoke gently burning her lungs before she slowly exhaled. She opened her eyes to release the built-up stinging of tears. The flaming pillar sparkled a thousand flaring points in her blurry vision.
She felt a tugging on her sleeve. Quickly she pulled away from Gideon and wiped the tears away. She flinched as she noticed her scarred forearm peaking out from jacket sleeve. Hurriedly she adjusted her clothing to cover up the old wounds.
“Did I do something wrong?” inquired Gideon.
“What?” replied a startled Ren. “No! No, ya did nothing wrong, love.”
“But you’re crying again, mom.” He looked down at the base of the bonfire. “Is it because I went hunting with the Smiths earlier?”
She shook her head before reaching out to pat the side of his head softly and reassuringly. “Ya sent me into a right rage without telling me, but no. I’m just caught in memories of tha past. So don’t ya worry one bit about me.”
Her eyes darted to a gathering of older children organizing for some festival games. She glanced back with a plastered smile on her face.
“How about ya play with the other kids? It’s Festival time! Go! Enjoy yourself and make some friends. I’ll be fine by myself.” She gently gave him a pushing motion towards the other children.
Confusion and uncertainty danced across his face as desire warred within him. His eyes darting between his mother and the promise of joy with the children. A few furtive glances back and forth passed before his face settled on a reassuring grin.
“Sure! I’ll play with them and win! I’ll show them just how great I am!”
Her smile faltered. They still give him a hard time for not having a father around…
She fixed her smile and beamed back at Gideon. “That’s right! Show them that you’re the best!”
He brightened at the encouragement before taking off in a mad dash towards the children.
Ren returned to the comfort of the bonfire as the melody of the festival drifted to a quick tune that complimented the excitement of the dancing and running children. She lost herself in the passing of time watching the flames jump about.
She felt herself drifting away from the present. Her eyes became distant and unfocused as distant memories drifted to the front of her mind. She recognized the symptoms rising within her. The pounding of rapid footsteps drawing her back to that bloody day.
Again, she squeezed her eyes shut.
You’re here. It’s in the past. It can’t hurt you anymore. Breathe!
Despite her urging, she continued to take short and shallow breaths. Her heart was thundering in her veins. Panicked eyes darted about looking for Gideon. She knelt forward placing both hands on Tava’s surface.
Get out of sight before anyone notices.
She shuffled away from the fire and aimed herself towards the nearest pavilion tent. Ten short crawling steps were all she managed before her limbs shuddered and gave out on her. She curled up into a ball as the panic attack fully took her. She gasped for breath as she lost control. Tears fell from her face as guilt wracked her body.
Damnit! Why can’t I get through just one night? Why!?
Hurried footsteps approached her. Atlas Wynn’s broad form knelt over her blocking the sight of others as he supported her whispering, “We’re here, Ren. We’ve got you. You’re not alone.”
His head whipped around to his family. “Kellan! Mera!”
His son and wife stepped forward looking down at Ren with concern.
“Yes, father?” Kellan’s gaze drifted between his father and Ren uncertain of what was expected of him.
“Fetch Gideon and bring him here at once. He needs-”
“No!” screamed Ren through a gasping sob. “Please! Don’t let him see me like this. Please. I don’t want to ruin the Festival.”
Atlas frowned before nodding. He turned to his son, “Keep Gideon distracted until I send your mother for the two of you.”
“Mera, fetch a drink and stew for Ren. I’ll get her to Robert’s.”
She spun away and made haste as her son ran off towards the children. Atlas shifted Ren’s weight before lifting her up into his arms.
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“Don’t worry, Ren. We’ll get you through this.”
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Kellan ran at a steady pace towards the children sending his grey jacket dancing upon the wind with every pumping stride. As he approached the others, he slowed his pace and took a moment to gather himself.
Dad entrusted me to keep everyone calm. So, calm face on and smile wide.
Kellan brushed his fingers through his dark brown hair and flashed a smile to the nearest kid. “How’s it going?”
“Alright.” Shrugged the shorter boy as he looked Kellan up and down. “If you’re here to play, then you’ll need to wait for the next game.”
“Oh? And what exactly are you playing right now?”
The child looked around checking the shadows as he walked forward, “Hide and seek! It’s the only one that allows the younger kids to play with us.”
Kellan suppressed a laugh at the boy complaining about younger kids when the child was barely ten winters old.
“Have you caught anyone yet?”
The boy smiled up at Kellan before pointing to the other children off to the side. “Mark, Matty, Perrin, Kelly, that brown haired girl, and uh…”
He paused a moment and peered around conspiratorially before he whispered, “Ava, but we’re all pretending that we didn’t. She always gets grumpy when she gets caught.”
Kellan let out a soft laugh before he whispered back in an equally conspiratorial voice, “She does have a bit of a temper, so I don’t blame you!”
Kellan surveyed the gathered children and asked the boy, “Have you found Gideon yet?”
The boy balled his fists and grumbled, “Not yet! I don’t know how he does it, but he vanishes like a ghost every time we play hide and seek. I watched him through my hands as I was counting. He seemed to be swaying back and forth as I counted. I tried to keep track of the other kids but then when I blinked, he wasn’t with the other kids anymore. I searched everywhere but couldn’t find him!”
Kellan frowned at the boy and condemned him, “That wasn’t in the spirit of the game.”
The boy’s head dipped in guilt. “I know, but it was like he knew I was cheating and waited for when I would blink before he moved! How could he know that?”
Kellan shook his head dismissively, “He couldn’t. You’re just imagining things. He was probably just thinking of where to hide. Your blinking was probably just a coincidence.”
Kellan clapped the boy’s shoulder. “I’m here to help now. So, point to all the places you’ve already searched for him.”
The boy grinned and picked out all the obvious hiding spots. Kellan nodded along and surveyed the surrounding tents, buildings, and tree lines. His eyes traced a path from where the children had started to the indicated hiding spots that the boy had checked.
Let’s see. If he really did wait to move with the crowd of other children, then he would need to have a point to break off from them that blocked the boy’s sight.
Kellan’s gaze traced a path through the green field towards tents near the trees. He walked carefully while examining the grass stalks for disturbances as he edged his way towards the border tents.
There his eyes rested upon a small game trail with a few footprints leading off towards the trees. He grinned as he strode forward.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Called out the nasal voice of Ava Mercer.
Kellan paused and spared a glance back to the short curly red-haired girl. He flashed her a smile to disarm her and said, “I’m helping to find Gideon.”
“You’re not the seeker though!” Huffed Ava as she planted her hands on her waist.
Kellan shrugged and made the snide remark, “And you were never found. So, what’s your point?”
Ava sputtered as her face flushed red, “I don’t know what you’re talking about! It’s given that I wasn’t found!”
Kellan raised an eyebrow and nodded towards the boy coming up behind Ava. She followed his gaze to the boy and let out a yelp of surprise before running away.
“You found me, but you didn’t catch me! I’m still free!” she shouted through her gasping breathing.
Kellan chuckled to himself as he returned to tracking this new lead into the trees. After a dozen strides into the trees, the trail went cold with no more signs of the footprints. He frowned as he bent down to examine the end of the trail.
Kellan searched the tree branches and trunks for any sign of Gideon, his eyes straining to see in the darkness of the trees so far from the festival’s lights. Kellan guided himself around the trees with one hand on the trunk and the other groping the air in front of him. He continued like this for several trees before shaking his head and turning around to return to the other children. He stumbled over his own feet in surprise when he found himself face to face with Gideon.
“Why are you looking for me?” inquired Gideon from the shadow of the tree. “You weren’t there at the start of the game.”
Gideon glanced back towards the other children playing on the green. “Eric’s still the seeker. So why are you looking for me?”
Kellan fought to keep his face neutral before flashing a grin. “My family met your mom earlier. Our parents thought it would be a good idea for us to hang out. Give us a chance to play with kids our own age rather than humoring the younger ones.”
Gideon’s face softened at the mention of his mother, but his body remained guarded as he responded, “That does sound like something Mom would wish for…”
He glanced back at the kids before looking Kellan back in the eyes. “Come. I think Eric has found everyone else.”
With that, Gideon began to walk back to the others without waiting to see if Kellan would follow. Kellan strained his eyes to pick out Gideon’s profile in the shadow of the trees. The younger boy appeared to have no trouble in navigating through the darker parts of the woods while Kellan found himself tripping over errant roots.
After a minute of walking the two boys found themselves before the group. There in the middle was a red-faced Ava bent over gasping for breath. She gasped for air before glaring at the two boys, “You two went out of bounds! You cheated!”
Kellan laughed off the accusation while Gideon frowned at the girl.
“I’m not a cheater.” Declared Gideon. “We said anywhere in the festival grounds was acceptable for hiding.”
Ava shot a glare at Kellan’s laughing form before gathering herself up into a taller form that only managed to come up to Gideon’s chest. “The wooded areas were for the hunting grounds! That area is for hunting.” She poked Gideon’s chest for emphasis. “Not hiding!”
Gideon shared a look with Kellan before looking to the other children for support. None would meet his eyes and he found Eric shaking his head in agreement with Ava. Gideon met Ava’s gaze and let out a sigh and asked, “What do you want me to do about it?”
She smiled victoriously before turning to address the other children, “It’s obvious! You shall be it while the rest of us hide!”
“Is that all? You just didn’t want to be it because you were the last one found?”
She twisted on the spot and stared daggers at Gideon with a red-faced glare. “No, you’re it because you broke the rules! There’s no other reason!”
She spun away from him and shouted, “Start counting and keep those eyes closed. We don’t want any more cheating from you tonight!”
Gideon turned to Kellan and shared a grin as he said, “Looks like we’re playing another round.”
Kellan returned the grin and patted him on the back. “Looks like!”
Gideon shook his head letting the smile fall from his face. “Don’t worry. I’ll make this fast.”
“Oh?”
The grin returned to Gideon’s face as he boasted, “I’m the best there is at this game! I’m going to make sure she’s the first one found. I’ll save you for last so you can properly search for me next!”
Kellan chuckled. “Sure, you’ve got it!”
Gideon sat down and closed his eyes before covering them with his hands. “Better start running because I’m counting! 60…! 59…! 58…!”
Kellan darted for a distant pair of tents with chopped wood piled between them. As he arrived, he began to move a few stacks to make enough room for a crawl space to hide him in the shadows. He managed to wiggle himself into position so that he would remain hidden while being able to observe most of the green. As he settled into position, he heard Gideon shout out, “10… 9… 8…”
Let’s see you keep that promise. Thought Gideon as he looked for where Ava had ran off to.