The air was still — silent — but the silence wasn't calm. It was loaded, tense, like a drawn bowstring waiting to snap.
The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon.
They rode slowly now. The hooves' rhythm had softened, almost mirroring Kaelen's heartbeat. He gripped the reins tightly, hands trembling — not from the cold, but from the silent anticipation.
He was scared.
Jael's grip on the boy slackened. He fell slowly backward — time paused, as if to watch him fall.
Then it came — the painful sound of his back hitting the ground.
"Dad!!" Kaelen cried, jumping swiftly from the horse.
He could hear his own heartbeat, loud and chaotic.
The ground felt cold beneath Jael's back,his eyes now losing the shine it once carried.
"Dad" Kaelen said softly — like a whisper. He held onto his father's hand's which felt cold, colder than the morning frost. Jael's breath weak and shaky
"Ngh...I....I am fine" Jael said slowly as he tried to sit upright,his back against a stump.
"No you aren't..." Kaelen cried back,his voice coarse,thick with held-back tears. "You are still bleeding,here let me help". He placed his hand on the wound, knowing deep down it wouldn't help
"I am fine boy...stop,just stop" Jael said, pain lacing every word. Kaelen looked up at his father then proceeded to sit beside him, head on his shoulder.
"Dad, I am scared". Kaelen said,voice losing hope.
"I know, boy" Jael replied
And they sat still,no other word said between father and son.
The sun slowly rose casting light on everything — everything except father and son.
----
----
"Kaelen" Jael called weakly after what felt like an eternity
He hardly calls me by name Kaelen thought to himself.
'Dad" Kaelen replied his father.
"Remember the road I told you about" Jael asked softly
"Down the ashen,take the right path, go straight ahead till you get to the third mountain ridge, then head left as long as the road takes you" Kaelen said aloud to his father.
"Good". said Jael, a weak smile forming. "You have to go there now. Find Thorn—he owes me" A round of coughing followed. "You have to live for me and her".
"Not without you,dad" The boy replied, tears threatening to spill
"I am sorry,brie" Jael said looking upwards as the light left his eyes. He exhaled one last time.
"Dad" Kaelen said tears filling his voice but not spilling. "Dad". Kaelen knelt up over Jael's cold,lifeless body
Heartbreaking silence followed — the kind that tears at your vocals, making you want to scream.
Kaelen suddenly stood up.
He had heard hooves beats from some distance away, closing in fast. His dad's last words rang in his ears.
He stood up,had one last look at Jael,kissed his cheeks. And then he began running as fast as his legs could carry him
He never looked back — not once.
------
The boy ran. For how long, he didn't know.
His legs moved, even when his mind blurred. His father's scent still clung to his clothes. The world passed him in streaks — trees, wind, pain.
He followed the road as Jael had told him: down the Ashen, take the right path... third ridge, then left — the words repeated like a drumbeat inside his skull.
The cold bit at him now. His hands were scraped, knees bruised, breath shallow. But he kept going.
Until he didn't.
---
He collapsed somewhere between the trees and the rising rock faces — a silhouette of old ruins standing in the distance. His knees buckled, his body hit the dirt hard.
His fingers clawed at the ground as if dragging himself those last few feet would mean something.
Then — boots.
Heavy steps. Close. Approaching.
His vision swam. A blur of shadow loomed over him.
Kaelen looked up at the figure — the shape of a man against the sky, cloaked, face unreadable. The morning light blurred behind his head like a halo. Or maybe a warning.
Kaelen's lips barely moved.
"…Thorn…"
And the world went black.
---