"They're all dead."
Lucien's breath caught. His eyes locked on the ruins below.
"No… no, that's not true!"
He stumbled forward, then broke into a sprint. Rocks scattered under his boots as he tore down the slope.
"Mother! Father! Where are you?!"
His chest burned, but he didn't stop. The closer he came, the heavier the silence pressed.
"Answer me! Please!"
The village gates were gone, nothing but broken wood and ash. His feet refused to slow.
"This can't be real. It can't!"
Lucien crashed into what was left of his street. His eyes darted, then froze.
"No… my house…"
The roof had caved in, half buried in ash and broken beams. He shoved the wreckage aside with shaking hands.
"Please… please…"
A faint sound. A cough.
Lucien's heart jumped. He ripped at the wood until his arms bled.
"Brother?! Answer me!"
A broken voice came from beneath. "…Lucien…?"
His chest clenched. "I'm here! Hold on! Don't you dare to close your eyes!"
He dragged more rubble away, until a pale hand slipped free. His brother's face appeared, bloodied, barely breathing.
"Stay with me! Don't you die on me, you hear me?!"
The boy's lips moved. "It hurts… so much…"
Lucien shook his head violently. "Don't talk! Just, just stay awake! I'll get you out! I swear!"
---
Lucien clutched his brother's cold, trembling hand.
"Don't move! I'll get you out, I'll save you!"
A weak smile cracked on his brother's bloodied lips. "Lu… good thing… mother sent you to the forest… for…"
Lucien's eyes widened. "No.. don't say that! Don't you dare say that!"
"Listen… I trust you… with everything…" His voice broke into a cough, crimson spilling from his mouth. "I… I don't want to give you false hope…"
"You're going to live! Do you hear me?! You're going to live!"
His brother's fingers tightened faintly around his hand. "It wasn't damn bandits… it wasn't …"
Lucien leaned closer, desperate. "What? Then what? Tell me!"
"It was… a dragon…" His breath rattled. "It burned the village… all at once… then… disappeared…"
Lucien's heart stopped cold.
"No! Don't close your eyes! Stay with me!"
But his brother's lips curved in the faintest smile. "Lu… forgive me…"
His hand slipped from Lucien's grasp. The light left his eyes.
Lucien shook his brother's shoulders violently.
"Don't die! Don't die! Please, stay with me!"
His brother's body was limp. No answer.
"No… no, no, no, no!" Lucien's voice cracked. He pressed down on his chest, tried to shake him awake, tried anything. "Wake up! Don't leave me! Please!"
His hands trembled as he looked around. Nothing. No one. Just silence.
"I'll find help… I'll find someone! Just… just hold on!"
He scrambled up, staggering through the wreckage of the village, eyes wild, searching for anyone, anything.
"Someone! Please! Help us!" His throat burned from screaming.
He turned a corner and froze.
There, half-buried under collapsed beams, lay his parents. Their faces were pale, eyes empty, their bodies unmoving.
Lucien's breath left him in a broken gasp. He dropped to his knees.
"No… not you too…" His hands shook as he touched his mother's arm. Cold. His father's chest. Still.
Tears blurred his vision. "Please… get up… say something… anyone…"
But there was only silence.
Lucien's knees hit the ground. His throat ripped open with a scream.
"NO! NO! Don't leave me! Don't leave me!"
He grabbed at his mother's clothes, shaking her lifeless body. "Wake up! Please, wake up!"
He turned to his father, pounding his chest with both fists. "Get up! You can't… you can't leave me too!"
Nothing.
Lucien's voice broke into violent sobs. He clawed at the dirt, at the ruins, at himself. His cries echoed through the empty village, raw and endless.
Time slipped away. Minutes, maybe hours, he didn't know. He was just screaming, choking on tears, his body shaking, his face pressed into the ashes of his home.
When the sobs finally slowed, his chest still heaved, his throat raw and bleeding from the sound. His eyes burned, swollen and red, but he couldn't stop whispering:
"Don't leave me… please don't leave me…"
The silence pressed down on him harder than the ruins.
---
Lucien dug with his bare hands. Stones, ash, splinters, he didn't care. He dragged his brother's body out from the wreckage, then his parents'. His fingers bled, his arms shook, but he didn't stop until he had buried them together in the earth.
When it was done, he just stood there, staring at the mounds of dirt. His whole body trembled, every breath shallow and broken.
Then he turned away.
He wandered through the ruins of the village, step after step, no strength left in him. Burned homes, scorched fields, silence everywhere. He searched, but there was nothing, no one. They all buried in ruins..
His legs finally gave out. He dropped to his knees in the middle of the empty street, his eyes hollow.
One thought circled over and over, louder and louder, until it drowned out everything else.
"I'll kill it. I'll kill that damn dragon."
His fists clenched, shaking.
"I don't care how… I don't care when… I'll kill it."
The words burned into him, the only thing left alive in his broken world.