Chandea, Year of Severus, 16, I.R., the 1st day of Winter, Broken Springs

---------------------------------------------------

The cold winter wind blew once again as Nullus took another step into the thick snow. It was a difficult trek for him especially because, he had to carry the firewood on his back and the annoyingly noisy boy on his other arm while holding the torch on the other as they further into the eastern forest.

Another icy breeze blew in their direction and finally extinguished the torch he held. Nullus clicked his tongue before dropping his torch because of the thick snow covering it.

"We take a left here." Squeakers pointed at the fallen tree blocking their way.

Nullus took a quick look at the gigantic trunk blocking their way and thought to himself how the child crossed such big obstacle or better yet, how he came by his house? Did he lose his way back and ended up in front of his house? This was way too far from where his house was.

"Do we go over this trunk?" Nullus pointed at the dead tree.

"Yes, umm…mister… Nullus." The child answered. "You really have a weird name."

Nullus scratched his head on the comment. "Did your mother ever tell you it's bad to criticize a man for his name?" He asked. Although, he got to admit that his name was a little odd since he rushed for it.

"Oh! My mom didn't." Squeakers answered. "She was too busy caring for my sister that we barely spoke."

"I… see." The child's answer clenched Nullus' heart.

Nullus tried to keep silent after that and just focused on finding the way to Squeakers' house after that conversation. He climbed the enormous trunk blocking their way and went over to the other side of the forest.

Strangely, the other side of the forest had a sparse amount of snow on the ground. The inner forest was darker than usual. There was a whole slew of supposedly white, dead trees and their snow-ridden canopies cover the forest ground preventing excessive snow and light from passing through.

There was one more thing Nullus noticed while passing by the forest. It was too quiet. A dead, calm silence that reminded him of the hole. He looked around and saw nothing but the white withering trees, lit up by the pale glow of the moons.

"Squeakers…" Nullus said while looking around the stillness of the forest. "How did you manage to get in front of my house from this forest?"

It took a while for the child to answer him. He felt the child became distraught, moving uneasy on his arm.

"W-well…" His voice suddenly trembled as if he remembered something scary. "I-I remember p-picking up some firewood… then a growling noise came out of nowhere and…"

Suddenly, Nullus heard a movement in the dark part of the woods. He put the child down from his arm and asked him to hide as he readied himself for what was about to come.

A group of glowing eyes surfaced from the darkness of the trees.

"One…two…three…" Nullus counted the pair of glowing eyes approaching them from the darkness. "Ten." There were five of them approaching.

Nullus immediately turned to Squeakers who was standing behind him frozen in fear.

"What are you doing?!" He grabbed the child's arm and pushed him inside a small crack in the giant trunk for him to hide. "Hide and don't move." He pushed him even further into the hole to avoid being seen.

Nullus immediately met the monsters in the middle of a small clearing, holding a broken medium-sized tree branch as his protection against the unknown beasts that was coming his way. The glowing eyes finally showed their faces.

It was a pack of hungry wolves bigger than him with fangs as big as daggers protruding from their overbite. The hungry packs snarled at him as their silverback slowly came forward, greeting him with a snarl.

Nullus took a deep breath. "I have no time for the likes of you!" He clicked his tongue and rushed towards the beasts.

It only took a blink of an eye to start his attack. The unlucky beasts met their end in his hands with the tree branch. He cracked the silverback's head open before battering the rest of them. The wolves didn't stand a chance against his lightning-fast attacks and within mere moments, everything was over.

After disposing the carcasses, he immediately went to Squeakers who was speechless as he helped him out of the hole.

"The coast is clear, kid." Nullus said as he threw the branch to the side.

"M-mister…Nullus… y-you killed them all?" The child couldn't believe what he just saw. "T-those are dire wolves… my uncle and his friends of 10 men couldn't even kill one of them. But you—"

"Enough talk, Squeakers!" Nullus dismissed the child's praise. "We still need to save your sister!"

"Oh! O-of course! Ummm… Let's go straight here." The child pointed at another road just next to the clearing.

Nullus followed the slippery trail while carrying the kid on his arm. After almost half-an-ildwyrm distance, they finally arrived at a dilapidated village in the middle of the forest. Squeakers told him that his house was just a few houses away from the entrance.

As they walked past the houses, there was not a single soul living in that village aside from the two of them walking around. Nullus wanted to ask the child about what happened to his village but dared not to. He silently passed by the ruined houses all the while smelling a constant scent of rotting meat.

Could it be possible that the people just died and rot inside their homes? Nullus' curiosity was just itching too much and was asking to be scratched. But he still preferred not to ask anything.

"We're here!" Squeakers excitedly jumped from his arm, tugged his arm and ran inside a broken wooden gate. "Come! Let's hurry, my mother and sister might be too worried about me."

Nullus looked around trying to make sure there were no beasts lurking around. The moons shone brightly in the sky and cast their light on them below. When he realized it was safe, he immediately followed the child inside their house, but not before spitting on the ground, expressing his disgust on both heavenly bodies.

The door creaked as he entered the dilapidated house. The inside stank of death and rot. Nullus held his guts as he tried his best not to vomit. He could hear Squeakers in the other room speaking to someone. He followed the child's voice leading him into the other room.

Squeakers was hunching on the hearth, trying to light a fire. Nullus looked around and was shocked to see a skeleton sitting at a far end corner of the room. He said nothing about what he saw instead asked the kid about his family.

"Squeakers," He started with a deep breath. "Where's your mother and sister?"

"Oh! My mother is over there at the corner." The child smiled. "Shh…she's asleep."

Nullus's heart dropped. "A-and your sister?"

"Oh, right!" Squeakers stood up and took her sister from the crib near his mother's bones. "Her she is!"

Squeakers showed him a rotting corpse of an infant wrapped in tattered clothing. Nullus took a step back. He noticed the corpse had a small blooming red flower on its empty socket. It was the same type of flower he saw inside the hole. He saw small pollens spreading in the air being inhaled by the poor boy.

Nullus nodded and immediately covered his mouth and nose by this hand.

"Why are you covering your face, mister Nullus?" The boy squinted at him.

"I-I was about to cough." He lied. "I don't want to cough at your sister."

Squeakers grinned as he turned back and returned the corpse in its crib. "You're too kind, mister."

Nullus nodded as he worried about the child's health. He knew it was only a matter of time before the flower will lay claim to Squeakers' body. He pitied the boy for his unfortunate and heartbreaking fate. To be manipulated into thinking that your family was still alive while the flower was placing spores in your body for it to propagate was utterly cruel.

At that point, Nullus could've just walked away and left the child to his impending doom. He should've done that, but he didn't. Clicking his tongue in frustration, he approached the child, and in one swooping move, Nullus knocked out Squeakers.

He then carried the child on his shoulder before taking a scorching firewood. He drew the fire rune on the walls outside the house before activating it. As the house went a blaze, Nullus took pieces of firewood and threw it to the neighboring houses as well.

Nullus knew it was the only viable option. He had to kill the flower. He exited the town with a blazing cloud of crimson and smoke behind him.