[Year 344, The month of Flame, day 25]

“I think I liked it better when it was quiet.”

The rainstorm outside had been raging for a couple of hours now, and the seemingly endless stream of falling washed out all other sounds except the cracking of the twigs used in our makeshift fire.

“I don’t suppose you could use fire magic, can you?”

Even though I gathered as wood and hay as I could and placed a ring of stones around it, the fire refused to grow any larger than a small flame. We would have been in trouble if it were a winter or summer month, as the holes in the building would have made it impossible to stay warm, and we had enough problems as is.

“You don’t talk much, do ya?”

On the opposite side of the flame, a boy younger than me laid flat on his back on a pile of blankets I managed to put together. He was covered from head to toe in bandages and the stench of the healer’s salve coming off him could be smelt a yard away. While there was a shirt folded beside him, the only thing he wore was a pair of oversize brown shorts. The boy’s original clothes had been damaged beyond repair and the scraps that remained of them had been soaked through with blood.

Besides, it wasn’t like the original owners would be needing them anymore.

If dad were heー

Just thinking about everything that had happened brought me to the verge of tears. I clenched the dagger dad had given me before he… before he passed on, for comfort. The hilt was rather worn out, the single-edged bladed had been snapped off at the center, and I even had to scrounge up an ill-fitted sheath for it myself.

Overall, it was a pretty terrible birthday gift.

“Can you say something? Anything? ….Haah.”

I’d been trying to get the boy to talk to me ever since he woke up three days ago, but he remained silent.

The lack of progress was starting to annoy me, but I couldn’t force him do anything if he didn’t want to.

I dusted myself off as I rose to my feet and made my way over to a window sill on the far end of the room. When I’d been setting up our little camp, I tried to make the furniture as a fort, but I gave up halfway because I couldn’t move some of the heavier items. While the dining table remained where I found it, most of the chairs and tables were just scattered around the room, making the room a bit tricky to walk around.

{Duuaaawwnn}

The thunderbolt struck down nearby when I made it to the window. There was a large clay bowl resting on the ledge outside the window. It’d been collecting water ever since it started raining and it was now filled to the brim.

“This should be enough.”

I managed to bring the bowl back to our makeshift camp with only spilling a third of it on the floor. Not wasting any time, I took a clean rag, two small plates, a couple of bread loaves, and a cup out of a half-empty sack. though a couple days old bread was still edible, at least for now.

After slicing the bread with my dagger, I split them between the two plates I sat one plate aside and poured some of the water into the cup before dipping the rag into the bowl.

“Dinner’s ready.”

I picked up a plate of bread and bowl of water and brought it over to the boy. There was no reaction from him as I sat down and brought a piece of bread to his mouth. Even when I started pressing the bread against his face, the boy just laid there.

“Come on, you don’t it to go to waste do you?”

I was starting to get worried now, the boy hadn’t eaten anything since he woke up. Maybe he’d come out wrong after fighting those ogres with dad, but he wouldn’t heal if he didn’t eat.

“Haah, maybe tomorrow?”

After a few minutes of trying, I placed the plate down beside the boy and picked up the soaked through the rag.

Grabbing hold of the boy’s lower jaw I opened his mouth and slowly started wringing the water into it.

Once the bowl had been emptied, I went back to my own spot and started eating my share of the bread. It was a little stale but dipping it in the water helped soften it up.

With a full belly, I laid down on my own pallet and tried to get some sleep.

“See you in the morning. Hopefully, the rain will stop by then.”

Wish the boy a good night, I shut my eyes and allowed the cascade of rain lull me to sleep.

===========================

“Don’t stop!!” “Keep running!!”

Everything was wrong. People were shouting all around me and I didn’t know where we were going.

Mom was moving slower than normal after she fell down when everyone first started running from the ogres. I was scared when she disappeared under the feet of the other villagers but managed to pull herself free a couple seconds later.

Since then we’d been running every which way, trying to find safety from the monsters. I tried to hold on to her hand as we ran after a small group of people in front of us, but her grasp loosened by the second, and we’d started to fall behind the others.

“Garrraaaagghhh!!”

The ogre’s roar sent a shudder down my spine, but I kept running with all I had. All I knew was that to stop was to day, however, I didn’t making it far before I was roughly pushed forward, preceding a wet crunching sound behind me.

I didn’t look back to see what had happened, to do so would have been to die.

“Don’t let go, mom, we can make it!”

I didn’t even know what “it” was but I tightened my hold on moms hand and ran faster than I’d ever ran in my life. I was so focused on running that I didn’t realize how easy it was to pump my arms until I caught sight of mom’s hand in the corner of my eye.

Everything below the wrist of the hand wasn’t there.

“Ahhh!!!!”

I was so distracted that by the hand I ended up tripping and falling flat on my face.

“Help! Mommy! Daddy!!”

I screamed and shouted for help but no one was around me. My home was collapsing before my eyes, and I was all alone. Tears began to fall from my eyes as I struggled to stand up.

“Don’t cry, mommy’s right here.”

“Mommy!!”

My head snapped up when I heard mom’s voice but I didn’t see her.

“Mommy, where are you?”

“I’m right here, sweetie, can’t you see me? I’m right in front of you.”

She sounded like she was right beside me, but I couldn’t see her at all, maybe I was just hearing things? Only when I looked down did I find the source of my mom’s voice.

When I fell I lost hold of the hand, it seemed to have landed a few feet away from me.

However, it didn’t stay there. Slowly, but surely the hand had started to inch its way towards.

“Come on, sweetie. Come join mommy.”

For some reason, hearing mom’s voice coming from the hand was scarier than the ogres had been.

I wanted to run, but my legs refused to move, I was helpless as I watched the hand’s approach. Once it was within range, the hand readied itself before leaping at my head. Before everything went black, I saw the palm of my mother’s hand closing in on my face.

===========================

“Ayaaaaaa!!”

I jolted awake in a cold sweat. The fire had been reduced to a few cinders and the rain storm outside had been reduced to a drizzle. At some point, the boy had fallen asleep and continued to remain unaware of me.

It was another nightmare. Yesterday, it had been dad's corpse, and the day before that it’d been both mom and dad.

I brought my knees to my chest and started rocking back and forth on my pallet. I wanted my family back. I didn’t know what to do, everything was gone, and I was scared.

Only when my rolling caused me to knock into my dagger did I take notice that some of the things were out of place. Picking the dagger up, I looked around the room once more.

I’m sure I left the dagger near our food sack, the water bowl had been placed back on the ledge, and the folded shirt that should have been by the boy was pooled at my feet. Both plates were emptied and stacked off to the side of the fire pit, and the furniture had been arranged in a complete circle around us.

There were only two people that could have done this and it hadn’t been me. A smile appeared on my face as my gaze wandered back to the sleeping boy. Though things were still bad, at least I wasn’t alone.

I guess that it was the best I could hope for in this situation. As I started to drift off again, I was a little bit more relaxed than before. However, one question occupied my thoughts.

How did the boy do anything given the terrible condition of his body?