Elliot slowly opened his eyes to find himself starting at an unfamiliar ceiling. He was laying in a comfy bed tucked under a thick blanket.

He jumped out of bed shouting, “Grampa I need to…” But just as his legs touched the floor he lost his balance and fell.

“Eh?” He looked at his legs and found them bandaged and a strange burning sensation with numbness came from them, not only that his hands, face, and back were bandaged too.

The door opened and into the room entered priest Will with a tray with a hard piece of bread and some water.

“Oh you awake, but don't start moving now your wounds still haven't healed.” He placed the trait at a small table in front of Elliot.

“Grandpa, where is…” Elliot wanted to ask about his grandfather's whereabouts, but then he remembered.

“Well it's not a surprise that you don't remember, it was a miracle by itself that you arrived alive. Most of the skin on your back and hands were mangled, while your legs had lots of frost marks.” Will pointed at the bandages one by one.

“He is…” Even though Elliot knew the answer he couldn't finish the sentence.

“Yeah, sorry to tell you this kid but, he really is dead.” The priest said it with a completely emotionless voice.

“Ah…” Elliot was dejected for a moment but then remembered something.

“That's right you are a priest you can resurrect him!” Elliot almost jumped at will as he grabbed his hand.

“Don't even joke about something like that, not even gods can resurrect the dead, especially not me.” The priest said mockingly.

Elliot became dejected again and slowly his knees touched the floor as he started to mumble to himself, “Only if I was faster then, then…”

“Sorry to disappoint you but he wouldn't have lived any longer even if you arrived earlier.” The priest raised Elliot from the floor and placed him back on the bed.

“But he said that you can heal him…”

“Maybe in the past I could.” The priest tugged his sleeves up to his shoulder and showed two big spider web tattoos of chains on both of his hands, they had brand scars in the middle of each of them that were made with a hot iron.

“But now I'm just a banished priest.”

“I… don't get it.” Elliot shook his head in confusion.

“Banished priests can't use their faith to heal or other abilities, well I can but just barely.”

Elliot's eyes became sad once more as he understood that his grandfather tried to protect him by sending him away but in the end, he endangered himself for no reason.

“*Sigh* I am not good with these things, eat and get better when you do, I will take you to see his grave.” Will said without much care as he took a swing from his flask.

Elliot sat on the bed unmoving.

“I leave you to yourself.” Will exited the room when he was outside he said, “Lucky kid with those kinds of injuries he should have been asleep at least for a week, especially because of his cracked shoulder.” He murmured to himself as he disappeared into a hallway.

***

A few days passed and Elliot's injuries were slowly getting better. Will would come every day to bring food and change Elliot's bandages as well as give him some company. When Will would change the bandages he would give a little prayer and his hands would start glowing lightly with a warm yellow light.

As he did visit him he would occasionally tell him some stories about anything and everything from dark mages to the church, sometimes he would bring some books for Elliot to read too.

One day after Elliot could move again so Will took him to his grandfather's grave. He stood in front of two nameless graves that were just a few meters away from a big ancient tree. One of the graves was freshly dug, it had few flowers on it, by the looks of it they were placed by a few different people.

The priest placed his hand on Elliot's shoulder and said, “Many people of our village owned your grandfather a lot, so they came to show their respects. Sorry that you couldn't make it to the ceremony but we couldn't wait a few weeks for you to wake up.”

Elliot only nodded in response.

Seeing that Elliot barely responded, Will could only sigh. “*Sigh* Well I will leave you alone for a while.”

Elliot just nodded his head once more, not looking at the priest at all. Will moved back to the church taking a few sips out of a flask that he swiftly hid into the inside pocket of his jacket.

Elliot was standing in front of the grave completely frozen, many thoughts crossing his mind, a few of them confused him, a few of them made him feel guilty, but all of them just made him more sad and dejected.

He wanted to thank his grandfather for everything he ever did for him but he knew that it was already too late, no matter what he would say no one would hear him no matter what he did, it wouldn't change a thing.

Random memories started to overwhelm him, in the end, Elliot couldn't take it anymore and he fell to the ground while crying. Tears were streaming down his cheeks nonstop, falling on the snow one after the other.

It was the first time Elliot ever remembered himself crying, it was a weird feeling, a feeling of all of his bottled-up emotions burst out. He hadn't noticed it himself but for a moment his expressionless face broke and showed real emotions of sadness.

After a while, Elliot calmed down and with it, his face returned to indifferentness, but even after getting himself under control he still hasn't returned to the church, only after the priest came back to get him he did return.

From that day onward every day, Elliot would go to the grave and just stand there, for some reason it gave him a weird feeling as if he did something like that before. But he didn't care and still continued to come every day to the grave until the priest would come to get him.

***

Two weeks passed in a blink of an eye, Elliot's injuries mostly healed with the help of priest Will’s healing miracles. Elliot would still go out to look at the two lonely graves under the big tree as if looking for something that is already long gone, something that will never be back, even though he knew it he still chose to come.

The dim sun just started to shine and Elliot was already standing at his usual spot but today he wasn't alone, priest Will was there with him.

“Elliot, a friend of mine, has arrived at our village and he will take you to the nearest city where an acquaintance of mine will take care of you.” Will said.

Elliot jumped up a little bit. “...Is it because I haven't worked? I will hunt and get my own food by myself, it's alright.”.

Will released a big sigh. “*Sigh* Sorry Elliot but it's for your own good, the food here is just too scarce. All the edible plants and animals in the area have been eaten long ago, what is left is only scraps and there just isn't enough food to feed another mouth.”

“Not to talk about the endless war that is still happening not so far away from here, we don’t know when someone will come to our village and plunder it, in the city you should be a lot safer.”

“Ah… I see.” Elliot returned from his stupor and answered calmly, as he already knew the state of the village. War made this place uninhabitable, the fields were burned down, the stockpiles were taken by the local soldiers and bandits, and there was no manpower to bring this village back to its feet.

“I forgot to ask why isn’t the grandpa's wife's grave here as well?”

“It's because she was the priestess of the holy flame. After the death of a priest or a priestess, their bodies return to the main church to be burned by the holy flame and in the church, their ashes will remain.”

“He never actually told me his name…”

“Oh, don’t hold it against him he was chased everywhere because of his name. If you told it to someone by accident there is a chance that you would have lost your life.”

“Well, I doubt that would happen because we are living at the end of the world but still being cautious wouldn’t harm, same with your last name don’t mention it to anyone please.”

“Um, so his name was?” Elliot asked once more.

“Right right, his was Leo the or as they called him the Lion of the Blueheart family.” The priest said his name awkwardly as if he didn’t want to.

“Again don’t mention it to anyone and it's time to go, say your goodbyes, and meet me at the church. We don't want our friend to wait for us too long.” Priest Will said that and left for the church.

“Did you hear grandpa I am leaving, I guess I won't be able to come here for a while. But don't worry I will come back, I promise, and thank you for everything.” Elliot said with a gentle voice then started to leave but then suddenly stopped, looked back at graves, and while bowing slightly closed his eyes and placed his hands together as if to pray.

Then he whispered to himself as if in an instinct, “Rest in peace in my memories.”

After staying in that state for a moment Elliot slowly raised his head in confusion. “Why have I done that?” He asked himself not knowing the answer, but not he didn’t think about it too much and just shook his head a little and then left for the church.

Elliot returned to the church but before even entering inside he heard a cry of an animal coming out from its side.

*Neighhh!*

Elliot stopped at his track and looked to his right, curious about which animal would make sounds like that, he started to walk towards its source.

As he turned the corner he found himself face to face with a two-meter tall white horse. It had a beautiful long white mane and white eyes, its muscles were bulging so much that you could see its veins with the naked eye.

“Horse...“ Elliot murmured and out of reflex Elliot reached out with his hand to pat the horse's muzzle. The horse didn’t evade and even came a step closer to him while lowering its head to his height.

Elliot's hand connected with the horse's nose, it was hot to the touch, especially in this cold weather. The horse gave the palm two sniffs and exhaled strongly *PFFFTTT* as it walked to the side.

Elliot's heart jumped a little bit as it happened and even before retracing his arm he noticed that another horse came out from behind the church. This horse was the complete opposite of the first, in color at least, darker than the night and even its eyes were dark in color.

The only thing Elliot found out “different” about this horse is that it had less muscles on its body and its size was smaller than the white horse as well. Not knowing anything better Elliot came to pat this horse as well.

The horse gave Elliot a weird look and made a turnaround on the spot as it slowly walked back behind the church.

“Eh?” Elliot got surprised but thinking that the horse was just shy he followed it to the back of the church.

There he saw the priest Will talking to a young man near an old wooden carriage. The young man was around the age of twenty-five, he had dark short hair and light green eyes and he wore a dark brown cloak with a mantle elongated on its end, looking a little bit like a jester hat.

The young man took a pouch out of his cloak and handed it to Will, the priest then bounced the pouch a little bit in the air, and even though it was some distance away from Elliot he still could hear some coins clinking in it.

The priest noticed Elliot out of his peripheral vision and pocketed the pouch into his cassock's inner pocket and as if nothing had happened he walked towards Eliot with a smile.

“Elliot, I want you to meet someone. This is Ryder, he is the best R.I.D.E.R. in all the of the north.” Will looked back and forth from Ryder to Elliot to see the reaction to his “great jock”, but in return, he only got Elliot's expressionless face and Ryder's deadpan “I heard this so many times.” face.

“Pff, you both are no fun. Elliot, this is a friend of mine that I was talking about, he will take you to the city of Remes and from there, an acquaintance of mine will take care of you. Be a good kid and don’t cause any trouble for Ryder on the road.”

Ryder came closer to Elliot and extended his hand for a shake, “Nice to meet you Elliot, we will ride together for a while hopefully we can become good friends.” Ryder said with a smile.

Elliot nodded in return without shaking Ryder's hand or saying a word. Ryder's smile became a little bit awkward as he gave Will a glance of help. Will just shook his shoulders as if saying, ‘It's your problem now.’

Ryder released a sigh and looked toward Elliot, “Well have you packed your stuff? We are leaving now when the sun is still high in the sky.”

As Ryder said that Elliot remembered that he had almost nothing of his own except his dagger, a small journal he wrote for herbs, and his clothes. While most of his belongings are far away in a shack up the mountain, surely it wouldn’t be possible to make the trip to and take them.

Elliot could only release a small sigh and abandoned his journal’s collections, “Yes, I am ready.” He answered and walked to the cartridge with his head down.

Ryder helped Elliot up the carriage and then shouted out towards the horses, “Light, Shadow back!” Immediately the two horses ran towards the carriage and he put a harness on each of the horses, and then he tied them to the carriage.

Jumping up to the driver's seat he looked at Will and said, “Don’t you want to say goodbye?”

“*Sigh* I don’t really good with goodbyes, but yeah.” Will went over to Elliot and tried to say something but Elliot beat him to it, “Thank you for taking care of me for the last few weeks I won’t forget it. One day when I grow up I will come back to repay you, I promise.”

Will was taken by surprise when Elliot said that but still answered with a sad smile and a slow shake of his head, “Oh, don’t worry about it, I was just repaying my debt for that old fool. But please do come for a visit once in a while. I am sure he will be happy too.”

Elliot looked at Will and thought to himself for a moment and then nodded his head while giving a four-word answer, “I will still remember.”

“Do whatever you want.” Will turned said with a small smile.

Without further ado, Ryder gave the horse reins a small smack and the carriage started to move forward. It didn’t take long for it to leave the village, leaving alone the lonely priest standing in front of the church.

“You raised a good child Leo.” Will said as he took a swing from his flask.