A quick desperate gasp for air resounded within the small cabin room. A small figure gripped onto the bed covers as if it had woken up from a terrible nightmare. As it attempted to get out of the bed his body was rocked with a wave of pain from the center of his back. An automatic groan escaping into the quiet room.

Raiden involuntarily tensed his back muscles as the pain began and this only made it worse. His hands tightening so hard that he cut into his own palms. While attempting to stay as still as possible so as to not cause another surge of pain, he heard the quick patter of footsteps that were heading to his room.

The door opened rapidly, with little care on the strength that was applied in opening, slamming into the wall. There stood his Uncle, his face filled with worry, but upon laying his eyes on him a soft sigh transformed his expression to one of relief and joy. The large man rushed his nephew in and just as he was about to hug him like a bear, he stopped. His hands clasped onto the child’s shoulder gently but firmly. The shoulders of the large man trembled as tears threatened to escape from his normal stoic expression.

Raiden had never seen his Uncle so… fragile. The large man kneeled and pulled him into a strong embrace. A light singeing pain came from his chest this time but he grit his teeth and hugged his uncle back. For a slow ten minutes, the two just allowed time to breeze by, letting the horrible experience that had occurred sink in and beholden on how they were able to survive.

Time elapsed and Raiden attempted to shuffle slightly to release some pressure from the left side of his chest, which was where the pain seemed to be originating right now.

“Ah yes, of course. Sorry nephew, in my joy of seeing you awake it slipped my mind all your body had to go through.”

Yian, understanding exactly what the discomfort was, pulled back and ruffled the child’s hair. The weight on his shoulder finally lifted, as he had been fraught with worry as Raiden had been unconscious for quite a while at this point. His days had consisted on checking his nephews pulse and condition routinely every morning and night, out of fear that his situation would worsen at any minute. The only silver lining that the child had slept the entire time, almost as if he were hibernating so as to quicken his recovery.

“What happened Uncle? I…I remember you fighting that monster… and then… then just bits and pieces. I heard it mumbling, you two kept fighting and then it yelled something about suffering and sparrows. Then you were running, and the sun… it felt so nice to see the sun. The grass was so cool on my back, so comfortable…”

Raiden at first began recounting his hazy recollections of what had occurred. However, it soon began to speed up and it became an almost incoherent stream of splashes of detail.

“Slow down nephew, we got all the time we need now. Calm yourself, breathe slowly. “

Yian gently grasped Raidens shoulders, in an attempt to bring him back to the present.

“The hag is no more. First, I’m going to have to check on your wounds. After that we can talk… about everything. No more secrets alright?”

Raiden’s fearful eyes slowly lessened, and his mind was able to calm himself slightly. Once again, he scanned around the room and took stock of his uncles’ expression. The man who had allowed him the slightest feeling of safety from simply thinking about him.

‘He found me… I’m ok now… we’re safe.’

So, Raiden steadied his breathing and replied.

“Ok Uncle.”

For the first time since he had awakened, Raiden moved his attention towards himself. Now he understood the aching pain and weariness. His entire body was covered in bandages that wrapped around his torso. His neck sported a lighter set of dressings, which brought a slight shiver to him as he recalled the boney hand that had strangled him.

As the bandages came off, Raiden lowered his head, curious as to why his chest hurt. After all, he had only been hurt in his back by the hag. At no point did he remembered being hit or hurt by anything else, and as the last dressing came off more questions arose instead of answers. Just above his left nipple, a circular scorched scar that had weird branches that arched and broke off that began to travel away from it in all directions.

‘What is this?’

The small hands inquisitively reached towards his neck where he lost track on one particularly long branched path that crawled upwards on his chest.

“Raiden it is that very curiosity that led you here in the first place. While it won’t hurt quite as much as what you have on your back, I can guarantee you that lightning burns are nothing to scoff at.”

“Lightning? Uncle just what happened?! When did I get hit by lighting??”

Yian stood up from his spot and dragged a chair close to the bed. Plopping himself down with a heavy sigh, he began to recall the events that had transpired at what felt like a lifetime ago.

“Well, first thing is first Raiden. You’ve been unconscious for a bit more than a couple weeks at this point.”

Seeing Raiden open his mouth to speak Yian held up his hand and stopped him.

“Let me finish child. After we made it out from the ruins, I set you down close to were you had left your satchel. You had taken quite a beating from whatever that hag had planted on your back. I’m guessing they hadn’t planned to leave you untreated and that whatever happened during our altercation would have ended swiftly, and most likely in their favor. Whatever the case, any curative means they might have had were no longer on the table, so I rushed the nearest place were we had the chance to find anything that might have aided me in allowing to heal or help abate the pain that you were feeling. We were quite lucky since you seem to have quite the knack at choosing magical herbs since most of what you had gathered were potent healing herbs.”

“I learned from the best.”

Raiden’s small cheeky interruption earned him a soft smack to the head.

“At any other moment child I would have made you run double your usual routine and had you puke your breakfast after what you caused.”

Lowering his head in shame, Raiden knew that he had majorly screwed up. The lack of tension in the room and the safety of his bed had momentarily allowed him to forget that he had almost died. Maybe that was exactly what he was trying to do, his young mind just attempting to return to the semblance of peace he had almost lost from his foolishness.

As Raiden’s kept his head low, Yian’s eyes softened. Being harsh to his nephew after what had happened was a necessity. For all the child had suffered, he needed to be made aware that his actions had consequences that had almost cost him his life. The enemies that were after them would not be as easily dealt with as the hag. They had gotten lucky, extremely so, as hags were not only notoriously easy to read in their intents, but also believed themselves superior to humans, which allowed them to underestimate their opponents. Never in their wildest dreams had they expected to encounter a human that could rival and surpass them in mana capacity. Although the battle had come with its own set of complications for Yian.

“Oy, raise you head. What have I told you about mistakes?”

Sheepishly the young boy looked towards his Uncle. The harsh scolding demeanor seemed to have softened and he thought back to the many lessons he had been taught whilst training under him.

“If you know you’ve made a mistake, then you know how to fix it.”

“Exactly, so how are you going to fix this one, so that you won’t land yourself in a similar situation?”

“Not leaving the forest like you told me to?

Silence. Yian took his time to think on how best to convey his hopes to the young dreamer. After a minute or two, he began with a heavy sigh.

“Aye, while that would be a temporary fix, it isn’t the way to remedy this now is it? Raiden, I… How do I put this… I don’t want you to have to hole yourself in this cabin for the rest of your life. Maybe my insistence on not leaving the nearby woods wasn’t the best way of showing it. But I have no illusions that you will change, you can’t. I’ve seen it in your father, and I have seen it in myself. I have been very reluctant in my teaching methods, well my father’s really. At times I thought it was because we had a role to play in our tribe, that maybe he had a sense of duty due to his station that he felt we were meant to carry on once he retired.”

Raiden stood there enraptured. This was the first time his Uncle had ever spoken about himself and his childhood. About his worries and desires for him as his guardian. He kept as quiet and still as possible, attempting to carve every word to memory.

“It is something I’ve only come to understand recently thanks to you Raiden. The way my father taught your father and me, and the way I will be teaching you once you’ve fully recovered. Was not driven by his sense of duty to the tribe for us to be useful warriors. No, it came from a sense of duty to us. To give us every chance possible to survive, no matter how harsh. So the answer on how to fix your current predicament is to become stronger. The enemies you will come face to face with are far more terrifying than a half starved hag. So, starting next week, whether or not you are ready, we will be leaving this cabin. It is no longer safe for us here.”

“Are we going home Uncle? To the savage plains?”

The excitement in Raiden’s voice could hardly be hidden. Not only would he get to explore with his Uncle, but he might finally get to meet his family. Or at least his extended family. However, his hopes were quickly dashed away.

“Not yet, the way to the savage plains from here would make us cross paths with a lot of Empire soldiers and outposts. First, we are going to have to travel towards the kingdom of Berulia. Getting there will take us the better part of a year. We will have to gather supplies and travel across the mountain range and the heavy forests in between. During our journey we will begin your real martial training. So to be fair, it might even take us 2 years to reach our destination. The journey is going to be tough, especially for you, we will slow our pace in consideration of the training you will be doing alongside the journey but I expect us to at least be traveling 2 to 5 miles a day in rough terrain.”

Yian began to list off all the things he would be preparing in the coming week as Raiden finished recovering enough to get out of bed. Then he took the map that Raiden hung in his room to outline the path they would be taking to Berulia.

“We will be going in the opposite direction of the hags lair. Crossing over the forest for about two months. By that point we should reach the base of the mounta… COUGH, COUGH.”

All of a sudden, Yian began coughing heavily, and through his fingers a small trickle of dark red blood dripped slowly onto the sheets.

“Uncle!!”

Yian held up his left hand while keeping the other at his mouth as the bout of coughing continued for another minute. With a heavy heart Yian looked towards his nephew.

“We set out next week. Once you, COUGH COUGH, get better, we’ll discuss all of your questions. Don’t worry about this for now, rest up and steel yourself for what’s to come.”

With that Raiden watched with anxious eyes as his Uncle wearily walked out of his room in preparation of what was to come.