It was laughter around the fire. But this time it's for the wicked. The preying birds flocked around the fire and stay still to pass the perilous night, for the night is dark and full of the unknown. But to them, came the blinding light. "More ale," a man said around the fire to others. What these men did was vulgar. Even the word itself is not capable of the scenery. The men reek of ale and wine as they laughed off about their spoils and what they have done for themselves. They are the savages that kill and take from others. There is no part of decency inside of them at all. "We could survive the winter already with this much loot." A man with his ragged fur cloak on said. "But still, we need to guard the entry to the cave and hid it. To keep it safe." "I know without you telling me what to do every fecking time," said the man on his side. A giant scar runs through his face, from forehead across his cheek. He glared like a vulture watching its prey. But the hooded man knows that they, at least both of them, were no vultures. They're the preying birds. And they don't leave the carcasses unturned. "Time to get going." The hooded man rises from his seat. And the man beside him asked, naturally, "Wally. Where do you think you're going?" "I'm going to piss next to a tree," said him. His eyesight has already upside-down. He couldn't hold the liquor anymore. There's no need to ask. "Oh." The man said the word in disinterest. He chugged down some wine, emptied his mug, and filled it again from the flagon. "Don't drink my water." "We won't! Who's the fuck gonna to drink your fecking water?! We have beer and wine," the others at the fire spat and laughed at him. "For your hangover. By the time of the morrow. You'll need some water." And so he goes, gone under the shades of the trees. "Whatever," the man said in the end. Paying no mind to his brother's business in the bushes, he chugged the strong-wine two fully-filled mug more. But he's far from knowing that it's the thirst for something else. And as simple as that, the night grows darker. Amongst the mishaps, he found himself seated by the almost put out fire. Garred looked at the pyre and saw his face and sins. A wicked man. But not the most wicked. Yet all of his life was a summary of it. Outcasts, bogs-man, outlaws, he gathered them all and formed this band of misfits. But more than anyone, he knows that he cannot return to that path. Not anymore. The shadows came to him. He saw himself as a child, and everything robbed from him. But the illusions passed as he opened his eyes. "Not anymore," he said, always, to himself. He cast his blood-smeared sword to the ground. A not-too-fine one but it's what he had. He too rose from his seat. Somehow the dried wine tastes sour as pickles and didn't warm him anymore. Then he remembered about the women he raped before too. She was simply not enough to warm his ice-cold heart. While the men drinking, he didn't stop. When they pillaged and razed a village to the ground, he acts as he relished it all. In the end, Wally was right. Maybe Wally is the only one who understood him. Deep inside, somewhere, that the old him still exists. But after all of this, should he live by hard-earned work now? His hands are the result of bloodshed. Wally too. They lost everything. And this world doesn't know a single thing about love. So they decided to take from the world as much as they could. He saw the men and their faces. They foolishly lying in the ground while their hands gripping tight on their mugs. They have earned their share, and so be it. Walking away from the fire, he found Wally sleeping too, leaned on an oak tree, blanketed and peaceful. He never able to sleep near the rowdiest bunch, he said. But both of them knows, it was their sins that keeping them from the gentle nights. Nobody knows the feeling of a husband who lost his beloved and the feeling of a father who lost both his daughter and son. He knows. Wally knows too. "I often found both of us couldn't sleep." It was Wally, talking while his eyes closed. "Hmmph. So you're awake too." Listening, he chose to sit near him. Wally opened his eyes, staring above. "How long we can keep this? You said the garrison troops is one day behind us. They'll chase us, Garred. Even in the winter. This bunch of mishaps don't know the Old Man." It was the executioner's block or the gallows. Usurpers and pillagers, murderers, are to be sentenced to death by either way. This is the North. This is the tradition of the old. Prison is for petty crimes like stealing stocks and poaching, thievery, and false witnesses. But there are the pincers, which is the favourite of the torturers, so every criminal would choose to lose a part of their body. "Don't start it. It's a bad omen but, you're right," Garred said as he let out a long sigh. "Meeting the gallows, or fight and die as misfits should." "And yesterday, there's the old man too. Should these bunch tried to rob the old man, we'll be living targets for those elves." "Or tasting dwarvish iron in our jacksies. Good thing that you could hold them from doing that." "Gods, they're stupid!! We should leave them to their own! I want no part of this anymore, Garred! I can't----" "What do you wanted to say, Wally? You want to leave?" "I---just---" "You wanted to betray me?" "I---no-- I don't---" "You wanted to betray me?" "No--no---I---" "Listen, Wally. Listen well then. Listen!!!" he grabbed Wally's clothes and pushed him hard. "You're my brother. You have to be with me. You said the words yourself, Wally. This fecking world knows nothing of good. You bear this feeling, same as I do." "I just still missed them, Garred. And they won't come back." "I know. I know!!! But listen to me! I missed Anne, I missed my sons and daughter too." Garred stopped his breath for a while, and then whispered, "Only you must never forget, that they were taken from us." All he heard now is the rustling wind and his friend's cries. It takes a year of a man's life to turn him into something else. But the decision is always in a split moment. In a blink of an eye. They didn't know what was coming for them.