Fly High: Finding Love in the Yonder Heights

Vallum ducked under the punch and went under his opponent's blow to make a break for it.

"Some father you are, attacking your own son." He said when he reached the door.

"My son is trying to do something ridiculous. I have to beat some sense into him."

Vallum opened the door and ran right into his mom who was holding a large wooden soup ladle. He scrambled back and ducked the swing that was thrown his way.

"You too, mom?! I have a family of psychos." He said while looking for an escape route.

"You are running off in search of elusive mysterious love instead of the real love that you have right here! We can't just let you drop everything in your life for that woman." His mom cried.

"You guys have known Kenra as long as I have! You guys love her too. What is your problem with me going after her?" Vallum's eyes lock onto a window that he could reach without passing either parent.

"Kenra was a lovely young lady, but then she got entangled in that cult stuff and left the village," His dad said as he dashed toward the window.

When they saw his plan, both of his parents rushed after him, and he felt the ladle crack against his back. Before they could catch him, he reached the window and threw it open, diving headlong out of the window.

"I love you guys," Vallum yelled behind him as he took off to the woods, "If things go well then I will come back here for the wedding."

"Don't ever come back here!" His dad yelled angrily.

He ran until the adrenaline died out and then he started walking. The vast number of huge trees made navigating tricky, but he knew the area well enough to make it to the road.

He started mumbling to himself, "It's not a cult, Dad. She went to join the Court of the Night. Just because you and Mom don't like magic doesn't make everyone who does it part of a cult."

He stepped out onto the dirt road and started away from his village.

'This has to be the way that Kenra went with the man in black.' He thought, 'It is the only road that comes out from the village.'

As he walked, his mood slowly started to spiral downwards thinking about the day that the man cloaked in black showed up at Kenra's doorstep. 'The people spurned her in an instant.' Vallum thought, 'They are so terrified of magic that when a magician singled out one of their own, they started calling her a witch and avoiding her. The man said that he was from the Court of the Night and that Kenra had potential, so he sought her out. It was for a couple days that the man would follow her around and go wherever she went. She didn't talk to me or anyone else, from what I could tell, the whole entire time that he was here. Whenever I saw her, she was quiet and constantly looking at the man following her. It doesn't make sense why she decided to leave, because she wanted to stay in the village when she grew up. I had always talked about leaving to go live in the mountains, in solitude, and she always joked about finding ways to tie me down to the town. Leaving her would be hard, but I would have come back eventually... and now I have been left. And not on circumstances that I am okay with.'

Vallum tried to raise his mood before he got to the city, but he was unsuccessful. Thoughts of his parents and of Kenra leaving were too present for him to regain clarity. He passes through the city gate and was immediately thrown in over his head.

"Hey, mister, could you help me please?" A young blonde woman that happened to be around his age in the late teens, called out from the side of the road. She was covered in dirt and held beat up metal cup that clanked with the sound of coins inside.

"What is it that you need?" Vallum walked over to her. He had hardly ever been in the city, as when he would come with his dad to trade and sell livestock they would meet outside the city at a farmer's estate.

When he got closer to the young woman she dropped her cup and a few coins spilled on the ground as she stumbled to her feet. She clumsily rushed toward Vallum and threw her arms around his neck.

"Please!" She cried, "My father- he is sick." She started to shake as Vallum stood in shock, tentatively placing his arms around the girl to hold her. "The coins I gathered. They're not enough. I have been doing everything I can, but he isn't going to make it." She sobbed.

After she finished her talking, she tore herself away from Vallum and saw the money on the ground.

"Aah! The money, without that I definitely won't be able to help father." She got on her hands and knees and frantically started picking the money up, "Will you please help me make sure I get it all up?"

At her request, Vallum snapped out of his daze and picked up what is left of the coins on the ground.

"Where is your father? I don't think there is anything I can do to help," Vallum asked. He was on his own mission, but there was no reason for him to ignore everything along his way. As far as he knew, Kenra was not in any sort of trouble, even if it was weird that she chose to leave the village.

The woman's eyes lit up when Vallum asked her where her father was, and she jumped up, but was careful with the coins this time so that they didn't spill. When he looked closer, Vallum realized that there were actually no coins in the cup at all. He looked at the woman, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. She hurried up to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him down the street and through a maze of back alleys. He tried to protest before he entered the first dark alley in the series, but she didn't slow down. When she finally came to a stop, Vallum realized he was in trouble. Not only did the big guy in front of the building he was brought to look scary, but his coin pouch had been stolen.