- A Stranger Leaves...[3]

They found a small, well situated inn not too far from the outer ring of the outpost, divided into three sections of walled rings. The inn was close to a guards barracks, though small, it served its purpose in Cain's eyes.

Lia, Rian, and Lukali all boarded up for the night - Rian and Lukali sharing a separate room.

While Lia's mind was still whirling from the situation inside the tavern, Lukali was faced with a different problem.

Sleep.

Not once since he had laid down for the night, had he been able to catch even a wink of sleep. Let alone fall into it entirely.

He tried taking several of the sleeping pills the inn keeper had given him for comfort, but they all proved fruitless when it came to knocking him out.

Though Lukali could not figure out as to why, he simply wrote it off as the jitters.

Seeing the group of four from the tavern after such a long time, sent Lukali back into a traumatizing era where he was still but a weak boy.

He was about ten - no fifteen when it first happened.

Lukali had been traveling through a nearby village with his mother, a kind, joyous woman who often babied him. Though his father was not around at the time, often busy with guild work, Lukali's mother was still as calm and compassionate to him as she could have ever been.

Even though the thought of her husband off fighting dangerous monsters set her on edge, she never once showed this side of fear to her son, who marveled at his parents' strength and courage.

They had been visiting the village for some herbal ingredients, as it was the day his father would come home after being away for nearly a week on a mission, and his mother was more than excited to see him again.

Luklai was as well, as he had often dreamed that past week, that his father would burst down the door, scoop him up in a big bear hug.

But, sadly, it was not to be.

As he and his mother were leaving the herbalist, a man claiming to be a traveler, offered his mother his assistance.

Lukli never knew when it happened, but somehow, that man, as he was helping them into their cart, had found a way to track them down after they left.

And track them down he did. Attacking their horse and cart with five of his friends.

They burned their cart down to the ground, tore apart their belongings, and knocked Lukali to the ground.

He pretended to be unconscious - knocked out - afraid of what would happen if he showed himself.

But it turned out to be one of the worst mistakes he could have made.

Because of his fear, he refused to move, even as he heard his mother on the other side of the cart, as she screamed for help.

Screaming and screaming, as those screams echoed into his ears, resonating through his mind.

They were horrifying.

More than once he begged inside his mind for her to be quiet, even as those men did terrible things to her, laughing as they did them.

When they were done, Lukali finally had peace.

No more screams.

Until he realized what that meant, the tears from his eyes slowly started to flow out, his mind aching and burning with fear and anger.

Anger towards himself for not doing anything.

They had thought to kill him, and had nearly succeeded.

If 'he' didn't show up.

In the guild they often called him a name, a name so recognizable that no one questioned why they called him that.

A name even Lukali had a hard time forgetting.

"White Eyes."

***

Lia sat in bed, her head throbbing with the events that had transpired no more than a few hours ago.

Pondering over what Lukali had said to her, the fear in his voice, and the sadness behind his words, Lia knew there was something else behind their meaning.

She would know, she spent years of her life hiding her emotions, her cires and her metal breakdowns from her family.

She could see though it so easily in fact, that it kept her from sleeping.

But before she could ponder over it any longer, Lia felt a presence behind her, standing over the bed, casting a shadow against her back.

"Cain."

The presence was warm, though the room was cold.

She knew who it was.

"You should sleep, you know. With what is to come, you will need your strength."

She scoffed, finding irony within his words.

"You would know that, wouldn't you?"

Cain raised an eyebrow, sensing the emotion within her words, and the current annoyance she was feeling.

"What's the matter?"

She sighed, telling herself that he would find out whether she explained it or not. So, she didn't bother to hide anything.

"It's just that…I know something is wrong with Lukali, but I don't know what."

"And you think this concerns you?"

"It does Cain."

She said sternly.

"Lukali is a friend, and now a part of my group - my party. It's my job to help him if he is in need."

"You think he needs help?"

"That's the problem, Cain. What bothers me is that 'I know' he's suffering from something, but just don't know what."

Sighing, Cain joined Lia on the bed, sitting by her side.

"You can try, but you will have no guarantee that you can succeed in reaching him."

"But I have to try, Cain."

"No, Lia. You don't. Let him handle his own demons. If he needed your help, he would have shown you his struggles in the tavern. Or when you bid him and Rian goodnight. Or when you sat here, blaming yourself for not connecting dots."

"But he did show me-"

"No, Lia. He didn't. You pried, and you dug around, and you found something out, he never would have believed you would find out in the first place."

Standing up, Cain gestured to the wall, where Lukali slept on the other side.

"That man is an archer. He will need to learn to fire a bow if he will ever be accepted as one - before he ever accepts himself as one. You can fuel him with arrows, a strong bow, the greatest praise a man can ask for. But you cannot fire the bow for him. He will never learn, forget, and let go of his demons as they haunt him, tearing him to shred and pieces. He must learn to let them go - forget them before they consume him."

Lia was silent until the last of Cain's words left her ears, left her mind, and left her heart. An impression was left then, on her, but those words. An impression of a man who knew how another man's heart worked, and the feeling of respect that man offered him.

But it also left a question in her mind.

'How do I do that though?'

Of course, Cain heard this, yet said nothing.

'This will have to be something she will need to find out. I cannot help her forever.'

Secretly Cain was reprimanding himself, and his actions long before this conversation, tracing all the way back to when he first met her.

'Listen to me rambling. Why should I lecture her on something like this, when I failed myself in following my own words?'

Taking one last look at Lia, he sighed.

'Perhaps I have done too much for her in taking the reins. It's about time I handed them back.'

"I'll leave you to think about my words, but please Lia, if you plan on doing anything, wait until the morning."

Glancing up at Cain, Lia frowned.

"Why?"

Chuckling, Cain turned his back to her before he faded out and disappeared.

"Best not to wake a man from his sleep."

And with that, he was gone, and Lia was left alone once again, in an empty and cold room.

***

-Creeeaaak!

The sound came like a thundering boom in the silence. Quite, yet shattering what little remained of noise in Luakli's ears.

Thus, he heard it instantly, yet made no motion of shock or fear.

"Lia?"

He called out, thinking to himself that it must have been Lia from next door, come to check on him, question him about his demeanor at the tavern.

'It's going to be a long night.'

He sighed when thinking about how much Lia would want to know, and how long it would take him to explain.

But in some ways, he was happy, knowing that the woman, who he saw as their party's leader, was worried about him.

'Party…I never thought I would ever be a part of a Hunters party.'

He smiled to himself when this thought passed over him, feeling that warming feeling he felt every time Lia called him a friend.

'Never thought I would have any friends, let alone be called one.'

As he opened his eyes, preparing to face Lia and answer all the questions she might ask - as well as the headache he would have to face when she would reprimand him.

Instead however, he came to face something that made his blood run cold.

Though it was dark inside the room, the sun having long since set, and the candles - his only source of light - had been snuffed out before he went to bed, he didn't have trouble seeing this.

A pair of red, crimson eyes, faded with red, orange, and yellow thing it's pupils.

It gave Lukali the awing sense of nostalgia, as the eyes looked so strikingly familiar to a raging, burning fire.

An anger burning away into flames.

At first he thought it was one of the four - Ren and his red eyes, but the color easily set them apart.

But it wasn't this that set him into such a mood of paralyzing fear as the memory of those eyes came rushing back to him.

The memory of a man, standing firmly above him, feeding him the life that would save his soul from vanishing from his chest.

A pair of eyes that scared him, yet he didn't know why.

Lukali barely had any time to scream or yell out for help as a cold hand slammed against his mouth, keeping him quiet.

For a minute, the eyes stared at him, quiet, calm, yet burning with some unfathomable rage and anger that Lukali could only imagine.

And just as soon as the clock struck twelve - midnight - did Lukali feel the bed beneath his body, warm and soft as it was, disappear, replaced by a cold, hard, and dusty ground.

The hand was no longer around his mouth, and his mind was no longer petrified with fear.

Knowing this, Lukali scrambled to his feet, casing his eyes every which way, searching for the pair of eyes' owner.

But he had little time to do so, as the breath within his lungs stopped, his own body mesmerized by the sight before him.

Large, snow covered peaks of mountain tops filled his vision, lining the horizon.

Forest stretched out as far as the eye could see, fitted between the mountains, forming a valley filled with beauty.

The cold wind that blew from the valley up towards the mountain - to him - was cold and exhilarating..

It was a feeling that took his very own breath away, as he stared on in awe, sucking in the cold and forest scented air.

It felt strangely peaceful. A feeling he had yet to find for a long time.

And just as his mind came to accept the scene before him, did he hear a crying of wood, sticks and gravel behind him.

His ears flinched, and his mind snapped around, eyes searching for the owner of the sound.

And what he saw truly left him breathless.

Not too far away from him, on the same cliff edge, stood a man with crimson colored eyes. The same eyes that Lukali saw before, filled with a raging fire that threatened to burn away all life before them.

His hands were behind his back, his body slightly twisted, yet his head was turned to him. It all made the scene feel more shocking than anything.

But before Lukali had the chance to say anything to the man, or question him, he spoke.

His voice was calm, without emotion, yet boomed through the whirling wind like a thunder clap in a storm. Easily heard, easily recognized, and easily feared.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Cain."

His voice traveled to his ears like an iron wedge, driven deep into the stone rock face.

"We need to talk."