- The Worries of the Dead

The journey through the Eastern mountains proved difficult due to the muddy terrain and the frequent stops they made because of the landslides that had taken place across the range, but Lia was grateful for the caravan and how fast it moved through the area. Totalac knew all the roads a master navigator would know and was able to get them through the range by midday.

The Dragon's path cut through many clouds and topped high forests that rested on many mountain peaks, causing the trees to flatten to the ground like the plains, empty and seemingly without life.

Even Lia had to admit as they walked through the many toppled forests and destroyed landscapes, the closer they got, the more she realized this battle may be the end of all ends. She could see the scared looks on the others as their eyes turned over the large and destroyed forests, lakes, rivers and roads that obstructed their path.

They knew this was no normal fight they were walking into, this was a battle that may end them all, and with so little help on their side, as well as an entire town to evacuate, things just kept getting worse.

"Hold up!"

A scout shouted from up ahead as the caravan and its many lines of long carts and carriages came to a grinding halt, the few horses they had spare stomped on the ground in annoyance as the young man came running back.

"What's the hold up?"

Totalac was the first to ask as he set down the reins of his horses, noticing the others approaching as they dismounted their own animals.

"There are signs of monsters up ahead. Big ones."

Gilbert rode up on his horse and having overheard the report, looked to Lia and Totalac who looked worried over the news.

"It will take us most of the day just to turn around and find another road. We've come too far to just take another route."

"You're right."

Totalac said as he leaned back on his diver's chair, watching the blue sky and clouds and they slowly drifted by.

"But the risk of a monster attack this close to the fortress is too high. Most of the beast would have been driven away from his lair out of fear, so it's hard to believe there would still be some hiding around."

A sudden thought crossed Lia's mind as she heard this, her memories flooding back to her time at the Outpost when she followed Randolph as he led a brigade into the woods to deal with the goblin horde. Were the two connected?

'It did seem odd that there were so many of them. Even Randolph thought it was strange.'

Then she thought of Cain and how his presence at the fortress seemed odd, wondering to herself what the man knew and what he had never told her. She was a fool not to ask him anything, but back then the thought never crossed her mind.

"Lia, what do you think we should do?"

Snapping back to the conversation at hand, Lia found both Gilbert and Totalac watching her with confusion in their eyes. She was so deep in thought their voices had just faded out into the distance.

Cain truly had a deep effect on her mind.

"Um…I think we should continue."

Totalac looked ahead past the fallen trees and through the brush that had piled up along the baron and overgrown road.

"Are you sure? We could run the risk of running ground again. With monsters hiding in these woods, the idea isn't too strange."

"I know, but in the worst-case scenario we can fight them off. But in truth I think you were right when you said it was odd about there being monsters this close. They may just be scavengers."

Totalac had heard enough, and with one click from his mouth and a snap of the reins he was away, his face holding a cold and stone like structure as he mumbled to himself as they passed.

"I hope your right."

They traveled past the large footprints in the dirt with their claws outstretched, and all eyes watched the broken bits of the forest that passed them by, careful and cautious about the sounds of wood creaking and bushes rustling in the distance.

What few children there were in the caravan hid with their parents or guardians, making Lia more and more increasingly worried about their state. They were about to battle a Dragon, and she had the gall to bring these people into battle.

She couldn't help but feel a bit disgusted in herself.

"You alright?"

Suddenly Rian was by her side, sitting on the back of one of the many carts that pulled along in a line, his face visible just behind the small bits of canvas that covered the carriages.

"I'm fine. I'll be fine after this is all over."

Rian was silent as he watched her, sometimes his whole face was visible, other times only the outlines of his eye that peered from behind the canvas as the caravan trudged along.

"You're not fine, are you?"

He said suddenly, causing Lia to turn her head to the floor in shame and embarrassment.

"You're worried."

"Everyone is worried. We're about to fight a Dragon and I can't even control my own fear."

"That's not what you're worried about. It's about him, isn't it?"

There was no need to mention the details of who "him" was. They both knew his name, but Lia desperately tried to forget his face every time his handsome charms entered her mind like a poisonous parasite that refused to leave her body.

"How do you do it, Rian? How do you wake up one morning and forgive someone for something they've done."

She admired Rian's courage and will to forgive Becka for the betrayal he had suffered at her hands, and even learn to love her for her flaws. She admired it more than he would know, because in her heart she knew that she was incapable of forgiving.

And it reminded her of Cain more and more.

"I don't know how I do it. To be honest I don't just wake up one morning and suddenly I have all the mercy I can give. But still, I forgave her for a lot of the things she did."

"How tough?"

"There's no feeling to it Lia. There's just a moment."

He looked through her fiery eyes that he had come to recognize as symbols of her courage, as the flames wavered and died behind her saddened gaze.

"One moment, that's all it takes. There's one moment you will share with them when you realize that everything, they've done no longer matters to you anymore. And then all it takes is the will to say it."

"And you? You found that moment?"

Rian thought back to when he and Becka were behind that barn, when they shared that one moment of silence between one another and he realized then that they were the same two parts of a whole.

"I did. She and I are a lot alike, and I knew it then that I couldn't hate her forever. So I forgave her. We were two parts of the same whole."

'Two parts…of the same whole.'

It sounded a lot like someone she knew, her and a man who shared the same look in their eyes, the same fire in their lungs and the same thoughts that passed from mind to mind.

They were the same, but could she be the one to say such things?

"Let's stop here for the night!"

The caravan came to a grinding halt as Lia heard Totalac's call from the front of the caravan. She rode up to the front carriage and found herself gazing at a long since abandoned and forgotten remnants of a farmhouse.

"This place will offer us some shelter. Even with monsters traveling in the woods, it's probably better if we stay off the road for tonight."

Totalac hopped down from his seat and began leading the many horses to the barn's side, parking the carts in a large circle that sectioned them off from the main road.

People from all different sections of the caravan pulled themselves up from inside and threw back their doors, taking a deep breath of the evening air, as long and thin blades of grass dug into Lia's side. The house looked burned and forgotten, some signs of old residents still appeared as she walked through the meadow that had formed in their yard.

She could see a small swing in the distance, the signs of a garden out back, as well as the workings of a farm from the barn with its many trees going out for the broken roof.

"It's beautiful."

She said as she passed her gaze over the large white painted wood and small glass windows, the brick chimney that stood in its place with vines and brush growing alongside it. The place looked like a long-lost fairy tale waiting to be discovered.

Then she heard Totalac's shaking voice as he mumbled from her side, taking things down from his cart as he began ushering out orders for the camp.

"You should have seen it when there were still people living here. The place was like heaven."

"Did you know the people who lived here?"

It was a small question, but his sad eyes shut Lia's mouth the moment those words left her throat, as his lonely glance passed over the rickety sheds and the broken and burned white wood. The many flowers that sprouted like wildfires across the yard and its long grass waving in the wind.

"Once."

It was all he said, but while the crickets began to chirp, the tents were raised and the sun began to set, casting the moon's dark glow over the land, Lia couldn't help but be curious. But she said nothing, or she knew if she did, she was afraid that only looks of sadness would replace her memories of his once happy face.

Night fell and the darkness covered the land, and with the occasional fire burning inside the barn where many of the people from the Caravan slept, Lia was left outside to watch the moon's rise over the distant mountain as its pale light cast a cold glow over the house.

She couldn't take her eyes off it, its black shingles vanishing in the darkness as the moon's glow shimmered off the windows sitting in their frames.

"Such a wonderful world this place must have been. I wonder what it was like when people lived here?"

The question was never meant to be answered, for she never expected the sounds of a voice to echo in her ears like the rattling of cages in her mind.

"It was sad."

Her eyes widened as she felt the sound coming from all around her, yet nowhere at the same time. She looked back to the barn where she could see the fires dancing inside as small bits of chatter seeped out of the cracks in the walls, filling the night with sounds of laughter and hope.

"Who's there?"

Lia placed a hand on the hilt of her sword, panning her eyes over the distant forest and its untouchable darkness, until her eyes landed on the shifting shadow in the woods. The night did not meld with this figure, for his darkness was immense and deep like an abyss, standing about almost the pale night's reach.

"Someone you don't wish to speak to."

Then she saw the flash and the glint like pearls or diamonds or even stars in the sky as two crimson fires danced through the abyss of darkness.

Her hand left her side and she frowned as she backed down her small stone rock, the eyes watching her from the edge of the meadow.

"Why are you here?"

The eyes stared at her from afar and she could feel the fear that those two fires would impose on anyone, but she felt no fear. She woke up every morning and saw those eyes in the mirror. She was not afraid of a mirror.

"No one needs to be alone at night."

The figure stepped forwards and Cain's chiseled and handsome features were casted in the moon's pale light.

He was like a titan among men, for he had no pretty face that made girls swoon, or the face of a man who had seen too much in life and was like stone before others. He was devilish in many ways, and Lia snapped herself out of the details when she caught herself staring.

"There are monsters hiding in the woods. I was worried."

"You? You were worried?"

Cain said nothing as he watched from the distance of the edge, holding something in his hands though Lia could not see it.

"Am I not allowed to be?"

"No, it's just…normally you tell me to be cautious and then you hide away in my mind. I've never seen you out and about without danger or schemes to plot."

"...then perhaps I was the one who didn't want to be alone tonight?"

Lia frowned as she watched his dull eyes pan over the meadow, admiring its beauty before stopping at the house. And then in the corner of his eyes she could see the hint of fear that laced through his blood.

"You're afraid? You?"

She was shocked. She had never seen him afraid before and never knew him to be that way. In fact, his very personality seemed to laugh in the face of fear, impose fear on others but never on himself.

Then his eyes turned to her with a sad look hidden within, and she found herself frowning for she knew the reason for his fear.

"You're afraid I'll die?"

"...yes. I'm sorry if you don't want me to be, but I can't."

"It's fine. Everyone is secretly afraid so I should be the one to call myself a fool. I should have known that even a demon like you can't hide your fear from everyone."

When Cain heard her words as he looked at her stone like and cold face, he knew he should have felt pain in his heart. Many people had called him a demon before, many had even chosen death the moment they saw his eyes, but he never thought to hear those words from Lia.

At least not like this.

Instinctively he hid one of his hands behind his back as he spoke.

"I wanted to wish you luck tomorrow. Your fate will be tested but I know you'll do fine. You're strong, even without me."

Lia felt her mind waver as she heard this, but turned her head to the side as she couldn't look in his eyes anymore. She felt her heart forgive him slightly, and she wanted that feeling to die inside her.

"W-What were you saying earlier? About this place?"

Cain reached out his hand, but they never touched skin, for he was too far away to rah her, and she never lifted her hand.

"I said it was sad. You'll know soon enough."

He gripped the small flower in his hands, a white rose he hid behind his back as Lia felt his voice and presence disappear. It was a while before Lia could bring herself to look up, but when she did, she saw a small stuffed rabbit lying in the dirt where there had once been nothing.

It was soft, worn down and looked to be years old. But even as she held it in her hands, she felt her heart sink and her eyes widen as if the key to the door that flooded the memories into her head, she knew what this was before she even stood up and walked back to the now silent barn.

Inside, there was only Totalac watching the small fire burn away as shadows danced across his sad eyes. He was quiet as she approached but he knew she was there. He had watched her in the meadow when she left, but now faced her presence as she stood silently behind him.

"I think this is yours."

He didn't turn around. He only watched the fire as the blinding flames faded through his vision.

"You're mistaken."

She was quiet to the sounds of his harsh tone, but she kept by his side as she watched him.

"I don't think I am."

Finally she spoke, but still he refused to turn around, watching the fire with a now growing annoyance flooding inside him as their shadows were casted across the wall.

"Can't you leave this old man alone?"

His voice was like a grumbling, shaking, broken mess. So, Lia knew it was no use in speaking with him, but as she passed, her last words etched in his ears, as he turned his head to look down at his side.

There, on the ground in the dirt and scattered leaves covered in dust, he saw a small stuffed rabbit. He didn't know when he reached out to grab the small little thing that barely fit in his hands - it was never made for his - but now it was touching his skin.

And as Lia's voice echoed in his head as she waltzed into the shadows of the darkness, he felt the tears running down his face as he buried his head in his hands, holding the rabbit close to his heart.

Years of sadness, years of hurt.

It all came back with two words.

"Welcome home."