The Way Forward

Mayton stopped breathing as he listened carefully. Between the caws of ravens and sobbing of the hunters dispersed in the village, he heard the faint whimper again. It obviously was coming from the water well just behind his parents' bodies.

Mayton started moving towards the water well slowly still not breathing. But this time he wasn't breathing because of excitement. He realized that no matter how reality, time and again dashed his hopes, he just couldn't stop having hope once more. Perhaps having the slightest of hopes even in the harshest of situations was part of human nature.

Mayton bent down and looked inside the water well as he saw a petite silhouette illuminated by the moonlight.

''Ange...za. Angeza. Angeza! ''

Mayton reached out and caught hold of the rope which dangled inside the well with a bucket tied at its end as he started to call his little sisters name agitatedly.

He immediately slid towards the bottom of the water well using the rope. The rope was covered by strange sticky substance, but he couldn't care less about that right now. The only thing in his mind was ascertaining the identity of the silhouette in front of him. Now Mayton was sure it belonged to a little girl from its barely visible body contours and long hair floating on the water of the well. The girl embraced the bucket with all her might to stay above the water but despite that half of her body was under water.

When Mayton finally reached the girl, the girl turned her head weakly and at looked at him as tears streamed down her cheeks.

''Brother, you finally came. Brother, mom is - ''

Before Angeza could finish her sentence, Mayton embraced her and she could no longer hold back herself as she loudly wailed.

''Hold me tightly. We must get you out of here and get you dry clothes first. We can't let you get sick now, can we?''

Mayton also felt like crying, but he knew what Angeza needed the most now was not someone to cry together with, she instead, needed someone she can depend on. While Mayton was climbing up with Angeza at his back, he panicked as he suddenly remembered that he brought his father's corpse here too. 'Angeza probably doesn't know dad has passed away' Mayton thought.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could do. When he was feeling at loss because of his parents' deaths, their bodies next to each other under the moonlight seemed romantic to him, but Angeza would probably be devastated after learning not only she lost her mother she lost her father too in the same day.

''Isn't that- Isn't he dad? Did he also ..''

And it really did went on as Mayton predicted. After they got out of the water well, the first thing Angeza saw was her father's dead body together with her mothers. She ceased her crying as she stood there dumbfounded, hugging Mayton's waist even tighter.

When she realized Mayton was looking at her worriedly, she said, stuttering;

''Big brother, don't worry. I , I wont cry anymore. I won't cry as long as you don't leave me. I promise, I won't cry.''

Angeza was obviously trying hard to not cry. Seeing her sister like this, Mayton slightly relaxed. What he feared the most was Angeza losing her mind like the hunter who lost his mind after seeing his wife's and child's corpse.

''Why won't you cry? You should instead cry when I am with you. Who should listen to your sadness and worries if not your brother? Who should console you if not me? But first, let's get you cleaned. Then you can cry as much as you want, okay? ''

Mayton said as he caressed her head. He realized what that sticky fluid on the rope was. It was blood. Looking at Angeza's wounded hands it was probably Angeza's blood. Unfortunately, Mayton's action to show affection caused Angeza's hair to be bloodied. This made Mayton even more hurried to clean up Angeza.

Seeing the concern his brother was showing for her, Angeza remembered how her mom was just like that and started to wail almost immediately as Mayton brought her into the house.

Next day, Mayton woke up at noon. It has been a long time since the last time woke up this late. Normally, his mother wouldn't let him sleep until noon. As Mayton remembered his parents, he sighed. It all felt surreal to him. In the span of his less than 40 years of combined life, he lost his parents twice, and even he himself died once. He got up from the bed to tidy up the house a little bit and prepare something for breakfast after washing himself absentmindedly.

Angeza was still sleeping in the room across the hall. Last night since Angeza refused to let him go from her side even for a moment, he had no choice but to stay together with her until she slept. Thankfully after a tiring few hours inside the water well and subsequent crying, it didn't take too long for Angeza to fell asleep.

When Mayton saw Angeza was asleep, he silently got out of her embrace as he went to give a proper burial for his parents. Mayton didn't want Angeza to see her dead parents' first thing in the morning so even though it was dark and he was really tired he still forced himself to dig a rather shallow hole to bury his parents. Only after doing that he went to sleep.

Meanwhile, the hunters were discussing what to do after burying the dead. They did want revenge, but they also knew the most important thing to do right now was to find a way to survive. The village was finished, that much was clear. So there were two ways left for them to survive. They could either go to another village and hope that the villagers there would accept them or they could migrate to the Flaming Heart City. The hunters were split on the issue.

''I say, we leave this godforsaken lands for good and start a business in the city. I have a distant cousin in the city. His father started a tannery there a few decades ago. Last time I visited them they even had maidservants taking care of them!''

A young hunter was trying to convince the group of hunters. Most of the relatively younger hunters supported this idea. Actually, there were some among them who dreamed of living in the city even before this calamity. Older hunters tended to disagree though.

''What do you know about city life? Do you think just because someone is your relative from many generations ago they will take care of you? This is the city folk we are talking about. They don't even take care of their siblings and parents out there. ''

One of the older hunters argued back as he continued to shovel. No one wanted the people whom they spent their life with to be food for ravens and other wild animals. There also was the risk of disease if they didn't bury the dead. But unfortunately there simply were too many dead people thus they decided to bury them together in a single huge grave unless it was a close relative of one of the surviving villagers.

''Stop wasting your breath and continue digging. You all know it's pointless to discuss these at this time. We should wait for Old Mert to return then we will do as he says.''

Another hunter interjected as he wiped the sweat on his forehead with his sleeves.

It was the truth. There was only one person in the whole village whom the other villagers wholeheartedly trusted in almost every topic. He was Old Mert. Old Mert spent his younger years adventuring. While touring the world, he saw a lot of different places and met a lot of different people. He surely knew better than some ignorant villagers like them.

After preparing the breakfast, Mayton went out to find Ghorzhang and Zgar to invite them to breakfast. Even though it was already noon thus rather late for breakfast, Mayton didn't know of anyone other than Angeza surviving from the village. Chances were Zgar's family also died. Ghorzhang, on the other hand, didn't have a family in the first place. So he thought that they might be hungry.

Before the recent events Mayton didn't really feel close to them, but now they were part of the few people he knew in the whole world. Since they became rather friendly with each other during the hunting trip, he wanted to preserve this budding friendship.

When Mayton found Ghorzhang, he was helping the hunters with mass burial as for Zgar, he was sitting in front of his home looking at the sky blankly. Unlike Mayton, who still had his sister, Zgar had no one left from his family.

They ate their meal without talking much, but Mayton learned something important from Ghorzhang. The hunters combed through the whole village and didn't find anyone alive. There were many people who hid better than Angeza, but they still ended up dead. This made Mayton curious. He didn't have any ideas about how Angeza survived though. Mayton made a mental note to ask Old Mert about this when he returned.

Following week passed by without anything, major happening except that Old Mert was still nowhere to be found. This caused another argument between the hunters. One group wanted to stop waiting for Old Mert and decide what to do before their food ran out, the other group insisted that without Old Mert, they wouldn't be safe no matter what they chose to do, thus they should continue to wait.

Actually, everyone knew that if they set off to a journey without Old Mert it would be dangerous but the thing was they needed a considerable amount of supplies if they wanted to go to the Flaming Heart City. Supplies they consumed every day while waiting in the village, doing nothing. This made some of the younger hunters think that the hunters who wanted to wait were deliberately using waiting for Old Mert as an excuse and their real goal was forcing the group to seek shelter in another village because of a lack of supplies to travel a long distance.

Mayton wanted to go to the city too. He wanted to learn more about this world and also further his cultivation. But he needed to learn how to cultivate fire type qi first. Unfortunately, Old Mert only knew how to cultivate beast qi. Mayton had fire qi inside his body so he couldn't use Old Mert's cultivation technique.

Only the most ineffective way to cultivate was left available to Mayton. Absorbing qi directly without any cultivation techniques. But he could only continue to that until he reached a bottleneck in his cultivation. Even that was better than not cultivating at all though.

The problem was Mayton still suspected that he was the reason calamity befell the village. Thus he didn't dare to cultivate before he was somewhat far away from the village, just in case that powerful cultivator was still around. Mayton also thought that even if he didn't cultivate, that powerful cultivator might still find his whereabouts with time. This made him want to leave the village with increased urgency as days passed by.

Finally at the tenth day, since the hunters returned to the village, Mayton decided to take the reins in his own hands. He lost all hopes for the hunters to reach a consensus. Thus he made a plan.

''Did you guys heard that howl last night? It sounded just like the wolf who attacked Babrak.''

Ghorzhang said to a bunch of hunters. Ghorzhang was an orphan and he was raised by the whole village collectively thus his relations with other hunters were much better than a loner like Mayton's. This was the reason Mayton decided to borrow Ghorzhang's mouth to speak his mind.

According to Mayton's plan, Ghorzhang was to increase the hunters' anxieties by telling them the potential dangers of staying at the village. For example, by reminding them previous incidents like attacks by beasts or bandits, he was making the hunters think about any potential attacks of similar kinds happening again. Even though all the hunters were already aware of those risks, the more people talked about it, the more anxious they became.

After Ghorzhang made the hunters sufficiently anxious, the idea to wait for Old Mert were almost forgotten in three days. Now there was one more problem for Mayton. He needed to convince the hunters to go to the Flaming Heart City instead of seeking shelter in a nearby village.

''What bullsh*t dangers on the road! You old people just don't want to change your lifestyles. You think we should sacrifice our futures just because you want to spend the rest of your lives in some remote village?''

''You disrespectful, unfilial bastard! Your father and grandfather are buried here in these lands. You dare to abandon them? Let me tell you youngsters something; a tree can't stand strong without its roots. Do you think you can cut off your roots and live comfortably in a city?''

At the 13th day since their return to the village, the hunters arguments became increasingly heated. It was at this time Mayton interjected;

'' Esteemed elders, I know it's not my turn to speak but can I say what's on my mind?''

The hunters who almost came to blows a moment ago looked at him angrily. They obviously were displeased by a junior interrupting their argument. But Mayton got their attention nonetheless.

'' If you continue to argue like that, eventually, we will split up. If we split up the younger uncles will go to the city but without the experienced hunters supporting them on the road, how can it be possible for them to reach the city safely? ''

While the older hunters were nodding their heads approvingly, the younger ones were not too happy.

Before someone interrupted him Mayton continued when he saw one of the younger hunters were getting ready to interrupt him;

''Uncles please let me finish. I think the situation is even worse for old uncles. If older uncles went to seek shelter in another village without young uncles, which village will accept them? Please don't get offended uncles but you are too old and will have to stop hunting in a decade at most. You need the younger uncles to take care of you at that time.''

After thinking about the things Mayton said, all the hunters realized in the heat of the moment they almost made a potentially fatal mistake. This also made them unconsciously see Mayton as someone wise.

''So, Little Mayton, what's your idea to break this deadlock?''

'' I think whatever attacked our village might attack other villages too, even if it didn't do so already. As for attacking the city? I don't think it's possible. Thus I think if we take an initial risk and complete our journey to the Flaming Heart City, we will be safe thereafter. Since old uncles need young uncles' care why not let them select where they took care of you? I implore old uncles to think about it once more. ''

''Hmph, you are too young after all. Do you know how hard it's to live in a city?''

The one armed hunter who resented Mayton for not giving him the medicine retorted.

''Uncles, please don't forget our encounter with Young Master Renas' group. Didn't I solve it easily? This shows I can get us out of tricky situations in the city. Didn't Young Master Renas' steward tell me to find him? This means we have solid backing. What do we have to fear?''

Even though Mayton didn't really take a promise made on the passing like that seriously, he still brought it into his argument. His goal was convincing them, not stating what he really thought. As for living in the city? He knew how to do that pretty well. He lived all his life in a city in his previous life after all.

The older hunters weren't really convinced, but they thought Mayton had a point. They were also scared of getting attacked by whatever attacked their village before. Dying at the hands of bandits while going to the city was many times better than that. After a few seconds of thinking they made up their minds.

Ultimately, the hunters decided to start their journey to the Flaming Heart City the next day.