The Boy with No Name (Part 1 of 'A Tale of People and Apples' Trilogy)

Chapter 16: A Wolf Grows Wings

Present day.

It was mid-day when he arrived at the gates. The area was completely quiet save the animals stirring in the distance.

Mid sized mountains surrounded the fortress from the back, forming the natural back walls of the great city. Directly behind them was the West Coast of Gaiathal dropping down off the mountainside, the great lush purple sea vast and wide and with tufts of fog. A river as clear as glass steadily swept straight underneath the walls and into the city, and large dark birds along the treeline cawed at him. While the middle landscape Lleyton had taken to the Ring along the border of Orconia and Blackland were mostly woodland, Dazheen was just as lush but mountainous, with giant spruces and a cool crispness to the air unlike the humid heat of the South. His skin felt at home in the mountain cold.

The walls were similar to the walls of the Ring and Orconia City, except for the absence of a blue Field sitting atop her. The grey silver walls were dented and smashed but had not fallen, scuffs of black amidst the shining pillars. Damage done during the War on the Wolves. A giant hole in the wall of the city had been refilled, Lleyton noticed, which served as a shelter from the Creatures of the Night for Ravens travelling north.

It happened about eighteen years ago. Lleyton remembered the history class in which Eeva was teaching the event to her elder students very clearly.

"Can anyone tell me what initiated the conflict?" She had said, Lleyton and the class listening intently.

"The killing of the Inspectors," one student said.

Eeva nodded. "That's right. Each of their convoys were destroyed upon leaving Dazheen. Does anyone know who by?"

Another student shot their hand into the air. "It was the Wolves, of course. It was no coincidence that our Inspectors and everyone else's were killed leaving Dazheen while the Wolf Inspectors were fine. They were constructing weapons that they didn't want the other provinces to learn about, so they silenced them."

Eeva had looked around the classroom thoughtfully, and then said, "Well, it is a good thing Aimos did not take your counsel." The class laughed.

Eeva continued, "In all honesty, that is a reasonable assumption to make. Many made it. Every province except for ours, to be precise. The Sixes, except for our Six, Aimos, demanded that their brother, Lleyton, let them into his city to investigate."

It was during this class that Lleyton realized Aimos named him after his youngest brother. The God of the Wolves, the youngest Six and youngest sibling of the Alva's, the Leader of Dazheen. It was somehow poetic that Lleyton turned out to be a Wolf. He imagined Lleyton Alva interacting with the father or mother he never knew. They stood in these walls once. Together. Perhaps had even fought shoulder to shoulder during the war.

"Except for us?" A student said.

"That's right, except for us," Eeva said.

"How?" One student asked. "If it wasn't the Wolves who killed the Inspectors, who was it?"

Eeva had looked at Lleyton, her eyes filling with worry.

Lleyton snapped back to the present, his eyes fixed on the giant walls. His probable birthplace. He walked to the front gate looking for a way in. Although the city was empty, it was still apparently locked. The walls lacked the same cracks that enveloped those of the Ring, and he realized this wall would be impossible to scale. Though, he could tell they were scaled before, ropes strewn at the top that he could not reach.

He guessed that there used to be a Filtration Field underneath the city, closing off the river which flowed into it from potential enemies, but allowing water and other resources to flow inside. Surely it was offline now.