Crown of Dahlias

Runaway

Kieren did not know what he would find beyond the mountainside. Past the forest edge that he had only ever seen from afar. Tonight was the night he left the village he was raised in for the first time.  

Step after step, Kieren began moving faster within the trees. Even the barest of moonlight helped him traverse across the ground silent and agile until he was running. Harsh breaths leaving him as he made his descent down the mountainside. Tears blurred his vision sobs of joy and sadness leaving him, sweat clinging to him when he finally stopped. The forest edge was still far, but this was the farthest Kieren had ever been outside of his village. Only knowing of the stories Talia had told him and Ezra. Ezra, his best friend who he had to leave behind. He didn't know how far he had gone, only knowing that the moon had shifted positions in the sky. 

Kieren sat at the base of a towering tree, the temperature a bit warmer down from up high where the village was located. Exhaust took over, eyelids drooping as Kieren succumbed to sleep. 

Bright, warm sunlight fluttered against Kieren's eyelids, the young man gasping and sitting up in shock when he realized where he was. The forest was quiet with the soft twittering of birds and the rustle of leaves when a breeze would pass by. There was no baying of dogs or the shouts of angry villagers. A breath Kieren didn't know he was holding passed his lips, standing up on wobbly sore legs. He had never pushed himself that hard before. They would kill him if he returned now, heart aching at the thought of Ezra. Shaking his head, Kieren continued his travels. He stopped by a stream to quench his thirst, feeling the need to roll around in the tall grasses by the riparian from the joy that started to bubble up within his chest.

At least, until he saw his reflection. His hair was absolutely butchered, many of the villagers loving to grab him by his hair and try to hack off pieces with knives. Sometimes they ended up cutting his ear, parts of his neck and one time his face. They had all laughed so hard that day.

Ezra had told him there were secret whispers from the villagers calling him beautiful, but then they would say horribly cruel things to Kieren's face about being disfigured. Slapping his cheeks to stop tears from leaving him, Kieren's steps began to slow, finally hitting the edge of the forest. The trees had grown sparser, a dirt road evident a few feet ahead. 

The clickity-clop of horses pulling a wagon had Kieren diving behind a large tree, peeking out. It was a group of men, one holding the reigns to two pale brown horses. Bales of hay, a couple of large barrels with a tree emblem burned into them, and a few small wooden chests were around the two men in the back. One of the men was older than the other two, laughing and drinking so loudly that the sounds echoed easily along the road.

"Pull off 'ere, Dorn! Gotta take a piss," The older man with peppered white and reddish hair snapped, the man with the reigns stopping the horse's movements with a roll of his eyes. 

"If you didn't drink so much you wouldn't have to piss so much!" The man named Dorn snapped, hair a straw yellow color, taking a swig from one of the bottles in the back himself. 

"Shut up! What do boys like you know, eh?" The older man gruffly snorted, the other man in the back of the wagon laying down fully while pulling his sunhat over his face; likely wanting to nap. Kieren's eyes were on the older man with speckled white and red hair, having shucked his cloak, hanging it on the wagon's corner. It was a warm morning even with the sun partially hidden by clouds. Biting his lip, Kieren was crouched, nearly crawling through the tall grass by the road. The man driving the wagon was nursing what was likely alcohol from a dark glass bottle, looking up at the drifting clouds. The other man in the back was laying down in the wagon having soft snores leave him.

The older man was humming and grumbling as he did his business by a tree. Kieren closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and nabbed the cloak hanging from the wagon. Balling it up quickly, Kieren slunk back from where he came, chest heaving as he hid behind a tree once more.