The Horseman of Calamity

Chapter 6 - Old Connections

Hung stood on the face of the cliff, he could hear the early morning bird songs in the distance and could feel the sun's breath on the back of his neck. Despite the world waking up around him, Hung's eyes stayed hooded and his mind in a daze. His eyes were focused on the drop in front of him, the space yawned with its mouth wide open and seemed to want to swallow him whole. Hung gulped, sweat forming on his brow as he recalled the recurring nightmare that had awoken him a few hours earlier. It had been a week since the orc village incident, and during that week, Hung had struggled to keep up with his training. There wasn't an ounce of motivation left in him and it was rare for him to even eat or bathe himself. The thought of running away had crossed his mind several times but he figured he'd be caught easily.

He took a step forward and peered down the drop. A small pebble was now tumbling down the sheer drop, rolling and crashing into the jagged rocks of the cliff's surface; breaking apart on its unforgiving surface. Beads of sweat began to dribble down his face and he felt as if every inch of his skin was drowning in his sweat and fear. So this was it. This was what everything had come to. In this moment, he was not afaid of slipping and falling, but rather terrified of the thought that he could leap.

Suddenly, the ever-familiar goldfinch appeared in a fiery flutter. The bird floated before his face, reminding him of a hummingbird, but this bird was on fire and golden and seemed to be looking into his soul. Unconsciously he lifted up his hand, giving the golden bird a place to perch. The bird flew down and landed on his hand, which, he noticed, was trembling ever so slightly. Hung stumbled back, the weight of the bird seemed to have brought his senses back to life. The finch gave him a brief but intense stare, pecked at his hand several times, then fluttered around him in a fiery flurry before it perched on his shoulder and nuzzled its small head into Hung's raven-colored hair.

He stood there in a daze for several moments, a thousand questions going through his head but processing nothing all at once. For a brief second. He glanced at the cliff, where he had been standing just an encounter ago, but now the space in front of it no longer seemed ravenous, no longer willing to swallow him whole. He pivoted on his foot and let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding and walked away. Every step brought back another sliver of clarity, and every breath he took gave Hung another reason to inhale once more.

There was something about the small bird that had relit a flame of hope within him. All the little finch did was appear to Hung in a flurry of fire. Maybe it was the bird's colors that relit hope within him, or maybe it was simply the bird's timely appearance that convinced to take a step back from the edge of the cliff.

The small bird helped him recover, slowly helping him rebuild and place together the shattered pieces of his world. Yet in the back of his mind, sat the orcs whom he had slaughtered, and he knew he'd never forgive himself for what he had done. With that frustration, he grew more distrustful towards Till and the others; they could've been misinforming and feeding him propaganda the whole time. Hung used the sparring sessions as his emotional outlet, now he was able to beat three out of the seven knights, and he did not hold back any of his punches against them. Every day, he'd measure himself against the others in a fight, he needed to be able to beat all of them, including Till. Of course, Hung was appreciative of Till for training him, but he knew full well that he only did so for his country's sake, which made Hung more discontent with staying under Till's tutelage. Thus, he went back to training but this time with even more vigor, to the point that his body was sore with blisters and black bruises every day. He planned on keeping it up as long as he could, but one day, another squad of knights arrived at the camp.

"Pack up, we're going home, the king has decided you're going to join in the war."

I was planning on another six months of training and a lot more tests but it seemed to be that he had grown impatient." Till tapped Hung's shoulder.