Fall of a Hero: Hearts Without Foundation (a Fantasy Adventure)

Warmth

The dream melted away, and I saw nothing more until I woke.

I drowsily opened my eyes. Darkness. Where was I?

I thought back to the battle between Mushu and the white Quasid. Before that, I remembered the mob and the Lord Mundus trying to kill me. And before that, the fire...

My heart sank. That "mute" girl. I had forgotten about her. What a great hero I was. Was she alright? Dead?

I groaned. What was I saying? I didn't even know her. But still, she reminded me of something.

Something about the mother I never had. While my parents drank away their money away (for serfs at least) that Mundus had paid them for all their children, I always wondered what a real mother would be like. I saw the baby birds fed by their mother and taught how to fly. I've seen even the forest howlers have pups and nurture them. Every animal I had seen had a mother. Except me. So perhaps if I did have a mother, would she be like the bird. I knew she'd never let me go hungry, and she'd stay up with me if I had a nightmare. Things my mother never did, much less my father. The one who would care for me until I got bigger, and then I would have to protect her. I imagined her to be a warm soul.

With a gentle smile and wary eyes. Kind aura. We had held hands. Soft hands.

With a sigh, I finally recollected where I was. I had fallen into Serpo's secret cave, yet something was different. The crystals were gone!

That was strange. I could have sworn...

There was nothing to be done there anyway, so I wasted little time climbing back up.

The entire log house was flattened. In shambles. Apparently, Serpo's secret cave was the perfect place to hide.

Around me, the forest was suffocating. No noise. No chirping.

I was standing alone, absently. Now what?

My stomach gurgled. I supposed I could walk home to find food.

It was possibly the dead of night when I began. It was hard to distinguish where I was without a light until my eyes adjusted. Tree after tree. No sign of people. I supposed I had put too much faith in my sense of direction. Every corner looked the same. A forest howler moaned. Maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to be wandering around at this hour, either.

This was a dumb idea. What was I thinking? I hardly had anything warm on. My clothes had holes from being singed by the fire. It seemed that with each creeping moment, the temperature was dropping by a degree. I needed somewhere to get warm. I needed food. Thoughts of hunger were consuming my focus.

It was that desperate moment one experiences after being outside in the snow and feeling the chill starting to penetrate your body. At first, it's not a life threatening situation. It's just uncomfortable. But stay out for fifteen more minutes, and you get a little scared.

I scampered around, mindlessly. Tripping over black tree roots, camouflaged against the soil. There had to be something near- there had to be!

Suddenly, an angel! There she was, watching me from afar in her light pink, wooly gown. A girl with a gentle smile and wary eyes. The girl with a warm soul.

She was alive!

The serf was carrying some belongings in a pack. I hastened my pace and met her. She stared up at me, shorter by about an inch.

"Hey-um," I trembled, "uh, nice night, yeah?" Real smooth. I frowned.

She nodded politely. Yet, a forlorn sadness pulled at the corners of her gentle smile.

"Uh so, um. You know where we are?"

She nodded again. My teeth began chattering faster, the cold becoming more aggressive.

Her dark brows furrowed, as she stared at me intently.

She said nothing, and I realized that she wasn't going to speak. You really can't talk, can you? Or at least, don't want to.

The girl took off the pink coat, which was a bit dirty, and gave it to me. She had a flowing, simple dress underneath. I hesitated, almost refusing because now her clothes were not very warm, but then I saw something fierce briefly flicker in her eyes if I were to decline. I shrugged. I was freezing cold anyway.

She reached out her hand, and I took it in mine. It was soft and very warm. Almost hot, as if one was warming themselves over a fire. I hoped she didn't have a fever. But then I had another thought. My hand was probably felt rigid and icy in hers.

Even so, she seemed hardly bothered. She shook my hand as if in a greeting, and didn't let go as she proceeded to pull me in a certain direction between the trees. The girl seemed to have an idea of where we were in the forest. So, I followed close behind, snug in the pink coat, her hand in mine. It felt right. My heart tensed in excitement.

Our stroll together was all too short. We soon found a cave with unkept wad of sticks near the opening. Apparently, a dead campfire, weakly releasing a small stream of smoke.

I didn't complain at the ruggedness of the shelter. Everything was right when I was with her. I was warm and content, though still quite hungry.

And then came the time to complain because the moment was ruined. There was a shuffling. Someone else was in the cave.

I hadn't seen him at first, since he wasn't standing. He was a short, wild haired, freckled faced, happy-go-lucky jester. Except not today. Today, he was a small, shaking lump in a blanket. A gashed mess with clumps of mud stuck to his hair and face. He was sobbing softly to himself.

The girl immediately let go of my hand and rushed to the boy. She lifted him up, hugging him close, and he stopped shaking.

His legs cast bizarre shadows against the cave walls as she picked him up to her lap. They hung lifeless, twisted, and bruised. That's when I understood the situation.

The lord's son was now lame.