The boy wept and wept and wept, and neither Ning nor Emma did anything to stop him. They understood that he needed to cry and only an hour into his crying did Emma even try to console him.

Having learned his family was dead, the boy couldn’t stop his tears. His parents and younger brother, whom he loved so very much, were no longer going to be there to greet him when he woke up. He would never get to feel the safety of his father, the warmth of his mother, or the playfulness of his brother. His innocence had been stripped away from him by the bandits now and he could only cry to show for it.

“They’re all dead?” he asked Ning after a while, his eyes burning with fury, his palms clenched tightly at the side.

“Yes,” Ning said. “After I saved you, I went back to the village, but… everyone had been killed. I killed the remaining bandits though, if that means something to you.”

“I…” the young boy thought for a moment. “I want revenge, but I’m too weak to get it even if they were alive. So I can simply thank you for helping me achieve what I couldn’t have.”

Ning couldn’t help but smile at the young boy’s words. “That is the least I could do after what I witnessed,” he said. “Do you need some time to process this? Take all the time you can.”

“I do,” the boy said. “But… I don’t know if I can process it anymore.”

Ning doubted he wouldn’t need to process it any further. He had probably just exhausted himself after crying for an hour. Give some time and the tears would return once again. “What’s your name?” Ning asked. “Hadden… Hadden Milker,” the boy said.

“Milker?” Ning asked. “Yes?” the boy said innocently before remembering something. “Oh, our family had a few cows in the village and we were the people that everyone got their milk from. So everyone called us Milkers and we became the Milker family.”

“I see,” Ning said. “And how old are you?”

“I’ll be 13 in…” he thought for a bit. “2 months? I don’t know the exact day. Mother kept track of it for me.”

Ning nodded. “My name is Ning,” he told the boy. “This is my daughter Emma, and this is—”

“Daughter?” the boy looked confused. He looked at him and then at Emma and back to him, his face frowning at each instance. “You’re lying, right?”

“No, he is my father,” Emma said. “But… he’s so young,” Hadden said.

“See? I told you to make yourself older. You always go back to the young face,” Emma said.

“Whatever,” Ning said, not bothering to discuss this right now. He looked back at the young boy and spoke, “Come on, let’s go back to the village. There is something you have to do.”

Hadden looked puzzled. He looked at Emma for any hint of what was going on, but she said nothing. He stood up to walk, but Ning didn’t let him. He lifted the boy directly onto Umbra’s back and let him ride her all the way through.

Hadden clutched onto Umbra’s slick fur for dear life, horrified at the speed she moved, worried that he would fall off if he didn’t hold on tighter. He hadn’t noticed Shadow tendrils from Umbra holding him steady on top of her, as she would her two children when they rode along with her.

Umbra was a little surprised by his grasp, especially his strength. She hadn’t expected someone with no Essence core to have such a strong grip.

She ran undeterred by the terrain, zooming through the forest as if it were her playground. She was following Ning and Emma, both of whom were faster than her. A few minutes later, she finally slowed down as she came out of the forest and smelt smoke in the air. She came to a half right outside of the village where almost all of it had burned down. Hadden finally opened his eyes, looking at the vast scene of death and destruction in front of him. His grief that he thought wouldn’t come back so soon had returned once again and tears flowed down his eyes again.

He slowly let go of Umbra’s fur and got off her, landing on the grass with naked feet. Ning stood in the center of the village and Emma was with him, looking at everything that was there. Hadden slowly made his way to them, looking at the burned-down houses around him.

The smoke filled his nose, forcing him to close his nose with his hands. He teared up, both from the smoke and the tragedy of what he saw.

He recognized all of them. The one he passed just then belonged to Surray’s uncle. The one to his right was his friend Jalin’s house. Further up was the blacksmith’s house and next to that was the tailor’s house.

Then it was old lady Myon’s house and finally his house. He stood in front of his house, looking at the smoke that came off of the wood that had all collapsed and then burned away. Nothing of his that was important remained at all.

He walked in. The ground beneath it still had smoldering coals, but he didn’t care. He had to find his parents and brother.

“Hadden!” Ning called out. “Not there. Here.”

The boy turned around.

He saw the village center where a large amount of something had been gathered. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he went there. Arriving close, he saw the shape of the things he saw. The things wrapped in white clothes.

The corpses of the dead.

“Come,” Ning said. “You should be the one to burn the pyre for their funeral.”

The boy listlessly walked, not sure what he should even say or do. “These are all the dead people?” he asked.

“Yes,” Ning said, pointing at 3 corpses that were kept at the center. “Those belong to your family. Go say your last words before sending their souls to the afterlife.”