The wind crawled through what remained of the village, carrying with it the faint, acrid sting of burnt wood and something heavier—something sweet and sour that clung to the back of the throat. Smoke still curled from blackened beams, drifting upward to join a pale dawn sky. Crows perched on splintered posts, hopping closer whenever they thought no one was looking.
He stood in the center of it all, a boy no older than ten. His bare feet were cracked and caked with soot. His small hands—scabbed, blistered—clutched a length of wood that had once been part of a hoe, now sharpened crudely into a spear. His eyes, rimmed red from smoke and tears, stared at the ground as if afraid to look anywhere else.
Around him lay silence broken only by the soft shifting of ash.
He had spent hours digging shallow graves, dragging bodies—some whole, many not. The earth here was soft, rich from years of farming, and yet every shovelful had felt like moving stone. He buried his mother first, laying her beneath a tattered quilt they had once shared in winter. Then his father, wrapped in what remained of a cloak. His little sister last—her body he had found curled by the well, as if she had tried to hide from the horror.
He pressed wildflowers into her grave, fingers trembling. They had grown near the edge of the fields, bright yellow in the soot. She had always loved yellow.
Now all three lay beneath crooked wooden markers, names carved with the point of his spear:Mara. Garet. Leya.
He stood over them for a long time, lips moving soundlessly. He could not bring himself to say goodbye. He was afraid if he spoke, he would fall apart entirely.
The village that had once been full of laughter and baking bread and festivals in the spring was gone. Burned, broken. And somewhere out there—someone—had simply watched. That man. The one who had not even lifted a finger as demons tore through everything.
The boy clenched the spear so hard his knuckles turned white. His breath shuddered. He turned from the graves, from the ruins, and began to walk.
He did not look back.