Aldric was panting for air in a panic, leaning against the outer wall behind the barn. I got away! But Claire! What can I do? They are too strong. He tried to calm his breathing, so he would be able to hear if anybody was coming his way. It was difficult, with all the blood pumping in his ear and throughout his body. He couldn’t hear anything other than the blood pumping.

  The faint smell of smoke made its way to Aldric’s nose, reminding him that Clyde was about to burn down his home. The house! Dad! I have to be sure this Ashborn and White Strip are gone. But I have to calm down first.

  Aldric held his breath for a couple of seconds, trying to calm his heart again. His thoughts drifted to a stormy sky over the ocean, as the storm passed and the sea calmed from high destructive waves to low calming water, shining in the sun’s first ray as the clouds disappeared. Aldric could feel the blood slowing down to its normal pace. The ocean.

  Aldric thought back to the first time he had seen the ocean, he had visited Bleakwater with father and Claire. The smell of seawater, the salt in the air, the calm water and the endless horizon. Aldric had forgotten how much he longed to see it again.

  He remembered seeing his father and sister standing in the evening sun with the harbor and ocean as the background. One of his favorite memories. They had eaten fish for the first time. Aldric loved it, Claire didn’t. His father and him laughed at the face Claire had made. His father told funny stories about his buddies from when he had been in the king's army, before he met mom. He so rarely did. Aldric started moving towards the house. All of sudden a thunderous clap sounded from the other side of the building.

  I have to do something! Aldric steeled himself for what he might face and ran around the corner to the front of the house. The yard was empty, it looked almost exactly like it had for years, all but for an almost perfect black ring on the ground. The house was on fire, but only on one side of the house. Just like Clyde said he would. Maybe Dad is still alive.

  Aldric rushed into the house, seeing his father dragging himself across the room towards the large chest that had been staying in the corner of the kitchen forever.

  “Dad? What are you doing? We need to get out of the house!” Aldric called, almost angry, seeing his father crawling closer to the fire.

  “Aldric? Thank the gods, you are alive!” he turned with a visible grimace of pain on his face. “Quickly, grab the portrait of your mother from the wall, and come help me!”

  “Dad, we need to get out!” Aldric’s voice had turned from angry to panic. He has gone mad!

  “Just do it Aldric!” His father shouted. “We don’t have time to argue!”

  Aldric looked at his father trying to open the chest while sitting on the floor. He went to pick the portrait off the wall and back to his father to help open the lid of the chest.

  “Good good, my boy!” he said, a bit weary. “Take the leather armor and short sword.”

  Aldric did as he had been told, picking up the dry leather armor and the rusted short sword. He was just about to ask why they need any of this, when his father pulled a small leaf buried in a crystal out as well.

  “Come on, Aldric. Help me up.” His father requested in a sorrowful voice. Aldric did, slowly but steady, they moved out of the now ablaze house.

  They sat in the front yard, Aldric had dropped the armor and short sword on the ground in front of them.

  “Dad, what do we do now?” Aldric asked, not entirely certain where he was going with this.

  “We’ll figure something out.” He replied after a couple of moments of silence. “We can rebuild the house. My wound is not too bad. We’ll be fine.”

  “I meant what are we going to do to save Claire!” Aldric shouted, surprised by his own anger. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing!”

  “Aldric, I understand. But there is nothing we can do.” His father said with a shaky voice. “Your sister is gone, as much as I wished it wasn’t true. I can barely walk and by the time I'm able to. She’ll be impossible to find.”

  “No, I’ll find her! I will do what is necessary!” Aldric felt a storm building in his chest, tall waves crashing against high rocky cliffs. “I can not let them have her!”

  “Aldric, stop this madness!” His father shouted, getting to his feet. “I can’t lose you too! I have already lost too much!”

  “No, I can’t leave my sister somewhere in the world.” Aldric replied, a bit more tempered. “She needs me! I’m going.”

  Aldric picked up the rusted sword, looked at the armor. It would be useless. He went down the road towards the village square of Palewood.

  “Don’t go,” Aldric heard as a whisper from his father. But his mind was made up, he needed to save his sister. Sorry, dad. But nothing will keep me from doing this.

  On the way, Aldric noticed the screaming and sounds of battle were gone. He increased his speed to a slow jog. As he came to the village square, he found half of the guard patrol sitting around the old birch tree, supposedly planted the day the village was founded. Edrik was standing holding a shield in one hand and a spear in the other.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Boys, you did well today!” Edrik approved in his deep voice. “With the training and practice we have gone through over the years, has led to us surviving this attack. While we will mourn the ones that didn't make it. I will still say I am proud of each and everyone of you.”

  The 12-15 men and women sitting around were wary and tired, not all of them were from Palewood, Aldric recognized Lilian’s uncle leaning against a shield taller than him, broken in on one side. Next to him, was Lilian kneeling helping bandage up someone’s arm, Aldric didn’t know them. They must be from Ashgrove. He started in Lilian’s direction, until he saw… Stefan! Oh god what happened to him? Stefan was leaning on a spear, pressing his hand against a bandaged wound on his thigh. Aldric hastily changed direction towards the tall boy.

  “Stefan! What happened to you?” Aldric asked in a bit more panicked tone than expected.

  “Al! I knew you would survive!” Stefan replied, completely dodging the question. “I found my father, and we fought together! With the rest of the guards, of course.”

  “That’s great, Stef. But what happened to your leg?” Aldric asked again, a bit less panicked.

  “Oh yeah, I got stabbed! Can you believe it?” Stefan replied almost too excited.

  “No! I can not believe that you decided to go and fight the bandits!” a familiar female voice sounded from behind Aldric. Lilian was walking up to the two boys. “Stefan, what were you thinking?”

  “Oh hi Lil. No no, I went to help my father.” Stefan backtracked, turning a bit pale under the glance of Lilian.

  “Aha? Let me see your leg.” Lilian demanded, when she had gotten up to the tall boy.

  “I’m fine Lil! There are others in more need of help than me.” Stefan replied defensively.

  “Sit your butt down and let me see!” Lilian raised her voice, not to a shout, but there was no doubt about what would happen if Stefan didn’t do as told. In a moment wiser than his years, Stefan sat down on a log.

  Lilian unraveled Stefan’s bandages. Across Stefan’s thigh a deep clean cut wound was bleeding heavily.

  “Stefan! You need stitches!” Lilian chastised. “You would have been in big trouble if you hadn’t had someone look at this. I don’t have anything to sew with here. But maybe I can heal it enough, so you don’t bleed out.”

  Lilian put her hands over the wound, and focused. A small golden light started glowing around Stefan’s wound. It slowly glowed until the whole wound was covered in the golden light. Suddenly, the light began to flicker and slowly it started to dim until it was gone. The wound was gone, only an angry red line across Stefan’s thigh. Lilian was panting and visibly sweating, she looked up at Stefan.

  “Don’t you move! If you do, the wound will open!” Lilian said in a sharp tone. “And you will bleed out.”

  Stefan was completely silent, looking from his wound to Lilian. Aldric stared in amazement, temporarily forgotten about his father and the kidnapping of his sister. Lilian looked up at Aldric with a troubled expression.

  “Aldric? Where are your father and Claire?” she asked after a second of silence.

  It hit Aldric like a ball of ice in the stomach. Where is Claire?

  “My dad is at the house. It‘s burning.” Aldric replied, in a cold almost numb tone. “The werewolf took my sister.”

  “What?!” Both Lilian and Stefan echoed a bit too loud.

  “I’m going to go find her!” Aldric continued with more feeling. “I’m leaving now. The bandits can’t be too far from here now.”

  “Al, are you insane?” Stefan asked in surprise. “You can’t go now, it is almost midnight.”

  “Look, nothing you are going to say will stop me from finding Claire.” Aldric spat back, “some dangerous people have her. I need to do something. So, I’m leaving now.”

  “Aldric, Let’s say you find Claire, what then?” Lilian added with as much concern as she could muster. “Will you fight them?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” Aldric replied, feeling the storm building in him again.

  “Fine, then I’ll come with you!” Stefan declared.

  “You will do no such thing!” Lilian immediately spat back. “Your leg is not going anywhere!”

  “It’s fine. I’ll go alone.” Aldric replied in a distant voice, as he turned away from his two best friends. It’s better if I go alone. No one else will get hurt.

  Aldric headed out of the village, his home, with a rusted short sword and a small pack on his back, following the trail the bandits had left. They were not too far ahead, Aldric could see them in the distance. It looked like they had set up camp, maybe an hour from Palewood.

  It was completely dark, when Aldric got close enough to the camp to hear what was going on. They seemed to be having a feast. Out of tune music, people laughing and singing. They are having a party, while my village is burning.

  After watching for a while, Aldric decided to get a closer look. He moved closer to the fires, and the people partying, eating, laughing and singing.

  “Alright alright, I'll say a few words!” a familiar growling voice started at the end of the makeshift table. “You guys did a great job! The villagers did not have a lot, but we got what we went there for. But I also see a lot of new cookware and even some new weapons. And to that, I'd like to cheer for all of you. You did great work tonight and I’m proud of all of you. Cheers!”

  Icewater went down Aldric’s back hearing this voice. That's the werewolf! Claire might be here somewhere! He sneaked around the makeshift table, and over to a long row of half set up tents. Steeling himself, he started to look in each of them, hoping to find Claire. He was half way through all of them, when he noticed a bigger tent, perfectly set up a bit off to the side by itself. Aldric stopped and looked over at it. He sighed to himself, of course and started that way. Two big orcs stood guard in front of the tent lit up by a small brazer. Aldric decided to sneak around and see if he could open the tent, somewhere behind it. He easily moved around a couple of big trees and one sleeping ogre that smelled of alcohol. Aldric was trying to think of an easy and quiet way to get into the tent, without alerting the guards. He remembered the short sword. He pulled it out, looked at it, hoping it would not be noisy. Stabbing through the fabric, barely any sound. As he started to cut through the material, a small squeaking could be heard. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice.

  After a couple of strokes with the short sword, Aldric had created a small opening big enough for him to force his way inside. Once inside he saw a bed, a chest and a small cage. There was some creature inside the small cage.

  “Claire?” Aldric whispered as low as he could, while moving closer. “Is that you Claire? It’s your brother Aldric.”

  All of sudden the thing in the cage started to move around and growl. It had colorful scales, in this light the scales looked to be silver. Its eyes were Ice blue. It had small clipped wings. Is this a dragon? Poor thing.

  “Let me see if I can’t open the cage for you.” Aldric whispered, as he tried to unlock the cage. When that failed, he started looking for a key.

  “Oh? What do we have here?” a rusted voice sounded from the tent opening. “Someone is sneaking around places they shouldn’t.”