The snow that once covered the bamboos trees were gone. The sun, who was halfway up in the air, was rising steadily, and slowly until it reached the sky where it should be. Nolan, who wore a shawl around his shoulder, melted the snow away, secretly, making sure that there would be none of it. The river that was frozen had started melting, and fishes of unknown origin to him started swimming up the stream.

Nolan took his bow and started pulling on the strings. He closed one eye, nocked an arrow, and aimed at the fish. The arrow flew, stab right through the gills of that fish, and fell on the river, or it should have if it wasn’t for the string of energy that caught it. He carried the fish to his ungloved finger and placed it on the wicker basket sitting next to him.

“Fish?”

“Yep.”

Nolan didn’t have to look to know who the person behind him was. Ciara, who carried her babies, walked next to Nolan’s side, she inhaled the fresh air and cuddled her babies, her ruby eyes reflecting the mirror-like river. Her hair had been braided and it rested on her shoulder. She held her children with no effort as if they were weightless. They’d be weightless to a woman who had been said to be a demigod in her world, and she has only grown stronger.

“Time moved fast, already spring. I still can’t believe this.”

“Believe what?”

“That we’d be finally together.”

Indeed, how many roads and suffering did he took until he reached this stage? Nolan Salvatore couldn’t count and couldn’t any longer remember when did this journey start. Not that he cared, what need was there to weep over parts of life, he thought again, keeping that sentence inside his head. Nolan watched the fishes jumped in a c-shape formation, diving down, and rising until it finally reached the upper river, only to land on the ice sheet that didn’t melt yet. The fish rolled back to the stream, got carried to the lowest part of the river.

Nolan didn’t take the fish this time. He turned his attention to the other fishes who gave up and swatted them with the same energy. He did the process until his wicker basket had enough fishes for the two of them. Nolan took a stride to the campfire he made an hour ago and started roasting the fishes near the fire. He dragged a stump and sat on it. He turned to Ciara and saw that she had no intentions of sitting.

The aroma of fresh fish drifted to him. Nolan sat still, then, suddenly, there was a flash of light that blinded him for a second. The blinding flash covered the world in black and white, and before long he saw a vision of a man staring down a crystal that was seated on a field of clouds. The crystal was ten foot tall and there was a figure inside the crystal who was holding on to strange regalia that Nolan had no idea how to describe.

The figure who was facing the crystal raised his fist and punched the crystal with all of his might. The punch didn’t carry any magical power or it did chisel away the crystal. The figure whose face was blurred by the fires, suddenly had all of his blood vessels explode, the man kneeled on the floor, and withered away, melting like water evaporating into thin air.

Suddenly, there was another man with the same figure, looking at the crystal, and slamming his fist against it. The same thing happens, and the figure died, this time, his body withering until no bones were left. Then, the area around Nolan turned bloody red, and hands that were missing fingers, and some completely cut, tried grabbing Nolan’s legs.

When Nolan looked at one of the faces, he saw the sigil of the bleak walkers. The nauseating feeling of experiencing the tragedy of the bleak walker he looked at, made his head light for three seconds, his dilated eyes returned to normal, and finally, he turned towards the wailing bleak walkers. There was no peace for those who walked the bleak path.

“Rest, my brothers,” he said solemnly. “Do not interfere with my tiny bits of happiness. Leave, and take the vision in the fire along with you.”
The bleak walker’s eyes burned like a flare. Those who walked the bleak path like Nolan hurried out of his gaze. Every bleak walker carried pain in their eyes, and how can they compare to the millennia of pain that he had gone through? The bleak walker’s blight vanished, leaving only the sound of the fire’s crackling and the vision of a man punching a crystal with his bare fist.

“Ciara, can you see this?”

He saw Ciara turned towards the fire. “What do you mean?”

“This vision by the fire.”

“Huh?”

“I said that this vision by the fire.”

“What are you talking about? “

Nolan realized that no words came out of his mouth. He tried speaking about the vision of the fire, only for his words to be drowned out by something. He didn’t know what it was, and he didn’t want to question. Nolan’s instincts told him that if he insists on this, his body would meet the same end as the vision, and he would found himself on a tiresome quest.

“No,” he said silently to his heart. “I had enough, I rather not look at it, no, Nolan Salvatore, don’t look at it, don’t let yourself be carried into a journey again, you have a family now, and you must prioritize it first.”

He doused the flame with water that came out of his left palm. The vision of a man punching a crystal faded, leaving only the wet coals, and the uncooked fish that didn’t get warmed by the fire. He cast a glance at Ciara and saw a worried look on her face. The children on her arms looked at him, their big eyes gazing at Nolan.

Nolan felt weak and worried, and the vision came knocking to his head with a loud snap.

Nolan Salvatore felt fear after a long time.