The sound of voices dragged Snow from his thoughts and he blinked, suddenly reminded that they were about to be surrounded by other people. Taking his free hand to his head, he made sure his hood was still in place, and only then raised his gaze to take a look at his surroundings.

They were entering a small village, the houses surprisingly made of wood, since trees were, apparently, a rare thing in Nox¹Literally nox (night). Where Nox is the name of the Clan, also the name of a Province..

The voices that had called his attention belonged to two men, who, sitting on old crates, were either mending or assembling farming tools. Spread in front of them were all sorts of old wood handles and sickles, pitchforks, shovels, and hoes heads, some made of metal, some carver from stone. They were warmly chattering away, while going about their task.

Up ahead a woman was pulling an old cart full of dry straw.

Another few steps in front of them a group of children was playing on the street, tossing a ball of rags from one to another.

It felt … warm, Snow thought, feeling immediately more relaxed. Busy, noisy places, like the settlement before, did amaze him. All the different things being sold, some of which he had never seen. All the different people walking around, chatting, laughing, and doing business. It was kind of overwhelming but also exciting at the same time. But this kind of quite village was definitely much more to his liking. Maybe because he himself had lived in a similar village when he was younger, he wondered, looking around with renewed interest. And that’s when he noticed it.

The houses, although larger and apparently sturdier than what one would expect to find in such a small, farmer’s village, were all visible old, the wood gone dark in more than a few places, the doors and widow-shuts mostly cracked and crooked from being exposed to the elements. Some had clearly suffered fire damage, he realized by the dark scorched signs, and the parts that had burned down had been replaced with panels of some kind of hard, brown fabric.

The people they passed by were all also poorly dressed, unlike the people he had seen in the settlement before. Their old clothes were mostly dirty and ragged, and their skin didn’t look much cleaner, their hands and faces covered in brown and dark smudges. They looked healthy and energetic enough but, at the same time, very tired, dark circles shadowing their sunken eyes.

ZaiWin²Literally zai (blade) + win (chaos). made his way to the plantation fields in a firm, unwavering pace that clearly told Snow that he knew the place as well as any local.

The extension of cultivated fields was much larger than it had looked from afar, and there were several people, some wielding hoes, working there. And yet, although numerous, the vegetables that they’d managed to grow were much smaller and of considerably lower quality then what he had seen grow at End of The World, where they were staying.

On the other side of the fields a wide, dry ditch was a lonely reminder that once, probably a long time ago, water had actually flowed through there. It also clearly explained the reason behind the name of the small village.

“Auntie!” ZaiWin shouted, startling him, and one of the women working the land raised her head to look up at them.

“Oh! Azure!” she shouted back and more heads were raised to look at him, smiles immediately appearing on all of them. “You’re back!”

ZaiWin returned their smile and nodded.

“Do you know where I can find the old man?” he asked and the woman immediately nodded, pointing towards the village.

“Back at the barn! He’s checking the crop’s storage to make sure they won’t go bad!”

ZaiWin nodded again and turned to follow the direction the woman had pointed him.

The barn the woman had spoken about was actually four large sheds surprisingly made of large rocks, piled one atop of the other. And Snow couldn’t help wondering how they’d managed to carry all those heavy-looking rocks, all the way into the village.

Finding the shed currently with people wasn’t hard, the sound of voices reaching them all the way outside.

“Old man? Are you in here?” ZaiWin shouted from the entrance and, a moment later, a tall, lean man with short gray hair emerged at the door. Squinting at the sudden bright light outside, it took him a moment to recognize who had called him.

“Well! If it isn’t the little runt!” he declared in a rough, rugged voice, but his smile was as wide and welcoming as the ones Snow had seen on the faces of the other people. “It’s been a while!” the man went on, slapping ZaiWin’s shoulder so hard that it almost robbed him of his balance, and ZaiWin grinned back.

“I passed by the First Settlement just the other day, and Wing mentioned you just had the most amazing harvest. I had to come and take a look.”

The man’s smile widened, a pridefully glint taking over his dark eyes.

“Eh! News do travel fast!” he half-criticized, though he clearly didn’t mean it. “But be my guest. Have a look for yourself!” he said, stepping out of his way to invite him in, and ZaiWin walked into the large shed, dragging Snow behind him.

It was almost dark, inside, and the air felt dry and cooler. But the moment Snow’s eyes managed to get used to the dim light, he could see large piles of grain, sacks of vegetables and large shelves with flasks filled with what looked like some kind of preserves.

Three other men were carefully stacking a pile of sacks.

“All four of them are as full as this one!” the man proudly announced and ZaiWin took a wide look around.

“You really did well.”

“Of course! How could we not? After you even went to the trouble to leave SilverRain with us. She really works hard, that girl. How could we do any less?”

“I am sure she is happy to help you all.”

“No. We are the ones who are fortunate to have her, and that she agreed to stay with us,” the man corrected, his rough voice sounding humble and honestly grateful.

“Who is fortunate to have what?” a female voice asked, and both men turned back towards the door, the smile on the old man’s face brightening up.

“We were just talking about how amazing you have been,” he declared and the young woman at the door chuckled.

“You spoil me too much, TreeRock. Azure, is good to finally see you again,” she declared, stepping inside the shed, and Snow couldn’t help stare horrified at her.

Now that she had stepped away from the blinding light coming from outside, he could clearly see the dark, horrible claw marks that had destroyed half of her pretty face, leaving her blind of one eye. Not to mention that the left sleeve of her simple dress remained eerie empty.

ZaiWin nodded.

“The old man was just telling me that this is all your doing,” he confessed and she chuckled again, a beautiful sound that made her mangled face look almost scary.

“Hardly all my doing. The only thing I do is try and collect as much water as possible from the air around us. It can hardly compare with the hard work everyone around here has put into the land.”

“Still! It’s all thanks to you,” TreeRock declared with an almost adoring smile on his face. “Without you, no matter how hard we plowed the land, nothing would have come out of it.”

She gave him what Snow knew was supposed to be a smile and gently patted his arm.

“TreeRock!” An urgent shout coming from outside captured everyone’s attention, and a young man stormed into the shed, breathing hard, leaning on his own knees to try and catch his breath. The old man’s face immediately went serious and hard at the sight of him.

“What happened? What news?” he urgently asked and the young man gulped for air before raising his head to look at him, his face covered in glistening drops of sweat.

“It moved again! Just this morning! It moved again!” he declared between forced breaths and TreeRock’s shoulders went immediately stiff. “I came back as fast as I could! The others are still there, keeping watch!”

The warm hand holding Snow’s squeezed him, obviously unintentionally, and Snow looked up to see that ZaiWin too, had a cold, hard expression on his face.

“What is he talking about?” ZaiWin inquired, his voice back to that hard and distant tone Snow had grown used to hear before he’d escaped from Woodbridge, and the old man frowned.

“As you suggested, we have been keeping the Dead Forest under close surveillance. A few days ago some of the kids noticed some movement in the trees. First I thought it was only the wind and that they were just being kids, you know? Tired of the monotonous, everyday routine, wishing for something exciting to happen or something like that. But since then, from time to time, it happens again. The trees are shaken, as if something heavy were climbing them, or bumping against them.”

“And you still haven’t reported this?!” ZaiWin demanded in an angry tone, and the old man sighed.

“It’s probably nothing.”

“TreeRock!” ZaiWin’s angry voice made Snow cringe and SilverRain take two steps back, the dark pressure spilling from him making the air harder to breathe. The old man, however, remained surprisingly serene.

“I was waiting to have something more concrete to report, than simply the trees moved a bit. I knew that bastard Zen³Literally zen (silent)⁴ would immediately send you to clean up the mess. I didn’t want you to have to step into that place again unless completely necessary.”

ZaiWin clenched his jaw, the fury making his eyes glow coldly, and then he simply stormed out of the shed, still dragging Snow by his hand, forcing him to stumble and run to catch up with him.

“Azure! Where are you going?” the man shouted after him and ZaiWin stopped to glare back at him.

“Where do you think?!” he simply replied, making the old man sigh heavily. And then went back to making his away across the village in his wide, angry pace, forcing Snow to run some more.

His hand hurt, Snow thought, looking at the long fingers that were squeezing him so hard now that his knuckles were completely white. But he didn’t dare say a word of complaint. He knew ZaiWin wasn’t angry at him, but the fury emanating from him reminded Snow too much of when they’d first met. Back then ZaiWin had always been angry like this, and seeing him like that again made him feel slightly apprehensive.

ZaiWin pulled him all the way to the back of an old house and, after carefully scrutinizing the place, finally released Snow's hand.

“Stay here! Don’t move from this spot until I get back!” he commanded, not even actually looking at him, and Snow frowned, more than annoyed by his usual overbearing attitude.

“No!”

ZaiWin went immediately rigid, as if someone had just slapped him out of nowhere, and his blue eyes finally turned to look at him.

“What?”

Snow tilted his head back to look up at him and faced his furious gaze unwavering.

“I don’t want to stay here.”

“You will stay here!” ZaiWin repeated in a final tone, the absolute command feeling like an undeniable order Snow was not allowed to disobey, and Snow clenched his fists, ignoring the pain in his chest, forcing himself to remain faithful to his own wishes and to not bend to his will.

“I will not stay here! And if you leave me here I won’t be here anymore when you return!”

The hand that violently grabbed him by his clothes shook him so hard that the hood slid off his head, and yet Snow refused to waver under his angry glare.

“You freaking brat! Do I look like I’m kidding? You will stay here! Or …”

So he was back to being called a brat again. Snow gritted his teeth.

“Take me with you,” he interrupted him, certain that some death threat was about to leave him mouth, and ZaiWin frowned as if he couldn't believe his own ears.

“What?”

“Take me with you. Or stay here with me. You choose.”

What the fuck?! That damned brat was actually telling him that?! ZaiWin was feeling so angry and frustrated that he could punch him where he stood! What had led that damn brat to believe he wouldn’t do exactly that was beyond his comprehension. And yet the pale eyes staring straight at him remained firm and unwavering. By now ZaiWin had learned to recognize that gaze and what it meant. He could probably punch him all he wanted. Nothing would make Snow back down.

“Playtime is over! You understand that, right?” Snow nodded and ZaiWin harshly pulled him closer, making him stumble against his chest, before closing his arms around him and dragging him into another dark jump.

Silvareiel

And here we have a glimpse into Snow's true character. ? He's finally gaining enough confidence to act according to his own will. ? I'm so proud of our little Snow ?️ Soon enough we will be feeling sorry for our poor ZaiWin ?