The cavern's precipice held The White Queen of Monsters, with the mad god on her back laughing down at the armies of man. Ellis strode forward, his voice hoarse from shouting orders. Striding next to him was the wretched sorceress, dressed in black with the blue magic coalescing around her hands as they prepared to meet the all encompassing horde, the Empress and her officers pleading with the quaking men behind them to stand strong. With dragons and magic they crashed into the cacophony of colour, and tried to forestall the end of the world…

  The mad gods cackling turned into his mother’s voice cutting through the nightmare. “Wake up boy! It’s almost half noon!”

  His eyes snapped open, the dream disappearing as his eyes stared at the familiar wooden ceiling. Throwing off the covers, he started dressing while cursing himself a fool for sleeping in so late. He should have been preparing his speech, not dreaming of fantasies.

  “Coming!” he yelled back absently, throwing on a shirt and grabbing his father’s bow that hung next to his door. He wasn’t Derek, flaunting his stats every time he had an excuse but still, when he picked up the weapon he couldn’t help but give them a quick glance.

  “Status,” he whispered under his breath, waving his hand. A small square popped up before him, somehow summarizing everything he was capable of with naught but a few words and numbers.

  A child of Alehemet:

  Ellis Marsh:

  Strength: 4

  Mana: 1

  Dexterity: 6 (Trusty bow +1)

  Perception: 7

  Endurance: 6

  Constitution: 4

  Total: 28 (+1)

  Level: 1

  Ellis wondered how something so trivial could decide the entire course of his life. He knew he would be a hunter, and yet the fours next to strength and constitution, as always, argued otherwise.

  He shook his head and followed the smell of stew wafting through the house, finding his mother standing by the pot with his little sister, Delilah, sitting on the floor and playing with some toys. Ellis smiled to himself, he had spent three months making them after all.

  He greeted his mother with a kiss on the cheek before roughing up Delilah’s hair. In response, she whacked his shins with the very toys he had made for her. He yelped and stumbled back into the pot, which slightly tipped over before his mother pushed it back into place.

  “Honestly, you two, you're going to ruin the stew for the party tonight! Go play outside!” she snapped as Ellis hopped after his sister with a snarl on his face.

  The Marsh children protested fiercely, both blaming the other before their Mother picked up the spoon she was cooking with and pointed it at them. In response, both of them retreated out the door in short order. On Ellis’s way out he grabbed a salt pouch off a hook on the wall and hung it on his hip, checked that the cracks around the door were filled to the brim with white before he picked up his quiver and strung it over his shoulders, so that it sat neatly next to the bow.

  Walking down the street, Ellis asked Delilah to display her status for him, holding his hand out towards her. He would need to be touching her somehow to see it pop up, after all. She put her hand in his with a huff, but didn’t complain too much as she said ‘status’ aloud, her voice almost proud as her stats displayed in front of them:

  A child of Alehemet:

  Delilah Marsh:

  Strength: 4 (Toddler penalty: -3)

  Mana: 1

  Dexterity: 6 (Toddler penalty: -4)

  Perception: 6

  Endurance: 5 (Toddler penalty: -2)

  Constitution: 5 (Toddler penalty: -3)

  Total: 27 (-12)

  Level: 1

  “What does this one say?” he asked with a teasing smile as they strode towards the cluster of houses at the end of the road.

  “That one is Mana! Mana is… magic? Evil stuff?” she said, squinting at it.

  “Sure… dispel your status quick.” He let the silence hang between them as she skipped happily. “Alright, tell me how do you spell ‘mana’?”

  She scrunched her face before eeking out, “M…A…N…U?”

  He frowned, his lessons with Delilah somehow deteriorating even though they practiced them everyday. But he only shrugged and said, “close enough. Come on, let’s go greet everyone.”

  Ellis took a breath, bracing himself for the usual chaos as he rounded the corner and arrived at the village center. Like every other year, the coming of age festival had the entire village awake, even old Castor was up, sitting in his rocking chair watching the people of Solrise go about their business. The calls of fresh bread and general conversation filled the air, the children running around causing a muck. Ellis kept walking, his feet avoiding the salt lines that littered the entire village with practiced ease.

  Delilah ripped her little hand out of his while he was greeting a neighbour, running off to join her friends. Ellis excused himself from the interaction before walking after her, the entire gaggle of children giggling as they ran off together, Ellis hardly able to keep track of her through the crowd.

  He started chasing her half heartedly. He thought it a shame to ruin her fun, but he couldn’t let her wander around without supervision, she was only six. He greeted people as he strolled after her, even stopping to buy some bread before continuing his ‘chase’ towards the screaming children running up and down the village square.

  Avoiding the butcher since his son might be home, Ellis curved his stroll around the building as usual. It was a fine morning as the sunlight fell on his face and a light breeze took to the air. Even the smell of goat piss didn’t bother him that much today, although the salt had once again slipped into his shoes, the grains rubbing in between his toes as he walked.

  He heard light footsteps trying to catch up to him as he chased after the children. A smile scratched at his lips as he slowed his step. The children were mostly running from one side of the square to the other, keeping in sight of him enough that he didn’t have to worry.

  The sound of heavy breathing approached, before he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Why… do you… always make me… run?”

  Ellis snorted as he turned to a girl half a hand taller than himself, with brown hair and soft eyes. She wore her fancy dress, a plain green garment that she swore she would grow into, and never did. It came down to her ankles when it was supposed to come down to her knees, and she had to tie it around her waist to keep it from flying off in the wind.

  But despite her complaint, she was smiling at him. So he put on the smile he reserved only for her.

  “Good morning to you too, Ada. And you used to love running, what happened?”

  “When you reach sixteen, age starts wearing you down,” she said sadly.

  “Explains the grey hairs,” Ellis said with a grin.

  She punched his arm and rolled her eyes, joining him on his stroll. “So, how was your morning?”

  “You know, I actually had a really weird dre—”

  “Yeah, mine was boring too,” she interrupted, not a care in the world for how his morning had gone. “Anyway! What are you going to say later?”

  He gave her a leveled look. “Please banish the butcher’s daughter, she’s bad for my constitution.”

  She scowled at him. “You know what I meant. What are you going to say if they don’t choose you to be a hunter?”

  Ellis looked away, no longer excited to see her. This topic had been discussed between them for weeks, and the closer the time got the more it upset him.

  “To be honest… I have no idea. I’ve prepared something small just in case that old goat Mathias decides to argue. But everyone knows I deserve to be a hunter, I don’t know why the village would stop me.”

  Ada only gave a sigh in response, before she looked away with her lips pressed together in that nervous tick of hers. “Well, if you couldn’t be a hunter… not saying it’s not going to happen, I believe in you, but let’s say it didn't. Why not… ask to be a butcher? Apprentice with my father? And… me?”

  Ellis almost tripped at the offer, but her shy glances at his feet gave it away. This was just a friendly gesture, a safety net should he need one.

  On his fourteenth birthday, a week after Ada’s family arrived in the village, she had given Ellis the necklace that hung around his neck. It was a ‘truth’ necklace, which he had initially laughed at before rightfully being smacked upside the head for his disrespect at her gift. But as he lay in bed that night, cradling the necklace in his hand, it lived up to its name. The truth of his feelings smacked him harder than she ever had.

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  He loved her. And he was going to marry her.

  Her offer now sounded like a song, something too good to be true. He would get to be around her far more often, and maybe even get her father’s approval before asking for her hand. Being around Derek, embarrassed as he was to admit, gave Ellis pause. But it wasn’t what made up his mind.

  He would dishonour his father if he didn’t become a hunter. And he would never be able to afford the life she deserved. His home was good, great even, but it wasn’t enough. Not for her splendor.

  Ellis was silent as he pondered her question, her glances growing frantic. She started apologizing, telling Ellis to forget the whole thing before he looked her in the eye, silencing her protests immediately.

  “Thanks Ada, really. But I will be a hunter, so the offer isn’t really necessary. Besides, why would I want to be anywhere closer to Derek than I have too?”

  Ada didn’t respond, only looked at her shoes and gave Ellis a half hearted smile. He immediately felt he had said something wrong, that he had upset her in some way. He started thinking of something to say to make her laugh, when Mathias’s voice echoed throughout the village.

  “Alright everyone, enough dawdling! Get those cracks salted, make sure the goat's piss is spread over the crops and get to the church!”

  A collective sigh rose from the crowd, before ending their conversations on their way to their village chores. The rules said the children must find their parents so they don’t get in the way, which Ellis thought they hadn’t obeyed even once. The children compromised in their own little way though, running over to Ellis and Ada and using the teenagers legs to hide from one another.

  Ellis and Ada had been wandering after the children, so now that their north star was running around their legs while giggling their little heads off, he wasn’t sure on where they should go next.

  Ada seemed to snap out of her earlier stupor and grinned at his confusion, eyeing the salt pouch at his hip before squatting down, the little ones quieting the moment her smile turned from him to them.

  “The adults have to salt the cracks now… which reminds me of a little rhyme Ellis’s mother taught me. You wanna hear it?” she asked.

  Ellis rolled his eyes at the question even if his heart skipped a beat at her smile. She had loved that rhyme the moment his mother taught it to her, the day she had first arrived, and that love had not diminished with time. Ellis knew it had nothing to do with the rhyme though. She loved it because it came from the city.

  The kids' eyes went wide as dinner plates the moment Ada started singing to them.

  Seal the lids, Salt the cracks

  Turn back if you see a line of black!

  Or kill a few and see

  A red, a blue, a hundred and three!

  Run as fast as you can

  There’s nowhere to hide, young man

  So step on a black drop

  Watch your heart stop

  Because the purple ones look like the hilltop!

  Ada used the song to ambush Ellis, even as he was starting to mumble a few of the words himself, caught up in the children’s excitement. She grabbed his hand as her voice rose towards the sky, then started dragging him and all the children towards the front of the butcher’s house, which was her chore to check.

  Ellis’s job was to check in front of the shepherd’s hut, but she didn’t let go of his hand. He thought missing it just once wouldn’t be so bad.

  Around them, the children would alternate between staring at their hand holding and screaming the line, “There’s nowhere to hide young man!” before chasing each other, pretending they were the very ants the rhyme warned against.

  Ellis tried to make sure they didn’t step on any of the salt while trying to figure out a way to keep his hand in Ada’s. He finished filling in the last of the cracks and clipped his now half empty salt pouch to his hip, when out of nowhere, Delilah grabbed his free hand and looked from Ada to him with wide eyes.

  “Are you married?” she asked while looking up at him.

  Ellis' face turned a sharp pink as he sputtered out a sharp, “no!” but the damage was done. Ada yanked her hand out of his before he had even gotten the word out, her face almost as pink as his.

  Before he could fix anything, she walked away while fanning her face, shouting at the little ones, “alright kids, go back to your parents! That’s enough playing for the day.”

  Delilah’s friends groaned, but ran off soon after. Even with all her friends gone, Delilah's curiosity was not satiated with ruining Ellis’s day, her eyes continuing to bounce back and forth between Ada’s retreating back and him.

  “Why would you hold hands if you're not married?”

  “Because! I don’t know! Why do you speak? The world has many mysteries that sometimes shouldn’t be questioned!” he chastised, his embarrassment masking his anger.

  Ellis started walking after Ada, Delilah skipping next to him.

  “You should get married,” she surmised, like this was a perfectly logical conclusion to come too.

  “Will you stop with this marriage business!? Gods! She doesn’t even like me!” Ellis yelled, his cheeks burning from the shame.

  Delilah only giggled, before slipping out of his hand once again and running off to join a small group of her friends that had stayed behind, most of them hiding behind the baker’s cart since the old crone was off doing her village chores. Ellis considered going after her, but any thought of brotherly concern had gone out the window the moment Ada’s hand had left his.

  So, Ellis ran after Ada, finding her in front of the shepherd's hut. This was where he was supposed to do his chores, check to see if any of the salt lines were broken or if any cracks had formed in the ground that shouldn’t be there.

  He didn’t even glance at the floor with Ada standing there. He almost lost his step when she glanced at him over her shoulder, tucked her hair behind her ear and turned away. But with a gulp, he kept walking.

  “Hey…” he tried, coming to a stop next to her.

  Ada’s eyes remained locked on the old salt lines at her feet.

  “I’m… sorry?”

  She snorted. “Sorry for what?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said, scratching his head. “Delilah’s bashfulness? I told her you didn’t mean anything by the uhm, the you know… handholding,” he mumbled, before continuing on, “So! She probably won’t speak about any of that ‘marriage’ nonsense again.”

  She didn’t respond. His heart crept into his throat, before she whispered under her breath, “Is that marriage business really only nonsense?”

  Ellis’s brain stopped working as he thought about that question and by what she could have possibly meant by it. None of the options that flew through his head sounded possible, so he tried his best not to jump to conclusions.

  “Uhhh…yes?”

  She looked up at him sharply.

  “No?”

  Her face was still for a moment, her eyes locked on his. He was still confused, not really sure what they were discussing. But then a little voice called out to him from across the village square.

  “Ellis! There’s a line of black!” Delilah shouted, the panic in her voice making Ellis’s stomach drop.

  Every adult within earshot dropped what they were doing in an instant, sprinting towards the children as fast their legs could carry them, Ellis and Ada not far behind. The baker and Mathias arrived first, each of them hauling the children away from the baker’s cart without a care for the children’s comfort.

  Ellis reached Delilah and scooped her up in his arms, backing away from the cart like it would swing a sword at them. His mind raced with possibilities as his hands shook, arriving at the only solution left to them: They had to abandon the village. All of them. It wasn’t safe anymore.

  With all the children safely away from the cart, Mathias ordered everyone to get back while he inspected the thing from wheel to wheel, his eyes going over every nook and cranny with dread etched onto his face. His eyes locked onto the spoke of a wheel just out of Ellis’s view.

  Mathias bent down to look at it closer, before picking up an object from the floor and holding out for all to see. “Relax everyone! The kids just drew a line of black with some charcoal! Nothing to worry about!”

  All the tension left the area as people hugged their children a little tighter, realizing how close they were to losing everything. The scolding that followed, however, was something even Ellis winced at.

  Ellis looked from the charcoal on his little sister’s fingertips, to her quivering lip, to her eyes, watching the rest of the children being spanked. “We thought it would be funny.”

  He stroked her hair, “I know kiddo. But some things aren’t funny. This is one of them. You can’t do that again, okay? Or else when it really happens, no one will believe you. Must I tell you about the boy who cried ‘ants’ again?”

  Delilah shook her head fiercely before she buried her face in his neck, the snot and tears running down his shoulder, but he didn’t mind. From how she was acting, Ellis knew she wouldn’t do it again. Ada came back from checking on the other children, giving Delilah a stern look before joining Ellis in soothing her tears.

  A few villagers must have gotten the word late, because soon anyone that had wandered off earlier would arrive back at the village square, panting and shouting for their children with furious desperation. Mathias soothed their fears one by one, before he scanned the crowd and found what he was looking for.

  He walked towards the Marsh children not a moment later.

  “Delilah, I assume you did this?” he said, holding up the charcoal towards her.

  Ellis turned Delilah away from him. “No Mathias. It was me. I wanted to draw a picture for her before you called us out for the village chores, so I only left a line of black there. She must have forgotten and did as she was told. She called it out to us. Why scold her for this when pointing out any lines of black is what we have always taught her?” Ellis lied, meeting the man’s gaze and begging the gods for him not to call his bluff.

  Ada put her on Ellis's shoulder and nodded. “Ellis was distracting the kids with talks of the city and wanted to draw it for them. We’ll be more careful next time.”

  Mathias crossed his arms. “How could you draw a place you’ve never been?”

  Ellis rolled his eyes. “Please, my ma’s told us about it so much we practically have. And you know as long as you put that Silk road and The Mountain in the picture, you're half way there.”

  “Don’t roll your eyes at me, young man!” he said, his glare fierce. After a moment, he let loose a sigh and waved a dismissive hand. “but fine. Alright. Just don’t do it again, you hear? You're going to give someone a heart attack!”

  Ellis and Ada both agreed before Mathias marched off, ready to scold or reassure someone else with the same ire he had just given them.

  Ellis looked back at Ada, standing just behind his back. He sent up a silent prayer before turning around to grab her hand just as it started to drift off his shoulder.

  “Thanks for backing me up,” he said with a shrug.

  She seemed as frozen as he was when she grabbed his hand earlier. But then the shock passed, and she brought his hand up between them, placing her free hand over it to draw circles around Ellis’s knuckles.

  “...you're welcome. Still, you shouldn’t lie, Ellis. You are not Anwir’s son. Even if it’s for a good reason, liars are backstabbers, lowlifes. I know you're better than that.”

  “It was necessary—”

  Her grip on his hand grew tighter, and her eyes met his. “You are better than that, Ellis.”

  He looked at his shoes. “...for you? I’ll try. I promise, Ada.”