I awoke to a clang—the sharp sound of a key scraping into a rusty lock. I opened my dreary eyes as light slowly crept into my vision and as heavy boots pounded the floor, getting louder with every step. My body creaked into motion, protesting even the slightest movement as I agonizingly sat up. The chains attached to my wrists clink together as they move to rest in my lap. 

“Get up you filthy maggots,” shouted a voice from down the hall followed by a sword reverberating on cell bars. I groaned as I got to my feet. Wobbly as they were, they didn’t give out. My ankles were burning and chafing as I slipped on my worn and dirt-ridden shoes and stood up to look out of my cell.

As I stand up, I see the door across from me getting unlocked by a man, not but an inch taller than me. He was adorned with a black tunic and leggings underneath a bodice of silver armor, rusted and worn from use. A red sigil on his cape caught my eye along with many others. They are hated here, far more by us than any other civilian. The ones that cuffed us, slaughtered and burned us. 

The guard turns to me, his face riddled with scars and burns, and sneers, 

“Get out,” as he opens the metal door. I extend my leg as far as it can go and slowly step forward. Once I get within arms reach of the guard, he grabs me and pushes me into the hallway into the ever-waiting line of sorrow and misery. Ahead I see a guard struggling with someone who looks cleaner than all of the prisoners combined. 

“New recruit,” the guy behind me says. I look back and recognize the guy from the cell next to mine. He smiles as I glare at him, his crooked teeth protruding from his mouth. I turn away and see the blonde-haired new prisoner hunched over in the line. His shoulders shake and as he looks toward the guard, small tears spring from his eyes as shiny new red gashes adorned his face. 

“Get a move on,” the captain snaps out through his hoarse voice. The line of prisoners starts moving forward slowly, like a long, sad, train. As I get closer and closer to the stone archway to the mines, I breathe in deeply not knowing if it could be my last. The mines are dangerous and inhospitable with its extremely hot conditions and lack of secure tools and boardwalks. 

A crack in the top of the mine is the only natural light we have as the rest is lit by torches. I blink as I take in the little sliver of sun as it brushes my cheek. 

Oh, I would give anything to be outside. What would it feel like? I have not been outside since… well I don’t remember. 

The rocky path started to slowly turn into wooden boardwalks that were supported by rickety beams. I wobble as the board shakes and creaks with so many people walking on top of it. Soon, our steps instinctively aligned, except for the new guy in the front, and the prisoners in the back started humming a low tune. It soon became like a ritual to me. Every day our feet aligned and our throats sang low, deep tunes that were ancient and mysterious, only ourselves and rocky caverns for an audience. 

One day, whilst singing, shouts emerged from the crack at the top of the cavern. Soon, the captain and most of the guards go to see what or who it was. 

Suddenly, a huge boom racked the whole cavern, scattering loose rocks everywhere and swaying the boardwalks. We lowered our pickaxes and hammers as we stared at the crack, slowly getting wider. We look at each other in disbelief as the sun touches our faces and warmth seeps into our bones. Some cry out and weep and others drop their tools as they start to climb up the hard rock toward the surface. The guards shout and I hear their footsteps pound toward us. I don’t look back at them as I start to climb as well. My hands are stabbed and shredded by the rocks as I grit through the pain. I hear screams of death and shouts of fighting getting louder and louder above. 

At last, I got to the top as well as a handful of others. I pull myself over the edge with the last bit of energy I have and collapse onto the soft grass. I again realize the fighting occurring all around me and pull myself up and turn to look back down the canyon that leads down towards the underground prison. 

To my shock, the guards and boardwalks are nowhere to be found along with a few prisoners. I gulp as I trudge toward the entrance building of the prison, now getting invaded by the attackers. I slink to the side of the structure and wait until I hear the shouting and hurried voices fade down the tunnels. I look around the corner and slowly creep into the dimly lit room. 

Scattered among the room are various amounts of bows, short and long swords, knives, daggers, axes shields, and various pieces of armor. A leather-bound set of knives attached to a belt and a long sword caught my eye. I pick them up, feeling the familiarity of them. Strapping them across my back, I look for my leather armor, cloak, and satchel. 

As I’m quickly stuffing my belongings into my satchel, I look to my left out the window and see prisoners running followed by black-caped guards. Others were fighting the newcomers who were dressed in a sky-blue cape and silver metal armor. It rang a quiet bell in the back of my mind as I set my priorities to escape. I quickly slip on my armor and cloak and strap my satchel and weapons to my back. As I slip undetected back out into the sunlight, I collide with someone. 

“Stay back,” the blonde-haired prisoner snaps, holding up a dull knife. His hands were cut from the climb up and his green eyes were wary but determined. I raise my hands as it dawns on him. A nod of recognition from him was all he gave.

I give him a nod and stride out the door heading towards the forest when I hear him say, 

“Can I come with you?” I look back at him and hesitate even though the blood is rushing through my body, itching to get away from the prison. I sigh, jerk my head to the forest, and continue on, my only acknowledgment of his question. After a minute, I hear his quick, shuffling feet through the grass as he quickly catches up to me. 

“I’m Ekdrin,” he says through gasps.

“Pick up the pace,” I say as I start a slow jog into the woodlands. 

As the day got darker and the fight behind us faded, we ran on through the forest of tall trees and thickets. Towering above us, the beech trees creaked and swayed in the wind. Sunlight glinted through the lush canopy and hit the bed of the forest, looking out of place in the green and dark forest. Moss and damp dirt sagged beneath my feet, mostly masking the sound of my footfalls. Few times we stopped and when we did I looked for food only finding soft mushrooms growing from logs.

“We’ll stop here for the night,” I said after a long while. I looked around the clearing we had stopped at and picked up a few crooked branches strewn about. I dropped them in a heap and started to make the first flames of the fire. The clacking and scraping of the rocks in my hands was a brittle and startling sound in this quiet forest. After I nursed the first flame, I looked down at my bloodied and callused hands. They ached and burned after the climb out of the prison, so I set to work making temporary bandages out of a piece of cloth I found in my satchel. I hope to find a healer to fix these cuts. They had bled and crusted since then and had also encapsulated some mud and ash as well.

I took out the remainder of the rabbit I caught and eaten earlier, although it hurt to wield a sword, it was worth it. I could feel some of the ache in my stomach release as we ate it which made it hard to stop eating.

I grabbed the slab of cooked meat and stuck it on a spit that hung over the fire to cook and warm it up a bit more. Ekdrin came up beside the fire after finding a whole log of brown-capped mushrooms and a few blue and purple berries from a bush and sat down next to me. He tossed them in a small cloth bag and wiped his berry juice-stained hands on his pant legs.

“You still haven’t told me your name,” Ekdrin said.

I nod.

“Well, are you going to tell me or can I just call you rabbit-catcher?”

“No to both,” I grunt out, my mouth full.

“Alright,” he sighs,” where are we headed rabbit-catcher?”

“North.”

“To where?”

“Fornhild.”

A nod. 

“Alright,” he says,” See you in the morning then.” He stands and walks over to a boulder, not far from the fire. He sits with his back against it and lowers his hood, covering his entire face.

I finish and walk over to a tree with soft moss at its base. I lay down and rested my head against it, looking up into the night sky. Stars twinkle and shoot by in the dark abyss of night. I then see the oasis of light carved into the sky. The beautiful crescent was barely visible above the trees but it brightened my mood. I had forgotten how breathtaking life outside the walls of stone could be. A cold tear rolls down my cheek as I slowly drift into a deep, peaceful sleep for the first time in a long while. 

I woke with a start. The clearing was quiet and peaceful as I looked around. The tall prairie grass was swaying in the breeze and I could hear the trickle of a stream behind me. The world looked sharper, more magnified as my senses stirred from their hibernation. Something was… off. An eerie feeling crawled up the back of my neck like a spider as I craned my neck to listen to the forest around me, but only the wind sighing came back. I look up through the beech’s thick leaves and see a brown-speckled sparrow looking back down at me, tilting his head to the side seemingly waiting for some sort of fate to befall me. All around him are other sparrows sitting on the long branches of the beech tree I leaned against. They were all silent and I realized that the crickets in the grass were as well. I look around me and spot Ekdrin picking red berries over by the stream, seemingly unaware of my current concern. He sat on a mossy green rock, green with water from the stream beside it. The hairs on my arm stood on end as I slowly stood up and walked towards Ekdrin. He hears me and looks up as I quickly motion for him to be silent. 

“We are being watched,” I mouthed. He stands up quietly, dropping the berries, and slowly takes out his dagger. I look back to the clearing just in time to see and black-caped archer with an arrow knocked into his bow enter our encampment. I look around for any means of escape and find that the river is our best option. I tap Ekdrin’s shoulder and motion to walk across the river and onto the other side to cover our sent. He nods and we quietly start to make our way across, pulling our hoods up simultaneously. My cloak was a dark green color, perfect for blending in with the forest, but Ekdrin’s was a shade of brown that was unnatural as he had found it near a dirt road somewhere within the forest. A merchant’s cloak no doubt.

Once on the other side we crouched and started to run quickly along the ground when we heard multiple shouts behind us. Fear and adrenaline surged through me in a split second and soon we were standing up and running. Beneath the panting of our breaths, I heard heavy boot steps and twigs snapping behind us.

“Don’t look back,” I told him gasping for air. Slowly, the footsteps seemed to be gaining as I tried to run faster but found my legs burning with each step. I turn my attention ahead and see the ground quickly slope down and quickly slow down as we reach it. Ekdrin follows suit only to realize why I stopped. A fifty-foot cliff drop spans the space before us with a fast-flowing stream at the bottom. I look across the gap and see that it spanned about twenty feet from us. We would never have made it to the other side alive. I quickly turn around and see Ekdrin with his sword pointed at our pursuers. I draw my swords, their designs the works of master craftsmen and welders. There were 6 of them standing there, all wearing a black cape with a red sigil and sneering at us.

“Though you could escape, eh?,” one of them says sweeping his gaze between the two of us, “Nowhere to run now.”

“We aren’t going to run anymore,” I said realizing there was no other way out.

At that moment I slipped my swords back into their sheaths and fell backward- into thin air. Wind rushed passed me as my breath quickened, my fear overwhelming. I quickly closed my eyes just before ice-cold water embraced me and everything went dark.

Sunlight filtered into my vision as my eyes slowly opened. I lay on the bank of the river made of many small rocks and pebbles. I opened my mouth and sucked in a much-needed breath followed by a cough full of water. I turned over, my face now downward, and coughed up the water stuck in my lungs. I collapse to the ground exhausted and in pain. I lay there for a moment and suddenly sat up looking around me as I remembered the people chasing us. 

Us? Wait! Where’s Ekdrin? Did he jump as well? I quickly scan the bank and forest around me. Grunting and wincing, I slowly sit up noticing a strong, sharp pain on my leg. I look down and see a big gash sliced across my thigh. I grimaced and slowly stood up, my leg staying straight. I rip off a piece of cloth on my pant leg and tightly wrap it around the wound. Searing pain shoots through my leg and I have the urge to scream but grit my teeth instead. 

I quickly tie it off and slowly limp towards the river. I look up the river towards the cliff to gauge how far I went, but I see nothing familiar- even the cliff is nowhere in sight. I sighed and decided to head downriver and see if I could find Ekdrin. If not- well then he’s on his own. 

After a few hours of “walking”, mainly limping, I begin to see where the river base meets The Lonely Lake. I’m not far from Fornhild, I thought, my eyes brightening. I quickened my pace and slowly started to hear the bustle of the town. To see people, other people that don’t strike fear or hatred in you was a miracle to see. Everyday folk going about their business, not worried about the looming war and far from it. I smiled as I stopped at the edge of the town. 

Tears sprung out of my eyes while memories flooded my mind. Memories as a child of running through these cobblestone streets and the merry shouts from fishermen on the docks after they’ve caught a prize-winning fish. The smell of salt and food filled my nostrils and riled my stomach. 

This was home. After many years of not seeing daylight or being filled with happiness was suddenly overturned by the amazing town that surrounded me. My eyes stopped at a tall figure who was shaking his head and smiling at me and the ridiculous look on my face. Ekdrin’s face and arms were covered in bruises and scrapes, no doubt the same as mine. I limped toward him and his face quickly changed to slight worry as he looked at the blood slowly dripping from my wound. I collapsed into him, giving him a slight hug and swayed away on shaky legs towards the dock. I stopped along the pier looking out into the ocean. 

“Are you alright, rabbit-catcher?” he asked as he stepped up beside me.

“Yes. For the first time in a while, I am,” I replied and smiled, “ And you can call me Serwyn.”

He smiled.

“Alright, Serwyn.”

A pause.

“I can’t believe we’re finally free,” I breathed, taking in the weight of it. The weight of this newfound happiness and sense of freedom.

“Well, we’ve got the endless horizon in front of us. What shall we do with it?”

“Anything we want,” I said as we stood on the docks and looked out at the setting sun.

“Anything we want.”