Chapter 1: Chapter 1: The Arrival

The chilly wind and the dawning sky, the crowing of the roosters, and the scent of earth after the night's rain combined to form something haunting but beautiful. The stillness in the village and the absence of the bickering of the villagers just added to its splendour. He would always get up at this time, when there was not a single soul conscious, just to experience these marvellous but ephemeral moments in pure solitude. As he enjoyed the scenic views, just like always, he was drawn towards the forest, more specifically to the blood-red tree. He marched towards the forest through the muddy puddles and the heaps of manure as he breathed in a lot of that cold but fresh air before getting himself enveloped in the woodsy fragrance and the soft but musky scent, that was the forest. He walked that familiar path that had now been etched in his brain as the fallen and decaying leaves crunched under his worn-out leather boots. The more he walked, the more he found himself engulfed in the greyish fog that had slowly started to obscure his vision, but that just wasn't enough to stop him from going forward. He had tramped this path enough times that even if he were to lose his eyes, he would still find his destination. The fog had now started lifting, and soon he felt the very first rays of the sun, which had escaped the complex maze the leaves created, kissing his skin, and that's when he saw it. The Tree. The mighty tree with a massive trunk branched out into a million branches and looked like it was touching the very sky. But its most fascinating characteristic was those leaves, those blood-red leaves that distinguished it from every other tree present in that forest. It looked divine, like it had descended from the heavens; it looked old, as if it had experienced far beyond anything living in this world; it looked mighty and robust, like it had been made to defeat any difficulty that crossed its path. He inhaled the warm and peppery scent it emitted with delight as he got closer and closer to the tree. He sat down on a thick and massive root that jutted out from under the ground, under that marvellously spectacular beauty of nature, and sighed. He did not realize how long he had just been sitting there motionlessly. The calmness of his surrounding made him drowsy he was just about to fall into the depths of unconsciousness when suddenly a familiar sound came shouting his name, "Abner!". Everything around him was now bathed in the light of the sun. "Abner!" he saw his younger brother Garrett in the distance, waving his hands. "What?" he answered irritably. Garrett ran towards him, "They're here! The soldiers are here-". Abner got on his feet, leaving his brother just standing there. He started racing back to the village, not giving a second thought to anything, not caring about the mud that splashed on his trousers as he ran, nor the shouts of his brother asking him to slow down. He just ran as fast as his feet allowed before Abner found himself standing in the village centre, panting as he saw the people gathered, greeting the men in the armour, and among those men was Gilbert. Gilbert with caramel blond hair.

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