They were now on the route along the mountains.
The woman and her child were still asleep there in the wagon, as they had been since they got to Mjiormire.
After hearing the story the mood was sour.
"S- so dad…" Marcus burst into tears as he also realised his mother must have passed on too.
"(...)" His father rushed to the back of the wagon and embraced him.
Whispered something into his ears, then tapped his shoulder.
Marcus's eyes widened, then he sniffed in.
Kenneth dropped the gun he held in his hands, his eyes narrowed.
"How did you get that wound!…" His father asked him, while dragging the hand that had been injured earlier.
"Kenneth, check the emergency supplies in the sack over there, they ought to be something useful there." Laurent said to him.
Kenneth dug through the contents of the bag.
After a while he found some bandages.
[Tap Tap] "Hey Leo.." Laurent tapped on the space left empty by Kenneth on the front of the wagon.
Leo climbed over and sat on the front of the wagon beside his father, while Marcus's father tended to his son's wounds.
"I see you learnt some tricks from me, you tied it up cleanly." Kenneth said to his son with a smile on his face.
Marcus shook his head.
"It wasn't me that did it, it was him" He pointed Moore who was now fast asleep at the bottom left edge of the wagon.
"Oh? Is that so…" Kenneth was surprised, they continued conversing.
The sounds of the conversation, the snores of Moore, the shrieks of the horde that had begun gradually receding.
These sounds were dulled to the ears of Leo and his father.
The boy and his father had a moment of silence.
***
[Cough] Lorent cleared up his throat.
"Beautiful ain't it…the sun coming up from the mountains" Lorent finally initiated the conversation.
"..." Leo tightened his grip on his staff, he left no reply.
"Where did you get that stick?
On second thought it looks more like a staff " Lorent took one hand off the lead rope and motioned to the staff.
"..." yet again no reply from Leo.
He even tightened his grip even more.
"Isn't there a chance mom and Hermes survived?" Tears rolled down Leo's cheeks once more as he said this.
Laurent raised his head up high.
"Leo, no one did,
I- no, as we arrived at Mjiormire I rested the horses for a while.
We decided to check for survivors since those critters weren't there when we arrived.
I went straight to our house.
I saw-
…" Lorent paused.
"Their bodies were crushed under the rubble, but I can't tell him that" He kept the thought to himself.
" I confirmed with my own eyes.
When we saw you boys running at us, I was really glad I didn't lose you too." Lorents pupils shrank as he told his son this with his hoarse voice.
"I should've arrived a day earlier Claire,
Hey Claire…
What ever can I do to atone for my incompetency" Lorent was fighting his own internal battles.
"Dad, you know Mom.
She had been tidying up the house now for a few days now.
She waited for your letters but they never came." Leo unclenched the staff.
He is father closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"What did you say her name was again?" Leo questioned.
His father stared in utter confusion.
"Who?" Lorent asked.
"The girl at the back, you said her name was?" Leo turned while looking at the girl at the back.
She was still very much asleep.
"From what I've been told grey hair is rare.
That's why I always took pride in mine and yours." Leo was now holding strands of his hair.
Lorent knew Leo had caught on, he was a smart kid after all.
But he couldn't help but feel defeated by the look on Leo's face;
That of utter disgust.
Leo sniffed then cleaned the tears from his face.
"Aren't you hungry?
There's some food in the sack ar the back.
It shouldn't be much, but it should be enough for you and your friends to get through the journey"
Leo looked away, he turned to the back then picked up a device that seemed strange to him.
He picked up the device, it was the one Marcus's father had used.
Kenneth noticed, as he was now done tending to Marcus's wounds.
"What is this?" Leo was in awe of the design.
"Ah that, you don't see that in these parts of the empire.
That's a rifle." Kenneth replied Leo, he collected the gun from Leo's hand.
"It's dangerous, it's easy to hurt yourself with one of these.
Cases like those aren't uncommon.
One mistake and bang" Kenneth was digging through the sack.
He pulled out two pieces of bread, handed one to Leo and the other to Marcus.
"Eat it, you should be starving.
Hand one to your friend over there when he awakens." Kenneth said to them.
Leo went back to the back of the wagon as he looked at the critters, they were barely 30 left, the others had gradually stopped chasing.
"We've almost lost them…" Leo thought as he gazed upon them.
He chewed the had bread, and only while eating did he realise how hungry he was.
One bite after another, until the bread was naught.
***
It had been a few hours now, the horses had been working overtime.
Their pace had reduced a lot, but so had the critters chasing them.
Leo was tired but didn't fall asleep, he just watched the horde fade out of sight.
He felt something everytime he looked at them.
"Strangely enough, they keep me calm" He thought.
"Leo, I've been meaning to ask, but where were you three when they appeared.
I want to know how you three survived" Laurent asked.
"We were out of town." He answered, his words were apathetic.
"How far out that you couldn't see or hear the beam?" Laurent said.
Leo sighed.
He closed his eyes, then opened them again.
"it wa-" His jaw dropped before he could finish speaking.
The last of the critters had straight up vanished.
He cleaned his eyes, looked around no trace of it could be seen.
It was just as his father had said.
"What?!" He screamed.
"What's it kiddo" Kenneth asked, the others turned to him also.
The scream was loud enough to wake up Marcus, the woman and the girl from their slumber.
Moore remained asleep.
"It, disappeared.
It was right there, the critter." Leo pointed to the back of the carriage.
This came as no shock to Lorent.
"Told you I wasn't lying" Lorent shrugged.
Leah was now rubbing her eyes.
"Where…are we" She said with a faint voice.
Her blue eyes illuminated by the sun, her long grey hair flowing to the whims of the wind.
She stared at Leo, one look and she could tell.
Leo stared right back at her, his expression gradually turned to a frown.
"(Mom is that him?)" She whispered to her mother.
"Honey now isn't the time for this." Jennah turned to look behind.
"Lorent is it safe now." she asked.
"I'm not quite sure.
If I could guess, I would say we're in the clear" Lorent replied.
Jennah let out a sigh of relief.
"The mark on her cheek,
Is that?" Leo was thinking about the mark on Leah's right cheek.
A black short line that protruded from the jaw to just under the cheek.
His gaze shifted to the woman beside her.
"She has it too" He confirmed.
He then looked away and faced the rear while Kenneth returned to the front.
***
Time had passed once more, the gigantic wall that stood between the fourth and third sector could now be seen.
It stood over 30 metres tall, nearly 200 kilometres across, with a width of 9 metres.
This incited no reaction from Marcus since he had crossed the walls several times on his journeys with his father.
What was starange to Marcus was that Leo had no reaction too.
"Look Leo, it's the great third wall" He said to Leo while smiling.
"I know" Leo replied.
"That's your reaction?
'I know?'
Aren't you supposed to be going;
'woah look at how tall it is Marcus, how did they manage to do this'
Or something along those lines?" Marcus scoffed at Leo.
Leo however wasn't having it, he just looked at Marcus with a blank face.
His look said sullen.
"It's impressive, I guess" He replied Marcus then turned around.
Marcus's smile faded.
"Well if Leo, didn't get any reaction I should wake Moore up"
Leah watched their interaction.
"They're so strange" She thought.
Leo was deep in thoughts.
"I miss Mom, I miss Hermes.
My chest feels so heavy.
It hurts.
it hurts so, so much.
And then there's this burning feeling in my heart.
I've been feeling this way for a while now.
It's been going on since earlier in the grass fields.
I ran longer than I ever had, my body felt light.
I felt unbound." Leo was getting deeper in thought.
"(What!?)" Leo was startled, but he didn't repeat his earlier mistake.
He looked at his palms.
They were now engulfed in a black substance.
He flexed and swayed them and the substance followed.
He shook them in an attempt to quench it like one would with a flame.
They didn't quench.
"What is this?" He couldn't make sense of it.