by Sam Ford
The table was deathly silent. Without the town, they would waste away and perish. This side of the mountain had precious little growing pasture. Without trading pork in town, the family would have no income and slowly starve.
"Pa." Aaron spoke slowly. "If we don't go into town--"
"We don't need them!" Their father screamed, slamming his fists on the table, sloshing wine everywhere.
"Go get ready for bed, children," their mother ordered. They all stood up from the table.
"Cale. You did a man's work today. You sleep with your brothers from now on," their father ordered.
"What?" Cale, Tully and Byron exclaimed at the same time.
"This isn't fair," Byron groused.
"Cale belongs with us," Tully interceded. "Please."
"I don't want to," Cale put in shyly.
Their mother looked on helplessly. "Your father and I have been talking, sweetie. You're thirteen now. It is time for you to move in with your brothers."
"But--"
"I didn't raise you to be a milksop," roared their father. "You're a man now. Start acting like it!"
Cale and Tully shirked back, fearful of their father's wrath. He did not suffer weakness well, and he considered Cale the weakest of all his children. Apparently, working with him today had set the man on a rampage where Cale was concerned.
Cale had always slept with his sisters, ever since he was a baby. He was the smallest, so sharing their bed made the most sense. And his brothers rose earlier than Cale did, a fact they both resented. To come out with such a demand so suddenly was shocking, and given their father's drunken demeanor, he left little room for argument.
Leaving the dinner table, Cale overheard his parents whispering. "Useless. Everyone in this family is useless."
"I know dear."
"I have half a mind to feed that boy to the hogs."
"Please dear, it will be fine. His brothers will take care of him. You'll see."
"Byron is almost as useless as Cale. And Aaron has too much lip. I've seen the way he looks at me, backtalks to me, resents me. He gets that from you."
"Yes, dear. I'm sorry, dear."
Cale felt his throat tighten with anger. It went on like this every night, his mother kowtowing to every insult his father threw at her. She never fought back, nor did Aaron or any of his other siblings. Cale could only stand by and helplessly try to block it out.
Cale walked down the hall and Byron made sure to bump into him. "You'll never sleep in our room, runt. You can sleep with the pigs."
Later, Cale gathered his belongings from his room. He had shared the room with his sisters for thirteen years. He wanted to cry, but he could not tell if from anger or sadness. Either way he staved off the tears. Regina might become cross with him. Besides, he needed to be strong for Tully. She was already a mess enough of her own.
"It's alright, Cale. We'll sneak you back in later," Tully reassured him, nearly sobbing.
"We will do no such thing," Regina stated. "We're not crossing Pa. He's got his own ideas about the world and I, for one, am not going to stand against him."
"But Cale belongs with us!"
"Tully, he's our brother, not a dog. He can sleep with the boys. He's been thirteen for a while now, nearly a man."
"It's okay, Tully." Cale put on a brave face for her sake, though he was quaking inside. "I'll be fine."
"No, it's not fine!"
"We've all got to grow up some time," Regina said.
It was not fine, though. Not really. True to his word, Byron would not let Cale sleep in the boy's bed. They would not even let him in their room. Their mother and father seemed resolute in their decision--or at least, their mother wasn't willing to cross Father.
So that left one option.
Cale shivered on the hay, pulling the blanket closer. He had never slept away from the warmth of home before. He'd read about camping, but his mother had never let him sleep outside the house. It was a new experience, and thus far, he didn’t care for it. The hay was rough and scratchy, and the smell of wet pig droppings was nearly unbearable. The pigs kept waking him up. He kept trying to snuggle closer to them, but they would just walk away.
Even the pigs didn't want him.
The barn was little more than a lean-to, designed to keep the rain off at best. With no real walls, it offered little protection from the wind and weather. While not unseasonably cold, the night air still sent a chill through him. Cale longed for his bed, his room and his sisters. He promised himself he wouldn't cry, but he afforded himself a sniffle, just this once.
The world appeared to be changing, and people didn't react to him the same way they used to. His father was harder on him, Byron was meaner, and their mother was less protective. Only Tully's disposition toward him remained unchanged. Cale knew people had to grow up at some point, but he had never before thought about what it meant when it came to him. His siblings had been helping around the house for years. Aaron and Byron handled the bulk of the heavy chores, coming in late at night completely exhausted. Cale had often been prevented from physical exertion by his mother, citing his weak nature. But Cale did things as well, housework and cooking and the like. He could also read. If only others found that particular skill to be useful.
There was a sound. Something cracked in the night.
Cale sank lower, hiding beneath his blanket. It was almost certainly a person. Or a small bear.
Cale hoped it was a person.
A branch snapped.
Nope, it had to be a bear. A big bear.
"Cale?" a voice called out.
"Aaron?" Cale answered, confused. His brother peeked his head over the half wall of the stable. "What are you doing out here?"
"I just came to see if you needed anything. Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Cale wiped his eyes. He desperately didn’t want his brother to see his tear-stained cheeks. "Just peachy."
"Rough night, huh?"
"I just don't understand why everyone hates me."
"People don't hate you, Cale." Aaron hopped on the fence, staring down at him.
"Yes they do. You do. Byron does."
"Byron is Byron. He doesn’t always deal with stuff the right way. And I don't hate you. You're an obnoxious, annoying know-it-all, but you're still my little brother."
"Then why is everyone so mean?"
"Everyone has their own problems. It's part of growing up. We're all..." Aaron sighed. "We're all products of our upbringing. No one chooses where they're born. No one chooses their parents. We all learn by example. Sometimes, our parents are an example of what to do." Aaron glanced away, toward the house. "And sometimes, of what not to do."
"I don't want to be here. I want to run away. I don't want to spend the rest of my life herding stupid pigs on this stupid hill in this stupid village." Cale longed to see the world with Tully.
"You may want to come back someday when you're older and wiser."
"Don't act so wise. You're only three years older than me." Cale stuck out his tongue at his brother, who grinned back at him.
"Yeah, and I'm happy here. It's part of growing up. You are led where you do not want to go and are told to do what you do not want to do."
"I hate this. What should I do?"
"Be brave."
"Mother believes father is brave. Do you want me to be like him?"
"Yes."
"Why?" Cale couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"I think bravery is standing up when you're scared, even when you don't know what you're afraid of.
"And that's how you see Pa?"
"In a way, I guess. He had his whole world taken from him, but he gets up every morning to make the best of what he has."
"But he only lost everything because of his own stupid choices."
"I don't see it like that. And what do you know anyway?" snapped Aaron. "Besides, you asked me if I thought he was brave. I never said he was courageous."
"What's the difference?"
"Do you know anyone who does?"
Aaron turned to face him eye-to-eye. His answer shocked Cale. "You."
"Me?!"
"Yeah, maybe. I don't know, perhaps you will succumb to the fight, ground down under the weight of the world. Maybe you will win. I can't say. But I know you. You're my annoying little brother. You never give up, never take note of the odds. You find the furrow that works for you and stick with it. As much as I may hate you sometimes, you make your own path. I think you have courage, the kind of courage needed to face the worst the world has to throw at you. And you never know, maybe someday you'll change the world in turn." Aaron hopped down off the railing. "Try and get some sleep. We've got a long day tomorrow.”
Cale watched his brother walk into the house, wide-eyed and in shocked silence. He thought of Jenny, the girl Aaron did not love but would marry anyway, all for their father's sake. And Cale realized his brother was wrong. That act, a gesture of selfless love for their father, struck Cale as a sort of courage all its own.
Chapter III
"Cale. Cale. Wake up!"
Cale moaned. The panicked whisper was accompanied by violent shaking. Who in the world was shaking him?
"Leave him and come on!"
"Cale. Get up, right now!"
Cale moaned and rubbed his eyes. Byron stood over him, his night shirt drenched in sweat. Tully continued to try to shake him awake. There was no reason for his siblings to be in the barn, especially together. Byron kept looking around, his eyes wide in fear.
"Wa's going on?" Cale grunted, sitting up in confusion.
"Come on. Get up. We have to go now!" Tully pulled him to his feet.
"What's going on?" He grabbed his hat.
"Let's get out of here," Byron whispered before running away. Tully took Cale's hand and ran, as well.
It took Cale several minutes before he realized how wrong everything was. To go directly from a deep sleep to a brisk run in the night air was not an easy thing to do. It was yet another experience Cale wished he could avoid.
All the animals were gone. How strange. Usually they stuck close to the barn or near fields at night, but they were nowhere in sight. He could only hear the faint screaming of the pigs. It was an uneasy sound at the best of times, and entirely terrifying given the time of night.
This scared Cale even more. It was still far too early for dawn, yet an orange glow could be seen on the horizon.
The wrong horizon.
"What's going on?" Cale asked between heavy breaths, sweating despite the cool night air.
"I don't know." Tully wasn't even winded. "The pigs are gone and the town is on fire. Pa and Aaron went to investigate. Regina told me and Byron to run for the river. I had to convince him to stop for you."
"Thank you."
"I would never leave you." She gripped his hand tighter.
"I know." At least Cale had Tully.
They paused at the ridgeline to catch their breath. Byron crouched low, looking as if he was trying not to throw up. He was not exactly built for running.
Cale also gulped down air. Tully turned back, watching the house on the other side of the clearing. She was the first to see it.
"AH!" She screamed.
The first tendrils of smoke were unnoticeable against the black sky, but the orange tongues of fire lapping against the roof were not. Within a manner of seconds, their home was engulfed in flames. Two figures ran from the inferno, only to succumb to the fire themselves. Cale wasn't sure which of his siblings was screaming, only that Byron was the only one holding them all back.
The barn was the next to go. Isolated apart from the house, it erupted into a blaze as well. Cale thought some stray spark must have set it off, but the ferocity was unlike any fire he'd ever seen. Through it all, he kept his eyes on the unmoving bodies of Regina and their mother. Tully wailed as quietly as she could, clinging to Cale in desperation. Even Byron's quips and bullying fell silent.
As the barn collapsed in on itself with the roar of thunder, one lone pillar remained, bathed in light. Cale rubbed his eyes, finally looking away from his family toward the oddity. The barn was little more than an open-sided shack. There were no pillars in it, certainly none able to withstand the fire and the collapse of the building. Though aflame, the obelisk was not consumed.
Then, it turned its head.
The pillar was a man, a being, with charred and cracked skin constantly ablaze as if bathed in lamp oil. The radiant being stood almost eight feet tall, Cale guessed, with shoulders as broad as a man. It stood motionless, scanning the tree line as the fire crackled around it. When its glowing eyes met Cale's, he almost fainted. The world went gray, existing only in that creature's fiery pupils. The moment seared into his memory, ensuring he would remain with him forever. He forgot to breathe. It was like being plunged beneath an icy lake in the dead of winter. Every single fiber of his being screamed one thing.
Fear.
There was a shout, or maybe a scream. Cale could barely process anything as his world went blank.
A man came running for the creature, brandishing a shovel. Another followed after him. Pa and Aaron. They would fix everything. Their father reared back and struck with the shovel, sending out a mighty clang Cale could hear even from where he hid. It was a cold, solid sound, similar to striking wet sand. Without even flinching the flaming beast turned its attention to the two newcomers.
It was over in an instant. Tully clung to Cale's chest, squeezing her eyes tight shut against the sight. Cale could not look away, though, either out of shock or bravado. He bore full witness as two more members of their family were cut down, and two more torches blazed to life.
The silence was broken as newcomers arrived, several figures that were clearly human. A man and a woman, clad in black with swords of their own, looked ready for a fight. Rangers, Cale thought to himself. They'll kill the beast. But there was no slaying, no killing. Instead, they simply spoke to the creature as if they knew one another. Then, with a terrifying gesture, all three turned their eyes back to the tree line and stared directly at Cale.
"We need to go." Cale stood, his legs finding strength, though he knew not from where. "Tully, get up. We must leave. Byron--"
Cale turned, but Byron was nowhere to be found. He had taken heed of his cowardice and fled. Tully looked around as well, her expression showing her disbelief that their older brother would abandon them. She screamed anew once arrows began thumping into the trees around them. The strangers were shooting at them.
"Run!" Cale screamed, taking hold of Tully's hand.
The two rushed headlong through the underbrush, not caring for the cuts and scrapes and torn nightclothes. They stumbled and crashed downhill in a mad scramble born of panic and dread. Cale could only hope they were heading the right direction, though what that direction was and what lay ahead he could not say. The oily smoke from a thousand fires filled the night, blotting out the moon and stars. The inky blackness was a curse to the terrified children.
It was also a blessing.
As they stumbled into the river with a scream, it occurred to Cale that they must have lost their pursuers. Surely no one could track them in this darkness.
The siblings came to rest in the river, sputtering up water and gasping for air. The water was frigid, closer to the end of summer than the beginning, and though the river flowed from the warmth of the north, it was still strikingly cold.
"Are you alright?" Tully asked, her wet hair framing her face.
"I'm okay." Cale was covered in scratches and his legs ached b
ut he was otherwise unharmed. "Are you hurt?" Tully shook her head. Cale looked around. "What happened to Byron?"
"Cale," Tully whispered low. "What was that?"
"I--I don't know." Cale thought for a moment, biting his thumb. "I've never read about anything like that."
"It was on fire! Cale. It... It killed Ma and Pa..."
Cale couldn't focus on his sister's words. He was still concentrating on the creature. It was far larger than any man. It burned and yet was not consumed. And were those horns on its head? Did it have a tail?
Cale couldn't remember. It had all happened so fast that the only thing of which he was certain was that it was not even remotely human. The village elders, when they came to buy a pig for their annual sacrifice, spoke of mountain spirits living in the high places, of ancestors long forgotten and deeply angered.
Could that have been what the creature was? But none of the elders had ever spoken of a flaming beast the size of a bear.
The cold water splashing over his face brought Cale back to the present. "Cale!" Tully yelled. "Focus!"
"Sorry." Cale wiped his face, standing unsteadily to his feet. The rocks in the river were loose. Tully accepted his extended hand. His thumb hurt. He tended to chew it when concentrating deeply. He always had. "What do we do now?"
Tully tried her best to wring out her shift. It had torn in many places and the thin material clung to her delicate form. "We need to head downriver. The village is burnt and most likely everyone is--everyone is like Ma and Pa if that creature is still on the loose. Byron is off to who-knows-where. There should be another town farther downstream."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm not sure of anything." Tully's lip quavered. "You ready?"
Cale took a slow look around. Now that they had stopped moving, they were both shivering from the frigid wet and cold. The glow from the farm and the burning village could still be seen over the treetops, farther upstream around the bend.
"I never thought I would be so sad to leave," Cale murmured.
"You're the one who wanted to see the world," Tully reminded him.
