Year 1014 - The Forest Outside Valka
They hid in the hollow of a fallen tree.
Nida held Yuna and Kito close, all three of them shaking from cold and shock.
The glow of fire still lit the horizon. Smoke choked the air. Even here, miles from the village, they could hear screams.
"Is Mommy coming?" Kito whispered, his voice small and broken.
Nida's throat tightened. "No."
"What about Grandfather?"
"No."
Yuna sobbed into Nida's shoulder. "What do we do? Where do we go?"
Nida stared at the darkness beyond the trees. "I don't know."
She was fourteen years old. Covered in blood. Responsible for two children.
And she had absolutely no idea what to do next.
THE FIRST NIGHT
They didn't sleep.
Every sound made them jump. Every shadow looked like a soldier. Every distant roar made them think the dragon was coming back.
By dawn, the fire had died down.
The screaming had stopped.
And Nida knew what that meant.
Everyone's dead. Or taken.
"Stay here," she told her siblings. "Don't move. Don't make a sound."
"Where are you going?!" Yuna grabbed her arm, terrified.
"To see if anyone else made it." Nida gently pulled free. "I'll be back. I promise."
She left before they could protest.
RETURNING TO VALKA
The village was gone.
Not damaged. Not ruined.
Gone.
Every building had been burned to ash. Bodies lay in the streets, frozen in their final moments. The smell of smoke and death was overwhelming.
Nida walked through it like a ghost, searching for survivors.
She found none.
Only corpses.
Old people. Children. People she'd known her entire life.
All dead.
The dragon and the 6th Empire had been thorough.
She was about to turn back when she heard it.
A cry.
Faint. Weak. But unmistakably human.
Nida ran toward the sound.
Behind the burned remains of the healer's house, she found a woman.
Heavily pregnant. Blood streaming down her legs. Eyes unfocused with pain.
"Help..." the woman gasped. "Please..."
Nida dropped to her knees beside her. "I'm here. What happened?"
"They... they shot me... but the baby..." The woman grabbed Nida's hand with desperate strength. "The baby's coming. Please. Save my baby."
Nida's blood ran cold. "I don't know how to—"
"PLEASE!"
The woman screamed.
And Nida realized she had no choice.
THE BIRTH
What followed was the most terrifying hour of Nida's life.
She had no training. No supplies. Just blood and pain and desperate prayers to gods she didn't believe in.
The woman screamed until her voice gave out.
Nida did her best, remembering fragments of things her mother had once told her about childbirth.
Push. Breathe. Don't panic.
And then, finally, a cry.
Small. Angry. Alive.
A baby boy.
Nida wrapped him in her torn jacket, her hands shaking.
"You did it," she whispered to the woman. "He's alive. Your son is—"
The woman's hand fell limp.
Her breathing stopped.
Nida stared.
No. No, please, not again.
But there was no pulse. No movement.
The woman was gone.
And Nida was left holding a newborn baby who would never know his mother.
She sat there in the ashes, the baby crying in her arms, and something broke inside her.
Everyone dies. Everyone I try to help dies.
What's the point?
But then the baby opened his eyes and looked at her.
And despite everything, despite the death and the horror and the hopelessness...
She couldn't leave him.
"Alright," she whispered, her voice cracking. "Alright. I've got you."
She looked at the baby, so small and helpless.
"Your name is Kaisen," she said quietly. "And I promise... I won't let you die."
RETURNING TO THE FOREST
Nida made it back to the hollow tree by midday.
Yuna and Kito were exactly where she'd left them, huddled together.
"Nida!" Yuna scrambled out. "You're back! We thought—" She stopped, staring at the bundle in Nida's arms. "What... what is that?"
"A baby." Nida's voice was flat, exhausted. "His mother died. We're taking him with us."
"But we don't have food! We don't have anything!"
"I know." Nida sat down heavily. "But we're not leaving him to die."
Kito peeked at the baby, his eyes wide. "He's so small."
"Yeah." Nida looked down at Kaisen. "He is."
For a moment, they just sat there. Four survivors of a massacre, hiding in a frozen forest with no plan and no hope.
Then Yuna spoke quietly. "What do we do now?"
Nida didn't answer.
Because she didn't know.
THE SECOND NIGHT
They tried to make a fire, but the wood was too wet.
They tried to find food, but there was nothing.
Kaisen cried constantly. Hungry. Cold. Confused.
Nida had no milk for him. No way to feed him.
He's going to die. We're all going to die.
Kito was shivering uncontrollably. Yuna kept crying. The baby wouldn't stop screaming.
And Nida sat there, fourteen years old, covered in blood and ash, wondering how long they could survive.
Maybe we should have died with everyone else.
Then she heard voices.
THE SOLDIERS
"Check the forest. Make sure no one escaped."
Nida's blood turned to ice.
6th Empire soldiers. Searching the woods.
She clamped a hand over Kaisen's mouth, muffling his cries. Pulled her siblings deeper into the hollow.
Please. Please don't find us.
Footsteps. Getting closer.
"Think anyone made it out?"
"Doubt it. The dragon was thorough."
"Still, better to check. Can't have witnesses."
The footsteps stopped. Right outside the hollow.
Nida held her breath. Her heart hammered so loud she was sure they could hear it.
A soldier crouched down, peering into the darkness.
His eyes met Nida's.
Time stopped.
Then—
"HELP! OVER HERE!"
A shout from deeper in the forest.
The soldier's head snapped around. "What?"
"WE FOUND SURVIVORS! THREE OF THEM!"
"On my way!"
The soldier ran off.
Nida sat there, trembling, unable to believe they'd been spared.
Three survivors. They found someone else.
Then she heard it.
Screaming. Begging. Gunshots.
Then silence.
Nida closed her eyes, tears streaming down her face.
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
THE THIRD DAY
By the third day, Kito couldn't walk anymore.
He was burning with fever, his lips cracked and bleeding. He'd drunk from a stream two days ago. The water had been bad.
"I'm cold," he whimpered. "Nida, I'm so cold..."
"I know. I know, just hold on—"
"It hurts..."
Yuna held his hand, crying silently.
Nida didn't know what to do. They had no medicine. No food. No shelter.
He's dying. Just like everyone else.
That night, Kito's fever broke.
Not because he got better.
Because his body gave up.
He died in his sleep, curled up against Yuna.
When Nida woke up and realized, she couldn't even cry.
She was too numb.
Too broken.
Yuna screamed. Sobbed. Refused to let go.
"Please wake up! Please! KITO, WAKE UP!"
But he didn't wake up.
Nida had to physically pull her sister away.
They buried him under the snow.
No marker. No words.
Just a small mound in a forest that didn't care.
THE FOURTH DAY
Yuna stopped talking.
She just walked beside Nida, eyes empty, barely responding.
Kaisen had stopped crying too. He was too weak now. Too hungry.
We're all dying. Slowly.
Nida stumbled through the forest, carrying the baby, pulling her sister along.
She didn't know where they were going.
She didn't care anymore.
Maybe this is how it ends. Maybe we just walk until we can't anymore.
Then Yuna collapsed.
"Yuna!" Nida dropped beside her. "Come on, get up!"
Yuna didn't move.
"YUNA!"
Her sister's eyes fluttered open. "I'm... tired..."
"I know. But we have to keep moving—"
"I can't." Yuna's voice was barely a whisper. "I'm sorry, Nida. I can't..."
"Yes, you can! Come on!" Nida tried to lift her, but Yuna was dead weight.
"Leave me..."
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Please..." Yuna smiled weakly. "I want... to see Mom again..."
Her eyes closed.
"No. NO!" Nida shook her. "Yuna, wake up! WAKE UP!"
But she didn't wake up.
She just... stopped breathing.
Nida knelt there in the snow, her sister's body in her arms, and finally screamed.
A raw, broken sound that echoed through the empty forest.
Everyone's gone. Everyone.
Mother. Grandfather. Kito. Yuna.
Everyone I love dies.
She looked down at Kaisen, still breathing weakly in his makeshift sling.
You're next. And then me.
This is how it ends.
She closed her eyes.
I'm sorry. I tried.
Then, faintly, she heard something.
Crying.
Not Kaisen.
Someone else.
Nida looked up.
Through the trees, she saw movement.
A small figure. A child.
Being kicked by older boys.
"Please! I didn't steal anything! I swear!"
"Liar!"
Another kick. The small figure curled up, trying to protect himself.
Nida should have looked away.
Should have hidden.
Should have saved her strength for herself and Kaisen.
But something in her chest, something she thought had died with her family, stirred.
No.
Not again.
I won't watch someone else die.
She stood, leaving Yuna's body behind, and walked toward the fight.
Her hands were empty. She had no weapon. No strength.
But she had rage.
And right now, that was enough.
END OF CHAPTER 3