28 years after the death of Himmel the Hero, in the Great Sanft Forest, located in the northern lands
A week after he had talked to his family, Senken was ready to leave. His pack was filled with rations and extra furs. His handmade cloak rested along his shoulders, draping down to mid thigh. It was held in place with a small piece of wood fed through a loop of leather, a basic button, in a pair, kept it snug against him.
As he left his room, standing in the living room, was his mom and sister. Their mom was armed, a spear far too big for her resting in her grip. Unlike the practice spears he and his sister had been using, this was capped with a metal head, the blade almost as long as his mothers forearm. The shaft was painted or burnt black, and wrapped in leather about half way up.
His mom stepped forward, face firm.
"My little boy has become a man." She said, and he could hear the strain in her voice, forcing the emotion down.
"Senken," She started. "You have grown into a fine young man. You've never complained. You never made me or your father worry…until this."
"Are you sure? Is this what you really want, Senken?"
Senken's voice was like a distant roll of thunder.
"Naturally."
His mom lifted the spear, holding it out to him.
"My family comes from a long line of warriors. If you had been raised there, you would have gotten this years ago."
Senken could see her arm was still, but the spear wavered, its tip in a tight little circle.
"If this is what you really want, then I'll support you."
Senken took the spear, sized for him, his hand gripping around the leather wrap. His mom embraced him, her arms digging into his wide frame with her great strength. Her face was buried in his chest. His lower arms embraced her in turn, rubbing her back. He looked at Heben, who was looking at this display of affection with a face he couldn't decipher.
"How many trees have you cut down?" Heben asked.
"I haven't done a single one." Senken answered. His mom pulled away to look up at him.
"Are you going back on the deal you made with your father?" His mom asked.
"Not at all. I'll cut them down when I'm leaving."
Heben scoffed, but his mom giggled, a soft sound he didn't remember the last time he had heard. She stepped away from him.
"Well, you best get to work then. Heben, go with him. I know you wanna see your little brother off."
Heben blushed at those words and wordlessly left the home with him. She still walked ahead of him, but it was an effort on Senken's part to not outpace her. He remembered struggling to keep up with her for so long. Now she was the one who needed to set the pace.
"Do you not love us?" She asked, and Senken shot her a glance.
"What makes you think that?"
"The fact you're leaving!" she rounded, with an angry face and sad eyes.
"I feel like our positions are reversed." Senken noticed.
"They are!" Heben agreed. "I'm supposed to be leaving first, going off to get married or something and you're supposed to be crying about not knowing when you're going to see me again!"
Senken stood there, looking at her. He took a deep breath.
"Love?"
…
"Taking hold of my desires — to be a mage; why would love be any obstacle to that?"
"…"
Heben made to speak again but stopped as they both heard a loud scream from the village.
Heben turned and Senken followed, outpacing her as he sped into the village proper.
A market stall was knocked over, and against the fountain was the priest, holding his stomach as people gathered around, to help and to look on. Senken looked at the stall owner. The baker lady.
"What happened?" He asked.
"S-some ruffians were trying to take some of my sweets!" The portly woman said. "I just, I called them out for it and, and the priest came over. I didn't see one had a knife out till-"
'Where did they go?"
The portly woman pointed to a path out of the village. The same path to the old well.
He saw Heben, who must have caught up while he was talking with the baker lady, step away from the priest, toward him as he walked towards the old well.
"I'm coming with you." She said, "The priest is dead. They need to pay."
"You're staying." Senken said.
"Like hell I am!" Heben refuted.
"I need someone here who can take care of mom and dad." He explained. "If they escape me, or something like this happens again, I need you here so that they, and the village, are safe."
Senken could hear his sister stop following him as he left the village. He did hear her call out, one last time.
"YOU BETTER STAY SAFE SENKEN!"
He lifted a hand, waving behind him. Their tracks were easy to find once the cobblestones ran out, a pair of quickened footsteps in the dirt. He followed them, approaching where his father had started the logging mill. The area was littered with stumps, yet to be pulled out.
He stopped, in front of the swath of trees that made the forest that surrounded their home.
He set his spear down, adjusting his cloak. He had to cut down twenty trees for his dad.
His hand stretched forward, middle and index fingers pointing towards the tree line, as mana coalesced — greater and greater, and then greater still — into a single spell.
"[Dismantle]"
It was later in the evening, Schön led his workforce of lumberjacks out to the area they had been cutting.
He saw from the edge of the village how the area was just gone. As they walked closer, he could see where the trees had gone.
They had been cut down. Hundreds of them, the fresh swathe of tree stumps only stopping where the terrain's change in elevation dropped the trees below the visibly apparent crosssection. The stumps looked perfectly cut, each tree cut down in one motion.
The worry he had for his son, that worry he had had since he was born almost 17 years ago, began to slowly lift.
Senken was going to be just fine.