Ten years ago… beyond the frozen hills of western Ronia, in the seaside city of Fturas, it was another cold day buried under snowfall. Fturas was a small city, and one of the few men everyone knew there was Dryn—a veteran who had spent fifty years fighting in Eastern Ronia and the Orc Mountains. Now, in his old age, he passed the time fishing.
Once again, he pulled his spruce-wood fishing rod from the freezing water empty-handed.
"Grandpa, I brought firewood. You must be freezing."
The voice belonged to none other than six-year-old Rylen, Dryn's grandson.
"Thanks, boy. Now light them up properly so we can warm ourselves," Dryn said.
Rylen only stared blankly at the wood before looking back at his grandfather.
"You don't even know how to start a fire?" Dryn asked.
Rylen sadly shook his head.
"What the fuck can he do properly anyway? Don't waste your breath, father."
The voice came from Araeg, Dryn's son and Rylen's father. He grabbed Rylen by the fur on his shoulder and pulled him aside before kneeling down to light the fire himself.
"Go help your mother. Tell her to make dinner."
"But… we don't have any food," Rylen whispered.
Araeg pulled four silver coins from his pocket and threw them at the boy's feet.
"Then take the fucking money and buy something."
Rylen quietly picked the coins up and headed toward the local fishmonger. Dryn only watched his son with disgust.
Rylen bought a Fturas salmon and placed it in a worn paper bag. The fish's tail was sharp enough to slice through the old bag. Right in the middle of the street, the paper finally tore apart, and the fish dropped into the slushy ground, sliding away through the melting snow.
Rylen ran after it.
Laughter erupted around him.
"Look at him! Even the fish doesn't wanna stay near him!" one of the neighborhood boys shouted.
"Don't lose your only friend, Rylen!"
Rylen froze for a moment as the children laughed at him, but when he saw the fish still sliding away, he kept running. Tears streamed down his face.
Just as he reached for it, the icy ground betrayed him too. He slipped hard and crashed into the mud. The fish finally stopped after slamming into a pile of snow.
Rylen picked it up with shaking hands, tears dripping onto its scales, and slowly started walking home.
After a while, he noticed a gray-and-black cat sitting near the roadside. The poor thing looked starving.
Rylen tore off a large piece from the fish's tail and placed it in front of the cat. He sat there petting its head while it devoured the meat.
Then suddenly, the cat bolted.
Rylen turned and saw his father.
Araeg picked up the half of the fish from the ground and shoved Rylen forward.
They returned home together, Rylen barely holding back his tears.
His mother Yuria greeted them while lazily drinking beer inside the damp wooden house.
"Our idiot son was about to feed our dinner to some stupid cat," Araeg laughed as he sat beside the fireplace.
Yuria ignored him and hugged Rylen before preparing the fish.
"Take the carrots and cucumbers, Rylen. You can make the salad."
Rylen carefully chopped the vegetables with a tiny knife. It took him forever, but eventually he managed to place everything into a bowl.
As he reached out with both hands to lift it, his thick gloves slipped.
The bowl fell.
Vegetables scattered across the filthy floor.
"Don't be sad, Rylen," Yuria said softly. "It's not like we eat salad every day anyway."
But Rylen panicked.
"I have to clean it! If father sees this, he'll beat me!"
"You don't need to. I'll handle it."
Right then, Araeg appeared.
He grabbed Rylen by the hair and dragged him outside in front of the house before slapping him hard across the face.
"Did I raise you to be a useless little shit that disgraces our family name?!"
A group of townsfolk passed by at that exact moment, smirking beneath their mustaches.
"Everyone laughs at you, Rylen. Everyone."
Rylen finally broke.
He ran.
Straight out of the city.
Toward the hills and the trees beyond them.
He collapsed beneath the forest, hugging his knees while crying uncontrollably.
"Stupid Rylen… useless Rylen…" he muttered every insult he knew toward himself.
He stayed there until nightfall.
But hunger soon began clawing at him.
Still, he refused to go home.
He spent two freezing nights beneath a tree without moving. He drank from tiny pools formed by melted snow and tried to survive by eating snow itself, but it only made him weaker and sicker.
By the second night, his tiny body was completely exhausted from starvation and illness. His eyes slowly closed.
He was ready to never open them again.
Then suddenly—
A falcon landed in front of him with a piece of bread in its beak.
The bird dropped the bread before him.
Rylen stared in shock before swallowing it in a single bite.
The bird took flight again.
Rylen forced himself up and followed it with the last strength left in him.
Eventually he realized he was retracing the same path he had taken while running away from home.
Then he saw where the bird landed.
The back window of his house.
Rylen hurried there, opened the window slightly, and climbed inside.
That was when he saw Dryn lying in bed.
The old man looked terrible.
"So… you came back," Dryn whispered weakly.
"Well done, Kael…"
"Grandpa? Are you okay?" Rylen asked.
"Rylen…" Dryn coughed deeply.
"The bow behind you… it belongs to you now."
Rylen immediately understood.
His grandfather was dying.
"His name is Kael. I told him to bring you here. He stood beside me for years. Now he needs a new companion."
The falcon—Kael—landed on Dryn's chest and lowered its head toward him.
"His powers are yours now too, Rylen. You'll learn how to use them."
"I can't leave you, grandpa. What am I supposed to do alone?"
"You are not alone, boy. Kael will walk beside you now. My time has come."
Dryn struggled to breathe.
"Keep the bow and arrows close. You are no longer Araeg's son…"
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"You are the son of the wind now."
Rylen burst into tears and clung tightly to his grandfather's body as the old man took his final breath.
But he knew he had to leave.
He took the bow and arrows, placed Kael on his shoulder, and walked into the corridor.
Araeg still sat beside the fireplace.
Yuria immediately rushed toward Rylen and hugged him tightly.
Araeg stood up at once.
He shoved Yuria aside so hard she fell to the floor, then raised his hand to strike Rylen again.
But before the slap landed—
Something exploded.
A violent blast of wind slammed Araeg against the wall.
Rylen froze in shock.
Araeg got back up furiously and charged again.
Another blast hit him even harder.
This time, the force scattered the fire from the fireplace onto his clothes.
Araeg burst into flames.
Screaming, he ran outside toward the sea, desperate to reach the water.
He never made it.
He died shrieking in the snow.
Yuria stared at the horror before her, but instead of grief, she felt relief.
Rylen hugged his mother one last time and walked toward the door without saying a word.
"Rylen!" Yuria shouted after him.
"May your road stay open, my son…"
Rylen couldn't hold himself back anymore. He ran to her one final time and embraced her tightly.
"Goodbye, mother."
As Rylen walked away from the city, he noticed the same cat he had once fed fish to. He approached quietly, wanting to pet it one last time.
But the poor creature wasn't moving.
It wasn't breathing.
Seven years passed.
On the road between Evanfe and Evan, Rylen was ambushed in a roadside forest by a large bandit group. He came close to death that day, only surviving because a dwarf and a monk saved him.
After that day, Kael rarely showed himself to Rylen again.
And not long after, his path crossed with the Golden Brotherhood.