Chapter 41: It Wasn’t My Fault
MARIUS
Breathe in, breathe out.
Focus on the tip of the index finger, the first joint, the second joint, the knuckles.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Clench the fist, open it. Clench it again. Feel the wrist.
Breathe in—
My palms, against Skylark’s arms.
Breathe out.
Elbow. Focus on the elbows, then shoulders.
Skylark’s shoulders. Small, round—
I must protect.
Must protect the weak.
Breathe in, my neck. Each of the seven bones. Feel it. Then the spinal bones. One by one.
My chest, against Skylark’s back.
Soft. Warm.
Leo.
"AHHHHH!"
I punched the trunk of a tree, bare knuckles against its thick bark.
Pain. It brings the focus back.
I punched it again and again. I didn’t care if I crushed my hands. I had to—I had to steady myself.
Body rules the mind.
But something let me down.
It was just training.
Just a—
Then why?
I only wanted to help. I did just as the instructors from my childhood did.
Helpful, guiding, and he was—
He was so happy. Happy to learn. That was a good swing.
But then I—
I punched the tree again.
Breathe in, Marius.
Breathe out, Marius.
Be strong. Be resilient. Be disciplined.
Be cold. Be ruthless.
Calculate.
The next move.
Erase yourself. Empty your mind. Empty your heart.
I am Marius Valenkraft.
It was then that I started to feel the pain in my knuckles. I saw blood drip from the badly scratched skin.
And I was back.
Back to normal. Back to who I was.
Focus on the mission—I told myself.
All I have to do is follow Falken’s orders, Father’s wishes.
They knew better, and it was all for the best. For the Empire. For honor.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
My body felt fully relaxed now. I turned back and started to walk toward the camp.
When I arrived, Dimitri was doing his morning stretching routine, Isabelle was tending to the fire, Beatrice seemed to be meditating, and Skylark was—
Sitting on the sea-turtle rock, hugging his knees.
"Good morning, Marius. Wait—are you okay?"
Isabelle greeted me, her cheerful tone quickly turning to concern.
I didn’t need sympathy.
"Just a little scratch," I said.
"Hang on, we need to wrap your hand with something to stop the bleeding," Isabelle tried to help.
"It won’t be necessary."
But I did not need help.
Skylark looked up, his eyes meeting mine, quickly averted his gaze, then looked at my hands and said,
"I can go look for plantain leaves. They help stop the bleeding and—"
"I said," I stared coldly into his eyes. I had to stop his silly nonsense before he got any more funny ideas. "It won’t be necessary."
"But—," then Skylark stopped mid-sentence, his voice trailing off.
I scanned around the campsite. Now everyone was looking at me. Isabelle looked concerned, Dimitri looked confused, and Beatrice—
I couldn’t quite read her.
"Very well. Let’s go investigate that mysterious tall tree," Beatrice said, getting up from her meditation pose and clapping her hands once.
"Do you have a plan?" I asked her.
"I thought about it. Instead of using this campsite as the base, we will use the tree as the reference point to explore the area."
"Are—are we leaving this place?" Leo asked, his voice sounding certainly reluctant.
"It seems we are," said Isabelle. There was discontent in her voice that I did not like.
"You guys are being a little strange this morning. What’s going on?" Dimitri stretched his back, stood tall, and asked.
"Nothing is going on. This place is not secure. We must find a new place," I said firmly.
"But—but, Mario, I like it here...and we built all these tents... and we have the water in the hole, and, and, we still have plenty of firewood and—," Skylark stuttered. I had to put a stop to this.
"What you like or don’t like is not a concern for our survival. We must make informed decisions at all times, and we are stuck precisely in a place we don’t understand. We must leave," I declared.
"But Ma—"
Before Skylark could finish, Isabelle pulled on his sleeve to stop him. Skylark looked around, and seeing that nobody was agreeing with him—rightly so—he buried his head between his knees.
"Wait, look under the rock," Beatrice suddenly spoke, in a whisper that was loud enough for us to hear but did not startle the trio of squirrels that appeared from under the sea-turtle rock. They looked at us for a moment, then ran toward a tree and climbed up, disappearing into a small opening in the trunk.
"What about it?" Dimitri asked.
"Marius, do you recognize—" Beatrice was asking me, but she did not need to complete her question.
"We need to get out of here now. For sure."
Then suddenly, Skylark jumped up from the rock and started yelling at me.
"The squirrels are here! Beatrice said this place was uninhabitable because there were no animals here. But you saw them! The squirrels! This place is FINE!"
His words pierced the skin I had hardened at the cost of blood.
"Leo, calm down," Isabelle put one arm around Skylark’s shoulder and gently rubbed his back with the other hand.
"There is something wrong with those squirrels, Leo. It’s impossible," Beatrice talked sense. She was right, and this wasn’t my fault.
"And what are you going to tell me now?! This turtle looks like a dragon?!" Skylark yelled again.
And when we looked—
"What in the world? It DOES look like a dragon...?" Dimitri said, perplexed.
I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me too, but the turtle-looking rock now looked like a frightening dragon. I could feel it.
He was talking nonsense, but Skylark had to be protected. I had to get him out of here.
"Skylark. Get away from that rock now," I commanded.
"No! No! No!" he shouted.
Then the whole campsite suddenly dimmed. We all looked up to see that a thick black cloud had moved in and blocked the sun.
"Let’s get out of here," Dimitri said, picking up Skylark and slinging him over his shoulder. Isabelle and Beatrice positioned themselves to scan the area and be ready to strike at any danger that might emerge.
"Nobody believes me! Why?!" Skylark started banging his small fists on Dimitri’s back, which didn’t do much.
I looked around. The sky was completely dark now. Trees that surrounded the clearing loomed taller. The turtle rock was now a dragon rock. The fire—the campfire we made—was burning with ferocious intensity.
This wasn’t my fault.
It really wasn’t.
Then somehow, Skylark managed to escape from Dimitri. He was back on the rock, hugging it.
And he said,
"We are going to stay here... we are going to stay here..."