Shade stopped what she was doing and listened hard. For a second, she had thought she heard laughter.
When she heard nothing else and continued with skinning the rabbit she had found in a snare.
She couldn't help wondering if their was anybody else out there. Throughout her whole life, no visitors had come to their little village. The only proof she had that there were other people out there were stories from people who had to go farther than normal to find food or medicine. And she had a hard time believing those.
When she was done, she stored the meat and anything else useful in her pack and headed to the large tree she had made her temporary home in.
While she was walking, her thoughts wandered. Another dream had disturbed her sleep, the same one, except lately, she had heard a wolf howling somewhere in the background, and a wispy voice repeating the word home. The dreams had somehow grown in detail. It was a wonder she got any sleep.
Reaching the tree, she climbed up and into the crook where all the branches separated from the trunk. She hung her bag on a nearby branch and prepared to start a fire when something caught her eye. Climbing down again, she examined the footprints left in the mud. It had rained two days ago, but the soil stayed wet under a thick cover of leaves.
Judging by the turned-up mud on the other side of one of the taller roots, someone had been running when they tripped over the root. what was even more interesting was the scorched bowl carved into the tree, like a fireball had hit it. That hadn't been there when she left. From the size of the footprints and the height of the scar, the fireball had been aimed at the person's head. By tripping them, the root had saved their life.
On the other side of the tree, footprints from a dozen men had scuffed up the leaves.
A hunting party? Shade wondered. If so, hunting what?
She had a good feeling what.

Will was reliving the day his life changed. Redclaw had been his home clan, and at the age of eleven, every boy was required to kill something dear to them. Doing so showed they were warrior material and worthy of joining the ranks of soldiers that was the entire clan. All had been raised and prepared for that moment, and none had failed. Until Will.
He remembered it so clearly. Being marched out in the massive coliseum with other boys his age, waiting for his turn, watching as the boys in front of him killed wounded men, the elderly, and woman who did not do as they were told. Any person thought of as weak was killed in the trial. If there was no one weak in the family, a pet was to be killed.
Then it was his turn.
Again he saw his sister's face, streaked with tears and bloodied from torture, bound and gagged, waiting for him to end her life.
But he hadn't. The knife had fallen from his hands, and he couldn't see through his own tears. He had shouted no, and felt the guards bind his wrists behind his back and kill his sister anyways.
He had been chained to a wall and forced to watch as Redclaw ordered his entire family to be killed in front of him. They had stripped him of his surname and pronounced that his family had never existed. He had managed to rip the necklace off his dead mother and earned himself another beating, but they didn't bother to search him as they took him out of the prison and to the wall that formed the boundary of Danukil. There they had him jump into the forest on the other side, from forty feet up. The guards were taking bets on if he survived or not. And somehow, he did, falling through a tree and hitting numerous branches that broke his fall. When he survived, they sent a party of warriors to hunt and kill him, as a way to sharpen skills. Will's life had been hell ever since.
He woke up in the cave, the sand beneath him sticky with blood. He fought to sit up and tried hard not to vomit. Panting, he held the stone on the necklace in front of him, tracing the red claw-ripped fabric design. The stone itself, a flat, perfect circle, was painted to resemble a shield. He struggled to remember his family name. Five years of running had erased the memories. Redclaw had succeeded in cutting him off from everything else. His life had been worse than death, and walking into the hunting party and asking to die would be pointless. They wanted the hunt to be entertaining.
He knew he was slacking. He hadn't been able to sleep with the constant dream of a burning city, a giant cobra on the ruins of the palace, a woman pleading with the single word home.
He knew he had to leave. Eventually, the hunters would find him, and that could never happen.
Will thought he was dreaming again when he felt a warm light on the side of his face. Looking over, he saw a passageway deeper into the cave. He had been too injured to notice it before. A soft, golden light was shining from deeper in the tunnel. Warily, he hauled himself to his feet and waited for the world to stop spinning. Then he walked deeper into the tunnel.