Turning back to the den, I ran fast, excited to tell Katja what I had seen. I found her waiting outside with the bags and a blanket laid out on the ground. "What is this?" I asked as I got closer.

"I made us lunch. I thought you weren't coming." She said sounding sad.

I sat down feeling my tail wag. "Sorry, there were people in your village."

She looked sad for a moment longer as my words sunk in then she brightened. "Do you think they will bury them?"

"Yes." Katja clapped her hands together and offered me a sandwich.

We ate Katja's picnic together quietly. I watched her as she ate. This medicine is increasing her appetite. That will help as long as I make sure it is balanced. "Duha...do you think we could see the village before we move on?"

I watched her for a moment; she looked sad, and I remembered the tears of the first night she stayed with me. "If you want to but it won't be pretty." She nodded and started to stack the plates. That look of sadness melted me a little and I sighed. "I will take you there after dark."

"Thank you Duha." She said softly.

I moved to lay next to the lake. The breeze always blew a cool damp air across me when I sat here. Katja watched me as I lay there with my nose towards the lake.  Whenever I sat there I would sleep. I need to rest as we will need me to run tonight. Katja lay down with me and smiled. I yawned and closed my eyes.

A cold spot on my back woke me up. I sat up feeling panicked. Looking around the small clearing I couldn't see Duha. I moved over to the den and looked inside, it was dark and cold. Duha was nowhere to be seen. That sense of abandonment set in. I sniffed wiping roughly at the tears that started to dampen my cheeks. "What are your tears for Pup?"

I jumped at the question spinning and there in the shadows was a pair of yellow eyes watching me from a bush. "I thought you had left me."

Duha sighed and came closer. "Wolves are loyal Pup. I can't leave you now I'm attached to you." She said, coming closer. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly enough that she grumbled. "I'm not a dog, Pup." I let her go and she pushed a small bundle wrapped in leaves at me with her nose. "Eat that and we will get on the road."

I opened the bundle and saw it was full of berries. I popped one in my mouth; it was soft and sweet, making me smile. As I ate the berries I watched Duha dragging the bags and moving the straps so she could wriggle into them again. By the time the berries were gone she was strapped into the bags. She came over and sat. Picking up my bag made me stumble. "Careful pup."

Duha stood as I put the heavy bag on my back. "It just unbalanced me a little," I said as I climbed onto her back.

She grumbled at the extra weight then took off at a run. The trees passed as fast as she looped for the village. I shivered at the cool night air wiping around me at the speed of our travel. She stopped at the edge of the treeline. I slipped from her back and looked over at the village. I could see from here the damage that had been done. The silhouette of the village that I was used to in my mind overlayed the current look of it. There were holes where houses were meant to be. I took a few steps forward.

"This will be hard on you. It is not very nice down there." Nodding I walked slowly down the to the village I called home for my 18 years of life. At the edge, I stopped steeling myself for what was coming. "You don't need to do this now Pup."

"I need to put this behind me." My voice shook as I walked forward into the burnt remnants of my life.

The bakery still stood but all the windows were broken, the shop down the road from my house was nothing but foundations, and the cobblestones underfoot were covered in soot where they would have been clean. I stopped outside the only house that seemed untouched by the flames other than some scorching on the side.

Unlucky. My home is the only one untouched. "Is this your home?" I nodded feeling routed to the spot. There was a noise behind me and before I had a chance to turn, arms came around me. "I'm here for you Pup." Duha said softly in my ear.

I reached for the door handle my hand shaking. The door creaked as it swung inwards. The space beyond was dark and smelt of stale smoke. The first step inside was hard, but I forced myself to take another. Soon I was enveloped in the darkness inside the house. The deeper shadows were the furniture lying broken and in pieces on the floor. Light intruded on the space as Duha stepped in with a lantern, lighting up the devastation that I only saw in the shadows. Everything that could be smashed, was.

I moved to the stairs and started climbing, the creaking sounded unnaturally loud in the silence of the village. I never really knew they creaked as there was always noise around the village and house before the attack. Now the silence being broken by that creaking made this all the more real.

This is the house I lived in. This is the place I looked after the children and was looked after. This house is untouched by the people who burned and killed everyone here.

The second floor was brighter than I remember as the surrounding houses had either been pulled down or burnt. The pail light fell through the window onto the small table under the window. As expected the flowers in the pot were dead and dry, leaving small dried petals on the floor. It looks like the bandits didn't bother coming up here. Just another pain in my heart. The old woman always kept fresh flowers here.

I turned to the room I had shared with the other children that had been abandoned. This house was set up by the old lady to stop the children from running around causing trouble. She took us all in and cared for us as best she could with what little she could scrape together. Or rather what she could get us to scrape together.

As the door opened I saw the beds in the room. The room was dark as the window was caked in soot and the only thing I could see was in the light of Duha's lantern.

I walked in counting the beds like I always had. Stopping at mine, I looked at the uncomfortable mattress, remembering the first night I spent on it. "I was grateful to stay here instead of sleeping rough. I saw what happened when children had to sleep on the streets. Her rules were simple. Do what you're told, and you will be cared for. The lady who ran this place always made sure we had the basics. We had at least two meals a day, clothes on our backs, and a bed to sleep in. She didn't deserve whatever happened to her."

"No one deserves this." Duha's voice was soft as her hand brushed my shoulder.

My friends are all gone. I don't think it was real to me until now, standing in the room I shared with the other unwanted children. Most of them were not as old as me... they looked up to me... they saw me as a sister.

Despite my best efforts I sat on the hard bed and started to cry. Duha put her lantern down and knelt in front of me. "It's alright, Pup; get it out now." I flung my arms around the only person I had now. Duha hugged me back as I sobbed. My head started to pulse with my tears and a painful lump formed in my throat. Tears spilled onto Duha's leather shirt soaking in as soon as they fell. "You cry as much as those people deserve Pup. Then we move on. As hard as it is to hear, they are gone and you are still here. You mourn then, you move on and remember them as they lived. That is what they would have wanted."

Her words resonated with me. She is right... they wouldn't want me to cry over them, but not for that reason. They would hate the fact I survived and they didn't. Even so... I don't want them to be gone.

She fell asleep in my arms and I laid her down on the hard mattress. I don't think this is a good plan, leaving her to sleep here but... I rubbed at a nearby window to get rid of some of the soot. It didn't help as it was mostly on the outside, but it did let me look out over the camp that was not far off. She needs time. I will let her rest despite the fact we could push on and join that group.

My eyes focused on the wagon near the edge of the group. I knew from the scent that tickled my nose, that it was the one Dragon was living in. My nose pointed to it like an arrow pointing the way. That is a group of yaspilrmeth, it has to be. I will have to track them tomorrow.

I walked back to Katja and covered her with a blanket from my bag. I will go and listen to the group then get back here before she wakes up.

My mind was set on this now, so I crept back down the stairs. I morphed as I stepped out of my clothes into the village. I started to run but stopped at a sound on the very edge of my hearing. I turned as the sound came again. This time it was louder. Was that a baby? The sound came once more and I lopped towards it. I slowed as the sound became louder.

The baby was crying as I looked for it, my nose was hampered by the smell of burnt wood. Soon, the sound was louder, and I smelt a human. The sound came from a pile of rocks. Next to the foundation of a house. I morphed and started pulling the rocks away from the sound. There was a hole in the foundation of the building the child with barely enough energy to scream nessled inside. It made a small sound as I picked it up. That noise was only just on the edge of my hearing. If any other yaspilrmeth came close they still probably couldn't hear it. The child looked thin and weak. I sighed and walked back to the house.

I laid them on the floor while I dressed then carried them up to the room Katja was sleeping in. As soon as I stepped through the door she sat up. "Duha what is..." Her eyes went wide as she saw the child in my arms. "Where did you find them?"

She rushed to my side and took the baby from me. I walked to our things and found the small amount of milk I had brought with us. "This one was in a hole in the foundations of a building. He didn't have the strength to cry loud enough to get the others to find them."

"What do we do?" Katja asked sounding despondent.

I sighed as I walked over to them both. I dipped my finger in the milk and offered it to the child. "I need to find milk. Can you feed them while I find some?"

Katja sat on the bed after the child let my finger go. "I can feed him...where will you find milk?"

"A farm nearby. They have cattle and I'm sure they have milk."

I turned to leave but Katja stopped me with a hand on my arm. "Wait...we will feed him then take him to the farm. If we do we may be able to get them to give us more for less."

After she started she settled back into feeding the child. I watched her and sighed. "Alright... but it's quite the distance."

She nodded. "I know I walked it when I worked there. Three miles west."

Sitting on the bed opposite her I frowned. "How on earth has this one survived?"

Katja looked down at the child. "This young man was quite fat the last time I saw him."

Of course, she knows who this child is. "What is his name?"

"I don't know. His mother wouldn't let me near him."

I took the blanket from the bed and put it on one of the other beds. "Well, you all he has now, Pup."

She smiled at me. "Is it wrong for me to be happy about this?"

I shook my head. "You both have this place as your starting point. This binds you together. Don't hold out too much hope though alright? He is very weak and thin."

She looked down at the small body in her arms. "I know... still until we know I will be optimistic"

I laid back and shifted on the lumpy mattress. "Tell me when he is done and we will go to the farm."

"Alright." I looked over at her as the boy wriggled every time she dipped her finger in the milk. I sighed, watching the child, and closed my eyes. I listened to Katja moving as I allowed myself to rest.