The suns early rays shone fervently through the dingy old window, bringing with it a warmth and illuminating the musky little room. Wren lay on the worn bed, feeling the wear of all the people who had slept there before.
Morning was just arriving but he had already been awake for hours, the horrors of his past chasing him out of his own dreams, now he just stared fecklessly as small specs of dust danced around in the morning light. His own self doubt crippled him to the bed, but his nightmares kept him from feeling any sort of relief from it. He had begun to accept by now that sleeping was just something that would have to wait. wait until either he could make up for past sins, or was dead.
As he lay there contemplating his next move he could hear the unmistakable sound of the weathered little inn sparking to life.
Struggling to find his will, he slowly forced himself up out of bed. he took a quick glance around the tiny rustic room, gathered his things, then left the room, inn and town behind without a second thought. The road was all he knew, because as long as he was moving forward the past couldn't catch up to him. So endlessly he trekked the roads that long had been abandoned or forgotten.
The wind tossed around the grass as it clung for its life to the bounding hills that seemed to go on forever before him, he continued along even when the path itself was gone. This was his life now. everything else was left behind, until he could figure out how to make it right.
As Wren walked his mind wandered, and as the beautiful land stretched out in front of him his mind wandered home. He began thinking of his grandfathers old farm where he grew up, of his aunt Marie who raised him. Mostly, though, he thought of his two best friends Miranae and Raien.
The memories flashed through his mind and quickly Wren shook it off, trying to think of something else, anything else. But too late, all his pain and his sins returned, he dropped to his knees, tears streamed down his face and he clutched onto the ruby pendant that hung around his neck until his knuckles were burning white. He sat there muttering apology's to the wind as the day continued around him and the sun began to set.
"This shouldn't have happened..." he said to himself. "It should have been me!" the wind blew around him and an eerie silence filled the valley.
"It wasn't your fault." a familiar females voice called from behind him. "no one blames you."
"Miranae?" Wren cried out as he jumped up and whirled around. The empty fields stretched out leaving his heart sinking and a bitter loneliness in him.
