Lucas was unconscious, his face and body covered in ash and soot. The ash had found its way into Lucas' mouth, not that he minded. He was debating whether or not he should continue lying down and wait until he starved to death, or go and look at what was left of the carnage. He didn't have much time to think about it when he heard footsteps in the distance. Some soldier was walking around, kicking a stone and looking at the sky while murmering.
'Like there'd be anyone who survives the Scarlet Moon in these outskirts villages. We're just trying to please that goddamn mage'
Wandering around he noticed one of the buildings had less rubble than the others, thinking it must've been a construction site from all the materials lying around in the area. He was about to move on when he noticed an arm sticking out of a small cavity. Noticing the arm was quite small compared to his own he realized that there was probably a child underneath it.
'Poor kid, dying from a collapsed building is better than being eaten though, so I guess you got lucky.'
He inched a bit closer to see what the arm connected to. Lucas didn't know if this man was someone with good intentions or not, he looked like a soldier, but all the soldiers in his village were heinous ones. Out of fear he moved his arm back inside his safe space.
"AH!" the soldier jumped because of the sudden movement. Grasping his chest out of the sudden movement, he tried to calm himself down. Seeing that someone survived that hellish event, he tried to call out to them.
"Hey kid, c'mon out, it's safe here, the monsters are gone now. I'm a soldier of the local baron, so you can trust me." the soldier said in a somewhat serious tone. It seems he still wasn't completely healed from the scare yet.
Lucas was still adjusting to waking up from that nightmare. He noticed the soldier waiting for him, but didn't immediately leave his little cavern. It felt safer to just stay where he was now, but the soldier wasn't having it.
"Get out here brat, I'm tired of waiting."
Soldiers have a higher rank than typical commoners, it is custom to look down on the ranks below you. You could show kindness and care for another of a lower rank, but that's not necessary. This made most people see the ones below their rank as disposable and lesser compared to themselves. Hence the soldier wanted to be friendly but had his limits. In some places it was seen as a bad practice to act friendly with lower ranks, Lucas was sadly enough born in such an area.
Lucas didn't want to upset the soldier further and got back outside, standing up he felt his muscles hurt. From the excessive running and the uncomfortable sleeping place, he gained some muscle aches. The splinters and shave wounds hadn't gone away yet, and the burn wounds on his back were also still seething. Pushing through the pain he walked toward the soldier.
'Would it be better to just let him stay here? I could get a reward though, hmm, I shouldn't pass up on that.'
"So you survived that mess huh? Clean yourself up, I'm going to bring you to my captain."
Lucas started to wipe off the ash and soot that accumulated on him. Removing the ash from his tattered clothes and body was relatively easy, but the soot didn't give way. His hands turned black after trying to clean the stains, but nothing worked. Looking at his hands, he didn't want to clean up his face and hair anymore, so he left them untouched. The ash had collected in his hair, making the bright yellow turn into a bright grey. After the soldier saw that Lucas stopped cleaning himself up even though his head was still dirty, he grabbed the boy's head and shook it around a bit. Giving him small slaps to force the ash out of his hair, he revealed the yellow beneath. He was quite shocked to see such a unique color of hair, but then stopped caring as he was dealing with someone below him.
"Follow me!" the soldier said and Lucas had to follow. Lucas didn't scream in pain or cry in the slightest, he let the motions pass through him.
Seeing the so-called captain and the mage sitting on their horses, he didn't know what to feel. Part of him was filled with hope, that they might get a second chance at life, while the other was afraid of what was to come.
The captain was dressed in actual iron armor that covered most of his limbs. All the other soldiers had to live with leather equipment. Lucas knew that leather was as useless as it could possibly be when you're against monsters. After all, he had seen bones being sliced through like they were nothing. The mage had a dark purple hood that covered his forehead and part of his eyes. They didn't look like they had the best relationship.
"Captain, I found one, he was inside a demolished building."
The captain did give the order, but he had no idea what to do with the child. Not that he hated commoners like the mage, but in his eyes, this child was already doomed. He could only glance at the mage for further instructions.
"So you survived the Scarlet Moon by hiding and letting your fellow commoners die, how pathetic." Lucas flinched at that line, but stayed completely silent, still processing what he went through. He had to run away from his family to save himself, which filled his mind with self-doubt and criticism.
'Fantastic, he looks about 10 or so, good enough, I'll make it work.'
The frown upon the mage's face turned into an eerie grin. "Still, you should be happy, the baron is merciful and wanted to help the villagers in danger. You'll come with us to the Havi's mansion, be grateful."
Lucas just looked at the ground, not sparing any effort in answering the mage. His mind was replaying the scenes from the night prior. The guilt that surfaced each time he remembered it tried to break him down. The mage looked dissatisfied and looked at the soldier who brought the child. The soldier picked up on the mage's clue: "Hey brat, show your gratefulness already!" he said while hitting him on the head. The hit was too strong for him to keep standing straight, he fell to his knees. Slowly standing back up he looked at the mage.
"…..Thank…..you…sir"
"Tell me boy, what's your name?"
Afraid of getting another hit he responded a lot faster.
"Lucas"
"Good enough, follow us back to the mansion, the soldiers will protect you."
With no say in the matter, Lucas could only do as told. Still, when Lucas saw the number of soldiers with weapons, he started to feel a form of protection. He was going to a noble's house where he could eat delicious warm meals and be protected from all monsters. Envisioning his future, he started to feel a bit happier inside.
'Will they care for me?'
'Most likely not, they wouldn't need to save a child, what would be the point?'
'Really?'
Following them was a lot easier said than done, the ones in front were on horseback. All the others were walking at a pretty fast speed to keep up. This was no problem for an adult with soldier training, but for Lucas, it was very difficult. Still, every time he slowed down the men surrounding him would push him forward or drag him over the ground to keep up the pace.
The other soldiers didn't bother looking out for him, only the one that found him in the first place was next to him to make sure he didn't run away or fall behind. It looked like he was assigned to watch over him.
"C'mon kid, just a few more days and will be at the mansion, hahaha" The soldier laughed from schadenfreude, but Lucas couldn't do anything anyway. The soldier had even threatened him with tying him to one of the horses if he didn't keep up. He needed to keep going, he had to.
Every time he lacked the energy, he thought back at the moments he was being chased and gathered energy from pure adrenaline. The fear still lingered in his mind, torturing him to move forward. But the journey had only started.
The sun went down and the platoon had set up a camp. Because they never intended to take people with them, as all practitioners of dark magic had to be executed, Lucas didn't have a tent to sleep in. He layed down on the cold gravel-like ground. Multiple tiny stones with sharp edges poked him on his back and sides. He had to choose between hurting his hands to sleep on or his face. He could go to the forest to sleep in the grass, but monsters were more active during the night and didn't want to risk it. Luckily, Lucas was already used to sleeping on a hard floor with clothes as the only form of protection against the cold of the night. Still, he never had to do this under the cold night sky. 'This is nothing, when I get to that noble's home, I'll get to sleep in enormous beds, I just need to hold out a little longer.'
'Do you really think that they'll be so generous? We'll probably only get a shed or we'll have to sleep where the horses take their...'
'Shut up! Just believe me for a moment, not all people are bad, Damian was a bad guy, but that doesn't mean that everyone is one!'
'Hahaha, think what you will, it won't change the reality that you're in.'
Waking up the next day, Lucas had to remove a few stones that forced themselves into his skin. Pulling them out left strange patterns on his skin. Going to sleep with the wounds he had wasn't a pleasure, but he had already done it once, there wasn't any reason he couldn't do it another time. Not long after, the march started again. His stomach started to rumble, he had not eaten for quite some time, but the soldiers didn't have any extra supplies for him. The captain tried to explain that they were already saving their food as much as possible and that it would be a waste of time to try and hunt now.
"Listen kid, don't hate me, but I have to follow the mage's orders or I'll get penalized. I'll see if we can take a break sometimes and I'll go and get some food for you, okay? Just hold out a little longer."
Lucas kept marching on, trying to keep his mind busy with other things in order to forget his hunger. Focussing on the next break, which could result in a meal he moved onwards. Sadly, the captain tried to persuade the mage but didn't produce any results, too embarrassed to report his failings, he simply stayed at the front of the march. There was one point of light though, they refilled their water from the nearby river, which meant that he at least had a few gulps of water each day.
The next night came and Lucas was in pain. His hunger had grown after a day of walking, but the soldiers didn't seem to have much sympathy. He tried to sneakily steal some food, since asking for it didn't produce any results. It was quiet, the only sound came from the soldiers surrounding a campfire and making jokes.
There was a sack of rations placed carefully next to one of the tents, all he had to do was grab some food from it and his stomach would be filled. He almost got his hands on some bread before his hand was suddenly grabbed.
"What do you think you're doing?" it was one of the soldiers that Lucas hadn't talked to yet. "Please sir, I'm so hungry!"
"So what!? Do you think we're not hungry? We have been marching for a lot longer than you have son, and we don't get to complain, so bug off!!!"
Pushed away, he was back where he started, surrounded by silence with the occasional stomach growl and no food to speak off.
Out of desperation, he went to the edges of the forest. Still somewhat cautious of any monster that could ambush them he stared at the ground. The grass was glistening from the cold light that the moon gave of. His mouth didn't really water, but his appetite still remained. After some searching and digging, he even found a few worms trying to escape his grasp. Not knowing how to hunt or fish, combined with the fact he couldn't fight against the animals or monsters in the forest, he started to pluck some grass.
Bringing it closer to his mouth, he inspected it. Some dirt was on the lower end, furthering his unwillingness to eat it. Lucas closed his eyes and tried to get it over with as fast as possible.
Putting the grass in his mouth he didn't chew a whole lot, because the taste was horrible. Swallowing it down didn't help much, but it at least got rid of a part of his hunger. He could feel the amount of hunger being appeased by his offering. After a few more handfuls and suppressing the feeling to barf it all back out he realized something.
Grass didn't hold a lot of weight, and the stomach can quickly digest it using little energy, so he would have to eat a lot more grass if he wanted to satiate his hunger.
Feeling his hunger barely go away, he grabbed the worms. They wriggled around in his hand, wanting to go back to their home. Lucas was wondering if he should kill it now or if he should bite it to death. Taking the same approach with the grass he bit half of the worm off and quickly swallowed it. He once played with worms when he was a lot younger. He knew that if you split a worm, one half could regrow while the other part stays dead. That's why he looked downtrodden when he realized that the part he still had in his hand didn't move anymore. Thinking about the alive worm in his body, he started to imagine the feeling, even though the worms couldn't do much against the body. He imagined it wriggling around in his stomach or coming back out of his mouth. Letting his imaginations pass, he didn't feel anything except that his hunger had dissipated a bit. Forcing the rest of his "meal" down his throat he almost threw it all back up.
Calming down and realizing what he had just done, he grew a bit colder and went back to sleep.