Liam had heard most of the conversations Lucas had with Robert and was happy to see that they could find themselves on some common ground. Of course, they liked to insult each other once in a while, but it never went past that. "It seems that my worry was unfounded, I didn't think you'd enjoy each other's company that much.", he said with a bit of a grin on his face. "Oh please, if I wasn't forced to sit with this bum for an entire day I wouldn't have even talked to him!"
"Yeah, I would've loved to just run along this carriage, at least then it would be a lot interesting."
"Hahaha, you truly aren't honest about your feelings now aren't you, hahaha", the soldiers were also grinning a bit but hid it from the two in question. It seemed that their relationship had improved a slight bit. "Shut up Lammy!", Lucas wanted to shift their attention to something else and it didn't take long before the entire carriage started to laugh again.
"Oh for the love of the goddess, please don't start using that as well!", Liam looked despaired, if his strongest training companion also started to tease him with that name he would've rather not come along. "I do wonder, where did that name even come from?".
"It's from his wife, they call each other by cute nicknames all the time.", one of the soldiers said, looking very excited to talk a whole lot about all the different names they called each other. "There were a bunch of different ones, but Lammy stuck with us the most.", Liam stared daggers into the man, trying to shut him up. Sadly, the lady of luck wasn't shining on him today, the only thing he could do was look pleadingly at Lucas to never start using that name.
After that the mood of the caravan improved a lot, in the beginning, it stayed quiet in the back, but now they were probably the loudest.
"All goofs aside, we're almost at our destination, we just have to pass one more village and then we're almost there.", Lucas was intrigued and looked to the road, yet something seemed off.
The gravel, the stones, the trees, and the river all seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it.
"I think... I recognize this road…", he looked toward Liam, but Liam avoided his eyes, staring forward. "We have to pass Calmwater village, in order to get to the mine, that's the fasted and safest route."
Robert looked a bit confused, the atmosphere grew serious, but he felt left out. Robert didn't understand what was going on and could only make assumptions. Not knowing exactly what was going on he simply asked Lucas. "What's wrong with the village, do you know it?"
"…"
Nobody answered him though. Some of the soldiers knew the circumstances, but they didn't want to touch on such an important subject. After all, if Lucas ever wanted to fight, they wouldn't stand a chance, and they knew that well enough. Getting on his bad side now wouldn't be a smart idea, since Lucas stayed silent they respected his wish.
"C'mon, answer me!", but Lucas stayed quiet, he looked toward the road, focusing on something entirely different. 'What's going on, why is acting so strange?', normally Robert would've said something, but stayed quiet seeing that no one had anything to say.
It didn't take long before they reached the village, but there wasn't much that remained. Most of the buildings were just a pile of rubble and ash. The carriages didn't stop, since they had no reason to.
Lucas jumped out of the carriage, landing on his knees, followed by Robert and Liam. "Lucas! I know this must be hard for you, but please, we need to keep going. Staying here won't do us any good, if we're unlucky, monsters could've made their homes he-"
A sudden pressure never felt before fell on Liam, causing him to stop speaking. He looked toward the source, but could only see the back. Lucas didn't even have to turn around to pressure a knight into obedience.
'He grew a lot stronger than before! What happened in such a short time? This pressure is similar to Venion's, what's going on?'
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Lucas slowly walked his normal route when he was a child.
He could see the children playing with sticks and bugs. The adults complained to one of the kids because his clothes got dirty from the mud. He could smell the freshly baked bread from the bakery. The group of bullies that liked to start fights with him, the guards that were annoying to deal with but necessary for the town. The construction site where he trained to help out his family. The tools were still lying on the ground, waiting for someone to put them together to create a beautiful home.
The mayor and the Coin Changer were talking about something, but at the hand of their faces and posture, Lucas knew it had to be another backhanded scheme. He was back home, the mud on the street didn't evoke disgust but rather a sense of nostalgia.
He arrived at his church, seeing the steps and colorful windows filled him with happiness, this church stood strong for so many years and now it was his home. In front of the door stood Rast and Korian, welcoming him back to their home. They looked like fine adults with a little stubble for a beard. They didn't have the tools to cut them very short, so they had to wait until it grew before cutting it off again.
"Sister is waiting for you!", they said. The doors opened and a familiar smell entered his nose. The old wood, the dust that gathered in places they couldn't reach, the burnt wood in the fireplace. The benches where he had most of his classes and ate his every meal were there, decorated with beautiful designs of the Order of Nature. The rest of his family was praying on the benches. They just had their breakfast, and now that they had a little more money, they had some bread left over. Seeing his sister Tris with her long black ponytail and stick-like figure he felt comforted. Jack and Gregory were the guardians of the church, more the latter, but Jack liked to accompany Greg. Eventually, they shared the task since Gregory couldn't do everything on his own.
And then there was Marie, his mother figure, his first love, whether that be parental love or romantic wasn't clear yet. Lucas started to get tears in his eyes.
They looked at him, a smile covering their faces once they realized who returned.
"Lucas!", Tris was overcome with joy and she couldn't help but tear up from the occurrence.
"My boy!", Gregory was a lot more direct and Jack merely smiled from the sidelines.
"Little Sunshine, welcome back". They started to hug each other, balling their eyes out from their lost brother's return. "It's been so long, look at how you've grown!", they couldn't let go of each other. A welcoming warmth spread in Lucas' body, finally waking up from that horrible nightmare. All the stress and pent-up feelings were being released. Even if he was getting colder and had the mind of an adult, he still had feelings, lots and lots of feelings.
They let each other go so that Marie could hug him alone, "How have you been, my little Sunshine? I've missed you so, so much!"
Hugging each other passionately, they couldn't help but cry again. "We were always waiting for you to come back, why did it take you so long?".
Suddenly the light that shone through the glass started to turn red. Lucas didn't realize this though, he was too captivated by his overwhelming joy.
"WHY DID YOU LEAVE US?!?!", Marie started to scream as her face started to lose its skin and muscles, like pieces of her face started to get pecked off. One of her eyeballs fell out of her head as her body degraded more and more. The others present started to shout with Marie, "WHY DIDN'T YOU COME BACK?!"
"DON'T YOU LOVE US? THEN WHY DID YOU LEAVE US?!"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!"
Their degrading and rotting corpses started to close in on Lucas, surrounding him.
"STOP, NO, NO, PLEASE.....please.....ple...ase...", Lucas started to cry for help and looked around, the other brothers and sisters were already corpses. With their skin and flesh hanging loose, Lucas couldn't help but start to hyperventilate. The church started to lose its color, the brown benches, the green altar, and the colorful windows all started to look turn into an ugly gray. The bodies started to degrade at an even faster pace, bones were showing. Skulls fell on the ground, their anatomy falling apart. Everything turned to ash, grey tasteless ash. The church fell apart, and the beams holding the roof and walls steadily came down, it seemed like everything was collapsing on him, but nothing hit him, only his surroundings. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
"CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN, IT'S JUST A DREAM IT'S JUST A DREAM", Robert was holding the hyperventilating Lucas in his arms. They were in the dilapidated church, you could only know it was a church because it was a bigger pile of rubble than the other buildings. Robert had followed Lucas throughout his walk, piecing the puzzle pieces together he figured out what this village was. Seeing him standing still in the middle of the church he waited for Lucas to make his next move, but didn't expect this. The confident and loose Lucas was now crying, screaming, and hyperventilating at the same time. He didn't know what to do in this situation, he was never taught how. The only thing he could do was hold him steady and try to calm him down.
Embracing him was his only remaining thought.