There wasn't anything left of his parents to bury, they had been reduced to ash by the first attack of Kaya. Instead, he took the horns of his parents that had fallen and dug a small hole in the ground next to the remains of his house. He got onto his knees and bowed once in the direction of his brother, he turned and bowed again in front of the graves of his parents. No tears were shed, but a grim and resolute expression appeared on his face. Now that he paid his respects, he could finally begin to enact his revenge, but how?
All of a sudden a vicious gleam appeared in his eye. Something like this hadn't shown up since the decision to sacrifice his brother. He walked into the wreckage of his house and entered what seemed to be the master bedroom, on the wall was a map of the surrounding area. The map had serious damage, the fire from Kaya had singed the ends so bad half the map was unreadable. The only thing Kaya could see on the map other than Enti forest was the neighboring town, Flowerlight.
Without a change of expression, Vide grabbed a knife that sat on the dresser and cut the edges of the map, causing it to fall from the wall. He rolled it up and put it, along with the knife, in a leather bag that hadn't been harmed too badly by Kaya. There was evidence of exposure to fire but nothing had been damaged that couldn't be repaired. He looked around in the ruins of his old house apparently looking for something.
"C'mon, C'mon, I know it's around here somewhere," After rummaging around for a few more seconds, Vide exclaimed, "Ah, found it."
He opened a basket that contained a couple of emergency medical supplies, and grabbed a roll of gauze. It was yellowed from years of sitting in the basket, nobody in Vide's family had been injured to the point of medical treatment in years. He began to roll the gauze up around his arms tightly. By the time he had finished there was not a spec of black on his arms, his scales were completely invisible. He made sure to completely cover everything, even his fingers were covered securely.
Once he finished covering everything that could expose himself as a Pyrean, he retrieved the knife from his bag. The hand he used to grab the knife was shaking, he could hardly keep his grip on it. Slowly, he lifted his hand up to his forehead and rested the knife against the smooth ivory that made up his horn. To Pyreans, their horn was their pride, it represented who they are as people; what Vide planned to do went against everything he knew.
With a heavy heart, he started to carve. The pain was immediate and intense, the shaking spread throughout his whole body. He grit his teeth and started to cut in deeper. He was letting out ragged pants to try and work through the pain. After an agonizing few seconds he got through almost the entire horn, and with a burst of adrenaline, he twisted the rest of the horn off. The snapping sound the horn made was so intense, it seemed like it was the only sound in the world. It echoed over and over in his head, reminding him of his purpose. The pain turned into more anger that piled onto his heart.
The stump on his forehead was all that remained of his horn. There was now a bright red spot in the middle of his forehead. Vide sat on the ash-covered rocks outside of his house contemplating what he had done. The horn was held tight in his grip. He considered burying it with the horns of his parents, but decided against it. He wanted to have the horn with him always, as a reminder of what he had to do. He stood up, intending to walk over to the remnants of the cabin to look for more medical supplies, as the tattoo on his back began to heat up. His face went cold and his stomach dropped as he remembered what had happened in the cave. The branding had a profound effect on him. The stump on his forehead suddenly ignited with a green flame, very similar to the torches in the stairway. Like the torches, this fire gave off no heat, in fact it was quite cold, causing Vide to shiver once again.
The open wound on his forehead slowly began to close and a layer of skin covered it. The green flame vanished just as quickly as it had come. Vide's mouth gaped as he left the new layer of skin on his forehead.
He had never expected something like this to happen. With his arms covered with bandages and his horn held firmly in his hands, there was nothing physically that would expose him as a Pyrean. His original plan was to wrap a bandage around his forehead to cover up the wound, but that wasn't necessary. With a little bit of secrecy, he would be able to seamlessly blend in with human society.
That just begs the question, why had this happened to him? He wasn't egotistical enough to think he was some sort of "chosen" or "special one." If that was the case, then he should have been able to save his parents, or at least Arlan. So why him?
As if in response, the brand on his back emitted a warm feeling. Still traumatized from the horrific experience that was the branding, Vide shivered. He thought that there was no point deliberating over something there was no way to get answers for, so he pushed it out of his mind.
He decided to focus on his next objective, getting out of Enti forest and into the nearby town, Flowerlight.