Chapter Text
A child stood in the leaf filled grass of his hometown's autumn forests with a wooden sword in hand, imitating gestures he'd seen other warriors do in the past with a fiery look on his face. Admittedly, it was a funny look on the child's young and small face, but in his mind he was in a heroic battle, protecting unseen citizens from the enemies all around him as he positioned himself to attack.
He took in a deep breath, and dashed towards his nearest enemy with intent to defeat the scary villains, and suddenly- He tripped on himself, falling face flat on the ground. The child groaned, remaining in the same spread position with yellow and orange leaves surrounding him.
After a few moments the kid stood up, albeit messily, and fixed his clothes while he searched through the leaves to find his wooden sword. It didn't take him long to have it in his childlike grip again, and yelling to the wind about a future second encounter, the child ran off into the woods back home.
As the boy walked, a small cottage made itself visible not too far away from the beach. The wind was strong, and the child didn't need to look up twice to see dark grey clouds covering the entire sky. A storm was approaching, and with this in mind his pace began to quicken as to get to the small house before water began falling from the sky.
The child ran up to the back door to the secluded cabin that he and his parents lived in, having wanted to show them the small wooden sword he had made while he was playing in the woods. The sword, while poorly made, immediately turned the child ecstatic over his success in making it, even getting to the point of wanting it to go above the fireplace with his parents' sword.
“Mom, dad!” The boy called into the house as he pushed open the door and bounded around the corner to the living room, not noticing the strange silence that blanketed the house. It was interrupted by the wind outside though, which howled and screamed, so the child couldn't be blamed for not taking notice. Freezing in the doorway to the living room, his arms fell to his sides, grip going lax as he took in the sight in front of him.
There on the floor lay his parents sitting in a pool of blood, eyes open and glazed over in a silent fear of the darkness that followed. The pool of blood that surrounded their corpses slowly expanded through the wooden floor below them, as if the death needed emphasising and simply wasn't enough by itself.
A man was standing over their bodies, sword dripping the couple's blood and a strange lack of reaction to the situation at hand besides an unsettling calmness. The sword in the child’s hand slipped and fell to the floor, making the gaze of the man snap over to him, which caused the boy to step back in fear as a small whimper escaped his small body.
Right when that happened, another man emerged from one of the rooms, though this one had no bloody sword in hand. He wore a long blue coat with his weapon strapped to his belt just right, and as he emerged from the doorway his gaze went to the small child too, eyes widening in surprise. “What…?”
“Well, what a shock! The criminal scum had a child!" The man with a sword laughed, examining the boy with an unsettling expression on his face that only made him want to cower and hide forever. "Better off dead, i s'pose. Wouldn't want the plague to spread now would we, hm?"
As the murderer said that he glanced at the man with a blue coat, raising an eyebrow in the process, almost as if asking a question. His tone said otherwise though, and the child took another step back, back meeting the door that separated him from leaving the house, all as he united the dots and realized they were off to get him.
The man with the blue coat huffed, glancing between the two and visibly unsure of whether he agreed with what his comrade was insinuating they should do. The child didn't pay them much attention, only trying to make himself as small as possible as the two men talked about his upcoming demise. Looking up towards the two people he saw as the one who looked uneasy moved towards him, hesitant in his step, which snapped him out of his frozen state.
He jumped from his place and glanced at the door, fiddling with the doorknob as he tried to open the door in vain. In panic he spared one single look at the man with the blue coat, having a second of realization as he felt a flash of pain and let out a scream. Blinding, visceral pain that made him instantaneously move his hand towards his right arm, covering it yet still hearing drops of blood hit the wooden floor.
It was all the incentive the child needed to throw the door open and attempt to escape, running out into the familiar woods, his mind unable to conjure a single rational thought besides a primal wish to escape. “What are you doing !? Go after him!” The child heard someone shout, and without wanting to find out what that meant for him, he only rushed faster than before, trying to get out of sight.
He felt something fall on his head as his panicked mind made space for confusion, and after allowing himself to glance upwards he felt water on his eye. Then again. Despite this he kept on running, leaping over an inconveniently placed huge rock which he faintly recognized from when going back home, the back of his mind making emphasis on the sight he’d just seen moments ago in the sky. Dark, grey clouds.
It was raining.
Despite running as fast as he could, his small body was unable to keep up as he tripped over a bigger root, sending himself crashing to the ground near a tree. He remained where he was, stunned and unable to move as he heard steps getting near, even with the powerful waves of water that fell from the sky. However, as soon as he heard a blade being unsheathed nearby, he placed a hand on a recently formed water pool for support and raised his head, watching the man with the blue coat.
While to the child he screamed danger, the man’s expression was all but unsure and doubtful as he neared the clearly distressed child, who only then found the strength to back off and push himself against the tree despite the nasty slash on his arm, trying to make himself as small as possible and hoping that the man by some turn of events he would turn around and have pity for him. But luck was not on his side, because the man stopped right in front of him.
"Please." The boy wasn't sure what he was asking for, whether that be pity, mercy or something else, but the mere thought of ending in the same way as his parents had just moments ago disturbed him greatly. The mere thought reminded him of his situation, trembling, cold and terrified as his demise stood before him with a sword in hand.
And the man above him seemed to know exactly what he was asking for, despite the child not quite knowing himself. With a soft sigh, barely audible through the rain, the man took a step forward towards the child, who tried to move backwards yet found that the tree behind himself stopped him from escaping. And finally, the child understood he was cornered, with no way of escaping whatever fate he was bound to suffer.
The small boy then let out a soft sob, covering his head as the man raised his sword, and the child let out a scream of despair, bracing himself for what he believed to be the end of all things.
Yet the strike never came, and after a few moments of frightful anticipation the kid raised his head, drops of water hitting his head as he did so, though he paid the rain no attention. The man with the coat had his arms on his sides, no longer about to attack him with his weapon. With a sigh he took a step back, looking down at the child with buried emotions visible in his eyes, yet unrecognizable to the distressed kid who was all but blind to anything but his own fear.
“Leave before he finds out. C’mon, don’t make me say it twice.” It only took the kid a few moments to process what he said, but the moment he did he was scrambling away from him, crawling and trying to run at the same time as he held his arm to stop it from bleeding. He tripped, managed to stand again and continued to run, blind to all but the primal goal of escaping the bad people.
The child ran away, with no idea where he was going. No goal, no destination, nothing but the wish to get away, to leave, to escape the place despite his mind telling him that wasn’t possible. His parents were dead and he wasn't sure if he could go to the village and get help, seeing as they never seemed to like his parents at all.
For the first time in his life, Tommy was alone.