Chapter Text
A tall grim-faced man was leading a horse down the road. A younger boy was walking behind him with a blue-eyed wolf loping by his side. Suddenly the wolf sniffed the air and took off without so much as a word. “Briggan!” the boy called, chasing after his wolf. The man glanced around, taking in his surroundings, and then followed the boy. The wolf moved off the path and into the nearby trees. He continually sniffed the air and adjusted his course, often having to weave between the trees to follow the trail.
It was when they had left the path behind for a long while that the wolf stopped and crouched. He nudged something with his head. The boy moved forward, but the man put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll see what he’s looking at just in case it’s dangerous or a trap,” he said. The boy nodded.
The man moved forward and crouched near the wolf. The fading light revealed a filthy boy almost completely blending into the ground. If it hadn’t been for Briggan nudging him and now licking his face, the man would’ve missed him entirely. Despite the licking, the boy didn’t stir at all, staying completely out of it.
The man pulled the boy’s filthy cloak aside, revealing the underside to be a dusty gold. The boy was in rather bad shape. The man could clearly see blooding seeping through the boy’s shirt with it most concentrated around the boy’s left shoulder. “We are bringing him with us,” the man announced. To not do so would be to condemn the boy to death and Briggan had clearly wanted them to find the boy for a reason.
“Let’s find a place to camp for the night,” he added. He carefully picked up the wounded boy, who gave no response. He noticed portions of the boy’s back also had blood seeping through the shirt. He wrapped the cloak tightly around the boy, making sure the clean side was on the boy. Then he headed back the way they came.