Chapter Text
The golden flames ignited the dark, star-less night sky as its blazing warmth surrounded the tiny cabin hidden among the trees. Loud whinnies and neighs shouted against the crackling as the huge, bellowing fire swallowed the cabin. Smoke spread around the clearing, making it almost impossible to make out the cabin. Inside, a stressed, bleary-eyed, messy-haired Halt trudged around the cabin, woken by a loud noise and confused as to what was happening. A wooden pillar fell with a loud crack. Halt looked up. His eyes widened. All thoughts of sleep flew out of his mind as he ran to where he knew Will was sleeping.
He bolted through the door, not caring to be careful. Hastily, he ripped the blankets off of Will's sleeping form and not-so-gently grabbed his shoulders.
"WILL! You need to wake up!" Will's eyes flew open as he stared confusingly at Halt's tense expression. Before Will could ask, Halt dragged him out of bed and pushed him out the bedroom door. As they hurried along the tiny hallway, Will's senses aroused and his unfocused brain stared across at the raging fire that was attacking his home. A loud bang interrupted his thoughts as the timber of the door frame came loose and nearly crashed onto him. He felt a firm grip on his shoulder as he was hurled away from the broken door. Will sighed, his reactions had never been the same since Skandia.
As he slowly got up from his position on the floor, worry flickered across his face. His eyes scanned the blazing fire; a burning ember reflected in his usually optimistic brown eyes, searching anxiously for a sign of his mentor/father figure. Relief flickered across his face as he saw the limp, barely recognizable form of Halt. He hurried and tripped over towards him and immediately hauled his mentor up from the ground. Strange, he thought, was Halt limping? But he decided to leave that thought for later. For now, they had to leave this cabin.
They lunged past the falling timber, dodging the burning wood laying around the path and roughly grabbing their camouflage cloaks before making it out of the cabin. The mentor and apprentice stood side-by-side silently as they watched their beloved cabin sink into the grounds. Halt sighed. Years of living in this lonely cabin on the edge of the woods, his home. The memories he'd had with Gilan... and Will. His apprentices...no, his... Halt couldn't think of a better word to describe the two most important people he had in this world. All those memories, years of hard work, burned down in mere seconds. Steam poured out of his irrational head as he clenched his fists in anger.
Will stared wearily at the cabin he'd lived in for the past three years. For most of his childhood, he lived in the ward of Redmont. While he'd had friends and people who cared for him, he never really had a proper home until now. Tears glistened in his eyes as the only home he'd ever known had been eradicated off the face of Earth in mere minutes. He felt an arm go around his shoulders as he let the tears fall. He didn't even try to stop them and neither did Halt.