Memories

Sweat dripping and he is being tired after a long day of work, doing the document at his office until noon and supervising the construction site until the afternoon.

At the point where he collapsed to his bed after cleaning himself and having dinner. Luckily his wife was there to support him doing his things.

He quickly fell asleep at the side of his wife on the bed...

He woke up and opened his eyes, only to realize that he is not in his bed not his room. The vast grasslands at his surrounding and the relaxing sound of the forest near him.

With his armour and the scabbard of his sword on the hip, standing in the middle of nowhere. He focused his eye on something at the distance.

A village stood at the distance, for some reason, Arden thought it was familiar. He got closer to that place and not a single person greeted him.

'Strange' The only word he could think on his mind.

A person using full armour and a sword doesn't attract any attention to his surrounding.

He proceeds to find out more and ask some person on the street.

"Hello?" He greeted one of the people there, for some reason he got ignored. Like he didn't exist, or that person is deaf.

Then came a person, riding a horse at a high speed, hurrying to the centre of the village itself. He came at Arden with his horse and ignoring Arden.

Arden got a heart attack, thinking about himself would be on the ground, trampled by a horse in a mere second.

But no..., the horse just go through his body and nothing seems to happen, not even a single feeling of pain.

'What the heck just happened?' Looking confused whilst his mind still trying to process what just happened.

'Is this a dream?' came to a realization, this is probably a dream. But still, he is confused right now.

The only thing he could think is to go to the village centre itself and find some information.

As best as he could, he followed the way the person on the horse goes that eventually would lead to the village centre.

After some time of trying to find a way to the centre of the village alone since there is no one that he could ask to.

He finally found it, he reached the place where he saw all the people gathers and an old man standing in a stage, talking to them.

"The enemy is coming!!!, we must make a decision for ourself, either we fled or we defend this place!!" Arden overheard some of the things while all the deafening sounds of people discussing the things that would have happened in mere days, or perhaps... hour.

At the corner of his eye, he saw something that is unbelievable. His own mother standing there with 3 little children.

Not even a second later, he quickly realized that it was him and his other sibling. One sister and one brother.

Where he was the second child after his brothers that he had not met for a long time and didn't know how to find him.

'This must be a dream or some sort of memories I have!" He made a conclusion not long after he saw his family.

'This must be where the village I lived on became nothing and crushed to the ground' Nothing he could do to prevent this since this is only memories.

not long after that, the villagers were dismissed to go back to their house and pack their things.

This is where things go south, not an hour after the crowd gathered at the village centre, they got attacked.

He could only watch and do nothing, he wishes he could but he couldn't, people were being slaughtered and all the villagers tried to save themselves.

While all of this happening, Arden rushed to his old and shabby house and see something he couldn't see at the time he was a little boy.

At the time when he was only a little boy, his own mother hid him and his siblings at a secret place.

Then covered it with some leaves to hide it from the enemy, how could he know all of these things?

He is watching it right now as it was happening with his own eyes.

"My children, I would come back here as fast as possible" After writing a letter saying this, his mother got out of the house and tried to run to the forest.

Then a person wearing the armour of the enemy passes by him, riding a horse with his lance ready to impale all of the running enemies.

He stretched his arm forward and tried to do something even though he couldn't. He watched the person who brings him back to the world being impaled.

Arden clenched his fist and tried to hold back his tear at bay, to which he couldn't anymore with all his feeling mixed with anger and sadness.

He collapsed to the ground and let out his tears. Then he was taken back to his real words.

He could feel the hand of his wife shaking his body while he was asleep. The bed itself became wet from all the tears.

"Are you ok?" With a worried expression showed on her face, she asked a simple question.

He began to tell Valen about his dream or perhaps should be called memories, and Valen just showed her sympathy.

"Let's find your siblings to ease that feeling." She said this, to which Arden nod his head to show he is agreeing to the suggestion.

"But... how? I didn't know where they all go to" He asked in confusion trying to find ways for searching his siblings.

"Nothing is impossible, let's explore the world and search them!" With an energetic tone, she said it.

"That is one of the ways we should try, but then, we need to make preparations for that" Thinking more of these things, he agreed too.

"Let's discuss that next time ok? it's midnight now, we should probably go back to sleep" Both of them go back to sleep and nothing happened for the rest of the nights.

The very next morning, Arden woke up feeling freshened after what happen last night.

The first things to do so him and his wife could go and search the world for his sibling would be to let the other nobles to handle the things while he was gone.

He sent a letter to all the nobles in his owned land and told them to come to his castle for a meeting at least 4 days later.

98% came and the others have something that couldn't be left alone, it's not a problem according to Arden.

They were seated in a long table with the shape of a rectangle like they normally did and start discussing.

The meeting is not too long, all the nobles present told him it's not a problem and they will relay the message to others that couldn't come.

He also wrote 2 letters for the King and Sir Aswick. Both of them have the same content.

"For my honourable lord, I would be making the preparations by the time this letter got to you, I'm searching for my long lost sibling and will come back to the lands I was supposed to handle as fast as possible, it makes take days or perhaps months but I would come back, hope no one would be mad about the action I did and to not worry since I have the nobles on the local areas to take care while I'm gone." The letter saying he would be gone for some time. The letter itself would get to the King and Sir Aswick at most 5 days later.

Which he would be gone by that time if there's nothing in making problems in his way.

5 days have passed since the dream that night. One night, when he collapsed to his bed like he normally did after working a hard and long day.

The dream continues for some reason. He got back to the place he was currently standing last time... in front of his house which is in ruin right now.

He checked the surrounding and saw a lot of horrible things, the previous villagers were hanged on a rope, some of them in the pit where they would all be buried alive.

Some even skinless and some are impaled at a long spear, it was horrible.

Then he heard a sound, the sound of the secret door being opened and him coming out after his long-lost brother.

All of them read the letter their mother left and decided to wait until their mom comes back to get them.

No matter how long they waited, no one comes back. they didn't realize what happened and they cried several times already.

After 10 days of waiting, a person came up from the distance and came up to the kids.

But then, the gentle shake of Arden's wife woke him up again and told him that it's already morning.

He would hope to watch more but he decides to think about that later. For now, he has something to do, making preparations for his journey.