“Rien!” Virginia called her eldest. It was finally winter solstice and they had to prepare for their annual celebrations. “Wake your sister and fetch some water at the well while I prepare our breakfast.”

She expected frantic footsteps and bickering, but after a few minutes, no one replied to her. Virginia pulled the porridge from the fire and wiped her hands on her apron as she frowned. She thought that her son was already awake after hearing the creaking of a door. “Rien? Liezel?”

“Virginia, what are you doing?” Virginia jumped at the voice of her husband. Usually, in the mornings, she would give Joseph a hug. However, in the last couple of days, he had been behaving in the most unusual ways and Virginia wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Rien had been keeping to himself most days inside his room, avoiding his father. Liezel has also been distancing herself from her father.

“Oh, guten morgen,” Virginia thinly smiled at her husband. She, admittedly, tried to bring the subject to him but he always managed to avoid it. “Where did you come from?”

“What do you mean? I have been sleeping in our room?” he chuckled, reaching for her cheeks. Virginia let him hold her cheeks. She missed her Joseph.

She noticed the dark circles under his eyes. There was always this sadness and caution hiding behind those green orbs that she loved. His caresses and embraces also lessened. Those smiles that gave colour to her world slowly disappeared. The father that always found a time to spend with his children was suddenly busy. Virginia knew that her husband had been keeping secrets from her.

At first, she thought that her husband finally realized that she’s unworthy and found another woman, but she was mistaken. Joseph wasn’t the type of man to betray someone. Joseph was a very sympathetic man. Then, she tried countless times to talk to him about the things that might bother him. Unfortunately, she did not reach that far.

“Joseph?” Virginia wistfully started, wrapping her arms around his torso. The corner of his mouth curled up before morphing into a frown. “When will you tell me anything? You’ve been distant from your children… to me. I’m worried about your well-being. Are we…? I mean… Our family… Are we still important to you? Am I still import-?”

“Shh,” he placed a finger on her lips. “Stop, Virginia. I…”

“Mother?” both jumped from the sound of the tiny voice.

“Rien!” Virginia pulled away from Joseph’s hands, missing the way his hands clenched and the dimming of his eyes. “How many times did I told you to not remove your shirt? It might get too cold at night, especially at winter solstice!”

Joseph watched his wife reprimanding their son. Despite his son’s age of twenty-one summers, he could still see the little boy that used to ask him to carry on his back. He was sure that his wife would also forever see their children as her little babes. The sight of his son’s cheek getting red at the embarrassment of having his mother reprimand him like a child brought warmth in his chest, but it only lasted for less than a minute before his mind reminded him of his problems.

He had been keeping something from his family. Joseph didn’t like keeping anything from his Virginia. He promised on their wedding that he would never lie to her, but omitting the truth was almost the same as lying. Nowadays, his son refused to look at him straight in the eye while his daughter avoided his presence. It pained him to see his them push him away, but it was the only way.

“Mother, I know,” Rien groaned. “Yes... fine, I will fetch it by myself. No, I do not think that Liezel wants to go out of her room right now.”

Joseph pursed his lips as Rien’s eyes met his. Every time that he met his children’s gaze, he would see his reflection. A sting struck his chest when he realized that Rien refused to glance at him. His daughter would even resort to remain inside her room just to avoid her father. Another pang struck his chest when he realized that it had been a long time since he directly met his son’s gaze.

That day was just like any other day in the Steinberg’s abode. Rien spent the day gathering firewood and hunting a buck for their supper. Liezel, as always spent the day inside her room. Virginia was preparing for her family’s annual celebration, despite the pain in her heart as her family was being separated. She did not even know where her husband spends most of his day. He kept on stating that he was helping his friends in the town, and her mind and heart was telling her opposite things.

“Mother, did father told you anything about Lady Cynthia?” Rien asked his mother he entered the house. The door shut with a thud leaving some traces of the snow inside. The carcass of a buck slung on his shoulders dropped on the floor as he removed his thick cloak. The snow started falling just before he finished gutting his buck.

A frown found its way on Virginia’s face. The sun had set, and the darkness had just cloaked their house. She was starting to worry for her son before she heard the door open, but what Rien asked caused it to remain. “What do you mean son?”

“I met Lady Cynthia on my way home and she told me something… unusual. She told me that I should start taking care of you and my sister because our life would never be the same again. She also confidently said that Father will not return for the night. Tell me, was father mad?!” Rien hissed beside Virginia, causing Liezel to look at the two.

“Was there something I should also know?” Liezel asked.

“Nothing, would you please leave your brother and me for a moment?”

“Mother?”

“Liezel.”

A moment later, Liezel stood from her place and went into her room. Virginia felt her legs wobble and Rien immediately supported his mother. “Mother, please, tell me, I need to know if there was something wrong between you and Father. This was why we shouldn’t be living away from the town. If we were, we wouldn’t be wondering what father was doing out there!”

“I do not know,” tears started falling from her cheeks. She could feel her son’s hands wrapping around her tightly, but it only made her tear. The one who should be comforting and reassuring her was Joseph instead of Rien. She loved her son, but her husband was the one that she needed right now. “I am not certain about your father’s thoughts anymore.”

“Mother, please stop crying,” Rien whispered. He could feel the turmoil oozing from his mother’s suppressed sobs. If moments ago, he disliked his father, now he was certain that he hated him. The father that he knew and loved disappeared. Rien didn’t know the man that lived with them as his father anymore. “I hate him for doing this to us.”

“No,” Virginia pulled away. “Never say that you hate your father. He loves all of us. He was just going through some troubles now. Maybe, maybe he does not want to worry us.”

“Do not defend him when-!”

A loud slam suddenly echoed from the door. Mother and son jolted in their places while Liezel hurriedly ran towards them. “What was that?!” She clung on her brother’s arms.

Rien pulled his mother and sister behind his back. The cold from the snow storm immediately clouded the room. The two women shivered as their chest threatened to burst. He took a deep breath before taking a step forward.

“Ri-”

“Shhh…”

“I’m scared, Rien.”

Just as he gathered the courage to confront the intruder, a figure slowly appeared from the corner. The three almost slumped at the mixed relief and surprise that coursed in their bodies. It was Joseph Steinberg.

“You scared us, Joseph. Why did you suddenly-?”

“...”

“NO!”

“Mother!”

“Aaaaaaaah!”

“Run, my son! Run!”

“I won’t leave you! I-!”

ՓՓՓ

Splashes of water and the calming flow of the waterfall from above calmed his nerves. He gazed, after a whole year of hiding and running, he stood in front of his family’s grave. The church burned his father’s body. He never had an opportunity to claim his sister’s and mother’s remains. By his bare hands, with tears pouring down his cheeks, and his heart breaking in anguish, he built a grave for his family. Inside a place where he’d come in comfort. Somewhere that nobody could disturb.

“Mother, Liezel, I’m glad to see you again.” The sound of water hitting the rocks beneath the falls drowned his whisper. A single circle of dark soil fenced with white, marbled rocks sat at the innermost part of the small cave behind the waterfall. A tall rectangular headstone that he painstakingly carved with names and dates leaned on the stone wall. He placed a bundle of wolfbane flowers just above the makeshift grave. He kneeled, hands stroking the names carved into the headstone. “I missed you. I apologize if it took this long to visit.”

Klerien dropped on the floor, with slumped shoulders and lowered head. He stared at the names that he once wrote.

Liezel Steinberg, 1538-1551.

Virginia Steinberg, 1509-1551.

Joseph Steinberg, 1506-1551.

He blankly stared at the jagged and thick lines of his father’s name. It was a contrast from the fine and soft lines of his sister’s and mother’s name. The resentment, sorrow, and guilt that filled his chest on that day still covered his tired and cold heart. That time, he didn’t had the time to write something that would leave a mark of what kind of life they lived. He had to hurry and leave because men chased and hunted him.

“They knew, father. They know that I still live.” A whisper of awareness and fear. His eyelids slid shut, shielding the dull emerald green eyes that he inherited from his father. Taking a deep breath, he took in the fact that his family was gone. They were mere gravestones and memories.

“Well, Maximillian knows that too.” He grinned as soft fur touched the skin on his arm. His wolf rounded his form before laying its head on his lap. They both stared at the gravestones of their family. Klerien glances at the ceiling before nuzzling Maximillian’s neck. “We’re both alive.”

“Maximillian, Guten morgen.” The wolf returned his greeting with a whine.

“I know.” He mulled. “Let’s head back to the caravan. We have a possible murderer waiting for us.”

The wolf stood, sniffed the small headstone, before strutting out of the cave. He also gave it a last glance before pulling his hood above his head.

ՓՓՓ

As he entered the cramped space, the damp and stale air covered in dust filled his senses. The place that he once called home seemed so foreign and forbidding now. Even though he already closed off sections of it which were too late to restore and salvage, he still saw a semblance of presence within the small abode.

He shook his head before producing a long and tired sigh. “Now isn’t the time for this, Klerien. There was still something…” No, someone. “…you need to attend to.” He closed the rickety door, stepping on the dusty floorboards and inside the room that was once his bedroom. A tiny sliver of early sunlight filtered through the cracks of the eaves.

Klerien held a small basin filled with water in one hand and a piece of cloth at the other. After reassuring himself that no one followed their tracks- although, he didn’t think that anyone would want to go here. Klerien immediately headed towards his former house with the caravan, his wolf, and a possible murderer behind him, before visiting the grave. Klerien’s grip tightened around the piece of cloth. The small light that the oil lamp provided gave Klerien a shadowed image of the stranger lying on his cot.

Otherworldly and ethereal, words he’d use to describe the stranger.

The yellowish light that brightened the room accentuated the hue of the stranger’s hair. Inside the small dingy room, the man’s hair stood out the most. His shoulder-length red hair glowed and burned as light touched each strand. His skin had a subtle sheen of yellow as it glistened.

“Did he apply some oil to his skin?” Klerien asked himself, placing the small basin on the side of the cot before sitting beside the unconscious man. He pursed his lips when cold-water touched his skin and proceeded to wring the cloth.

Klerien gently cleaned the man’s face. The dried and crusted blood clung to his skin and hair. Klerien softly pressed and wiped the cloth to remove any hint of blood and dirt on the man’s face.

“It’s the first time that I encountered a man with vibrant auburn hair.” His had thick and abundant chest hair. Small but plentiful hair also littered his limbs. After cleaning most of the dirt and crusted blood on the stranger’s face, he had a clear view of his face.

Klerien’s breathe hitched like something clogged his throat. He frowned as he saw the man’s features. Crooked nose, hooded eyes, thick eyebrows, thin lips, high cheekbones, and a sharp defined jawline. However, despite the abundance of the man’s hair, he had cleanly shaved face. Klerien wondered, the man didn’t seem to be older than twenty summers.

“It was of no consequence. I’m only...,” Klerien shrugged. Idle thoughts didn’t had any use for him. For now, he would treat any wounds.

His chest throbbed in undisguised anticipation about what knowledge he might acquire from the man. His hand clenched as he reached for the man’s left arm. “A man lying on a pool of blood beside a mutilated corpse like it was mauled by an animal wouldn’t be innocent or ignorant. I only carried you because I needed to get you before they capture and tried you for a trial. You should be carrying information that I’m seeking. I need you to wake up, and soon.”

His suspicion raised when he saw the man’s torso. On his right side, just above his hips where his v-line rested was an ugly scar of three claw marks.