The sun had yet to rise.
The cabin was already awake.
Or rather...
Kael was.
He stood quietly in the center of the room, a travel pack resting on the table before him.
He had never packed for a journey.
There had never been a reason to.
Everything he needed had always been within a day's walk of the cabin.
Now...
He found himself staring at a pile of belongings, unsure of what was necessary.
After several minutes of thought, he spoke aloud.
"...Grandpa would probably say I'm bringing too much."
He looked at the neatly folded blanket.
"...But what if it gets cold?"
He picked it up.
Then put it down.
Then picked it up again.
After repeating the process three more times, Kael sighed.
"I miss having someone else make these decisions."
---
In the end, he packed only what seemed important.
Three sets of clothes.
His grandfather's letter.
The silver pendant.
A small pouch of dried herbs.
A flint stone.
A waterskin.
Several strips of dried meat.
A fishing line.
A whetstone.
His wooden practice sword.
And the plain iron hunting knife Grandpa Elias had given him on his sixteenth birthday.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
---
Before leaving, Kael cleaned the cabin one last time.
He swept the floor.
Washed every bowl.
Stacked firewood beneath the shelter.
Watered the vegetables.
Fed the chickens.
Filled the fish pond with fresh water from the stream.
He even repaired a loose fence post that had begun to lean.
Only after everything was finished did he stand at the doorway.
He looked back.
The little cabin seemed smaller than usual.
Warm.
Peaceful.
Filled with memories.
Kael bowed deeply.
"Thank you for taking care of us."
The mountain breeze answered with a gentle rustle through the pines.
---
The journey began with a single step.
Then another.
The familiar paths soon gave way to narrow trails winding between towering cliffs.
Every tree...
Every stream...
Every rocky outcrop carried a memory.
"Grandpa slipped here carrying firewood..."
He smiled to himself.
"...and blamed the squirrel."
Further ahead...
A weathered stump stood beside the trail.
He remembered carving tiny wooden animals there while Grandpa Elias patiently sharpened tools.
Not all of them had looked like potatoes.
At least...
Not all of them.
---
Hours passed.
The path gradually descended.
The air grew warmer.
The towering pines slowly gave way to broader trees whose leaves shimmered in the morning light.
Birdsong changed.
The familiar mountain hawks were replaced by smaller birds whose calls Kael had never heard before.
He stopped several times simply to listen.
"The world sounds different."
He murmured.
---
Around midday, Kael reached a cliff unlike any he had seen before.
Beyond it...
The sea of clouds stretched endlessly.
For years he had looked down upon them.
Today...
He walked through them.
Cool mist surrounded him.
Visibility shrank to only a few meters.
The world became silent once more.
He continued descending carefully, one hand brushing against the rocky wall.
Eventually...
The clouds began to thin.
A warm breeze greeted him.
Sunlight pierced the mist.
Then...
He saw it.
The world below.
Kael stopped walking.
His eyes widened.
"...Grandpa..."
Fields spread across the land like giant green blankets.
Rivers shimmered beneath the afternoon sun.
Roads stretched farther than he could follow.
Tiny villages dotted the landscape.
In the distance...
Something enormous rose above the horizon.
A city.
Even from this distance, it dwarfed anything Kael had imagined.
"So that's..."
He whispered.
"...the outside world."
For several minutes, he simply stood there.
Watching.
Listening.
Trying to take it all in.
---
The trail eventually joined a wider dirt road.
Unlike the mountain paths...
This road showed signs of frequent travel.
Wheel tracks marked the ground.
Horse hoofprints overlapped one another.
Kael crouched beside them.
"So many people..."
He had never seen footprints belonging to so many different individuals.
Some were large.
Others small.
Some clearly belonged to children.
He smiled.
"It must be busy."
---
As he continued walking, a strange object lay beside the road.
A small, shiny copper coin.
Kael picked it up.
He turned it over several times.
"...Pretty."
He slipped it into his pocket.
Perhaps whoever had dropped it would come looking for it.
He could return it later.
---
The afternoon wore on.
Kael rounded a bend in the road when a loud cry echoed through the valley.
"Help!"
Another scream followed.
Then the panicked neighing of horses.
Kael immediately looked toward the sound.
Far ahead, beyond a cluster of trees, several birds burst into the sky.
More shouts rang out.
Someone was in trouble.
Without hesitation, Kael tightened the strap of his travel pack.
Then...
He began running toward the commotion.
Not recklessly.
Not dramatically.
Simply because...
Grandpa Elias had once told him,
"If you have the ability to help someone safely..."
"You shouldn't keep them waiting."
Kael disappeared between the trees, unaware that the decision he made in that moment would mark the true beginning of his journey beyond the mountain.
End of Chapter 5