As the golden light began to fade, and only the violet moonlight illuminated the bottom of the ravine, Nolan opened his eyes again. He swallowed hard, still tasting the rust of his own blood. He was still lying face down beneath the unknown corpse and felt his body ache in several different places, followed by a strange burning sensation…
Not understanding what was happening or how he could still be alive, Nolan rose with a worm-like movement and finally managed to kneel. Standing, he used a sharp rock to free himself from the flimsy ropes that had bound his wrists, and the first thing he did was not check on himself, but rather run and kneel beside his father's body.
"Father…"
Tears streamed down his face as Nolan touched and examined his father's cold body; it had three broken arrows piercing it in three different places, and a larger puncture wound from a short sword very close to his heart. Nolan slid his right hand over his father's still wide, incredulous eyes, closing them and allowing him to rest after death.
After closing his father's eyes, Nolan looked at his left hand, the only one wearing a glove. The glove was made from several strips of different animal hides, giving it a somewhat rustic appearance.
But for Nolan, it was something very precious, and he never took it off. This glove had been made and given to him by his mother shortly before she passed away; that was why he had only the left glove of the pair.
"Thank goodness those scoundrels didn't take it from me..."
It was then that Nolan remembered his father also had a precious item made by his mother. It was a dark red scarf, and like Nolan, his father never took that scarf off his neck.
But at this moment, the scarf wasn't where it should be!
Even with the faint violet light of the full moon in the sky, it was difficult to find a scarf in the depths of the Little Crack. Nolan scanned the surroundings with his eyes and sometimes even felt his way along the ground searching for the scarf, but he had no success finding it.
Returning to where his father's body lay, he finally saw something in his father's left hand; it was the scarf!
Most of the scarf was under his body, with only the tip being firmly gripped by his left hand. After removing the lower part of the body, Nolan realized he couldn't remove the scarf from his father's hand.
Even in death, his fingers remained firmly gripping the gift from his deceased wife, the most important object in his life.
"Father…"
Many tears streamed down Nolan's face again, and as if with a lump in his throat, he said with great difficulty while hugging his father's body:
"It's okay, Dad, leave him with me, I'll take good care of him in your place…"
It was as if his father could hear him again, and only then did his grip finally relax, letting his son take the dark red scarf.
With the scarf in his right hand and the rustic grey glove in his left, a certain memory flooded Nolan's mind…
***
Nolan was 8 years old. He was sitting on the short grass near his house, playing with some small wooden sculptures. One of them, the best made, was a knight with a long sword mounted on a horse, but he also had some monsters and even a carved tower.
In his game, Nolan used the knight to defeat various monsters and go to the tower to save people in danger. Distracted, the young boy didn't notice that his father had come up behind him and sat on a tree trunk until the sun cast its shadow over part of his toys.
"Dad!"
Young Nolan turned and waved as he greeted his father. The man had long, dark brown hair tied in a ponytail and a thick, long beard of the same color. Underneath his beard was a dark red linen scarf. His eyes were also the same color as his long, straight hair and beard, but now, as he was facing away from the sun, they appeared darker, almost black. He had a gentle smile on his face, and after his son noticed it, he said:
"So, you're going to be a knight of the Kingdom? I thought you'd be an adventurer exploring the dangerous Scars…"
Young Nolan contemplated his father's question for a moment and replied:
"Actually, neither, Dad. I thought better of it, and I'll just be a husband; it's safer!"
"A what? Hahaha."
"A husband, just like you, with Mom! I'll grow our food and raise some animals after I get married right here in our Village!"
"Hahaha, good, very good. And have you chosen your bride yet?"
The question seemed too complex for young Nolan, and after thinking for a moment, he simply shook his head no.
His father smiled and then began a speech that Nolan was already quite familiar with…
"If you're going to get married, then you must know the duties and responsibilities a man has to his family, right?"
"A man must provide for and protect his family!"
"Hahaha, good, very good, and what else?"
"I don't remember... Something about being the man of the house and protecting the family's honor?"
Nolan's father smiled haughtily and began a familiar speech:
"Yes, the man is the master of the house, you must never allow anyone to dishonor your family or our ancestors, and you must always remind your wife to be loyal and obedient to her husband… We provide, and we protect; therefore, our word is the final word in matters within the home…"
Nolan pondered the words for a few seconds, but his father continued:
"You must avoid those wives who have recently appeared, who are bossy and disrespectful to their husbands; look for one who is kind, caring, and attentive, and stay away especially from those who are—"
In the middle of the speech, a shadow covered Nolan's father's body, while he froze and remained silent, afraid to turn around. Nolan, who was still sitting on the grass and listening to his father's patriarchal speeches, immediately saw to whom the shadow belonged!
"Hi, Mom!"
The shadow that covered him, followed by Nolan's greeting, interrupted his father's speech and left him frozen in place. Before he could turn around, a hand grabbed his dark red scarf from behind with a little force and said,
"Hi, my little one! What was your father telling you?"
The young and beautiful woman was 5'6" tall[1], with delicate white skin hidden beneath several layers of hand-stitched fabrics made for her daily protection. Her eyes were amber, the same color as his son's. She had long, light-brown curly hair parted into two braids. She smiled at her son as she asked the question, but Nolan's father knew that smile wasn't a real smile…
"That's… Hm… Hello, dear! Is lunch ready? I said I was coming back with Nolan. Why did you come here?"
"Little Nolan, what did Mommy tell you about the girls?"
"Um, Mommy said I should treat them well, and that's all… And maybe… Not listen to Daddy?"
Nolan's father froze in place, knowing he'd been caught, but before he could explain, he was lifted from his seat by the red scarf around his neck and by one arm as he was dragged back toward their house.
"So, dear, you said the final word in the house is yours, didn't you?"
"Yes-No… Hm, dear, you must have misheard, I never…"
"Well, lunch is ready, and I've decided to take the rest of the day off… You'll do all the dishes yourself and make dinner for the three of us…"
Nolan, who was walking beside his parents as they returned home, saw his father open his mouth and try to say something, but nothing came out…
"Come on, dear, didn't you say the final word in our house was yours?"
As if losing some of his strength and a few years of his life, Nolan's father lowered his shoulders and head and said in an extremely dejected tone his "final words":
"Yes, dear, as you wish…"
***
Nolan spent almost two hours kneeling silently beside his father's corpse, clutching one of his hands tightly as if he feared letting go would be the end of him forever. He had lost his mother when he was only 10 years old to an unknown plague that struck Blackwood Village. And now, about to turn 17, he had lost his father as well. Since his parents were also orphans and only children, this meant Nolan had no other living relatives.
Seeing that he could no longer stay there, Nolan began to gather as many stones as he could find and started piling them on top of his father's body. He knew that if he didn't bury his father properly, no one else would do it for him.
Not being very familiar with death rites, Nolan simply imitated the Priest of Blackwood Village, raising his right arm towards the sky with his palm open. As he lowered his hand, he made a cut, then used it to slide the tip of his finger across the center of his forehead, then across his right cheek, and finally made the same gesture over his heart. This religious scar sign symbolized the three virtues: will, honor, and courage. He also recited the funeral mantra created by the world's largest religion, the Scar Church:
"May the world-dividing Scar receive your soul, and may you rest in eternal peace as you return your Scars to new Bearers."
This funeral mantra was used because there was a certain danger in leaving corpses inside or very close to a Scar; at best, they would all return to life as monsters. And since the current ravine was a Small Crack, a minor branch of a Secondary Scar, this mantra was extremely necessary.
At that moment, Nolan felt his funeral prayer resonate with some distant, mysterious energy, along with a light, cold wind. The sensation passed quickly, almost imperceptibly, but as if awakened by the funeral mantra recited for his father, Nolan saw the same golden light from when he awoke ignite again in reaction to the prayer.
Only this time, he realized the golden light was coming from his own neck!
At the same time, before he could understand why the scar on his neck emitted some heat and a kind of golden light, growls and grunts were heard throughout the ravine.
The corpses of all the innocent who died here today were rising and returning to life as the undead…
[1] 1.67 centimeters