The world should feel colder than usual, but for some reason it felt warm, his heart was in pain but his body felt oddly warm.
Michael opened his eyes as he regained consciousness, everything was blurry at first thank to the tears that had taken shelter in the webs of his eyes.
He glanced at the night sky with a weak and powerless glare. Where am I, What happened ? He thought to himself.
He felt as though there was a huge hole in his chest. He rose up from the ground and settled his hand onto his head, for some reason he had a headache.
Then, curious were the warmth he was feeling came from, Michael turned around and beside him there was a flame. His eyes wandered some more and behind him, there was a dead corpse covered in leaves.
Suddenly, Michael became overwhelmed. How could he not? Everything came rushing back; it began replaying over and over in his head.
That's right—it was the moment where he stood and watched as his brother lost his life.
Non-stop, over and over again. He could feel the blood on his face time and time again.
"I didn't mean to! Believe me, LUKE!" A stream of tears began falling down from his face. "Please come back! Don't leave me, LUKE!"
His voice cracked. "Co... come back, don't go." Michael gasped for air, his own sobs destroying his chest.
In a span of seconds he felt like his life was over. He never thought, he'd see the day Luke died, especially so soon his brother meant to world to him. Luke was his world.
His eyes moved around the campfire.
"Snap out of it."
Before the world around him succumbed to darkness.
A tall man, with a bulky physique and a chin with a full-grown white beard, he sat across the camp fire; he hadn't noticed him until now. He looked old, but his clothes told a different tale. He was probably some rich noble who got lost in the woods.
"The fuck are you losing your mind for? he's dead. Accept it." He looked at Michael with an intense gaze.
Michael's blood boiled as those words escape his mouth. He wanted to punch him so bad in that very moment, but he didn't have the guts, Luke's passing left him powerless, which made a lot of sense; he had practically lost a part of himself.
"Shut up."
A smile surfaced on his face, as he heard Michael's words.
"Who was he to you?" The man said, as he looked at Michael with compassion.
Michael noticed the compassion in his eyes, and it wouldn't hurt to confide in a complete stranger.
"Brother. He was my brother. We don't have the same parents but that doesn't matter. We both don't know our parents. He found me on the streets when I was four years old—he was only seven at the time. I don't remember anything before that. All I can say is, after meeting him that day, I've never felt alone."
He let out a huge breath from his chest.
The man kept the conversation going for Michael's sake. "How about now? how do you feel?"
Michael's eyes glared at the man and then darted toward the flames. "Alone... I feel alone."
Talking wouldn't make Luke's death go away, but for Michael, it helped ease the pain, he didn't know who the person he was talking to was. He had never seen him a day in his life, but for some reason, telling him all about the past eased the pain inside him.
"I should introduce myself. The name's Valric. It was nice to hear your story, Michael."
When he looked at what the man was wearing and the equipment he had with him, Michael asked a question out of curiosity.
"Are you... a Knight?"
Valric didn't hesitate. "Yes, I am."
Michael's eyes widened with a little animosity. "Why couldn't you have arrived sooner? You could have saved him."
Valric crossed his arms and fired back. "When I got here, it looked like you had everything under control. So my question is: how could he die in your presence?"
The animosity inside his heart dissolved and all that was left was guilt. But who can blame him? The situation was just overwhelming; he's only seventeen years old.
"Fair. I'm sorry for questioning you. I'm just trying to make myself feel less guilty for being powerless the moment he needed me most."
"I see," valric said.
◇◇◇◇
"What now? From what you told me with him dead, your life is practically over. Any plans?"
Valric cut the silence boldly, gesturing toward the dead corpse.
Michael's face changed expressions immediately. "I don't know," he said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Even though it was late when I got here, I saw you kill that slither-king, and I must say I liked what I saw. You reminded me of myself back in my heyday."
Valric leaned foward, grabbing the hilt of his own sword, his thumb flicking the guard up and down repeatedly.
"Why don't you come and work for me?" He lifted his sword and pointed it directly toward Michael over the open flame. "Make your brother proud. Join me, Michael." He said with a deep voice.
Michael starred at him for a while with a blank expression. Then, a hysterical laugh escaped his throat along with a few tears of joy. "That's impossible. Even even I know that. Nice joke, man."
Everyone who lived in Celestia knew that you had to be from a royal or noble lineage to become a knight. So, even as he hard Valric's words, Michael responded instinctively.
There was only one problem for Michael: Valric wasn't laughing. He seemed dead serious. " I don't joke about my job kid. And I definitely don't make jokes to people I've just met."
Michael wiped the tears out of his eys with his fingers and let out a long sigh. I have the worst luck possible. First my brother dies, and now i bump into old crazy geezer, is what Michael thought to himself in that brief moment.
"No offense, but your crazy. The world treated me and my brother like shit, I can't do what your asking of me because it's impossible. Don't give me false hope. I just lost my brother; let me be."
"You told me it was a noble who sent you down into those ruins. let me tell you why he did it: because he doesn't think your lives have value. Your a commoner; to him that means your expendable. That's why you have to do this. I'm not saying you have talent, but my gut tells me you've got what it takes. So stop being a bitch and say yes."
Michael was hurt by the words that were coming out of valrics mouth. "The last time I allowed myself to get pressured into something, my brother ended up dead. You said it yourself—I don't have the talent."
He was overwhelmed at Valric's suggestion, not because he didn't want to, but because he felt guilty. His brother dies and he gets to to live a life they've always wanted? He couldn't do that to Him.
"Look at him." Valric gestured towards Luke's body once more. "He's dead, you know why?Because the people sitting at the top don't give a damn about you. There are plenty like him. I'm giving you a chance to break the system. Save the countless others destined to end up like him."
"How can I? how can I? He died and I'm supposed to run off and go play knight? How's that fair to him, huh? answer me!"
"Don't don't it for yourself, goddammit! Do it for him!"
After going back and forth, Michael and valric sat down to the open flame and indulged in the crackling of burning wood.
◇◇◇◇
Michael glanced at the flames, with a powerless gaze, his eyes reflecting the dance of the fire. To say he wasn't intrigued by Valric's suggestion would be a lie.
How could he not be? This was what he and Luke always dreamed of—a chance to make it in life, a chance to fight the strings if destiny.
Being a knight meant fame and riches. To a noble, that might not seem like much, but for a commoner, that was the dream.
There was only one way a person would be eligible to become a knight, and that was by graduating from The Spire Academy of Magic—a school that only accepted students from a royal or noble lineage.
For someone like Michael, someone who was born a commoner, being a knight was only a fever dream. Unattainable.
Michael opened his eys and let his curiosity get the best of him.
"How... how would we do it?"
Valric's face lit up as he heard those words come out of Michael's mouth. He leaned in closer and focused all his attention toward Michael.
"This is how we'll do it."