Peace Is An Illusion

The merry day ended with the wives taking back their knocked out husbands, only the single men remained sleeping in the tavern with no one to care for them, then again they are probably on cloud nine already

But if it's on a chair or tucked in bed everyone who drank that night was sleeping like a log, everyone but a single person who was once again staring at the ceiling with his jade eyes

"Man, what a day"

Recalling the short yet emotion suffused time he had Yu couldn't help but smile, sure it ended weirdly, especially with that sudden headache that came and went like the wind, but all in all, he had a lot of fun, so much of the stress and sadness that piled up from his latest incident was washed away with the laughter and talk he had

"How I wish I could stay, it would just be so wonderful if every day was like this"

He found himself hoping once again, it wasn't just the happy atmosphere and the ever-present peace, for he even came to like Willa a bit, as a friend if anything, after all she was a married woman

"But then I would ruin it all"

He knew they would chase him one day, if it wasn't the nobles of this place it would be the families from his own homeland, he would have to remain on the go, always and ever, at least until he was strong enough that no one could harm him or have any ideas about his close ones

"It's going to be a long journey"

Clearly, in no day or two would it end, but as long as he could get there someday he was willing to keep walking forward, moving on and leaving his desires unsatisfied

"You and me, we will get there"

He lovingly pat Lyra's soft fur, leaning on her like he always did

The wolf didn't respond like she always did this time though, her ears perked up instead and she looked at their surroundings alertly

Her behaviour made him give the dark hall a look as well but nothing seemed out of place

Lyra didn't quite agree though as she stood up, looking at the walls as if she could see through them

"What is going on?"

Even though he didn't see anything wrong he chose to believe her senses and stood close to her, ready to deploy the shield at a moment's notice

There was silence for many seconds as the two awaited whatever Lyra picked up on, so silent only the soft sound of fire cracking could be heard from the outside

'Fire?'

Finally, he noticed the abnormality in the situation, where could the fire come from?

He got his answer very quickly as flames started to burn through his walls, engulfing the house in a manner of minutes with the man and wolf still inside

This huge bonfire did not escape the villager's notice, the sleeping men were woken and buckets were filled with water as everyone rushed to put out the fire but with no close source of water and nothing to hose it down with it took several hours to finally silence the flames, by that time the house was in blackened debris with no remains to be found

Willa and a few other men searched the place for any remains of Yu but found nothing, not even parts of his body, this brought them to think that he was buried under the fallen roof, something they would have to find out only when morning came, searching for a body in the dead of the night was too much of a hassle for these exhausted men

People finally dispersed, going back to their home for the night, all but one who remained silently watching the ashes for yet another hour before finally going back to her own house

"She's gone, the place is clear"

A hushed voice informed his companions once the brooding figure of Willa left

With the coast finally clear the six waiting people walked out of their hiding spots and started to look through the remains of the house

"Where the hell is Rodney? He should be here helping us"

"That guy is dead drunk in the tavern still, him and that old geezer along with a few others didn't wake up even when the fire was raging, must've been too wasted"

"Even better, that's two less to split the share with"

Everyone cackled at those words, if they could get a bigger piece of the fortune then no one would say no

Happy the six of them searched through the debris for hours, and then some more, soon it was approaching sunrise and a sign of burnt flesh could not be seen

"Where is the damned body"

The good mood didn't last long once they realized the absence of any sign indicating the man's death, they didn't know if him being alive was more frustrating than them not finding his loot-filled body

"Maybe...maybe he summoned his beast and ran away?"

"What rubbish! We put a whole narcotic in his beer just in case he had some good tolerance, we put so much that we even got the old man to drink with him until he was too dazed to tell the taste, there is no way he woke up"

"Your right but, if he is dead, where is his body"

That question made everyone once again worry

"Let's search some more, I'm sure we will find it"

"No need, I've heard enough"

Cold as ice came the voice from the dark, the six of them knew not where to look until two pairs of eyes lit up under the night

"It took me a while to remember that voice, your the ones from the fire camp at the forest back then aren't you"

They stayed silent at his words but not still for their weapons were already pulled out aiming at him and his beast

"Right, your missing one, Rodney I presume? Did you guys see my wolf or did you guess by the trails I left? Hmm, well it matters not, I'll just burn all the witnesses away"

Lyra's body flamed with his words, the bloody fire was much scarier than the one they were trapped in

"You! You-you-"

"Indeed, the name's Yu, carve it into your mind before I send you to hell where you belong"

"Awuuuuu"

With the howl flames erupted into the surroundings alighting the place once again, this time the roaring of fire wasn't the only sound though as screams and cries of help came with it, begging or cursing until the dreaded lashes of great heat toasted them to nothing

Villagers once again woke up, rushing to put out the burning house only to find the fire feeding off nothing but air, moving quickly through the village as it found better fuel in the form of houses to keep itself going

The fire raged on well-passed dawn and the helpless villagers could only watch as their homes were reduced to ashes, some shed silent tears and some bawled out loud, the older men spent it cursing whatever damnable thing that could come to mind

Only a few chose to silently take in the depressing sight, one of which was the lonesome Willa standing not too far from the fire, away from the rest of the villagers

She was staring at the orange flames, trying to understand where things went wrong, that's when a sudden feeling of danger came from behind promoting her to turn to its source

A pair of glowing jade pupils met her hazel eyes, both of them gloomy, each their own reasons

"It was a nice plan really"

Yu was the one to break the heavy silence with a cold shiver-inducing tone

"Make me drink so much I cant taste the narcotic in my last beer and then burn me in my sleep, brilliant since they wouldn't have to test me head-on, that way your father in law who made me drink it will face my wrath if I do make it out alive"

He paused and faced the fire, a smirk forming on his face, at least she thought so by the tone of his voice

"But who would have thought I wouldn't sleep at all? And that I could easily make a path through the flames to escape silently before catching them redhanded, now the nice plan seems stupid for not expecting all this miraculous power, I mean, I did hint that I was strong"

He seemed to be talking to himself rather than explaining, but Willa cut his rant short

"You want revenge, I understand that, and as much I want to plead for father I also know one must answer for their misdeeds, I only ask you take your wrath on those who did wrong and please, I beg you not to hurt anyone else"

As sincere as she sounded it made Yu even angrier, the intense glowing of his eyes was great evidence of that

"You say it as if I am mindlessly killing off anyone I see whereas all I did was kill the ones who lit the fire"

"And burned down the village in the process"

"...."

"You've already taken their homes, but homes can be rebuilt, parents on the other hand cannot be replaced"

He took a silent stand at her words, he couldn't answer back since she was correct but also couldn't agree since he was raging on the inside

"Haah"

In the end he did neither, only sigh and turn around to walk away

"....Your right"

It wasn't his words, but Willa's that put his feet to a halt

"Peace is an illusion for the weak"

He nodded to himself, he was indeed right about that, then once again walked away disappearing under the smoke filled sky