Prologue

In the midst of the forest, the sound of a shovel hitting the wet earth echoed among the branches. From the cloudy sky, the rain fell slowly, soaking the body of a boy clad in simple rags. His brown hair covered part of his face as he continued to dig. 

His skin was pale, his slender limbs indicating his frail body already seemed exhausted from digging so much. With a brief pause, he would push his hair away from his eyes, revealing the greenish hue as they turned towards a grave where a body covered by a torn white blanket was being buried. 

With a long sigh, he gathered his strength again, the warm air exhaling after all that effort. But soon the sound of the sigh was muffled by the rain, and again he resumed throwing dirt that slowly covered the body. 

A girl watched him from behind under a tree with a huge leaf trying to shield herself from the rain, but even her black hair was wet, and her clothes, though torn at the edges, still covered her skin as pale as the boy's. 

Her eyes emitted a faint blue glow as she watched over the boy who continued to work in the rain, until the last mound of dirt covered the grave. 

Once again, the boy sighed, and with the shovel, he tried to smooth the earth, causing the girl to squint slightly and turn her gaze to the surroundings where she saw four other graves already covered, making her bow her head slightly until she saw the boy finish his work and then approached with slow steps. 

"I'm sorry, Sief..." She clasped her hands around the leaf's handle as she kept her head down. "For not having helped..." 

"Sister used to say... don't say what can hurt, let's keep going like this." The boy straightened his spine still with the shovel on his back, taking a long sigh as he looked up, seeing the cloudy skies still pouring rain that fell on his skin. "Talking about it will only hurt you heart, Beatrice. You're still here, and we can continue, that's what matters." 

Both stood side by side, their bodies equally thin and small, although the boy was slightly taller, appearing to be just under twelve years old while the girl seemed to be only ten. 

The girl bit her lips as she looked down, slowly lowering the leaf that protected her, causing the drops falling from the tree to wet her hair and slowly drip from her face. 

Memories flashed in her mind as she remembered the last moments of everyone there, the last meal she had accepted amid tears and in the end the last night they all slept together. 

The memories were still vivid in her mind, and when Sief turned around, he saw Beatrice with a furrowed brow as tears flowed quickly and made her try to wipe them away as she spoke. 

"But it wasn't because of me, she gave me her last meal because I was too weak... everyone was weak, but this damn disease... " The tears continued to fall as her attempt to wipe them away seemed futile with the last memories inside the orphanage. "Why don't you blame me? I was old enough to help no matter what body or illness I had, if Auro were still here he-" 

"But he's not, Bea." When she heard, she slowly lowered her head, seeing her brother's face trying to remain expressionless in the rain, but the drops also ran from his chin and dripped to the ground as he walked towards Beatrice. "Get angry, complain, blame everything and everyone. You can feel bad and cry, I never wanted you to be strong, after all, you're my little sister." 

As he approached Beatrice, Sief placed his hand on the girl's head and gently forced it down, making Beatrice continue to shed tears as she tried to remain silent. 

"We were an orphanage without support, even the sister was getting old. I was the only one who could hunt, and yet it didn't work out..." He sighed and said, lowering his head slightly. "I owe apologies... the least I could do was give everyone a dignified end." 

"But you..." Beatrice lifted her head and saw Sief's face already pale and marked by weakness, but while the rain and tears still flowed from his face, he tried to maintain a slight smile. "You didn't have to take care of us.." 

"Just like Aurus made his choice, I made mine." Slowly he removed his hand from Beatrice's head and turned back towards the graves as he said. "I wanted to stay with my family, and I'll stay with them until the end, after all, you're the only one left with me. Just survive... let's survive this day and others, we can have a big family again if we survive... better days will come... we just have to survive..." 

He plunged the shovel into the largest grave with a long sigh, lifting his bathed face upwards as he saw the flow of rain slowly diminish while small pieces of blue sky showed through the clouds, causing him to sigh again and look down having memories of the faces of each one of those resting there. 

Even though his mind was slightly foggy, memories still flowed as he saw the graves, but soon he heard slow and almost muffled steps approaching through the rain, and soon Beatrice stopped by his side still with teary eyes, joining both hands and closing her eyes as she said. 

"Where are we going now?" 

For a brief moment, she seemed to be saying a prayer, but soon she opened her eyes, turning her gaze to Sief who was looking beyond the trees, seeing a subtle dirt road between the trees that made him take a deep breath as he took his sister's hand and said. 

"Let's first dry ourselves... then... let's move forward... together..." 

With large steps, he distanced himself from the graves, moving forward without looking back towards the dirt road while Beatrice followed him still holding his hand, looking back one last time trying to say goodbye once again, but she also turned her face forward, raising her head with eyes still teary but wiping them away and jumping through the bushes beside Sief. 

Slowly the two distanced themselves from those graves, following the dirt road while slowly the clouds parted, and the sunrise emerged. 

"You keep sighing a lot..." 

"Give me a break, Bea..."