8 Resolve

As soon as Asher heard his grandmother's words, his eyes went wide.

"What!?" Asher shouted in shock.

He knew very little about his mother, and now that he heard his mother had actually left behind, he couldn't help but be stunned.

"Yes…" Tess replied with some pain in her eyes.

"Why… Didn't you tell me about it before?" Asher asked, feeling lost.

~Sigh~

But in response, Tess took a long sigh.

"I had been dreading this day for years. But I knew it would eventually come… the day that I need to tell you the truth." Tess said with great difficulty.

"What truth?" Asher felt his heart race.

Uncertainty swelled up in his stomach and made him feel uncomfortable. He didn't know if he wanted to actually hear the truth, as he felt like it would only cause him pain. 

But he also had a gnawing feeling at the back of his mind that told him he needed to know it. That feeling had been there for a long time too — ever since he had been a child.

He had simply suppressed it since talking about his mother only caused pain to his grandmother. But now that she herself was ready to speak, that gnawing feeling became hundreds of times stronger.

Asher's heart rate continued to rise until Tess finally spoke up.

"You… are not my Grandson." Tess dropped the bomb. "And neither is your mother, my daughter." 

"H-how… How's that possible!?" Asher screamed, not wanting to believe it all.

Tess was the only family he knew off, and now she was telling him he was not his grandson?! 

It was simply unacceptable to Asher.

"Your mother is not from the Crude Lands, either." Tess said, trying to gather as much courage as she could.

Berk put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, knowing it would be hard to speak about old wounds like this. After all, he himself had a lot of painful history that he didn't wish to talk about or reveal to others.

If he was in the same position, it would be hard for him to speak too. Thus, he did his best to support Tess, who was doing something he couldn't.

Asher simply stared at his grandmother with a shocked look, unable to speak. All he could do right now was to listen to the truth.

"Your mother arrived in the Crude Lands sixteen years ago. Injured and weak, she stumbled into our camp somewhere during the night. She had passed out from exhaustion and had you in her arms." Tess recalled the past. "It was your crying that woke me up. I found your mother lying not far from the hut. I didn't know who she was or how she ended up there, but seeing you, I took her in." She narrated.

Asher still had the shocked expression on his face, but that didn't mean he was listening. In fact, he was carving everything down in his heart, not wanting to miss even a fraction of a moment. After all, this was something he had been desiring to know for a long time.

"Your mother didn't wake up for nearly three days. But even in her sleep, she would continue to mutter your name. You were tiny back then… perhaps only six months old. But surprisingly, you were still healthy, which showed that your mother took great care of you before coming here.

I didn't know what she went through, that forced her to come to the Crude Lands; but whatever it was, it must have been terrible.

After your mother woke up, she didn't speak anything about where she had come from. She was still too sick, and couldn't move around much. Perhaps it was her journey to the Crude Lands, but her body had been damaged greatly. She became sick soon after and didn't live past a month.

But in that time she was alive, she always talked about you and how she wished she could give you a better life. There was nothing more she wished other than for you to have a blessed life." Tess finished her words, causing silence to return to the cave.

~drip~drip~drip~

No one spoke for an entire five minutes. The only sound that could be heard was that of water drops dripping from the roof.

"Mother… was only with you for a month?" Asher asked in a low voice.

"Yes." Tess nodded. "Before she died, she begged me to take care of you. It was not something I had the heart to deny, and I accepted in a moment. And when I did… She passed away." Her words lingered in Asher's ears as he processed them.

The boy looked at the rectangular metal plate in his hand, his thoughts unknown.

"She had this with her?" Asher asked.

"It was the only thing she had with her. She wore it on her neck." Tess answered.

This made Asher focus on the two holes that showed that this was indeed an accessory.

~huu~

Having heard all of this, he took a deep breath and held the metal plate close to his heart. Closing his eyes, he spoke a few words to his mother in his heart, before carefully putting the metal plate in the inner pocket of his shirt.

'I will survive… mother.'

With the plate secured, Asher steeled his mind.

He understood he didn't have the luxury to mourn his mother nor think about the past. What he needed to do right now was to strengthen his resolve and survive through his current predicament.

After all, it was what his mother had wished for.

Berk, who was watching the boy, could feel the change in his demeanor. He knew deep down that the boy would no longer be the same as before. 

Unknown to everyone, a spark had been lit in the boy's heart. A spark that would one day turn into a fire. 

A fire that would flare up into a wild blaze that would storm the world and swallow all!