Carmul’s wheat is planted in spring and harvested in early fall. As soon as their golden heads start leaning down and the farmers can feel the weight of the grains on their hands, it's time to bring out the tools and hope for the best weather.

  During this time, the men of the village are hard at work in the fields while the women gather at the village square, cooking for their husbands. It’s a time of the year where every pair of hands in the village are expected to be at work.

  “How’s your boy?” Asked a woman next to Alise. Her hands peeling a bulb of onion stopped momentarily as she turned to look to her side. “Just got back yesterday right? Heard Robert came here yesterday.”

  “Yeah.” Alise said before her hands went back to work. “Robert said he has recovered enough. I really can’t thank him enough for all he’s done.”

  “Oooh! That’s great! The boy’s still got a long life ahead of him after all.”

  Alise replied with a nod and smiled. It really is great that Gale’s recovered to the point that he has. Thanks to some strings Robert pulled with his connections, her son was able to get proper treatment and the missing chunk of flesh from his upper arm has mostly recovered. Though a ghastly scar remains in its place, the arm will still function properly.

  “So? Where’s the boy?”

  “He’s home alone.” Alise said as she averted her gaze towards the side.

  She had to lie, but Gale isn’t in his house, nor is he actually alone. Under the shade of a tree growing on the edge of the forest, Gale lies with his head on a well-positioned root. The ground has been somewhat softened underneath him to make for a good bed and a soft, relaxing gust of wind blows around him for a comfortable nap.

  Leaving a kid without supervision alone wasn’t a good idea. Gale’s mother obviously knows this, but she reckons the three fairies would most definitely keep the human they had taken a liking to out of harm’s way. But because they aren’t something she’d like to reveal to the others in the village, she also had to lie about how the boy is alone in the house.

  As to why he had to stay back home instead of coming along with his mother like other kids do, while his wound has been replaced by a scar, the flesh is still soft and recovering under the skin.

  Since it wasn’t anything that won’t recover if given time, the nap is a much needed rest for his recovery and Alise had told him to get as much rest as possible. And he did just that, resting as much as he could. That is, until sometime into his light sleep, a somewhat loud thud woke him up.

  Slowly getting up into his feet, Gale looked around for the sudden sound that woke him. The wind fairy, eager to help, flew close to his face and went deeper into the forest before looking back at the boy, beckoning for him to follow.

  A little deeper into the forest, Gale was led into what had disturbed his sleep. It’s a little something that he knows his parents are fond of. Something that some time back, he remembered his mother saying that she’d love to have it everyday. Or atleast, what remains of it.

  A rabbit’s half eaten carcass lies flat on the ground. Its guts have been ripped open, and inside, instead of the dark red innards, almost nothing is present. Whatever dropped it must have eaten only its insides and left the carcass.

  Remembering how his father sometimes brought one home, he grabs the dead rabbit by its ears and picks it up. Now hanging by the ears, what little innards that still remain inside its body spilled out of the gaping hole in its stomach and dangled about with every step the boy took.

  The smell coming out of its open belly is horrendous enough that people would likely gag with a single whiff. And while Gale is bothered by the smell even with the carcass hanging from his hand, it doesn’t quite show in his flat expression.

  With his find in hand, Gale went back to his house where he went ahead and left the carcass over at the table where he knows his mother usually handles food. Over time, flies naturally found their way to the carcass. And in the moist autumn wind, it quickly went stale as the hours passed and filled the house with a horrendously foul stench.

  The smell spreads over time and steers passerbys away from the house, blocking their mouth and nose all the while. Until eventually, the occupants of the house returned.

  From a couple houses away, Razh’s nose already picked up on the foul stench. One could tell with how scrunched up his face is, evident even with a hand covering his mouth and nose. When he got inside, he started to scan the house and quickly found both his son sitting on the dinner table and a dead rabbit swarmed by flies in his kitchen.

  “What in the–” he said, while approaching the rabbit. “What’s this doing here?!” He looked back on his son and brought the rabbit up for him to see. “You brought this?!”

  Gale replied with a slight nod. The kid brought the rabbit back with good intention—a gift for his parents since he knows how they both liked a rabbit. Though clearly, he hadn’t known the difference between the meat his father brought home and the meat he brought home.

  “You brought this to my house?!” Razh shouted out angrily before throwing the carcass at his son, causing the young boy to fall off the chair.

  Fortunately, just before his body hit the floor, his mother somehow caught him. She was right behind her husband when he walked home and was just as bothered by the smell. But now, the carcass right next to her was the last thing in her mind.

  Though the smell was telling his body to move away, the anger pushed him forward instead. It drowned the overwhelmingly foul stench just enough for him to kick the carcass away towards the door. Once he did so, he brought his foot down on his son.

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  “No! Please, he’s still a child! He didn’t know any better!” Her mother pleaded as she brought her son close to her chest, shielding him as her husband brought her foot down yet again.

  “Brought a dead rabbit to my house?! Didn’t you smell the thing?!” Razh asked. And of course, there’s no way the boy hadn’t smelled the foul stench that the carcass emitted. “That thing’s no child, it’s a freak!” the man said before kicking his wife away from her protege.

  His foot found her head and she was knocked towards the table. The following concussion dulled her body and she let go of her protege, letting her child slip away from her embrace and he fell to the floor.

  On the ground, Gale received some more thorough kicking and stomping from his father. Even as his wife pleaded and tried to stop him, he paid it no mind as he brought his feet down again and again. And through it, Gale didn’t let out a single noise—and it served to fan his father’s anger.

  But just because he didn’t let out a squeak of noise, doesn’t mean the damage wasn’t done. His body is being broken with each kick and more and more bruises blooms where his father’s foot went and soon, blood starts to seep out.

  After more than a couple dozen kicks, his son was already ragged and battered. And Razh’s anger finally receded enough for him to once again register the foul stench that's spread around his house. “Freak.” He spat out as he rushed outside the house.

  Alise quickly propped her bloodied son from the ground and cradled him in her chest. Close to her, she can feel how weak Gale’s breaths are. The beating he just got was much too rough to say the least.

  His whole body is covered mostly in blood and where flesh is still not smeared by his own blood, bruises that quickly darken can be seen. Young as he is, if left to be, he might die by the end of the day.

  Alise herself was not much better. As she tried to pull her husband away from her son, she was pushed away with little regard. Where her body found a table leg when her body was knocked away, blood was flowing. Though for her, more important than that is she needed to get her son treated.

  There is no doctor in Carmul, but there is a herbalist that the villagers relied on for healing. He’s helped her son once when he’s attacked by beasts in the forest so she reckoned she could get his help once more. The problem is, there is quite a lot of distance to be covered from their house to the herbalist’s place.

  Running out of her house, she quickly made her way inside the forest. Weaving her way in between the trees, she would sometimes trip over a root sticking out of the ground, or a branch lying on the ground. Even as her toes swell from the constant impacts and her breaths get heavier with each step that she takes, still, she rushed with all her might. Deeper and deeper into the forest she goes. Until she no longer could.

  Evidently, running with all her might quickly drained the strength out of her. Even more so since she has her child in her arms.

  In her exhaustion, her feet caught a tree root, and though her body tried to keep her balance, the lack of strength left her unable to do anything. In the instant that she lost her balance, she twisted her body around and hugged her son tighter to protect him from the fall.

  Panting heavily on the ground, she quickly pushed herself up with one arm and brought herself up. But while she could push her own body up to sit, her legs failed her when she tried to stand. Laden with exhaustion, her legs grew heavier beneath her with every breath she took and Alise broke down into a sobbing mess.

  “Move! Move! Move!” She pleaded as she beat her own legs, trembling when she put any strength into it.

  Gritting her teeth to hold back her sobs, she eventually gave up on her legs. Still holding onto her son with one hand, she brought the other one into the ground and pushed herself forward, crawling on the ground to get herself deeper into the forest.

  “Not yet… Please, dear Goddess. Don’t you take my boy away from me yet.” She pleaded as she hugged her son with all her might and dragged her own body through the rough soil.

  Tears kept running from her eyes into the ground below as blood started to flow out of her mouth. She was gritting her teeth to numb her own screaming body. That was when she felt a tender breeze wafted by, brushing softly against her skin. And when she looked up, her eyes met with those of a small creature flying above her.

  “My Son! Please! Save my son!” she pleaded to the fairy before her.

  In response, the fairy then silently starts to fly away from her before abruptly stopping and turning back to face her. Realizing the fairy is telling her to follow them, she tries once again to put strength in her shaky legs.

  With hope strong in her heart, she found a second wind and an actual gust of wind to help her back on her feet. A strong breeze is pushing her forward, helping her walk even as her legs wobble beneath her.

  Slowly, she makes her way between the trees with the fairy acting as her guide and support. Until eventually, she made it to the river where the wind finally stopped blowing behind her. The fairy flew around her, wasping about for some time before flying off into the forest, back to where they came from.

  Alise gazed towards the forest for a while, slow to pick up that she had been left behind. Despair came back to her and her exhaustion drove her once more to her knees. Powerless and left alone with her son in her arms, she pleaded for the fairy to come back. But nothing came out of the forest.

  “Please! Come back! Save my boy!” She shouted with what strength she had left. With only the stars to illuminate her surroundings, unseen tears fall in a stream just like the river behind her onto her son in her arms whose breaths keep getting fainter over time.

  That was when she heard splashing water behind her coming closer and closer. Looking back from over her shoulder, she found another fairy slithering towards her.

  The fairy slithers up her back to her shoulder and takes a look at Gale in his mother’s arms, covered in blood and bruises. They then jump off Alise’s shoulder to land on the boy in her arms.

  “My son! Please! Save him!” It’s something she must have said a hundred times in just a span of a few hours. But it was the only thing she could do—to plead. And she pleaded over and over for the fairy to save her son, not even knowing how it could possibly save him. She just wanted them to do something, anything.

  But she was met with silence.

  The water fairy doesn’t seem to pay any mind to the mother’s pleas. It seems to be acting indifferent, not even sparing Alise a glance. But it had all intentions of saving Gale—the small human it’s fond of.

  The water fairy placed both their hands on the boy’s body and once they did, the water in the river started to rise as if beginning to flood. Some water broke against the stream and made its way up through the gravel around the river until it eventually reached Gale. The water lifted him from his mother’s arms and she stared in awe.

  Not wanting to interrupt the fairy at work, Alise pulled herself away to create some distance between her and her son who is gradually becoming engulfed in a ball of water.

  From a small distance, even with only the starlight shining on them, she could still clearly see her son clearly inside the water and she can see the water is doing something to him.

  The blood covering him is quickly cleaned and dissipated into the water. The bruises all over his body, most clearly found on his limbs not covered by his sleeves, quickly shrinks, and returns to his original somewhat tanned skin color.

  It was a clear miracle at work. The wounds all over her son’s body soon recovered, leaving only the large gnarly scar on his upper arm.