The fog was dense as Anash went to draw water from the well that morning. Just a few years ago there had never been any fog ever in these woods. That was before the little creek nearby became a wide raging river. Anash’s father Mordell had to work with others living nearby to prevent homes further down from being washed away. They had to chop trees and move boulders and dig a deep trench to channel it over to the far side of the valley. Even with over a hundred men working, many homes and lives were still lost and several men died in the effort.

It was days after they had finally gotten control of the river that word came about this being an attack on the Dragons. Anash remembered how his mother wept when they heard that most of the dragons had been killed when the waters flooded their lairs. Anash had felt sad then, but not like he felt now. Everything felt so much heavier now. He worked harder around the cottage trying to work that feeling off of himself.

He was first up this morning. He had to get all the work done. He had been lax with the chores up until a week ago. Now that he knew his father would never be coming back to take up the slack that he left, he felt everything was all up to him. His mother worried about how he did so much work and didn’t take time to play anymore. What was a boy of eleven to do since he was the only man around?

Even though Anash knew every tree, bush, rock and crevice for miles around, he still would have had trouble walking to the well on this foggy morning. It was a good thing that he and his father had laid down a stone path from the small cottage to the well. Anash’s father had built the cottage by digging into the side of a hill and using stones and trees to make a two room cottage with a loft. Anash had the loft to himself until his sister Sorlasha was born. Before Mordell joined and the Honor of Dragon, he built a wall so that the loft was like two rooms. Sorlasha didn’t start sleeping in her side until only this past year. She would soon be four and already she loved to play in the woods. This past week as soon as the sun rose she was out in the woods until just before the sun set. It seemed to be her way of dealing with the death of their father.