Chapter5:TheFallofArden
1475 Words
Kieran’s POV
The smell of smoke hit me before I reached the stairs.
My mother grabbed my arm.
“Kieran, stay with me.” Another crash shook the house.
I looked toward my father.
“What’s happening?”
He was already moving.
“They’re inside the territory.”
“Who?”
“Human soldiers.”
The words barely left his mouth before the front door burst open.
A guard stumbled inside, blood running down the side of his face.
“Alpha!”
My father rushed toward him.
“How many?”
“Too many. They came through the eastern border.”
My stomach dropped.
The eastern border was the same place where the guards had found the footprints.
My father looked at me.
“Take your mother to the cellar.”
“I can fight.”
“You will protect your mother.”
“But-”
“Kieran!”
I had never heard my father use that tone with me.
I grabbed my mother’s hand.
We had barely taken two steps when another explosion sounded outside.
The windows rattled.
My mother pulled me toward the back of the house.
Then a figure appeared through the smoke beyond the doorway.
A soldier.
He wore dark armor and carried a sword.
My father moved before I could react.
Steel struck steel.
The soldier swung at him, but my father blocked the attack and drove him backward.
“Go!”
My mother pushed me toward the rear door.
I hesitated.
My father was fighting alone.
“Dad!”
“Go!”
I grabbed my mother’s hand and pulled her outside.
The entire settlement had become chaos.
Houses were burning, people were running through the streets while warriors fought the invading soldiers. Wolves tore through the darkness, attacking anything that came near them.
Children were crying.
Someone screamed for help.
I had never seen our territory like this.
My mother stumbled beside me.
“Kieran, where are we going?”
“The cellar.”
We moved toward the path leading behind our house.
Then a group of soldiers appeared between us and the entrance.
I stopped.
My mother grabbed my arm.
“Run!”
We turned.
A warrior charged toward us and attacked the nearest soldier, giving us enough time to escape.
I pulled my mother behind a burning house.
“Stay here.”
She stared at me.
“What are you doing?”
“I have to help them.”
“You promised your father.”
“I know.”
I looked toward the center of the settlement.
Skyler was there.
He was fighting beside several warriors.
I couldn’t leave him.
“Stay here until I come back.”
“Kieran-” “I’ll be back.” I ran.
The closer I got to the fighting, the more difficult it became to see. Smoke filled the air, burning my eyes and throat.
I found Skyler near the training grounds.
He was covered in blood.
“Skyler!”
He turned.
“Kieran!”
“Where’s your family?” “My sister was with my mother.”
His face changed.
“She was supposed to be near the western houses.”
“We’ll find them.”
He grabbed my arm.
“Your family?”
“My father is still at the house.”
We ran together.
A group of soldiers crossed our path.
Skyler attacked the first while I fought the second.
The battle was unlike anything I had ever experienced. These men weren’t fighting to defend themselves. They had come prepared to destroy us.
They knew where our guards were stationed, which paths led into the settlement and exactly where to strike.
That realization frightened me more than the fighting itself.
We pushed through the soldiers and reached the western houses.
Skyler shouted his sister’s name.
“Lena!”
No answer.
“Lena!”
He ran toward a burning house.
I followed.
“Skyler, wait!”
He ignored me.
The roof collapsed just as he reached the doorway.
He stopped dead.
“No.”
I grabbed his shoulder.
“We have to move.”
“My sister is inside.” “We don’t know that.”
He shook me off.
“Lena!”
He tried to enter.
I caught him.
“It’s too dangerous.”
“She was here!”
“I know.”
He stared at the burning house, tears mixing with the blood on his face.
Then someone shouted behind us.
“Move!”
Skyler turned.
Whatever grief had been consuming him disappeared beneath something harder.
He attacked.
The soldier barely had time to raise his weapon before Skyler drove him to the ground.
When it was over, Skyler stood over him, breathing heavily.
Then his gaze returned to the burning house.
“She was inside.” I didn’t know what to say.
I put a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry.”
He closed his eyes.
For several seconds, he didn’t move.
Then another explosion sounded from the center of the territory.
We looked toward the smoke.
“My family,” I said.
We ran.
By the time we reached my house, most of the roof had collapsed.
My father was nowhere in sight.
“Father!”
I rushed inside.
The hallway was filled with smoke.
“Dad!”
No answer.
I searched the rooms one by one then I found him.
He was lying near the main hall.
His sword was still in his hand.
I dropped to my knees.
“Dad.”
His eyes were closed.
I grabbed his shoulder.
“Dad, wake up.”
He didn’t move.
My hands began to shake.
“No.”
Skyler stood behind me.
“Kieran…”
I looked at him.
“Help me.”
Together, we tried to move my father but there was nothing we could do.
My mother was still missing.
I ran through the house again.
“Mom!”
I found her near the back room.
She was on the floor.
I stopped.
For several seconds, I couldn’t breathe.
Then I rushed toward her.
“Mom.”
I pulled her into my arms.
She was cold.
“No.”
The word came out as a whisper.
I held her tighter.
“No, no, no.”
Skyler stood silently behind me.
I couldn’t hear the battle anymore or even the flames.
Everything around me seemed distant.
My parents were gone. The family I had woken up with that morning no longer existed.
A movement outside caught my attention.
I looked toward the broken doorway.
Several soldiers were retreating toward the forest.
One of them stopped.
He turned his head and I saw him.
It was Rowan.
I froze.
He was dressed in dark clothing, standing among the soldiers as though he belonged there.
Our eyes met and his face changed.
For a brief moment, I saw recognition.
Then he turned away.
“Rowan!”
He stopped.
I pushed myself to my feet.
“You!”
Skyler looked at me.
“What?”
“That man.”
I pointed toward the forest. “He was the one we rescued.”
Skyler stared.
“Rowan?”
I nodded.
He looked toward the retreating soldiers.
“What is he doing with them?”
I couldn’t answer.
I could barely understand what I was seeing.
The stranger I had carried home. The man my mother had treated.
The man I had defended when my father questioned him.
He had been with the soldiers who had destroyed my home.
I took a step forward. “Rowan!”
He looked back once.
Then he disappeared into the forest.
I wanted to follow him.
I wanted to run after every soldier who had taken everything from me but my legs refused to move.
Skyler came to stand beside me.
His face was streaked with tears and ash.
“My sister is dead.” I looked at him.
He swallowed hard.
“We lost everyone.”
I looked around the burning settlement.
Our home was gone.
Our families were gone.
Everything we had known had been taken from us in a single night.
I clenched my fists. “Then we make them pay.”
Skyler stared at me.
“Who?”
I looked toward the forest where Rowan had disappeared.
“The king.”
I had never met King Alaric Vale.
I had never seen his face but I knew his name.
And I knew who commanded the soldiers who had invaded our territory.
“We find him,” I said.
Skyler’s expression hardened.
“And then?”
I looked at the flames rising behind us.
“Then he answers for this.”
The fire reflected in the broken windows of what had once been my home.
I watched until the last soldier disappeared beyond the trees.
I would remember that road and even those faces.
And I would never forget Rowan.
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