"Fuck! How could it have gone so wrong?" Camen hit the table, making a pile of documents jump.

"I don’t know, Cam, I don’t fucking know! It went on for hours; she seemed to be in so much pain! Then, right after the procedure, Yen got me out of the room with the baby and started treating her, but they failed somehow"

"God fucking damn it Irwan, I am so sorry" He got up and started pacing around the room.

"I know, Cam. I didn’t forget she was your friend too, damn, we know each other since we were kids and she looked as much like a boy as I did."

Camen paced around in silence for a while, Irwan didn’t need to say anymore. After words talk, it’s time for memories to resurface.

Memories of better, simpler times, when they were still children. When they used to climb the wall, hiding from the guards that were actually very aware of them being there, but pretended not to see while paying attention so the kids would not get hurt.

Irwan held his baby tighter. He remembered his wife, when she was still a child, them promising to marry one another. Then when she was a teen, when they first kissed under the tree of Old Belin’s farm.

“Will you keep your promise?” She looked deep into his eyes, her warm smile making his heart flutter.

He remembered when they turned of age, and her father caught them in her room doing… things. The memories of having to jump out of the window and running shirtless to Cam’s house to hide from the old man had a shy smile appear on his face.

All the times she came to watch him train with the other recruits, all those times she scolded him for lazing about, or when she held his head close as he drifted to sleep laying his head on her lap when meeting beneath the old tree after a day of training.

He could still remember the feeling, as if the world was shaking beneath his knee, when he kneeled in front of her, right beside that same old tree.

“Will you let me keep my promise?” His voice stuttered, but his eyes remained steady, locked onto hers, and on the happiness that filled them.

“Yes!”

…

The memories of his brothers in the guard hearing about the army throwing him in the air when he told them she said yes… When those rascals all line up in uniform for his wedding, leading him to the most beautiful woman he ever saw.

She wore a long red dress, with orange fringes that made her look like a living flame when she moved. She had made it herself, it took her six months, and she didn’t let him see it even once before marriage. But it was all worth it.

She was beautiful, the most beautiful he ever saw, or would ever see…

“Do you accept Irwan Blackspear as your rightful husband, today, tomorrow, and for all days to come after, till the end of days?”

“I do”

“Do you accept Teressa Oldharth as your rightful wife, today, tomorrow, and for all days to come after, till the end of days?”

“I do” This time, his voice didn’t falter, the earth didn’t shake.

“We shall be together, forever and ever, to the end of days, for you are my wife (husband) and I am your husband (wife)” They said in unison.

“You may kiss the bride.”

She jumped in his arms, embracing him in a warm, tender kiss, while all soldiers cheered and hit the ground with the blunt end of their spears.

…

He remembered when they had their first son, Ralph. He held the boy in his arms, while she looked at him with a tired-looking smile.

“He’s so perfect, isn’t he? Our little angel…” She caressed the baby’s cheek.

“Our little promise come true…”

…

He would forever remember those calm days when his son was growing up, when he held his wife close as the boy joined the guard as his father had. The vice grip of worry that she had when he graduated and was sent in his first assignment, and the relief in her eyes when the boy came back.

…

“Promise me… that you will take care of her…”

“I promise.” He would never forget those words, because he knew. As long as the promise stands…

“As long as I stand, as long as I breathe, I shall keep my promise. I’m yours and you are mine, forever. I will take care of her, so it’s okay if you rest now…”

“I love you”

…

"Cam, I need to take care of her. I don’t know how I’m going to do that while being in the city guard. But I also need the money."

"What can I do?" He looked at his friend’s back, he was sitting at his table, now sipping not from his mug, but from a bottle of whisky that he stored for special occasions in the last drawer.

He put the bottle down, staying silent for a minute.

"You have been with the guard all of your life. The guard will not let you down now, Irwan. You just take good care of her, alright? When you have to come back to work, every soldier in here is gonna become a babysitter, I’ll swallow my boot if I don’t make that happen."

He chuckled at the idea of soldiers holding toy horses instead of spears.

"That’s the best I can ask, brother" He got up and was going to hug him, if not for remembering he didn’t want to make a pancake out of the baby.

"Seriously, you are the best friend I could ask for, Cam."

"Cut it, it’s the least I can do" He lowered himself to look at the baby in the eyes.

"What is the name?"

"Hestia… Teressa named her just after passing out. It’s not one of the names we planned, but I’m not changing it."

"Hestia…" He wondered as those amber eyes looked back at him

- Did you notice it, Irwan?

"What do you mean?" He looked closer at her

"Her eyes are glowing."

"What are you talking about? They seem just- What the fuck?!"

At that moment, her eyes slightly glowed, as if a wave of light passed by them.

"What the hell does it mean? Is she sick or something?"

"Calm down, will you? That’s not it. Did you look in the eyes of mages? At Yen and her apprentice? They glow too. I’m guessing you got a future mage in your hands."

"Are you serious?"

He lifted the baby, turning her towards him and looking her in the eyes, a shit-eating grin was already covering his face.

"You’re barely a day old and you’re already making your father proud!" He planted a kiss on her forehead. Then started lulling her in his arms.

"Look… Cam. The uh… The funeral is going to be tomorrow evening. The church came to get her last night, but I couldn’t look. I just… I’m ready to keep my promise, I’ll take care of our child, but I can’t look at her, not yet. Also… Can you send someone to the post in the forest to get Ralph? He needs to know."

"Don’t worry; I will go there myself after you leave. Do you want me to tell him or…?"

"No, I want to be there when he gets the message. But… I’m worried. You know how he was with his mother, how do you think he is going to take it?"

"I'm not sure, friend. I'm really not."

…

In the forest, at the same time the two men are talking in Camen’s office.

A spear went through the chest of a wolf, sending it tumbling through the ground, making blood splatter everywhere.

A man in leather armor walked up to the dead beast, yanking the spear from it.

"This is the last one, Commander."

He was 1,81 tall and was panting a bit while he walked back to the group of guards, who had similarly killed beasts at their feet. At the center of the group, a man wearing mail waited.

This was the commander of the forward post in the Broston Woods.

"Alright men, round up, take the bodies and let us go back to the camp."

The soldiers started loading the beasts onto a wood cart, talking amongst themselves.

"This is so weird, we’ve been here for weeks and everything was so peaceful. Last night a tornado seemed to sweep through the forest, I’ve never seen the wolves so frenzied." This was the last man who killed a wolf, and he was none other than Irwan’s son. Ralph Blackspear.

"Yeah, I know, do you think the commander will send word to the wall? Maybe we should get more people here in the forest to figure out what is going on." Lucian said while both lifted a wolf to throw it in the cart.

" Who knows, if they go crazy again tonight? Yeah, probably. But if not, then probably no. Beasts are just that, beasts, it’s not weird for them to act like this sometimes." Ralph wiped his brow with the back of his hand.

"I down know dude, I got a weird feeling about this." Lucian gestured for ralph to get the hind legs of a wolf while he got the front ones.

"What? You’re afraid of some doggies?" He laughed amidst pants.

"No! That’s not it. I don’t know, okay. It’s just weird."

"Just hurry up you two, I wanna get back to camp before I fucking starve" Kevin, another one of the group, a little paunchier than the rest, said.

"Ohhh now I get it, they were coming after Mr. Fatty."

"Fuck off, will you? I’m not fat, I’m just... Strong in the wrong places, okay?"

"Oh, right, strong and wobbly."

A round of laughter followed as they continued to work.

Soon the cart was full and the men were marching back to camp.