Thick white snow covered everything in sight. The leaves had fallen from the trees and a bone chilling cold wind breathed its last, signaling the end of a snowstorm. Brasbury had been prepared for the storm, however, and had salted the ground before it started.

Men and women had started to come out and clean out the areas around their homes and stores. And then suddenly, those same villagers heard the familiar squeaking wheels and trundling of several wagons. It was a sound they hadn’t heard in over a year and rather than being excited by the wares of the merchants or the festival their arrival marked, they were happier from the familiarity that the sounds brought.

It had been a long year for them, with much more disease within the crops and the people than normal. There were more deaths from the Beast Hunts and because of these misfortunes, a slight cloud of misery had hung over the village for a while. However, they hoped the caravan arriving near the same time as the Naming Ceremony would mark a new year of peace.

It actually took another quarter bell for the caravan to arrive at the edge of the village, but by then, a small crowd had already gathered. The caravan had stopped since the crowd, in their enthusiasm, had blocked the road towards the inn. A boy stepped out from among the guards and scanned the crowd. Kai recognized many of the eager faces within the crowd but could not find the one face he was looking for.

Suddenly, a voice shouted, “Make way, make way. Make way, people. Let them get through towards the inn. Come on now, make way.”

Kai’s head perked up at the sound of the mayor’s voice as he saw the tall, middle aged man walk out from amongst the crowd of villagers and force them to make a path for the wagons. However, once he saw that there was no one with the mayor, his face fell again.

A large hand clapped him on the back, and he stumbled forward a bit before catching himself.

“Don’t worry kid,” Cohen’s voice addressed Kai from behind him. “I’m sure she’s around here somewhere.”

Kai felt some heat start to rise in his cheeks in spite of the frost in the air.

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” Kai answered, turning his head away from the crowd of villagers.

Cohen chose not to say anything and instead, just chuckled a little before patting his young friend on the back once again.

The caravan made their way towards the center of the village, Kai noting how the houses looked a little more dilapidated than normal and how the mood seemed a little somber. He realized that the year had not been a good one for Brasbury and he hoped that the arrival of the caravan along with the First Season celebration would turn some of that around.

Kai looked around for a bit, not catching sight of the person he was looking for, and so with a promise to Cohen to meet up at the inn for dinner later, he split off from the caravan and headed towards the northern edge of the village. As he stepped past the boundary once again, it took Kai a few minutes to find the path he was looking for.

Kai walked the path for a few minutes before he heard the slight sound of humming twisting through the snow covered trees right to him as if it was made for his ears alone. There was no hesitation in him as he stepped off the path and followed the sound.

Several seconds later, he stepped into a clearing where the humming was emitting from and finally caught sight of the face he’d been looking for since he’d entered the village.

Mera was hunched over, strands of her dark brown hair falling around her pale face as her hands picked at something in the snow. She was wrapped in furs, ones not so extravagant as the beast fur Kai wore, but still the best the village probably had to offer. Being the mayor’s daughter did have its perks after all.

She was humming a song, one he recognized as she had used to hum it all the time when they were together. The beautiful sound cut off then with an “Aha!” as she finally plucked a white flower from the ground.

It was at this moment that Kai chose to leave the shelter of the trees and step into the clearing. Either Mera heard the crunch of the snow under his boots or she felt a presence at the edge of the clearing, but either way, she suddenly snapped her head around. Kai noticed the addition of a sword in her hand, one that was near the same length and width as his own.

He stepped into the clearing slowly, hands raised in the universal symbol of surrender. She caught sight of his face and gasped, the hand that wasn’t gripping her weapon raised to her mouth.

Kai kept stepping forward slowly, lessening the distance between them until he was pressed up against Mera’s sword. Then, he slowly reached up a hand and moved the sword, stepping so close to her that she was now staring up at him. Although they had both grown over the time since Kai had left, she was still exactly a head shorter than him.

He opened his mouth and all the speeches, all the words he’d told himself for the last week to finally say when he saw her again, fell flat in his mouth and he was only able to croak out a single, “Hey,” and even that was in a whisper.

She processed for a few seconds before her eyes hardened and she pushed away from him.

“Mera wait…” Kai started to call out.

“That’s what you have to stay after a year and a half?” Mera asked. “You disappeared to some random city, with only the heavens knowing if you were alive or not. You could’ve sent a letter, maybe some way in which I could’ve known but no. A year and a half passes and you appear out of the woods like a ghost, thinking everything’s the same as it’s ever been.”

She had started to raise her voice as she kept going was almost shouting at this point. The redness in her cheeks that signified her anger had also risen over the course of her heated speech.

“There was no way to tell you, no way in which I could’ve sent something…” his voice tapered off as he saw that any explanation would be futile.

Mera waved her still unsheathed sword towards Kai’s own, and said, “Draw your blade, now.”

He hesitated a little before saying, “Wait, please Mera…”

She cut him off. “Draw your blade Kai!”

He did as she commanded, unsheathing his sword, listening to that lilting singing of steel that accompanied it. She stepped into a stance that he recognized and instantly copied as Kai realized that Mera had received at least some sort of training since he’d been gone.

However, it wasn’t until she flashed towards him that he realized how dedicated she’d been to the sword in the last year plus. She started with a simple jab and sidestep, feeling out Kai’s defense. And then, the battle began in earnest.

Kai led her methodically through the first form and then the second, realizing that she had mastered both. However, from his practice over the years, he had gone past basic mastery of them and from his observations saw slight hesitations in the way she stepped forwards and backwards.

Of course, he chose not to act on the slight weaknesses he saw in her form, focusing on working his way towards the third form. Mera must’ve caught on to the fact that Kai was holding back as her cheeks had become even more flushed with anger and she started to speed up.

They worked through the third form, Mera not missing a single thrust, jab, parry, or deflection until the very end. The last stroke of the third Form was a sideways swing of the blade, but she instead thrusted towards Kai’s stomach. Kai, however, had seen the thrust from miles away from the way she had changed her stance. Her slight hesitation in her feet gave him all the time he needed as he easily pushed the thrust sideways and stepped forwards.

And suddenly, Mera’s right wrist was trapped under Kai’s arm and his sword was kissing the side of her neck. Her face was almost fully flushed with a redness that threatened to boil over.

She only let him keep that position for a couple of seconds before pushing him away once again. Sheathing her sword, Mera spun around and grabbed a basket that she’d been using to hold the plants she’d been picking in the woods.

She started to speed walk towards the edge of the clearing and back to the village, intent on leaving without talking to Kai.

“Wait Mera,” he called out, ready to race after her. Seeing that she wouldn’t stop however, he asked the most important question he’d ever asked.

“How can I make it up to you?”

It didn’t matter that he’d had no choice in staying in Novan, nor the fact that no messenger would travel this far south from the city to deliver a letter. Kai knew it wasn’t his fault, but he was still smart enough to know that Mera was blaming his extra year spent in Novan on him and the only way he could get her to stop being angry at him was to apologize and, well, make it up to her.

However, she still didn’t turn, and as Kai made up his mind to run after her to listen to him, she finally turned at the edge of the clearing.

“Come to the Naming Ceremony in a week. Maybe, just maybe, I will have decided to speak with you then.”

And then, she was gone, the white furs that covered her lost to the snow. He sighed in both annoyance and relief, as he realized that he still didn’t understand the opposite gender, but that he still had a chance to reconcile with Mera.

Kai finally left that same clearing, making his way to the path that led up to his home. It only took a few more minutes for him to arrive at the cottage. Hunter stood in front of the wooden house, arms crossed. His hardened face stared as Kai walked towards him.

Suddenly, a stern voice burst out towards him. “You’re late, Disciple. You know what that means.”

And then, a slight smile broke out over his face. Kai ran the rest of the way to the man he loved like a father and hugged him close. Kai smiled in contentment then, because even though he’d learned much through his travels and had grown both physically and mentally, he was finally home again and all was well.