“So, this is what he was talking about.”

However, the voice behind him did not surprise him much, as he knew that Hubert would follow him anyway.

As the boy and man stood there for a long time, not saying anything, an eerie atmosphere was created, with the numerous fresh graves before them.

But it did not take much longer, before one of them started to move, as the little boy walked in front of one of the graves and began to move the earth and soil away to uncover the grave before him.

However, as Hubert was feeling both awkward and strange, while looking at the boy before him trying to unearth the grave, using only his hands. He began to speak with him out of concern.

“Do you need help?”

“No.”

Do you really need to use your hands? Can you not use a shovel?”

“No.”

But as Levis was almost non-responsive while he was all focused on his task, as though a lost mad man doing the same thing for no apparent reason.

“Aaa—, will you be here all day??"

“Yes.”

“---“Sigh”, the river is close, so I will go and see if I can catch some fish. Well, if there are any of them right now. As I don’t want to eat dried meat and cheep cheese again, I want something cooked. Well, don’t leave this place, if anything happens, just cry out and I will come as fast as I can. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Yes.”

“I am really going! Don’t go anywhere, I’m not joking!”

“Yes.”

But as the same lifeless and uncaring one sole yes and no came out of the boy's mouth, Hubert’s eyelid twitched at the strangeness that the boy was displaying, before turning around and moving down the hill, towards the river.

As he was at the base of the hill, all he could see was the long, narrowing, and twisting river that was coming from the north side, from the bases of the Border mountains, while going for ten or so kilometers down south to the grassy plains of the never-ending prairie. The river itself was not wide, with water that could barely cover the height of man, while the power of the stream was relatively weak, as its movement was extremely unhurried.

“Definitely, it is not as big as what stands at the camp, it's moving just a bit faster.”

But as Hubert was commenting on the not-so-impressive part of the river at this spot and the one at the campsite, he began looking for life in the river as he was determined to make a big catch for tonight.

“Alright, alright come here, you dumb fish—”

However, as he continue to look, all that he could see were extremely small fishes, enough only to feed a baby kitten, not a growing child and an adult like him.

“What is going on? Where are the big ones, how am I to make a big catch with this?”

While continuing to look at the river, he began to move up and down looking for a big prey to catch, but as he became frustrated, his anger and stubbornness showed on his face, as he begin to glare at the water, as though he was preparing to have his vengeance on the river.

“HUBERT!”

“Eh? Levis?”

But as he turned to look at the hill, from where the voice of the child came, at the corner of his eye a particular large figure swam in the water before disappearing from his sight, making him grind his teeth in frustration.

“You damnable thing.”

However, he did not lose time, as he began to run toward the location from where the voice of the boy had come, with all his might.

Nonetheless, as he arrived at the place from where the voice of the boy came, what greeted him was a completely different view from what he had seen when he had left.

“How much time was I away?”

In front of him was the enclosure of dried-up bushes and branches that had been extended to encompass the new graves. However, the truly frightening thing was, the thirteen dug graves, and the boy looking over them, which made Hubert’s skin get goosebumps. But as he enter the graveyard and looked at the graves, his complexion paled at the sight of the freshly unearthed corpses, as the smell and bugs that were already infesting the bodies were about to make him vomit.

“So, why have you called me?”

However, as he was forcing himself not to puke, he began asking the boy, whose face had yet to move from the bodies of the mutilated and decomposing elders, for the reason of his urgent call.

“I want to write their names, on those wooden planks!”

As he revealed his motive for his call, Hubbert took notice of the dozens of wooden planks not too far from the kid.

“You don’t know how to write?

“No.”

“Alright, I will write their names for you.”

“No, you just need to draw on the ground, I will carve the names on the planks myself.”

“A—alright, just tell me their name.”

“Grandpa Ato, Grandma Hel, Old Village Chief, Old Aunty—.”

“Whoo, whoo, whoo slow down.”

Yet, as Hubert began to write the “names”, that Levis was making him draw on the ground for him, a strange bitter smile appear on him, as all the “names” were more or less a denomination of the relationship with the boy and not about the name of the person.

But as he was done and explained which name was who, he took a glance at the numerous mounds only to observe the same thing on the other graves, making him wonder what was wrong with this village's “names”, on the graves of the dead.

However, as he continue to look further, he saw two graves whose “names” made him look again closely, to be assured that he did not read it wrong.

“Are those two—?”

“What?”

But as Levis moved his head from the “names” that Hubert had drawn on the ground and looked in the direction of where he was looking a sigh escaped him but his tone did not change in the least as he began to speak.

“Those are my parent's graves, Grandpa had brought me here when I was five, however that was that, as I have never known them, nor anyone else, so there is nothing to say about two people that you have never met.”

But at his words, Hubert took a glance at the kid, that was looking at the two graves with the words "Levis's Mother" and "Levis's Father", while there were no emotions to be found on his face or his unmoving eyes. As he immediately turned to look at the words again before taking a wooden plank, and a knife that the man had no idea from where he had brought it, and began to carve the words slowly while being as precise as those on the ground.

“I will go back to the river and continue to fish, if there is something just call for me.”

“Yes.”

However, as the man was leaving, he could not understand the pressure and pain the boy was in, as after he had left, Levis had begun to circulate his energy thru his body, helping him dig faster than he normally could.

But as he had reached for the first corpse of an old drinking friend of his grandfather, his whole body had begun to shake intensly, but as he immediately moved to the next one and discovered the old village chief, his face had begun to morph into something far remote than just anger.

However, the worst had yet to come, as after he arrived at the second to last he had finally found his grandma, causing him to zone out for a few moments, but as he had done twelve of the thirteen graves and not founding his grandfather, all he could do for a long time, was just staring at the mound of earth under which his closest relative was buried. However, before he knew it he was on his knees, and using his hands to remove the ground, as tears began to flow while he was having a vacant and soulless face, as at an unknown time he was facing the now almost unrecognizable face of the dead old man before him.

But as time continued to pass, his expressionless face contorted, and the veins on his face, neck, and hands began to bulge as he was clenching his fists while grinding his teeth.

However, as he was turning his face towards the skies while trying to shout at the top of his lungs, his body stiffen, as he could not move a single muscle, while he was making a soundless shout, in his agony brought to him from the extremes of his unresolved and stuffed grief.

Yet, as the sun was slowly moving, the time for his grief was arriving at an ending too, as the stiffness disappeared and his arms plunged down powerlessly as he hung to look at the sky, wondering if his grandpa had become a star in the sky, as he had told him when he had asked about his parents in his youth.

But as he looked down at the face of the man that had raised him for thirteen years, he rose to his feet, as he knew this was not his promise, that he had made at his end, but to be on his feet as fearless as he was in his death.

However, as he took his sight off the man, and looked at all the seniors that had called his name, he began to move the bushes and branches, to surround the new graves alongside the old graves of the village. While going back to the village and founding a hidden carving knife of his grandpa, and some wooden planks from his place.

But as he did not know how to write, he was forced to ask the voices in his head. However, as there was no reply, he was forced to call for Hubert, to draw the words on the ground, as he wanted to carve the words on the wood by himself.

Yet, as he was not taught how to write, the carving took the better time of the day as the sun was ever closer to the horizon.

Regardless, as he was continuing to carve the words and become more familiar with the procedure, the last of the wooden planks was finished as he stood looking at his messy and ugly carvings.

However, as he began to put them one by one at the head side, he began to drop the ground on them, taking one more look at them as this was the last time that he could see their faces ever again.

But as the earth was falling on his grandfather’s face, he did not move his gaze once, as to engrave the moment in his mind, as he would hunt and kill those that had drove him and his village to this situation.

However as the night was almost over him, soggy footsteps were coming down the hill, as a wet and smiling Hubert, was coming towards him carrying three large fishes.

“Levis, tonight we are eating this.”

In response to Hubert’s words, the boy could only give a smiling grin as his face was turning back to the usual naive and ignorant boy.

“Alright.”