Redmond carried Harlan in his arms, not wanting to get the werewolf’s blood on anything, he quietly put up arrays to silence the rest of the house, his nieces would be upset in the morning, but they should at least sleep tonight.

He opened the door to his sister’s room and shook her awake, Aida shook Harlow in turn.

Once they stepped into the lights from the main room and saw Harlan covered in blood, Redmond with a dour look on his face, Aida and Harlow nearly burst into hysterics on the spot.

“Harlan is fine, just a bit shook up, the blood isn’t his.”

They calmed for a blink of an eye before the thought ran through both their heads like a charging bull

Whose blood is it?

Redmond explained everything he saw, he couldn’t answer why Harlan was outside, and Harlan hadn’t said a word since he brought him inside.

They were in disbelief, they were upset.

They were… just so damn relieved he was alright.

Finally noticing the smell of iron in the air Aida asked Redmond to help her fill the bathtub with some hot water.

Harlow asked as many questions about werewolves and the night watchers as he could.

“I checked for bite marks and scratches, but we should take him to a healer in the morning anyway, we don’t have many werewolves in the frontier and I don’t know how they turn other people.”

They went pale at the thought.

Aida was cleaning Harlan in silence, she stopped asking questions after a few minutes of him not answering, she didn’t want to push him too much, she was angry, she wasn’t sure who to focus it on, but the boy was the only one she was sure shouldn’t have to face it.

“Did I do something bad?” Harlan finally spoke

“What? No, of course not honey, it was just a monster, its not your fault.”

“If I turned into one of those would I be a monster too?”

Aida froze, she was trying to push those kinds of thoughts out of her head.

She kept scrubbing him until he was completely free of blood, she was checking for any signs of scratches or teeth marks as she went.

“No matter what you are you will still be our little boy.”

“Then it wasn’t a monster, Autumn said I wasn’t supposed to hurt people with what she taught me,

I broke my promise. Is she going to be mad?”

“No, she will understand, you didn’t have a choice, she will care more that you are safe.” Harlan brightened a little at that, he still wasn’t sure if killing people was alright, but his worries were lessened.

“But why were you reading out there anyway? You should’ve been sleeping.”

“I don’t sleep.”

Aida stuttered for a moment before continuing to dry him

“Huh…” she thought for the first time since she saw him those years ago, what actually is he? The village healer said he was human, but what if he was something else? She thought more before deciding she wasn’t lying before, he was her little boy before any questions of humanity came into play, and that’s what counts.

She finished getting him dress and brought him into her room for the night, Redmond and Harlow were still talking about the implications of what happened, but she didn’t want him out of her sight for a moment, and she needed to sleep.

Morning came, Aida looked over, seeing Harlan was still there and not something else calmed her.

She brought him with her to start on breakfast before the girls got up, she wasn’t sure how or if she should tell them.

When the girls woke up and sat at the table she gave Harlow a look, she didn’t want to mention it until they got back from the village healer.

Harlow nodded and spoke “Girls, I’ll be taking Harlan into the village with me today, I’ll tell you what its about after we get back, Redmond will help with the chores while we’re gone.” the girls didn’t think much of it until he walked out carrying Harlan without even eating breakfast.

“Do you think Harlan is sick?” Amber asked

“I don’t know… Harlan’s never been sick before, I guess it had to happen eventually, he didn’t even tell us good morning.” Autumn said

“Daddy said he’ll tell us later anyway” Ava just shrugged.

Harlan rarely got to go into the village, he was too small to help with loading and unloading, too young to understand how to haggle well.

He would’ve been excited if not for the reason he was going, it took them an hour on their ox pulled cart to reach the village.

The healer’s home/office was prominently centered in the village, so it was clear to reach from which ever road someone took to reach it, and nestled between the guardhouse and the adventurers guild, the 2 most common places to find people injured.

Harlow walked in still carrying Harlan, there was a few others ahead of him, but when he explained why he was there in a hushed tone to the healers assistant she rushed to get her.

The healer, Elanor came out with a false sense of calmness, trying not to rile up the other patients or give them reason to start gossiping about what might be so important that Harlow was seen before the rest of them.

He brought Harlan into the exam room and Elanor started casting more spells than he would see in a year in rapid succession, sometimes going to her bookshelf and flipping through pages before muttering to herself after 10 minutes she finally spoke.

“I can confirm he is not infected. Though he is still very pale, make sure he spends a bit more time outside. And that will be 90 bronze coins since I didn’t need to actually heal anything.”

Harlow profusely thanked her and went to get Harlan, he was gone.

Harlan slipped outside while his father and the healer were talking, he wanted answers, he wandered around until he found the guardhouse.

He rushed inside and went to the first person he saw in armor.

“How do I be strong.” he said it with such gusto the guard couldn’t help but laugh.

“Haha, alright kid, what happened? Chased around by a goat or something.”

“It was a werewolf.” this time the entire place burst into laughter, until Harlan explained everything, the first Guard turned stern and rushed him to the captain.

“Explain it to him.” the guard said, an order not a question.

Harlan explained it again, more stern looks, the captain waved the guard over and whispered something to him.

“We are going to take you to the healer now.” another order.

“I was just there.” Harlan didn’t see why they needed too

“We will check with her then.” it didn’t take long to ask her.

Once the guard stepped into the office he was asked by Harlow if he had seen a pale boy with black hair, the guard took Harlow back to the captain after he spoke with Elanor.

While waiting for the guard to return the captain looked through his recent messages for anything from the night watchers, under a few reports of the night guards he found it, a pristine letter with a black border which read.

“This letter is regarding an incident last night, 10th day of the 5th month of the 837th year post age of gods.

At roughly 7 in the evening 2 night watchers, Graybeard and Red Wind, entered into your jurisdiction while chasing a werewolf who had lost control and slain his family, they encountered a cave which he was hidden in. they set traps and waited until nightfall for him to leave the cave, At roughly 11:30 the werewolf exited the cave, the night watchers engaged him, losing a wolfhound in the process, after roughly 20 minutes of fighting he fled to a farm due east where he attempted to take a child as a hostage, the child used a touch based unstructured darkness spell to free himself and then finish off the werewolf.

NIght Watcher Red Wind gave an exam to the child and confirmed he was not infected at the time, this incident is considered resolved at this time.

A full report can be requested in 2 days time.”

After reading over the report a second time and verifying its seal he folded it back up and placed it in a black folder.

“Alright, you are free to go.”

“How do I get stronger” Harlan wasn’t satisfied with everyone he asked not answering the question.

The captain sighed and reached into a dresser drawer full of scrolls.

“I’ll humor you, this is the basic guards exercise scroll, now go.”

“Thank you very much.” Harlan bowed and walked out of the room, getting a chuckle for the captain who waved him away and went back to his reports.

“Harlan… you really shouldn’t just wander off like that, if you did that to your mother she would do more than just brush it off, she is very worried right now. When we get home, you’ll hide that scroll, do your chores, and then do whatever else your mother asks you to do. I’m sure you don’t want to feel weak like that again, but its much more important that you stay safe, she’s… she’s had to deal with a lot from when your uncle joined the army, so don’t do that, and make sure you give her a hug and a smile.”

Harlan went home and followed his fathers advice.

The only other hiccup was the girls reactions, Ava and Amber cried with worry, while Autumn was tore between giving Harlan a rest or training him harder so she didn’t need to worry about him.

He spent the rest of the day reading the scroll he was given, a plan forming in his little mind.