The children always accompany the hunters, though they remain apart throughout the day. There are two children, a boy and a girl, neither older than eleven.

  I observe them from a tree, straining my eyes at their play spot. They shift between a brook, a pile of rocks, and fallen logs that litter that section of the forest. I cannot hear what they say, but their laughter reaches me, pierces me. I want whatever they have.

  Though I pretend I don’t tread closer each day, I soon find myself waiting early in the morning in the treetop above the brook. I skip breakfast to arrive as soon as I do. My life has become a pattern: eat mushrooms, watch the children, sleep.

  With the rising sun come the children and hunters, keeping their distance from one another. I now know the children’s names: the boy, Denet, and the girl, Raimi.

  Denet runs ahead, dashing into the brook and splashing everywhere. He’s the younger of the two. Raimi skirts forward, laughing at him, then she jumps onto a rock, challenging Denet to push her off.

  I want to be like them. They are good. I want to be good. Their laughter is warm. When I laugh alone in my hut, it comes out hollow and forced. My practice has not improved the matter.

  Nox tires of my antics. He often explores the dead logs, finding whatever food he prefers. I can sense him lingering around the brook today. Maybe he’s as intrigued by the children at play as I am.

  “Oh, look at that black beetle, Rai,” says Denet. “Catch it.”

  I warn Nox, since my simple friend doesn’t understand human speech. Nox flies over the brook and towards the tree. Towards me.

  Not what I had in mind.

  The children follow, then stop at the base of the tree and gaze up at Nox’s retreating flight, up the tree and onto my shoulder. Raimi’s the first to see me. Her eyes widen. I worry she will yell at me like the hunters.

  Denet sees me next, then breaks into a huge grin. “Hey, tree boy!” he calls, as if I’m a mile away. “Come and play water race!”

  I hesitate. Play with the children. Such a strange idea. I like it.

  I climb down the tree and drop from the last branch.

  When I rise, Denet looks me over, then at Raimi. “You're tallest, so you have to start in the back.” Then he races off to the brook. Raimi shrugs at me and follows him.

  I run for nothing more than ?the fun of it for the first time in my brief memory.

  At the edge of the brook, Denet explains the game. Hop from stone to stone, not touching water. The first to reach the fallen branch over the brook is the winner.

  It’s a simple game, one that I excel in.

  Denet makes me start further back each race until we finish at the same time.

  I learn that Denet makes the rules, and Raimi plays along, but if she wants to alter something, Denet usually listens, after asking why half a dozen times. They seem to enjoy what I add to the games.

  As the day gets late, we part ways.

  “Shouldn’t you go back to the village with us?” Raimi asks. “Or do you have a different village?”

  “I don’t have a village,” I reply. Rami seems confused by this, but does not pry.

  Denet has no reservations. He stands straight, the top of his spiky hair reaching my chin. “Then you're from our village, just out on a trip.” He grins. “Ma will make you come home with us, then you will be in our village.”

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  I frown. “This is my home, please.” I’m not ready for more people. More of them could be like the hunters.

  Denet can sense something from my expression, because he pats my shoulder, more stoic than I thought possible. “I won’t get you into trouble.”

  Raimi pulls Denet away, but he stops. “Will you be back tomorrow?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay then, bye tree boy…wait.” Denet pauses half-wave. “What’s your name?”

  I have no response to that.

  Raimi furrows her brow. “Don’t you have a name?”

  “I…don’t know.”

  She considers this. “Then let’s call you Sevorn. Father Edrine says that it means ‘separated’ in runes. He’s been teaching me.” She smiles and introduces herself and Denet, though I already know their names. “You’ll be Sevorn until you find your village.”

  The idea warms me.

  I spend the dark hours, unable to sleep, with only moonlight to aid me, memorizing the runes along the walls. One of them could be my name.

  ~~~

  I wish to laugh, like Denet and Raimi, but I dare not, because it doesn’t come naturally. I can sense their laughs are genuine, and I understand that to force a laugh can do the opposite of lightening the mood.

  One day begins with stumps and nurse logs that lie scattered atop one another. Denet imagines them as battlements; Raimi sees only magic pathways between kingdoms; I find them a simple challenge of balance.

  “Some logs are rotted,” I explain before we begin the game. [Detect Decay] reveals it all. Many portions of the logs, even the thicker ones, glow black, some dark as the abyss. “If it feels too soft, don’t step on it.”

  Denet brushes off my warning. Even Raimi seems unperturbed. They have played on these logs a hundred times, but I worry anyway.

  At first, I watch from below, staying near the worst of the logs, [Detect Decay] activated and pulsing in my head, echoing like an array of drums all around me.

  When nothing adverse arises from the play, I allow myself to be dragged in for a game of warring kingdoms. Denet demands I play the evil wizard, and he the famed paladin of holy light. I flinch at the thought, and Raimi suggests we all pretend the tall dead tree nearby is a giant sorceress that we must banish.

  After banishing the tree a third time, even Denet grows weary of our purely imaginary play. He wants to race. He runs along the logs, tramping over decay and rot. I reactivate my [Detect Decay] and follow him.

  [Detect Decay] has reached Level 2.

  The reckless child is bound to smash right through a log.

  But it’s Raimi who falls.

  She’s running along when I feel a distinct pulse bash the back of my head.

  I spin and see Raimi trounce atop a soft, rotten patch of wood, hiding a thick crack beneath it.

  It’s at this moment I learn how to stamina burn.

  I blaze across the ground, skipping over rocks as the log cracks and Raimi slips. She falls in slow motion to me. My steps will not be enough, so I dive forward, emptying my stamina and launching myself into her path. She hits my back and rolls off. I smash my face into a boulder.

  Pain flares inside me and my instincts take over. [Leech Grip] sucks the life from the grass and leaves under me, making ash of them all.

  Denet rushes over, crying out, until he finds the two of us.

  Raimi is fine. I am healed. A crimson stain on the boulder clashes against the black ground I lay upon.

  Raimi’s the first to recover. “I…I was so scared.” She sees the red on the boulder and trembles. “Sevorn! Are you okay?”

  I nod, not looking their way. My face heals, but still drips blood.

  “You…were…fast,” Denet gasps. “Like, super fast.”

  “You burned out your stamina, right?” Raimi says. “I heard you can do that when you get your first skill. Taren showed me before.”

  I don’t want to hear about any of the hunters.

  We rest, solemn. Too solemn for children. Eventually Denet cheers up and challenges us to the water race again. I don’t feel like racing, but I join anyway. I feel so different from them.

  “Rai, Denet,” calls a voice.

  All play stops. I know that voice. Taren, the hunter. I’ve tarried too long.

  The older boy glances at me, eyes hard, but says nothing.

  Denet asks for more time.

  “Now. Marlene will be waiting.” Taren spares another look at me, then he glances to the rock with blood on it. His eyes dart between me and the children. I can see tension building in him, even from a distance.

  I don’t wait to see how he responds. I back away as Raimi waves goodbye, then I dash back into the deeper forest.