two falling sparks - mast & family/any

[Finner]

Heaven’s Gates is different from his childhood. The whispering river of gossip reached even his wandering, exploring ears. How the Chamber had infiltrated the light kingdom (despite the long-standing alliance), how a Chamber member had set fire to their precious Mother Tree and her family (that generous, loving, grandmotherly tree that guarded over the kingdom), how they had fled with his aunt, Fiasko, who had been placed as queen there next to his father since his mother fled. He’s heard the stories, spread and scattered a twisted throughout Beqanna.

No story could have prepared him from the devastation of what he sees. Although the destruction of fire is obvious, the debris has begun to drown under the green ocean of new life. Still, the hollowed-out trunk of the Mother Tree tugs at his heart. His ears flatten toward the mass of dark, tangled locks piled on his head. He should have been here to protect the Mother Tree. He should have been here to fight for his aunt. He should have been here to comfort his father and offer his arms and do everything he could to help the Gates.

Instead, he returns while they are rebuilding.

He doesn’t bother with the borders and calling for someone to greet him. He steps past the border line and feels his chest relax. A breath he didn’t realize he was holding is let out as he steps deeper into his home kingdom. The scenery is familiar and yet not. The tree nearest his left shoulder looks vaguely familiar (he remembers watching a squirrel climb up that tree to grab a nut in his first year of fall) and yet riddled with differences (a scorched trunk, a scattering of leaves, the bush below it no longer decorated with fragile white flowers).

He heads toward the Mother Tree, dark brown eyes scanning the landscape for any of his family. His steps are slow and measured, yet there is no degree of hesitancy in them. They are steps taken by someone who knows every dip and rise of this land very well, and yet the face of such a someone is a face like a stranger.

FINNER.