At first Jaden just wanted to cry, lay down and die. He finally found peace in his life with Joel, it's the only thing he wanted with his life. And it was taken away from him in a flame, Joel didn't seem nearly as upset until he found his livestock. "No no no!" Joel exclaimed rushing towards the sheep enclosure. The bloodied remains of each small animal further emphasized by the dark red blood on their white fur.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Joel sat down in defeat, looking at the shadow of what once was his home. Jaden moved over to him, wrapping an arm around him as he sniffled. "Someone did this." Joel growled, "How the hell do we even find them?" Jaden wanted revenge for his home, but there's nothing they can really do.
"That's how." Joel exclaims standing up out of Jadens grasp, pointing at a trail of footprints left in the mud leading to the forest. Joel quickly grabbed the hand of his husband and started following the trail. The trail was almost perfectly imprinted and placed, like it was intentionally left behind.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
After about twenty minutes they saw light, fire but contained in lanterns. "Wait." Joel whispered carefully stepping towards the light to find a village, about thirty people living in tents. Jaden followed behind as Joel motioned him to move forward. Once they stepped foot out of the tree line a man wearing the coat of a bear appeared out of nowhere. "Who are you?" The man asked sternly, "I'm Jaden, this is Joel," Jaden said pointing to Joel, "We're looking for someone." "Who exactly?" The man asked as several other people started appearing from tents and behind trees.
"Someone burnt down our home and killed our sheep. We followed their footprints here." Joel explained, looking at Jaden for agreement. He nodded. "Well I can assure you that none of our people would do something so heinous." Jaden wanted to believe him and so did Joel but the prints led directly to his feet essentially.
"Well if you didn't whoever fuckin' did must have come through here. Who's been through lately?"
It took forever to get an answer from any of these people, each providing little to no answers. However they did agree to let Jaden and Joel stay in their village for the night, it was a kind gesture they really appreciated. They gave them a house, if you want to call it that. All the houses were old and overgrown but well insulated and with fireplaces and beds.
