I wrote this with Today in mind (an AC3 AU that I wrote a few weeks back), but I guess you don't have to have read it to understand this? I've just sort of had this idea floating around my mind for a while and today I finally had a chance to write it out. I have so many other ideas in mind that go along with the story of Today, so hopefully I'll get a chance to work on them soon.
Lost
The stench of smoke was still heavy in the air for days after the attack on the village. The long houses were smoldering shells, uninhabitable and still stinking of burnt skin and wood. Ratonhnhaké:ton wanted to go back to them, to find his mother, but the Clan Mother forbid it.
"She is gone, Ratonhnhaké:ton," she said, her tone tired and sad. "She is gone now."
He refused to believe this at first. But the days passed and his mother never came back, and he was forced to accept that she was, in fact, gone.
Ratonhnhaké:ton hadn't felt so lonely in such a long time. Not since they left their home out in the woods and came to the village. Not since his father had disappeared without a trace.
Father would come back now though, wouldn't he? Mother was gone and Ratonhnhaké:ton had no one else to take care from him, aside from the Clan Mother and a few other members of the village who stepped up to help.
They moved to a temporary camp nearby while the village was being cleaned and rebuilt. Ratonhnhaké:ton waited for days, waited for his prodigal father to return, to take him up in his strong arms again and tell him that everything would be all right.
"Your mother and I will not let anything hurt you," his father would tell him when he sometimes had nightmares. He thought of that now, of the strength and kindness in his father's voice, as he fell into a troubled and haunted sleep each night.
Was it possible that Father didn't know what had happened? But that was impossible, seeing as how his father always seemed to know everything. Surely he knew what was going on. Surely he would show up any day now and assure Ratonhnhaké:ton that everything would be all right.
Many more days passed, though. His mother was buried and the village was slowly restored. His people settled back into a familiar routine and it was almost as though nothing had happened.
Ratonhnhaké:ton felt the pain in his heart, sharp and strong as it had been when he saw his mother die. It felt like it would never go away, no matter how much time passed.
One day he decided that he would return to the home he was born in. Father must still be there. Maybe he was still in that city (was it Boston?), working hard to "make things right", as he always said. Maybe no one told him about the village yet.
Ratonhnhaké:ton packed a small bag of food that he scavenged from around the village. He had no possessions after the fire; they were all burned away with his mother and the long house. And he set off with his light load just after dawn, when the air was crisp and cool and most of the village was still asleep.
He tried to remember the way back home. It had been over a year since he and his mother left the place (though he hadn't known at the time that they would not be going back). Ratonhnhaké:ton wandered the woods for some time, lost and confused, nibbling at the food he'd brought and realizing all too quickly that it wasn't enough.
Their home hadn't been that far from the village, had it? He remembered being back at the house before nightfall when he came to visit the village with his mother.
But Mother knew the way. She knew these woods and could probably travel them with her eyes closed. Ratonhnhaké:ton was a small boy who hadn't been allowed out of the valley once they settled there.
The woods that had once seemed to warm and inviting grew darker and colder as the sun set. Ratonhnhaké:ton knew he was lost, knew that he might be stuck in the forest forever; and so he sat beneath one of the trees and drew his legs close to his chest.
Mother was gone and Father was lost and now he had no village, either.
He pressed his face to his knees and tried not to cry.
Time passed. He heard footsteps and voices. He curled closer to the tree, but they found him regardless.
"You must come home, Ratonhnhaké:ton," one of the men of the village said. When he didn't reply, the man took him by the hand and drew him to his feet.
"Why did you wander so far?" the Clan Mother asked him once they returned. She was sitting beside the fire, lit by its gentle, flickering glow.
"I was trying to go home," Ratonhnhaké:ton answered truthfully. There was no point in being secretive now.
"You are home."
"I want to find my father. He is back home."
The Clan Mother's expression hardened, though not unkindly. She poked at the fire with the point of a stick and watched the logs collapse with a great plume of smoke.
"Your father is gone for now, child," she said after a silence. "This is your home. We are your family."
Ratonhnhaké:ton's heart sunk. "He's...gone too? Like Mother?"
"Not in the same way that your mother is. But you cannot return to him. Not now."
"Why?"
"Your mother forbade it."
Ratonhnhaké:ton was confused. Mother had refused to discuss Father as well, but he'd always thought that perhaps he was just too busy to come home, and that he would be back again soon...
"Mother never said-"
"Don't think about your father anymore, child. You're home now. You're safe."
How could he forget Father, though?
Father would come for him someday soon. Ratonhnhaké:ton knew it. His father would never give up on him, no matter what happened.
Ratonhnhaké:ton would just keep waiting.