Another one to start the day!
The boy was highly impressed at the place and it's temples while he follows the guard up the energy consuming long stairs. Due to the damages all twelve temples went through the man had to led the teen to a shortcut up to the last temple.
He's gotta be here. The teen thought while viewing each of them as they pass. Soon his attention was drawn towards a group of men running in the opposite direction from the two. But among them one stood out that the boy had to question the guard about it.
"Even women train?" He couldn't stop looking at the blond who stop to catch a few breaths before catching up. Soon he accidentally hit himself against a skinny tree.
"Yes if they want to, where did you come from if you don't mind?"
"...somewhere cold and miserable." The boy didn't want to remind himself of what he did over there nor the current problem he's dealing with his family. It wasn't a good year to talk about with but hopefully things will settle over there once he got what he need from this place.
"Sounds terrible." The older man quicken his pace up the never ending stairs. A few minutes later the blue sky suddenly became grey again. Then he had one thing to say. "But tell me, what's your name kid?"
"Arkhes."
Soon it started raining to which the guard cursed at the erratic weather changes before reacting to the name.
"That's a...a unique name, your parents must be creative or something."
"Yeah..." the teen looks down as a heavy feeling weighs on him while they heard the loud noise of the pouring rain before fast winds blow through the mountains.
The suppose temple the guard mention was seen high behind the remaining buildings that all stood in the pathway of the stairs.
As they reach to the temple before the last two Arkhes recall of the time things changed drastically two years ago:
It was a long and freezing time in the village and simple chores have become difficult to work with due to the extreme weather forcing most civilians to stay indoors for days.
He remembers how his mother began to limit his time he could spent with friends and often checks up on the boy every hour or so even after his strange illness that he got years ago never came back.
He didn't mind it at first but as a young man he realized how embarrassing it was. Even so she often goes out and returns all happy that he thought their father had return for a planned surprise for the boys but only to see that another stranger has given her flowers.
As for his brother he never change. After two years of self defense training the boy didn't want to fight back against those that pick on him. Arkhes could still remember how his little brother is the main target for bullies to insult him until one day he unexpectedly caught him attempting to take his own life. Their mother was hurt of this and does whatever she can to help the youngest yet her plans fail as the boy gets hostile to those that try to defend him. Arkhes had to go and settle things with the ones that hurt his family and so he did but soon the parents came and warn his mother of the future consequences.
Arkhes knew that something must be done immediately thus he ran away on a snowy night leaving a note behind. Now here he must find the one that can help them and find the one person he wanted to see for so long.
"Two more temples and we're good to go." The guard woke the boy from his long flashback.
"Excuse me but why you didn't kick me out or send me with the recruiters?"
The adult looked at him before letting a quick laugh.
"Ah you see I have a son who's probably the same age as you and you two seem to have the same hair color heheh. He lives in France with his grandparents."
"That far?"
"Yes, and I can imagine how sad he is not seeing his old man for four years I came here to help, but I always visit him every month or so. He would have done the same thing as you were doing."
Soon Arkhes was driven into a semi depressive state hearing that a kid like him has a father who's able to go back and see him unlike his. It's been too much that his father went missing and needs to know the reason why. His mother constantly change topics whenever he brought up his father's absence and on a specific day she goes to a depression. He had a feeling that his dad might be dead but the boy wanted to make sure that isn't the case especially the promise he made to his younger brother.
Meanwhile the rain poured more forcing the two to use a sheltered path made by some of the villagers not so long when weather like this started to come more often. Arkhes never saw rain before so the view of the wet environment was eye catching. From where he live there's always snow and blizzards taking up the hours people spent on hunting and go about their lives. The sun rarely appears in the village he lived that the darkness and lamps left a mark on his childhood and he was tired of it.
"All this talk got us to the last temple! Heh I guess conversation does sped up time after all." The man moved aside for the teen to view the huge building with minor cracks and damages but there were people outside fixing parts of the temple.
Now the truth lies inside as he caught a view of the leader heading back inside the temple.