Anes's eyes opened slowly as he stared at the roof of his house, there had been dust everywhere ever since Frank left, but him and Claire didn't care enough to clean it up.

The only thing Claire cared about was tending to her garden, but lately Anes was just feeling very tired. Most days he wouldn't be able to get out of bed, the times he would have to leave bed he would walk with an old cane that his father had.

He stared at the cane in disdain, he would eventually buy a new one and throw out this one in the trash when he got the time for it.

His whole life revolved in fighting other peoples battles...for a while he was content with that. Until he learned that his father died when he was on leave. To his friends and wife he was celebrating christmas with his buddy's family...though the closest relatives and friends of Anes father knew how the man truly was, Anes was never questioned.

Anes was in his early twenties and inherited his father's wealth, by this time he was moving comfortably through the ranks of the military.

So he decided to stay and slowly began to transform into a patriot, during this time he was offered a job on the general staff but declined believing how he would be more of a help on the front lines.

He married the girl next door and had a son, sure there were ups and downs. But they were a family, they were even planning on sending their son to university and have him backpack across the country.

But the war came

And the son they loved, was ripped from their hands and was one of the first to perish during the conflict. Anes tried to be the best father that he could, he never laid a hand on his son or his wife.

Even his neighbors and the church he went to every sunday said how he was a good person, and an even better tactician. But after the death of their son, something deep changed from within him.

A hole in his heart that could never be fixed was deep inside of him, nearly suffocating him. Smoking, drinking, and…killing were the only things he could do to deal with his grief.

Until he met a young boy, an orphan. He didn't have no backstory, no name, parents were ethor dead or abandoned him. His strange tan skin and thick dark brown curls made him stand out more.

He didn't think that enlisting children in the army was a good idea, but after seeing what happened to his son...his hatred towards it slowly began to grow.

"A child that can stomach killing...isn't a child, rathor a monster." He told Rerugin one time

His old friend was dealing with a very similar situation, maybe Anes was telling himself that because of his own distaste towards the situation. Or rathore so he wouldn't feel bad for letting another kid die, just like with his own son.

Maybe it was years later after their meeting, but Anes got sick of not knowing what the kid was doing all alone. Maybe it was paranoia or instinct but Anes didn't want a knife in the back during an assault or operation.

Anes reached the tree, pressing his hand across the smooth trunk. He felt a soft hole in the center of it, curious he placed his hand inside revealing a book.

This book had a leathery black cover filled with clean white pages, Anes knew he should'ent but he peeped into the notebook finding rows and rows of journal passages and poems.

They were good, maybe even amazing. But what Anes found the most relieving was the way the boy talked about the empire and his life as a soldier. He thought before that the boy was full of propaganda and bloodlust, but instead he found a boy that just wanted to live and see a girl that he hadn't seen in many years.

That was the same boy who he coached as he tried to help him become an aerial mage. This was all an attempt for him to attain a better life, but in the end it wouldn't have mattered.

By his own mistake he inadvertently sent the boy off too his death to fight on the most dangerous fronts of the war, and he didn't dare wish to admit it...but he knew that his friend was using him as a pawn in a much bigger game.

Anes got up grabbing the cane with his one good hand, he was slowly beginning to get used to the hardwood around his palm.

The sound of a car, no a motorcycle was approaching the estate. He quickly shuffled as fast as he could to the window.

Claire was outside as he saw the dust begin to settle as she began to run towards the sound, she was old but that didn't stop her from running to him. Anes lightly smiled as he saw the boy remove those goggles.

Those were gifts that Anes got for Tom's seventeenth birthday, he loved feeling the wind whip his face as he sped off. Those moments of pure joy that Anes saw his son, he knew that he did a good job being a father.

Frank's uniform was neat and tidy, his hair was cut but it still looked thick and curly, but his shoes were all muddy.

Claire ran her fingers through his head saying things that Anes couldn't hear from the window. But he could see her face open in horror when she saw Frank's shoes, Claire was a neat freak and was very obsessed with tidiness.

Tom was kinda like that but it wasn't as bad as Claire, after seeing Claire yell at Frank, Anes walked back to bed. He knew that Frank would come up seeing him and he would just tire himself heading down there.

He heard a soft thump of footsteps head towards the room as he began to lightly close his eye, but then they instinanly shot open as he stared at the boy. He was different and it wasn't just his clothes.

He was only sixteen and he looked so much like a man. His build was cruel like an American football player, he reeked from alcohol and smokes, but it was his eyes that shocked Anes.

They weren't the eyes of a sixteen year old...they looked like the tired eyes of a person that hadn't slept in years. The warm hazel was gone, replaced with sunken eyes with a deep darkness around them.

Maybe he was just old or he was getting wiser, Frank without uttering a word dragged the chair too him. The scratching sound was irritating to both of them but neither even uttered a word as the tension ensured.

"Frank How have you been"

"Fine" Frank said

"Hey...I'm sorry about Victorya."

"What? How do you know about her?" Frank boomed

"Relax.. Rerugin sent us a note, Claire told me how she was someone special to you. We got the note recently and if we knew we would have gotten you out of there." Anes said as his hand was about to rest on the boy's shoulder.

Frank began to laugh manicanicly, grabbing his sides like it was the funniest thing in the world. Anes hand instantly shot back to his sides.

"Get me out. Do you even hear what you are saying." Frank said

"Frank...you don't have to stay there." Anes rattled on

"Where...where would I go?" Frank said as he stared down at his shoes, he looked compleatly hopeless. Like he was ready too give up.

"Anywhere...just tell me and Claire the place."

"What is the point...there is nothing Anes."

"Nothing? Frank you will meet other girls...I know it's hard but you have to move past it." Anes stuttered, he knew that losing someone was hard but Frank still had a long life ahead of him.

"How could I...How can I ever forget her?!" Frank screamed

"You have to move on...you will never forget her, but you must find a reason to live a purpose."

"A purpose...a purpose...Anes don't tell me about finding a purpose. Victorya was my purpose and now she is gone." Frank repeated insanely as he ran his fingers through his hair

"I'm sorry." Anes comforted

"She was pregnant…"

"Im...sorry." The room went quiet after that, the only thing that could be heard were the wails that were escaping Frank's mouth.

Anes ran his wrinkled hands through his grey hair, he knew what it was like to lose a son. When he lost Tom he stopped caring for nearly everything...the only thing that was keeping him sane and wanting to live was his eventual retirement with his wife.

Without Claire, he knew that he would have been lost. But as he stared at the boy he realized how much suffering he will have to overcome. Frank lost the two people that he loved in the world in a span of an hour, sure if Frank put on a front he would completely look unfazed

But Anes could tell that there was something else, in Frank's eyes there was something there. Was it despair...sadness...anger? Or maybe it was all three.

"I don't know what to do Anes. It gets harder and harder to get out of bed each morning." Frank pleaded as his body violently shivered

"You have too Frank, you have to find something." Anes beared into Frank

"Don't tell me to find something, how the hell would you know what I am dealing with! You still have Claire. I lost both of them!" Frank exploded as he slammed the wooden chair against the marble floor, little pieces of white marble splattered over the floor.

"I know...but what are you going to do?"

"I don't care anymore...live...die...it truly doesn't matter to me anymore."

"Frank that's not normal, you're still young. There is still time for you too move forward, but the only way for you to move forward is too get over it."

"How Anes, How!?"

"I don't know...when Tom died there was barely anything for me. All there ever was, was just pain." Anes said as he ran his hands through his own hair

"Your not answering my question. Tell me what I am supposed to do now."

"I don't know Frank! I don't know how to get there, I don't know how to handle your grief. These things are yours to figure out, I dealt with my grief by sticking to the ones closest to me. Maybe you should try the same."

Anes laid his head back on the pillow as his eyes began to slowly close as he stared at the boy, Frank pressed his palm too his face, he was trying too not show how he was crying but from the way his body was jerking it was obvious.

For a second Frank thought that Anes was dead. With his pale white skin, his blond greying hair, and his blue lips. If anybody saw this scene they would think that Anes passed away in sleep.

But he lightly once again opened his eyes as he stared at the boy. For a second he could see how tired he was.

"Have you ever thought...to just run away from all of this?"

"To leave...war...suffering...despair? Go somewhere far away so that maybe...just maybe you will find happiness." Anes rambled on like a mad man as he stared at Frank, with those eyes he probably realized the losing mental battle that Frank struggled with.

"Run away...Anes I tried too!" Frank screamed out in pure anguish as he struck the wooden chair

"There is nothing, all I want is to be free from this torment!" He screamed again as he once again thrashed around in the chair

"Frank I don't know what you want me too do or say, i'm just an old man that is going to kick the bucket in a couple of weeks." Anes pleaded

There was an unsettling silence as the two men didn't make eye contact as they stared at opposite directions of the room.

"Tanya...she asked me if I would become her shield." Frank said without glancing at Anes

"...and what did you say?" Anes asked

"I agreed."

"Goddammit Frank!" Anes yelled as his one good hand clenched into a fist

He wondered for a second if protecting Frank from the truth of Tanya was worth it, he knew that everybody on Rhine front needed a dream or they would go insane and Tanya was Frank's dream. Anes knew that the feelings Frank held for her died out, but he was still ready to commit himself to her or her cause.

He was still ready to fight too become her equal, even if it will end in his death Anes was sure that Frank would die with a smile on his face.

"She is using you! She knows that you just don't care anymore, it wouldn't matter if you died or any of her other soldiers. As long as she survived, or anybody that she truly cared about survived then she will be content." Anes spat out as he pointed his finger at Frank like he was accusing him of some crime

"How do you know?" Frank shrugged off

"Trust me I know what kids are capable of."

"How so...because me and Tanya can kill, old man you hardly know what goes on in my head." Frank snickered

Frank's smile at the end of those words changed from his usual smile, rathor a warm and gentle one. This one was true of his own feelings, a contorted smile for Frank's own messed up headspace.

It reminded him of a girl around Frank's age, did he truly know this boy? No, he had to make Frank understand the dangers of this girl.

"I never told Tom or Claire the secret of my father, but if you truly need proof I will tell you."

"When I was ten, there was a certain girl that lived right next to me." Anes said

As Anes uttered those words, it was like an incantation as the marble of the estate began to shift into something new or rathore old.

There were two houses right next to each other, there were a pair playing together in the sunlight as they jumped up and down in the puddles from last night's rain.

They were both ten, the boy was holding the girls hands as they both danced around in the puddle together. Having no care for the black muck staining the clothes, the girls white dress was splattered with delight.

A scream echoed out from the courtyard as the pair starred in the direction of the scream as they both looked.

"Anes!" the woman screamed as she picked up the girl, her long flowing brown hair and steel eyes drilled into little Anes as he began to back up.

"Claire...what did I tell you about getting your dress dirty!" she once again yelled

She looked at the pair with their smiles still plastered onto their faces. And she couldn't help but lose her temper.

"What's going on...Anes are you bothering them!" the man's voice boomed as each step he took boomed into the ears of everybody around them.

The woman stared at Anes and his father coming towards him and quickly began to lose his tone, she pressed the girl behind her back as every step he took broke the earth itself.

The man yoked Anes by the collar. "He didn't do anything, you know kids will be kids." The woman said plastering her own fake smile across her face hopefully destroy the tension.

She knew that the little boy's bruises and swollen eyes didn't come from his adventures in the forest, or how he wasn't clumsy when it came to stairs.

The man huffed as smoke bellowed from his nostrils like he was a bull as he stared at the woman and at the little girl. He laid the boy back on the ground and reached into his pocket pulling out a stack of bills.

"Here."

"The dress is fine. We just need to rewash it." the woman said as she pushed her daughter right behind her

"No, I insist." he said as he dropped the handful of bills into the woman's hands and once again yoked Anes little arm as they began too walk back home.

"Bye Claire." Anes said with his smile across his face

"Bye." she solemnly waved as the door to the estate crashed behind the two of them

The dream was gone, and broken as the two men were back in that very same room that they once were in. "You see this scar." Anes said pointing near his left eye

Frank nodded, he didn't realize he even had a scar. Years of it fading, it would take somebody staring deep at him to realize it.

"After that...my dad slammed a bottle across my face, I was out for maybe an hour or two. I was woken up at the doctor's office when they were answering questions, I didn't rat out my old man."

"Why not...you could have been safe...free…"

"That's what I am telling you, too do." Anes pleaded too Frank "Take this opportunity to be free."

"Until maybe I was fourteen or fifteen I didn't realize how lucky I got. Just an inch more and I probably would have been blind in that eye or suffered from some serious head injury." Anes said adding a fake chuckle too destroy the tension, but it only made it worse

"I'm sorry...I didn't know." Frank stuttered

"Don't be. Now let me tell you the true meaning of this story."

The room once again transformed and everything was quiet. There was a soft rain as a man around the age of seventeen pushed the door open, he heard the sounds of screaming and cursing as he entered the room.

"Mom!" Anes screamed as his military cap blew off his head as he rushed too the woman's side. Her black hair was stained with blood as it oozed from her head as he placed her on the couch, he ran into the bathroom and applied alcohol and bandages.

Luckily she was slowly able to wake up as her dark green eyes began to scan the room. "Anes...what are you doing here?" she mumbled out.

"I'm on leave...I got a couple days off. I wanted to stay in the Capitol for a little while with a friend but I haven't heard from you in a while." Anes smiled trying to show his mom that everything would be all right, but in reality he was trying to not cry

"Where is he?" she said as her eyes began to zip around the room

"I don't know...I don't know" he repeated once too himself as the dream began to slowly fade away into nothingness until there was the sound of horses trotting broke the dream into existence.

Two men on a dirt paved road were going through the wilderness. They were following the bright blue streams and listening to the sound of animals passing by them.

"Anes that's what we are looking for." the enormous man whispered as he perched himself off of his horse.

Anes followed as he drew his rifle and aimed it at the man. "No, not here...not yet." he whispered to himself as he followed the man

"Anes I understand that you might be mad about your mother...but she was way out of line."

"Okay sir." Anes mumbled

"I mean it, if that Claire girl ever does something foolish or idiotic. You got too slap some sense into them!" Anes father boomed drunkenly as he even did a fake air slap too drive the point home

Just a little longer, Anes saw the man perch himself over the mountain. He leaned into the gun as he aimed into the scope, an elk.

It's bushy brown fur and it's beautiful brown coat transfixed the man as he stared at it through the gun scope. "We are going to eat good tonight." he slapped Anes back hard as he held in his laugh

"Yeah."

Anes began to backtrack as he took out his rifle, no if he shot him and his body was discovered the law would no that his father wasn't alone.

He threw the rifle back on his back as he began to stare at him. Then instinctively he rammed straight into the man, his father's face was full of shock as he reached out trying to grab onto anything that he could hold onto.

But the only thing that fell was the men's hunting cap that sprawled his long blonde hair, and his gun that shattered on impact. Anes father hit his head first into the rock's and a soft pool of dark blood formed underneath him.

Anes watched his father with shaking hands, this was his first kill and he didn't even kill anybody yet in the army. He needed to make sure that he was dead, he had to make sure that him and his mom would be protected.

So he waited for nightfall for the wolves to come. He watched the beast with bright yellow eyes rip the man's skin and devour him, but all he did was take his torch light too where they last placed the horses.

Anes undid the knot holding his fathers horse and spooked it into the wild, he then took his horse with him as he began to ride back towards the estate.

His face was stuck in Anes mind for months after that, he knew what he did was justified but that didn't stop the terror he had in his dreams.

"You could have found a better way." was whispered from his dad's blue lips as he stared at Anes. His torso exposed as he looked at his son, blood pooling and wolf bike marks over his corpse

"No...you bastard!" Anes screamed out one night waking up his bunk mates in a hysterical craze. Maybe being in the army wasn't doing good for his mental state as he began to slowly lose it.

It stopped when him and Claire got married. When he held her warm body when he was asleep, he knew that everything was going to be okay. And the dreams completely stopped when Tom was growing up.

But after his death...and the loss of his arm those dreams have been plaguing Anes' mind more and more.

Maybe he even felt that this was revenge for the sin he had committed over thirty years ago. But he didn't care, his mom died a peaceful death and he was able to live the rest of his life without fear of his abuser.

"Jesus christ." Frank said as he planted his hands on his knees

"I love my family, and you are a part of my family." Anes said as he rested his hand on Frank's shoulder

Too anybody looking through the window, it would look like the pair were a true father and son making up. But sure they were not bound by blood, Frank felt like Anes was his father while Anes felt that Frank was a second son.

"You have to confront these demons...even though it is hard now. You have to find ways too be happy again, I am old and I can give you answers. But these answers might not be right for you.

"Thanks...Anes." Frank mumbled as he held his head down in sadness.

Anes gripped Frank's shoulder tighter, pushing his fingernails into the boy's jacket. It was like he was possessed, his mouth opened like a lever.

"That girl is not a wolf wearing the cloth of a sheep, rathor a wolf that wears the skin of the sheep. The general staff are the shepherds...and she is there trusted little sheep."

His hands quickly let go as his head plummeted to the pillow. "But one day, she will take there place...and that wolf will strip away the dead skin, and replace it with the skin of one of the shepherds." he mumbled too himself in a half crazed, half delirious state.

Anes eyes closed sharply, for a second Frank thought the old man was dead. Until he heard the rasping of his breath and the snores.

"...be careful...my son." he whispered under his breath as the dream crashed down, Frank left the room saying goodbye to Claire as he shuffled through the door of the estate..

He tucked the scarf around his mouth and adjusted the goggles around his eyes, and he revved the engine as he sped down the road.