The only thing that the boy could think of throughout the day was giving his mother a proper burial. He found a sturdy enough stick to break the dirt, so he thought he could do it. As the sun came down, he noticed that the fields grew quite. Looking around he discovered that everyone was gone.
The beasts were rare around the capital, but rare doesn't mean they don't exist. So fear ran deep in him as he did fast. The boy's uncut hair made a trail behind him, and swayed from side to side with each step he took. But the clearing wasn't perfect and he tripped over a barbed vine, so it cut into his calf bringing him to a short fall.
That is when he heard it, a deep thud that came up through his arms as he pushed off the ground. It was slow at first then increased in speed. He dared not turn around in fear of what may be behind him. Limping along with a trail of blood behind him, he gasped for air that was otherwise abundant until his vision faded and his knees failed him. Unconscious took him.
When he woke up, it was to water, and a blinding light. "You really are a lucky dog," the voice agitated the boy from his last dregs of slumber he had. The foreman came in to view chewing the barley from his hand. "If it was a tiny terror, or a big jaw you would be unrecognizable mush at best. But no, it was a three horned shield, and the guards chased it off."
The foreman continued with, "Too bad for you someone has to pay for all the lost crops. Someone had to have drawn it to the capital, and that's where you come in. Without your mother, you bore me, curse the fact that you weren't born a woman."
With that, the boy was picked up by the arms unable to fight against two men. He hung there limply, without any strength left to resist. His sore shoulders cramped under the awkward compression.
Too tired to care anymore, he was carried off towards the city gates; where he was held up in line until it was their turn. The found it hard to breathe unless he squirmed and lifted himself up. Pain became the constant reminder to stay conscious.
It must have been around thirty minutes, but for him it felt like hours for them to finally reach the gate. His clouded vision cast shadows over the whole situation until he blinked it away into slumber.
He woke up to hiting a wall, and hard. The dry slap and peeling noise that came as a result would have been comical if he didn't have to feal it. The metal door closed creak and a snicker from the guard who did find it funny.
The room was dark, and without a noise after the guard walked away, well except for the near constant drip, drop off water from the ceiling. "This is what I always imagined the heart of the world looked like, empty and without reason." The boy sighed as he began to curl into himself.