They prepared the horses in the thin light of dawn. Four swift and strong war beasts and two sturdy workhorses hitched to a supply cart. Helianthus knew it wasn't quite enough to keep them well-fed all the way to Astuvia. The way was long and Convallis couldn't afford to give up much of their provisions. But the road ran wild with game from here to Evericulum. They shouldn't have much trouble at all catching their food until they hit the main road.

A line of women began to form as they loaded up the carts, all with tears in their eyes and little tokens wrapped in delicately embroidered handkerchiefs. Helianthus peered around a horse to see Oxalis at the end of it. He walked up, eyebrow lifting in surprise as the town's best weaver pressed a long black curl of her hair into the carpenter's hand.

"We could use your help outfitting the horses." Helianthus clapped him on the shoulder, interrupting the woman's tearful goodbyes. "Cadmus won't let me do any heavy lifting. Apparently, I'm too injured."

"I'm a little busy here." He mumbled from the corner of this sympathetic smile. The carpenter gazed down into her big, dewy eyes, stroking her hand gently. "I'll be back before you know it. Promise me you'll take care of yourself?"

He muttered low into the carpenter's ear as the woman shrunk away. "I see that. With half the women in town, it seems."

An amused smirk pulled at the corner of the soldier's mouth as he watched the chandler's wife approached. She was timid as a new bride, peeking shyly up at them from under her pale eyelashes.

"I provide a needed service in this community." Oxalis defended himself, shooting him a pointed look. As the memory of the carpenter's desperate, moaned praise passed through his mind, Helianthus couldn't help to agree. "When couples are having trouble conceiving or that honeymoon passion goes cold, I get invited to dinner."

Helianthus saw the chandler in the corner of his eye, watching from a safe distance against the trunk of an oak tree with a melancholy expression on his face.

"And if, say, the bun comes out a little darker than the baker expected... stranger things have been known to happen." The chandler's wife approached, presenting him with a pair of bright blue and violet candles, carved lovingly with an intricate landscape of flowers and butterflies. By the oak tree, the chandler blushed.

"I'll leave you to your needed service," Helianthus chuckled, turning back to the work ahead of them. He picked out the few odds and ends he could carry in one arm and keeping count of everything as it came in. He had hoped to leave early and get past the worst of the mountain trails before the day's end. It was still possible if they pulled everything together within the hour.

It wasn't much longer until The Sun stumbled out of the stables, yawning widely and brushing the dust off his now quite rumbled clothing.

"Good morning, sunshine!" Oxalis smiled over the armful of heartfelt love tokens he was loading into the cart.

"You," The Sun clapped a hand firmly on his shoulder as he walked past. He looked steadily into the carpenter's eyes with intense sincerity. A gracious smile passed over his face. "Are welcome."

Helianthus caught his bewildered gaze over the edge of the stall and turned away with a light snicker. The dawn had begun to cast its golden glow over the sleeping town. Long fingers of light reached out through the cloud cover and mountain peaks in a brilliant display.

The breath left Helianthus's lungs like a woodpecker taking flight from its nest. He stepped away from the work and took a moment to watch the sun rise over the wide green fields of his home.

It had been cloudy and grey the morning he left for the Legion. These same fields were mostly mud and the great peaks of the Mother's mountains all hid behind fog and cloud. It was like his own home refused to give him a proper goodbye. Now, it felt as though he were leaving on a kinder note.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, filling his lungs with the clean, wild air of Convallis. When they fluttered back open, the light had shifted just enough to make the entire world feel like a completely different place.

It was a wonder that he'd survived long enough to see so many beautiful sunrises. It was a wonder that no matter how much blood he'd spilled or what horrors he'd seen, the sunrise would greet him as though all was well.

"Captain!" Heracleum, a Legion man, called out, breaking through his reverie. He sat in the driver's seat of the cart. His hulking silhouette was almost indistinguishable from the horses, though the rich auburn of his hair and thick beard made him instantly recognizable "Don't mean to interrupt your little moment but we're all ready to set off when you are."

"Alright," Helianthus looked through the gathering crowd of villagers for his sister. Astera should've stuck out immediately, standing head and shoulders above everyone else in Convallis. But as his eyes raked over the many well-wishers and curious observers again and again, he found she hadn't come at all.

Though the disappointment sat bitter and heavy in his stomach, Helianthus couldn't say he was terribly surprised. She wasn't one for drawn out goodbyes.

When he left ten years ago, she had only shoved a bundle of furs into his arms, apologized for making him leave and disappeared into the fog before he could stutter out for the hundredth time that it was his decision.

Doing it all over again must be too much for her, Helianthus told himself. It was just too similar to when she thought she was saying goodbye forever. Astera knew he'd be back in a few weeks. It'd be a waste of time better spent on keeping the town fed. He pulled himself onto the supply cart. There, The Sun was already perched on a box, looking like a prince on the way to his summer palace.

"Move out!" The drivers and riders all snapped into action. Cadmus and two other Legion men took the lead with Oxalis who looked incredibly out of place on his massive, grey war beast. Helianthus sat in the cart with The Sun, two crossbows at the ready should any wildlife come up behind them.

The quiet valley Convallis was quickly consumed by forest and mountain. After an hour there was nothing left to even hint at its existence but the vague road carved into the forest behind them.