Before even the first rays of sunlight touched the mountains of Adrossa, Ren was already awake.

The cabin was still dark, cold, and silent. The morning mist slipped through the small gaps between the wall planks, bringing with it the damp scent of earth and trees. On the table, the Pass from the Southern Merchants’ Guild sat exactly where he had left it the night before. The dark metal seemed even heavier in that dim light.

Ren sat on the edge of the bed for a few moments, staring at the object.

The journey would begin that day.

Even so, he got up the way he always did.

He put on his simple shirt, adjusted the bandages that still covered part of his torso and arms, pulled on his worn boots, and picked up the coat hanging near the door. Then he tucked the pass into the inner pocket of his clothes and left the cabin.

The village was too quiet.

Normally, at that hour, some sound would have already risen among the houses. The creak of a bucket being pulled up from the well, a door opening, slow footsteps over packed dirt, the distant sound of Garret lighting the forge. There was always someone awake before the sun.

That day, there was no one.

Ren stopped outside and looked toward the central street. The dark wooden houses remained closed. There was no smoke from the nearest chimneys, no voices, no movement near the pens.

He found it strange.

But not strange enough to stop.

Maybe everyone had decided to sleep a little longer. Maybe they were avoiding the cold. Or maybe it was just one of those mornings when the village seemed to hold its breath before waking.

Ren shrugged and started with the well.

The rope creaked as the bucket descended. The sound seemed too loud in that silence. When the water rose, he poured it into the first barrel, then repeated the process several times until it was completely full. After that, he filled another.

Without thinking much about it, he picked up the two full barrels, one in each arm, and walked to the house of an elderly family near the slope.

The barrels were large enough that two men would have struggled to carry them. Ren walked without hurry, as if he were carrying baskets of clothes. His arms did not tremble. His face showed no fatigue. The only proof of the weight was on the ground: with each step, his boots sank into the packed dirt, leaving deep marks behind him.

When he reached the door, he set the barrels down carefully.

Even so, the ground trembled slightly.

Ren looked at the entrance of the house and noticed that the doorknob was a little loose. He reached out to fix it.

The piece broke between his fingers.

He stood still for a moment, staring at the broken metal in his hand. Then he looked at the door, as if expecting it to give him some kind of explanation.

“I’ll fix it later,” he muttered.

He left the pieces on the step and went back the way he had come.

After that, he went to the animal pen. Two goats had escaped during the night and were near a small rise in the ground, chewing on a bush with an irritating kind of calm.

Ren stopped in front of them.

“Today is not a good day for you to give me trouble.”

One of the goats kept chewing.

The other looked at him and bleated.

Ren sighed, approached the first one, grabbed it by the body, and placed it over his shoulder. The second tried to run to the side, but he simply stretched out his free arm, held the animal against his body, and started walking back toward the pen.

One goat over his shoulder.

Another tucked under his arm.

Both struggled a little, but Ren seemed more bothered by the noise than by the weight.

That was when Sawe appeared from a side street, carrying a large backpack on his back and a smaller one in one hand. He stopped as soon as he saw the scene.

For a few seconds, he only stared at Ren.

“You know normal people use rope for this, right?”

Ren turned his head.

“Rope takes longer.”

“Ren, one of them is practically trying to tear your sleeve off with its teeth.”

“I noticed.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

“It does. But only because it’s making noise near my ear.”

Sawe looked at the goat on his shoulder. The animal bleated again, as if taking part in the conversation.

“Sometimes I forget that you consider this kind of thing normal.”

Ren kept walking toward the pen.

“It’s just a goat.”

“It’s two goats.”

“Still not much.”

Sawe walked beside him, trying not to laugh.

“I would like to disagree, but after seeing you carry full barrels as if they were empty sacks, I think I’ll save my strength for more important arguments. Have you finished preparing your things?”

“Almost.”

“Almost how?”

“I still need to finish the work.”

Sawe stopped for a moment.

“Ren, today is the day we leave. You woke up before sunrise to do work?”

Ren placed the first goat inside the pen, then the second.

“I always do.”

“Yes, but today isn’t a normal day. We’re leaving Adrossa. We’re going to cross orc territory, find a merchant who may help us or may send us away, and then look for a way into Sylvaris. You understand that maybe it would be good to rest before all that, right?”

Ren closed the gate.

When he pulled the latch, it bent slightly.

Both of them looked at the piece.

Ren slowly let go.

“I’ll fix it later.”

Sawe pointed behind them.

“You already said that about the doorknob.”

“Then I’ll fix both.”

“You’re leaving today.”

Ren stayed silent for a moment. Then he looked at the bent latch again.

“Then someone else will fix it.”

Sawe let out a long sigh.

“That ability of yours to find bad solutions with such calm is going to kill me one day.”

“But it solved it.”

“It didn’t solve it. You just transferred the problem to someone else.”

Ren did not answer. He simply started walking toward the stone area.

Sawe followed beside him.

The area was near the northern slope, where some villagers removed smaller blocks to reinforce fences, walls, and foundations. Several stones had been separated into piles, but some had been abandoned for months because they were too large.

Ren stopped in front of one of them.

Sawe noticed immediately.

“Not that one.”

Ren looked at him.

“Why?”

“Because it’s been there since before the harvest festival. Three men tried to move that stone with levers and gave up.”

Ren touched the surface of the rock. It was wide, uneven, and had moss clinging to one side.

“Looks good for the northern fence.”

“Ren, did you hear the part about three men with levers?”

“I heard.”

“And that tells you nothing?”

“It tells me the levers were bad.”

Sawe closed his eyes for a moment.

“Of course. The problem was the levers.”

Ren crouched, wedged his fingers under the stone, and took a deep breath. The rock came off the ground with a heavy sound, releasing dirt and small roots. He adjusted it against his chest and began to walk.

Sawe stood still.

Even though he had known Ren since childhood, there were moments when it was difficult to accept what he was seeing. The stone must have weighed hundreds of kilos, maybe more. Ren did not look comfortable, but he did not look like he was at his limit either. His body was steady. His face was calm. Only the ground revealed the truth: each step sank into the dirt, opening deep marks along the path.

Sawe hurried to keep up with him.

“You realize this isn’t normal, right?”

Ren looked ahead, trying to see around the stone.

“You say that like I have a choice.”

“I’m not complaining. I’m just saying that when someone sees this for the first time, the normal reaction is to get scared.”

“Were you scared?”

“Today, or when we were kids?”

“Both.”

Sawe thought for a moment.

“When we were kids, I thought everyone was strange in some way. I made wind with my hands, you broke stones by accident, and I just concluded that everyone had their own talents.”

Ren kept walking.

“So it wasn’t scary.”

“It was. I was just too young to know it.”

They reached the northern fence. Ren set the rock down carefully, but the impact still raised dust. He pushed it with his foot until it fit near a broken base.

Sawe approached the stone as soon as Ren stepped away.

He placed both hands on it and pushed.

Nothing.

He planted his feet more firmly, leaned his body forward, and tried again.

The stone did not move.

Not even a little.

Ren returned with another smaller rock in his arms and saw Sawe straining.

“What are you doing?”

Sawe let go of the stone and took a deep breath.

“Confirming that I’m still a normal person.”

“And?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

The morning continued like that.

©JAE-HOON