Imagine someone you had only known for a short while telling you that there was a cure to a disease you were born with.
Would you believe them?
That was the dilemma hammering against Alani's chest.
For years — no, for his entire life, he had lived with the knowledge that his body was frail. He had grown up with the shame of being unable to follow in the footsteps of his family.
All of them had died hunters, but they had died doing what they loved.
And then there was him.
Alani.
The one with weak lungs, brittle bones, and a body that seemed to rebel against itself.
A man who had spent his youth dreaming of hunting the great beasts of the forest, only to wake up each morning knowing he could never even keep up with the simplest trial.
So when Azel sat across from him by the fire and spoke of a solution, Alani's first instinct was disbelief.
His second was anger.
And his third buried under everything was hope.
