Killian took Sonny away in his arms. Killian held the boy tighter in his arms, and he looked down with a slight frown, asking with a hidden concern, "Are you okay?"
Sonny was silent, not responding.
Sonny kept his head hidden in the man's white robe, hiding from the world. Sonny remembers how the big man kept trying to get into his clothes, which made him feel very uncomfortable.
It made him feel very powerless and useless.
Sonny kept shivering, and he wanted to cry, and he wanted to go back home to his parents, to his mother and father, to be safe again.
But they're gone.
They are dead.
And he's all alone.
And he has nobody.
Sonny couldn't hold back anymore.
Sonny began to cry, tears falling down his cheeks, crying like a baby, his chest hiccupping over and over.
Killian froze in his spot, looking down at the little boy like he didn't know what to do; he didn't have any experience with children, especially with crying people.
Killian's lips twitched a couple of times, and he raised his hands, laying them over the boy's head, soothing him.
He said, "Let it out."
The boy cried harder at that.
It was quiet after that. Sonny stopped crying after a bit. He just hiccups once in a while, but he would stay in the man's arms for a bit.
Then the man would begin carrying the boy forward in his arms through the forest with ease; the boy wasn't heavy.
Killian was careful not to step over any twigs on the ground nor any mud across the ground. Killian was approached by someone who emerged at some time.
A man appeared sitting on a large log, cooking some meat by a fire with a group of people. Killian lifted his brow at them, and they stared at each other, contemplating before the other person spoke. "You're welcome to join."
Killian pursed his lips before he nodded his head, and he sat down by the farthest log, and the other man smiled at him. "I know the boy, so how are you two related?"
Killain tilted his head at the question and stared at the man, observing him from head to toe. The man was wearing a thick loincloth from chest to thighs.
Killian replies, "He's important to me. How do you know him?"
The man smiled. "I met him a few hours ago. Honestly, I don't know him, but I know he arrives with his brother."
The man turned around, and another man bowed his head further down, and Killian looked at him with a faint frown.
The man spoke as he spoke. "Why don't you come out? Isn't your brother?"
The man fearfully looked at both of them and looked at them by Killain's side, and nodded timidly at them and walked toward them.
He said in a low voice. "Yes, he's my younger brother."
He twisted his hands together like he didn't know what to do next.
Killain replies, "If he's your brother, why weren't you looking for him?"
The man replies with shame on his face. "Because I don't know how to hunt, nor did I know how to find him."
Killian stared at him coldly and nodded. He didn't have anything else to say. He turned away and closed his eyes, and let the warm fire be felt over his cold skin.
He turned to the sleeping boy in his bed, where Sonny was fast asleep, and Killian let his lips tug into a faint purse.
Then he turned away when he felt the presence of a different person. "Here, you can have some meat from a deer."
Killian refused. "No thanks."
The other man shrugged his shoulders, then ate into the flesh of the cooked meat of the deer that had been hunted a couple of hours ago. Killian doesn't know anything about the man, nor does he trust him, so he won't take anything from him.
The food can carry poison or worse.
Killian narrowed his eyes as he pondered in his thoughts until he was interrupted by someone who approached him again.
Sonny's older brother.
Besides, he doesn't really believe that they were brothers; they looked nothing alike, and their appearances looked too different.
And something about this situation is too different and strange.
The way the man is behaving is too timid, and the boy, Sonny, with a wilder personality, is such a contrast.
The more he ponders on it, the man across from him speaks, "Thank you for saving him. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't see him again."
Killian observed him curiously, trying to see more underneath the surface.
Killian was looking at the boy sleeping in his arms, and he replied, "No need for thanks; it was what I ought to do."
The man pursed his lips and nodded. "What I am about to ask you is a strange request. But I want to ask you regardless."
Killain lifted his brow, gesturing for the man to continue.
The man took a deep breath, clenching his robe on his lap. "The truth is that I'm not his brother…"
Sonny moved his head, trying to find a more comfortable spot. Killian moved his head on his shoulder so he could sleep more comfortably.
Killain turned back to the man and wasn't surprised by what he was saying. He was listening patiently.
The man, faintly smiling, "The truth is that the boy and I escaped from the demon king's palace."
Killian felt a faint shock in his heart and wondered why he was so surprised. The truth is that he knew that his master and the rest of the righteous disciples were sent to invade the demon king's palace to kill the king.
It was a plan that was invested in for a long time, a very long-term plan invested in by the elders, the leaders of the righteous sect.
The demon king is a feared being who brought chaos and lawlessness throughout the cultivation world.
Whoever fought against the demon king dies literally and brutally. He'd never met the demon king, but whoever did usually never became the same again.
He frowned. "Who are you?"
He asked simply.