Shattered Sanity

*Pant* *Pant*

For a while, Riven simply stood over Hagrid’s dead body with his breathing still ragged, as he quietly stared at the corpse lying motionless beneath his feet while trying to convince himself that what had just happened was real.

For nearly nine years, this had been the moment he dreamed about more than any other.

Whenever he scrubbed the brothel floors until his hands bled, whenever he watched his mother return bruised and exhausted after another night of forced prostitution, and whenever Hagrid vented his frustrations by verbally abusing him, Riven found himself imagining this exact scene over and over again, until revenge had slowly become the one goal that gave meaning to his miserable existence.

And now, it had finally happened.

’...It’s done.’

Riven thought, as for a brief moment, the words themselves almost felt unbelievable.

The man who had haunted almost every one of his childhood memories was finally dead.

As with that one sword strike, the revenge he had promised himself ever since watching his mother’s suffering had finally been fulfilled.

’...I actually did it.’

He thought again, as the reality of what had just happened slowly began settling inside his mind.

It was unlike anything Riven had ever experienced before, because although anger, grief, helplessness, and hatred had accompanied him for most of his life, none of those emotions resembled what he was feeling now, as standing over Hagrid’s lifeless body filled him with a profound sense of fulfillment that seemed to resonate with every corner of his being, while every instinct within him quietly whispered that this was exactly how things had always been meant to end.

Before he even realized it himself, a smile slowly formed across his face.

It was not a smile born from watching Hagrid suffer, nor was it one born from the beating itself, but rather the quiet satisfaction of finally crossing the first name off his revenge list after spending nearly a decade believing that this day might never come.

For several long moments, Riven simply stood there in complete silence, allowing himself to soak in the feeling without rushing to move, because despite having imagined this moment thousands of times before, nothing could have prepared him for how satisfying it actually felt to stand over the lifeless body of the man who had made his childhood a living nightmare.

*CLANG!*

The sudden clash of steel from somewhere outside the brothel shattered the silence, as it was immediately followed by another terrified scream that echoed across Ashfang Village, reminding Riven that although his own battle had ended, the raid consuming the settlement was still far from over.

’Garron...’

Riven thought, as his smile slowly disappeared.

By now, the recruiter had likely put a considerable distance between himself and Ashfang Village, meaning that every extra moment Riven spent inside the brothel reduced the chances that he would ever catch up to him again.

However, instead of immediately sprinting out through the front door, Riven forced himself to remain calm, because he understood that leaving with nothing but the clothes on his back would be just as foolish as staying behind for too long.

’I need to grab as much stuff as I need to survive, so that I’ll be fine even if it takes me a couple of days to find Garron.’

Riven thought, as after quickly making up his mind, he turned away from Hagrid’s corpse and hurried toward the small corner of the brothel where he kept the few belongings that truly belonged to him, before carefully retrieving the worn diary that had accompanied him throughout the years he had spent inside Ashfang and placing it inside a leather satchel.

From there, he immediately headed into the kitchen, where he collected several proper steel kitchen knives before wrapping them inside a cloth and packing them beside the diary, after which he emptied the shelves of every strip of dried meat that remained, because although he had no idea how long the journey ahead would take, he knew that food would become infinitely more valuable once he left the village behind.

After gathering the provisions, he picked up one of the empty leather water pouches hanging beside the back entrance and filled it completely from the storage barrel, before also taking Hagrid’s thick shawl and winter coat that had been left drying on a nearby pole, because regardless of whether he managed to find Garron again or ended up wandering alone through the wilderness, those few supplies would likely determine whether he survived the coming days.

Finally, before leaving the brothel behind forever, Riven visited Hagrid’s private room, as without wasting even a moment, he began searching through drawers, cupboards, and wooden chests until he found every loose silver coin, trinket, and small valuable hidden throughout the room, as he stuffed them all into the satchel without the slightest trace of guilt, before heading out.

”I don’t know how much these few trinkets are worth, but they’re definitely more than what Hagrid paid for my mother....”

Riven muttered, as after tightening the satchel across his shoulder one final time, he immediately began making his way back toward the outskirts of Ashfang Village.

However, it seemed as though during the time he had spent killing Hagrid, the fighting consuming the settlement had grown noticeably more intense than before, as the same paths that he had used to reach Hagrid’s house only a short while ago had now become considerably more dangerous, with fresh bodies littered all across the snow.

’There’s at least a dozen new dead in the area...’

Riven thought, as he scanned the surroundings only briefly before running, as he did not allow himself to become distracted and instead focused solely on escaping.

However, unfortunately for him, just as he crossed a narrow pathway between two burning huts, one of the Yellowtail warriors caught sight of him from across the street, as the man’s eyes immediately narrowed the moment he noticed the leather satchel slung across Riven’s shoulder and the direction in which he was running.

”DESERTER!”

The warrior suddenly roared.

”SOMEONE GET THE BOY!”

He yelled while pointing towards Riven, as a whole party of warriors suddenly took note of Riven’s location, and prepared to chase him as he ran.