Kai sat with his knees pressed right up to his chest, both arms wrapped tightly around them. The room he was allowed to call home was a mockery of human existence in a place that should be home. A mat on the floor with a single pillow and tattered blanket was all that remained in the wake of his brothers.

Damn locusts! Kai thought bitterly, fighting back tears.

The challenge to be the strongest had driven a wedge so deep between the remaining family that home had become all but a battleground. The brutes bumped chests brazenly and flaunted their prowess openly at every chance they got, refusing to look at their rivals with anything but disdain. Kai had been the worst receiver of their attention. All 5 of them had stormed his room and smashed or stolen every last thing he had owned, from clothing to the ornate wooden sculptures decorating the space.

Smashed into splinters, or fed to the bonfire no doubt raging on the property. The smell of smoke had only begun to invade the boys nostrils, sending him into a fresh fit of stifled sobbing.

There wasn't a time he had ever remembered when the family had existed in unison since their father had taken ill. Now it was a a nightmare. Whenever possible, Kai often snuck into his fathers room and sat veside the once proud symbol of the famIly, lamenting the pained expression glued to the mans face.

Under Kais shirt was the smooth painted masterpiece, a mask in the rough likeness of his father Leorin. It had taken months by candlelight to make and many more to smooth and paint without the others catching notice. Of all the items that had been born of his handiwork the mask had been the labor of love to honor the strongest person Kai believed he woild ever know.
To see Leorins legacy tarnished by the brutish and stupid offspring of his second wife was sometimes too much to handle.

"I need your help, Dad. I- I ca- can't d-do this!" His voice broke as he stifled the pitiful whimpers and tears thretening to break him. The boys lifetime of work was literally in smoke.
Wiping his face on the sleeve of his coat, Kai bit his lip so hard he tasted blood as he struggled to rise. Up and out, the youngest brother slipped from his prison and out the window to the slanted rooftop. His only posessions left were kept securely in Leorins room behind the dresser. In that room was the only place in the world safety could be found. 

The others cared not at all for their ailing father and so never bothered to visit.

Kai traversed the rooftops with familiar ease, dabbing at his eyes the entire waym mask tucked protectively under his armpit.

[hr]

The window was shut, blinds drawn, door locked, and Kai sat at the right of Leorins bed. Time was not kind to the man and had left the shell of a hero to occupy the soft linens laid before Kai. To the boys eyes it looked as if the man had already passed, the only sign of life was the blissfully rhythmic rise of Leorins sunken chest.

Was there months left for him? Weeks? Days? The fear in his eyes mirrored the white-knuckled grip of his hands as they squeezed his pant legs. 

"Dad.." Kais voice squeeked tightly. Fresh tears were already forming as the words came unbidden. "This place isn't home anymore. These people are animals. I- you- everyone is gone!" His voice was tense as he pictured what felt like an eternity ago, playing in the fields withoutna care with his mother and olde brothers. "I'm sorry Papa. I'm so sorry. If only I was stronger I could- I could-" 

I could have saved us from ourselves!

The words screamed in Kais mind. Just a few more years and Kai could have been a proper heir. Leorin has fallen ill before naming a successor, too ill and frail now to even whisper. Even if they could it wouldn't change anything. Nobosy here would follow the words of a talking corpse, as they had put it.
Kai clenched his fist all the harder as his grief shifted from fear to a blinding hate.

They had done something. Poisoned his drink, his food, something that kept Leorin weak. Nothing but the underhanded tricks of a rat could have done something like this. 

"I'll win their contest. I swear." From under Kais shirt came the mask, placed atop Leorins hand as the boy took a series of steadying breaths. Each intake of stale air only burned his resolve even further. "You will not be forgotten, Dad.. but I can't stay here if I'm going to win."

If there was a way to win it was below. Far below. The others were stronger by far but they were slow. Stupid. Spineless balls of brawn that would never willingly put themselves at risk. The mask was a promise to do better, be better, overcome the obstacles in life.

"I love you, Dad.." Kai whispered as he slid out the window henhad entered from he'd entered from, the mask and carving tools tucked into a pillowcase from the closet. The journey ahead would be rough but the boy set his jaw firmly.
The only way out was forward. Over the fence, down the hill, and into the Abyss itself when the time came. Going alone was suicide. 

If whatever spirits watching him were truly guiding his fate he hoped one of them saw fit to give him a friend.