The leaves crunched as Hester walked over them, feeling the warm breeze as it passed. Hester liked moving—after a while in the mountains he became fidgety over the blanket of white snow all around him, it was nice to have a change of pace and in a place he was familiar with.

The two walked in a comfortable silence until.

"What is your weakness?"

Alexander asked, Hester was taken aback by the question. "Why would you ask something like that?" Hester sputtered completely lost in the conversation. A moment ago they were quietly and calmly walking Alexander behind him and Odin after that.

Alexander sighed almost close to annoyance giving reason to the absurd question.

"Are we going to fight our way in? If we are, I want to know what I'm fighting."

"Oh" Hester thought for a moment, what was their weakness, a struggle—a flaw they all shared? Hester highly doubted there was any that covered all of them, other than one.

"Our wings."

Hester said eventually.

"Our wings mean everything to us, they are everything that we care about, our wings are our pride, our victories a trophy and a gift, they are us."

A small silence, one that let the words turn and fold, Hester knew a question would come after it, he was sure of it.

"Even a debt?" Alexander asked quietly.

"A generational debt, one that can never truly be repaid."

Hester answered grimly, a debt that was paid for so long ago and ten times over and yet still he was trapped in a deal that he never agreed to.

A debt he forever wears on his back.

"It is a blood debt," Hester said softly as he silently cursed himself for the tremble in his voice.

"They shall pay with their blood."

He heard Alexander stop, just for a moment a split second where the footsteps paused between the rhythmic stomp of him obediently following.

"Hester" Alexander started "If you do not want to—"

"They took Wilbur, this is what they deserve."

This is a small debt they owe me, and this one would not be denied by gracious Goddess hands. Hester turned Alexander had already started tugging Odin along filling the space that was made between them.

They marched on.

The trees grow taller and wider, the path becoming more of a vast open field with Redwood trees, some so big Alexander almost mistake them for towns at a distance, they looked as if they were reaching for the heavens, a determination to grow farther and faster then the others. Hester continued on, barely acknowledging the wonder of this almost magical place.

Hester had a cold resolution as he walked. -the heart is like an arrow- Alexander thought in slight awe of his willpower.

-it demands to land true- Alexander had heard it from somewhere, some book that had his attention for a brief moment. Hester was that arrow, his heart and soul and wings.

He never turned or stopped, only when something got in his way, but always moving, perpetually making his way to his goal, to his son.

«»«»«»«»«»

. . .the heart is like an arrow. . .

. . .It demands to land true. . .

«»«»«»«»«»

"Is Wilbur your kid?"

Hester—for what feels already too long—stopped and paused,...