The stream moved quietly under the night sky.

It was a little after nine. The village had already settled into its usual evening stillness, distant voices fading, oil lamps glowing in a few windows, the occasional bark of a dog somewhere far off. Daniel and Liam sat side by side on the grassy bank, close enough that their shoulders almost touched, but not quite. Neither of them had spoken for a long time. They simply watched the dark water slide past, carrying reflections of the stars.

Two weeks had gone by since the afternoon everything changed.

Two weeks of careful conversations, of shared meals in the chief’s house or at...