this story starts in a large forest. trees seemed to stretch forever into the sky. animals played on the forest ground. a squirrel scurried across the ground from one tree to the base of another. it stopped and raised its head to look around. its ear twitched to the sound of a twig breaking and scurried up the tree to a low branch (witch was still about a 15 feet high off the ground).                

                it looked down to notice two people walking through the woods, walking about 5 feet from eachother. they both had skin the shade of gray and dark hair and carried small bags on their backs. the older looking one was obviously male. he had a slim figure, and pure white eyes with a stern look forward. he was outfitted with mostly brown attire and and black boots, but he had a crude chestplate on. at each side was two katanas. nothing surprising about one of them, but the other shinded in the sunlight breaking though the trees with a green glow simalar to that of an emerald. the other, smaller one was female, but young, maybe 11 or 12. she wore a purple and black outfit and had her hair up in a ponytail. on her back sat a basic short sword.unlike the male, however, she was more curiouse of her surroundings. she looked around the forest to see the sights.

                   in a flash, the male spun around, drawing his normal katana and attacked the girl. she noticed this in time to only draw her sword and block the blow. they held there, swords locked. the male kept a stern look on his face, but wassent using that much strength. the girl on the other hand was noticably struglling, holding her sword at the grip and the middle of the blade, trying to not cut herself. all of a sudden, the male spun his right foot and swung the blade upward. this caused the girl to fall back onto the ground. the male shethed his blade and looked at the girl.

                   "did you see how easy i did that?" he said. "have you learned nothing in the past year seince you left?"

                   the girl sat on the ground for a moment, putting away her sword and scratching her back side. she got up, wiping the debre off of her and looked at the male. " i dont understand why you cant see the positives of my training" she stated. "i did block the blow. and with the strength you were using and the speed you used, it was impresive that i blocked it, you have to admit. plus, im only 12! what do you want from me? some legendary warrior that could survive the calamity?"

                    the male turned around. "enough bayras. lets continue." with that, the male kept walking. bayras droped her head and sighed before fallowing.

                    they walked for another couple hours before reaching the edge of the forest. they then stood in a vast meadow where the grain swayed with the wind. there wasent a cloud in the sky, wtch intensified the already intense sun. they stoped to look around. the male kept both hands on his katanas while squnting to see. bayras put her hands over her eyes to see. they looked around before bayras spoke up.

                     "hey zig" she said while pointing in the distence keeping one hand over her eyes "isent that a town?". the male looked to her and then in the distence. it was hard for him to see but he did notice it. it was probly about 1 to 2 miles away.

                     "lets go" zig said, and started walking with bayras in tow.

  it was a travelers town. the town was very small. it only had a couple buildings and was less then a football feild. ment only for people to stop in, get supplies and and refresh themselves. zig and bayras stopped in to the travelers store to restock on things like rope, rations and many other things.  after that, they stopped into the taveren, it was a typical bar. bards, drunks, fluzzies, and adventurers. zig looked to bayras and took out some gold. "go get me some water and what ever you want"

                    bayras walked to the bar as zig sat down at a table and put down his bag down to scrownge around it. he took out a large map and spred it across the table. as he planed the course for their next venture and training sessions, bayras was at the bar getting th grub. drunks littered the bar and it would take some time for the food and drinks to come so she settled on a stool and looked around. she saw a sleeping drunk on th floor, a bard tuning his lute, and other "flavorfull people". one person in particular caught her attention. a man with pitch black skin. he was bald and very old, maybe late 70's. he was garbed in purple and gold cloth robes. there was a halberd leaned on the bar next to him as he wrote in a journal. she thought for a moment as to why he would catch her attention. he was old, he looked wise and strong, like a leader. then, it hit her. "jixis?" she stated. she walked over to him. he dident notice her as she approched. she stopped and thought to herself. "if it is him, i need to show him respect". she knelt down and bowed her head. "elder jixis, it is an honor" she stated.

                   jixis heard this and looked around befor looking at bayras. he looked at her with confution. "lift your head, young one." his voice was elderly and exteremly deep. bayras lifted her head to look at him. "ah, child, what brings you to this little town?"

                   bayras lept up to speak to her elder. "me and zig have been traveling the world, training and getting stronger".

                   jixis's face lit up at zig's name. "hoho! zig is here, you say?" he said with great cheer in his voice. "fetch him, if you would/" bayras shouted to zig whom then looked at her waving him over. he got up from planing to walk over to them, not noticing jixis.

                  "where is the water bayras?" he asked

                  " worried about the small stuff i see" jixis said.  zig looked to him with immedite distrust and slight anger.

                  "bow to show respect." bayras said as she bowed again.

                  zig stayed standing. "what are you doing out of the tribe? sick of all the responcability?"

                  "well, after you and bayras left, i got a little curious as to what is out there myself, so i left as well. its maybe my last years. i need to spend them as i like" jixis put his stuff into his bag."so, what have you been up to?"

                   "i really do my own thing these days" zig said with a bit of resentment. "i dont really care  to discuse it with you"

                   "wow" said jixis said as he droped his bag, got up, and strapped his halbrid to his back. "so much resentment for nothing.what have i done to you? and is that anyway to talk to your master?"

                    "im just not all that into the old people of the tribe anymore. they spat stuff out at us that i just dont agree with anymore."

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                    "am i doing it now?"

                    "well, i guess not. but your not my master anymore."

                     jixis sighed. "well, if you have nothing more to say to me, i guess i should take my leave, im done with my things here " he picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "it is kinda late anyways" it was dusk." this is time for my leave. good by to you, zig" he then looked down to bayras, who was still bowing. "and you too, young one."

                     jixis left and a moment later, zig looked down to bayras, still bowing but looking at zig now. "get the food, then come back the table"

zig sat back down at the table and started charting again as bayras got the food and brought it over to zig. she distribude it evnly between them, zig not noticing the food, and then sat down to read a book she had just came in position of. it was a black, leather bound book, with a large purple sphere on the front  she opened it and started reading only to relize she couldent understand a word. it was written in compleate jibberish to her. she fliped through the pages to check for any words she could read and found none. puzzled, she asked zig aboout it.

"hey zig, what dose this say?" she said holding the book towereds him. he lifted his head to look and was puzzled by the book as much as bayras was. he put his pen down and took the book to read. though he couldent read it either, he did know of the dialect. with a courious look he flipped though the book wondering where it came from.

"where did this come from?"

"i snatched it from jixis while he was talking to you"

"this is the language of the elders in our tribe. only they were ever permitted to learn it."

"then how do you know it?"

"well, i cant read it, but i have seen it before."  zig closed the book and gave it back to bayras. "nice theft work". he then went back to charting.

"well, we cant read it, why keep it?"

zig shrugged, not looking up. "well, if you dont want it, leave it here"

"well, why not get it translated?"

zig chucked at that. "hehe, how do you sapose we do that? find jixis and ask him politely to translated the book we stole? haha"

"bring it back to the tribe. have mayts translate it"

zig tilted his head back with his eyes closed to laugh. bayras was a little off put and begrugined by it. "whats wrong with that idea?!" she said.

zig stopped laughing and looked to her with surprise on his face, and in a serious tone said "you think its as easy as just walking in?"

"why not?" she said with a shrug.

"bayras, we are outsiders from the tribe now. they would kill us on sight!"

"oh it cant be that bad. they would probly imprison us."

"no, ive worked gaurd duty. the first thing your told is to kill all intruders on sight."

"but we are not intruders! we are from that tribe!"

"not anymore, according to them"

"but......"

"no buts. we cant go and thats final. i did not leave just to go back and get killed by them." zig looked back down to map their course. bayras looked back down t the book with a mad face. a minute later, she spoke back up. "what if we sneak in?"

"no"

"why not?"

"they will find us"

"no they wont, not with your sneaking talents. and especially with your sneaking boots." (the boots were enanched to make the wearer better at sneaking.)

"i said no"

bayras started raising her voice." look, you are the one who always tells me where to go, what to do and o forth. maybe i should get a little say. and i say we go get this book translated!"

"calm down!" zig boldly stated to her

"NO! we're doing this!"

zig turned his head towerds her. his face was now a surprised look and sighd. "wow you really want this, dont you?"

a worried look came over her face. "zig, i have a bad feeling about this. why would jixis leave shortly after you left? hell, he's the one who told you to leave! something has to be up and this book has to have those answers." everything she said made sence. zig leaned back and sighed to ponder the situation. after a pause, bayras spoke up again. "i know you have to wonder whats in there too"

zig shifted through all the thoughts now scrambled around his head. he couldent come to an end. he knew if he went back, he would most likly get killed. but a bad feelig crept into him. maybe bayras was right. he looked at the map to locate where the tribes location was and after some serching found it. he then did some math in his head and then said to bayras "it will be a 2 week travel from here. if your up for dying, i guess we'll go"

bayras got very excited and happy, almost jumping for joy. "yes! yes! lets do it!"

zig shook his head then packed his things up. "if we are going, we have to go now. finish your food and lets head out." they finshed up everything then headed outside, where it was about 5 or 6 now, and headed out to their childhood home.

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its been 2 weeks seince zig and bayras saw jixis and took his journal. after the long, uneventfull walk , they now stood at the edge of a large, seemingly endless meadow and an extreamly dense forest. so dense, it was almost semmingly impenerichble. it was just now getting dark, maybe around 7. zig began to step forward, then stopped and looked back to bayras, who was still standing back looking attentive, waiting for zig. "we're here. you cant be distracted by anything. the gaurd could be anywhere in the forest you need to pay attention to EVERYTHING. do you understand?"

she nodded and they proceeded. the only way to travle through the forest was the climb the trees and travel from branch to branch. they clmbed as high as they could, to near the top of the trees, but they were still covered by the brush. stealthfully but fast, they moved through the forest. their eyes never stopped scanning the surronding area, checking for anything hazzerdous. zig and bayras moved very close with each other, witch was good.

zig stopped to perch on a branch as bayras was scanning and dident see him. she attempeted to jump again only to be caught at the the coller by zig. he pulled her up to the branch as she was coughing and he covered her mouth. he spoke to her very quitly. "shhh. we're here. look" he said as he pointed down to a large camp with many tents. it was their childhood home. they place where they grew up and learned most of their abilitys. "you need to stay here while i go and look for mayts."

"but i....."

"not this time. i need to go alone on this. after you loose sight of me, climb down and hide in the brush. they  almost never look there. stay low, and you should be fine." he clmbed down behind a tent and tried to stay low and in the shadows. being patiant, he steped out, staying close to the tents and only going faster then needed when he was out in the open. it was probly now around 8, and the gaurd were all out on patrol. he quickly steped past all of them while making his way to the center of the camp, where the elder's tent was.

it was the largest tent in the camp, and was adorned with decorations. however, something was off. it was the middle of the camp, a sort of metting place. there was normaly people around with many attractions at this time. but today, there was nothing. there we're only 5 people around, and all 5 were gaurds. zig tossed this around in his head as he crept in between the tents. he approched the elders tent. there were 2 gaurds out in front. he looked for a way to distract them and found that the clasic, "distract with a rock" tactic would work.  he picked up a small stone and tossed it accross the camp. though he dident hear it land, they did, they walked away to investigate giving zig enough time to slip into the tent. still low and in the shadows. he stuck his head around a corner to see. it was dark, but he made out 2 figures in candlelight, one sitting at a desk and the other standing next to the other. he quitly walked just into the room and stopped just inside the door. he then stopped and stood up. "mayts. i need your help."

"im a little busy right now. get back to patrol now." said the man who was standing.

zig walked over to the other side of the sitting man while pulling out the journal. he put it on th table. "i need this translated, now." mayts and the sitting one both looked at the book with curiosity, and then at zig. the sitting one still looked confused, but mayts was shocked to see the tribe's warrior protage, who' m had left over a year ago.

"zig!" mayts gasped. the sitting man instintly looked terrified and tried to run but mayts grabed him and pulled him to his side. mayts had a complection very simaler to jixis, but with a full head of gray hair.

just then, two gaurds walked into the tent holding a girl, kicking and trying to escape. "master" one of the gaurds said "we found this girl out on the peremiter, and not in her tent."

"release her at once, then back to your dutys." mayts commanded. they released bayras and she fell to the ground. she stayed there on her hands and knees trying to catch her breath, she got up and look at the gaurds with a mad look and then walked over to zig's side.

as the gaurds left, mayts picked up the book. "so, what was soo important that you had risk your life just to see me?" he said as he opened the book and looked at the opening page.

before zig could speak up, bayras spoke. "well, it was my idea. you see, i stool that from jixis an...."

mayts gasped interupting bayras. "you got this from him?!"

"yes" bayras said. mayts looked at the other man and handed him the book, not bothering to close it.

"get this translated. i want it before the nights end." the man took the book into another room and mayts looked at the warriors. " you two can come with me.