Two years passed, and their childhood carried on hand in hand. Every day they managed, one way or another, to meet up at the same spot on the wall. For what lasted two hours, they turned into countless cherished memories. Conversations ensued about the world beyond, what little tales they were able to pick up from those that spoke of it in the streets. Particularly elder warriors who found rest from their glory days.

Between commitment to training with their respective blood-bound authority and traditional rules, they continued to further their friendship. Time spent playing at the wall a pleasant break from the normal ensembled routine. Sweat-slicked skin from relentless training dried by the cool breeze that wafted up from the crater’s valley.

It was almost the perfect friendship. Almost.

Kiyo continued to pay the price for each visit to the wall. Every hour absent from his father’s presence a toll had to be paid upon entrance home. The punishment soon became customary, expected as Kiyo’s rapid skipping pace simmered down by the time he arrived back home. Feet dragged over the threshold, he removed his shirt and tossed it upon the floorboards. No verbal pleadings for forgiveness were offered, only his bare scarred back. Destruction of the flesh was the cost of Kiyo’s continued sinful disobedience. His way to make amends, to atone.

Fwish!

Each slash was hand delivered by the one who granted him life: his father. Ronin.

Fwish!

Yet with time, Kiyo grew accustomed to hiding his wounds beneath the tan toother-woven-hide overshirt that almost clung to his skin. Dried blood splotches stained the tattered fabric, his sole shirt the bearer of his agony. A sign of his acceptance of the life he was dealt.

Ayame’s worries went unheard by the high priest. The council was helpless to stop it as they had the utmost respect for Ronin. His past warrior achievements and continued penance were enough to sweep this problem under the rug from the public eye. Kiyo’s voice went unheard, wounds and agony forgotten, the Paladinian people left in the dark.

As Kiyo persisted in meeting his friend his treatment at home only worsened. Training became a living nightmare, some days Kiyo was unable to even make the journey. His legs beaten until it merely hurt to take a step. After every session, his muscles were ruptured and bones splinted. He was helpless.

Daisuke never knew it was even happening. His innocence dwelled within him under the love of his parents. Wanting to encourage his desire to explore, they permitted his expeditions out to see Kiyo, to give him some company. Yet gradually his over-energetic joy shrouded in the presence of his friend took notice of what he simply used to ignore. Kiyo’s misery.

Suspicion surmounted into the obvious. Day after day, the slight hints of worry broadened across Daisuke’s face as he watched Kiyo repeatedly collapse at the same slope on the hill up to the wall. The signs of his inevitable fall were easily seen through. Kiyo’s legs wobbled and gave out beneath him as the pain became too much to bear. A hollow groan was all that Daisuke heard upon Kiyo’s collapse.

Thump.

“Kiyo, did you fall?” Daisuke called out as he strolled back over to the usual spot. “Again?”

“I tripped.” Kiyo babbled out as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. But even that was a significant task to accomplish, all of his limbs riddled with violent shakes. His body was pushed to the brink of sustainability. Too weak, too sore, and too worn out to do anything about it.

“Don’t lie. You’re not supposed to lie.” Daisuke asserted with a rigid point of his finger.

Silence swept in with the wind between them, blades of vass so effortlessly tossed by the subtle swish of the cool air. Overhead ashy clouds drifted by, their shadows cast down upon the scene below them. The split amity over an issue far larger than either of the boys could ever anticipate.

Fed up with the questions, Kiyo huffed out a congested breath and shook his head.

“I’m . . . not lying.”

“Yes, you are.” Daisuke sighed and pointed to the scars on Kiyo’s back.

“I’m not.” Kiyo propelled himself off the ground and back upright with a little quiver of his legs. “See?” Skin dusted off, Kiyo picked up the pace and headed off toward the base of the wall. Daisuke left to watch his friend grind his teeth with every agonizing step. To endure the anguish alone.

That’s how the conversation on that topic always ended. Kiyo, entrenched in denial, was tied down by fear of what would happen if others found out. Unable to fathom what his father would do to him. Every wince of neglected pain was yet an insignificant price to pay for the happiness he experienced with Daisuke.

But as with all things, age crept upon them. The time for their accession grew near, the day of the blessed change dawning on them. Now each seven years old, only two years remained until their training would begin. Four years until the Sun would undergo its drastic polar shift into a darkened crimson. Nine until the day a few children of the newly marked generation would be chosen to become Sun Kissed Warriors. A blessed day when they would discover their divine purpose.

Their lives underwent rapid changes as Daisuke became an older brother to Misumi, a delightful petite girl who quickly idolized her big brother. Kiyo shrouded away from any attention and hid even further from the public eye. Stomped out of focus by his father’s grasp on his entire life, Kiyo found peace in Daisuke. Through it all, they both grew to understand each other and the world around them. Both equally brimmed with excitement for the day they would be able to travel the world and leave Nippon behind.

Until then, they explored what they could with their eyes gazing at the horizon until they could trace it all by hand from memory. The ends of the earth were their domain to explore. It was their destiny to conquer it all.

“Kiyo!” Daisuke yelled with a hole poked grin as he waved to his friend below.

Sat atop the wall, Daisuke’s hair blew in the wind as he enjoyed the midday view. The Sun’s presence overhead was too overwhelming to ignore by any means. Their pale skin covered for protection against the imminent light.

“I’m coming. I’m coming!” Kiyo shouted back as he took off down the hill. The instant he laid his roughed palms on the base of the wall the next position was instinctual. Where to grab, his footing, and how far up to boost himself were all ingrained within his mind. The layout of stones and notches in the wood integrated into his muscle memory.

Reaching the top, Daisuke helped lift Kiyo onto the weathered gray wooden beam. He plopped himself down with a subtle agitated sigh beside Daisuke. His back was still sore from his early morning spars with Ronin, joints stiff and muscles aching. A series of long-winded fights beneath the rising Sun with training deadwood staffs his father’s form of waking up in the morning.

“So tired,” Kiyo exclaimed as leaned back and collapsed onto the wall top.

“Okay. But hear me out.” Daisuke scooted closer to Kiyo and gestured down toward the valley with a wild gleam in his eye. “What if we did something different today?” With a sudden burst of air, Daisuke let the words roll off his tongue. An alluring twist on his tone.

Daisuke couldn’t contain his excitement, joy raised his face as the idea sat within him. His body rocked side to side, anticipating an answer. The desire to finally build up the nerve and step out of the confinement of their village. To not just sit and stare, but do something more.

“Like three rotations ago when we went to the north wall?” Kiyo questioned.

“No. That was fun though.” Daisuke reminisced in the memory for a moment, a day spent ducking and running from guardians, but he shook it out. “But no. I mean bigger.”

“Oka,” Kiyo responded nervously, his smile squandered by the mysteriousness of what Daisuke meant. What else was bigger than that?

“Go to the market and just ask around for what people have seen?”

“No. Think bigger.” Daisuke said as he stretched his arms out wide, his smile growing by the second. Kiyo sat up and rested his chin on his right palm. He sent his mind into a deep state of thought, eyes narrow and lips curled inward as he stared into the distance for an answer.

Hmm.

“Ask the high priest?”

“Even. Bigger.” Daisuke echoed with a broadened joyful stare, mouth perched open with a toothy loose smile.

Kiyo smushed his face between his fists and contemplated what the answer could be. His mind raced through everything they had planned to do until their training truly began. Too young to sort through them all one by one. Yet he only grew more doubtful of what Daisuke meant, Kiyo’s previous answers the biggest he could think of, except one.

The thought of it alone sent a shudder through Kiyo’s chest. Nerves heightened as his hair stood up on edge, he turned and locked eyes with Daisuke.

“Wait. You don’t mean-”

“Let’s go—down there.” Daisuke pointed down at the dead forest at the base of the valley.

The environment was a secluded area of dry land composed of mostly gray rocky soil. Sat atop the land laid a deadwood forest; ash gray scorched trees that bore tepid light yellow leaves year-round. Their hardened and malleable wood allowed the Nippon village to use it freely for anything from weaponry to housing. Its sturdiness and long-lasting strength proved useful to their progression as a species. As a clan.

This forest sat in the middle of a circular cliffside valley, a crater that scaled up around it to the edges of the village. The land was paved for travel to and from the forest for the resources that grew within it. Creatures and the selection of dreary but vile plant life that dwelled in the desolate forest made it a hostile place for those unprepared. A prime example the boys themselves.

“Dai. You know that’s forbidden, right?”

Kiyo’s imposed thought was taken with a grain of salt as Daisuke pouted at the bitter truth. Brushed off with a click of his tongue, he slapped Kiyo on the back. The sudden impact forced Kiyo to firmly grasp onto the side of the wall for support.

“They just say that. We’ll be fine!” Daisuke peered around the wall for a second and then cupped his mouth close to Kiyo’s ear. “I heard there are Sun stones there.”

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“Really?” Kiyo said skittishly.

“Really. And it’d only be a short trip. One turn there, and one turn back. That’s it.” Daisuke insisted with both pointer fingers raised in the air.

“I guess. But you have to promise me something.”

“Awww, whaat?” Daisuke groaned as he laid flat back on the wall, hands hanging over the edge.

“If we see them, we leave.”

“Who?” Daisuke sat back upright and pondered for a moment. “Oh, you mean the teratomas?” Daisuke chuckled with a wry grin.

“Shake on it,” Kiyo demanded, eyes narrowed and locked in on Daisuke.

Curiosity stood at the edge of Daisuke’s brain, its presence prompting him to seek out the gruesome beast. To see first-hand the stories told and written to him by warriors in Nippon. To find out why they feared it the most.

From what he could imagine through the words entailed to him, the creature itself was a grotesque sturdy bag of cancerous flesh with randomly ingrown jagged teeth that stumbled through the woods. Some held the appearance of similar yet bloated humans, but their lack of consciousness proved that wrong. They had no emotions, only instinct. Those close enough to be seen from the village were mostly lanky sluggish beasts. While nothing compared to the lethality of the cave stalkers, they were dangerous nonetheless.

“But what if—”

“Shake on it,” Kiyo repeated without a sling flinch in his arm or waver in his voice.

Regardless, Daisuke desired to see them in action. To watch them move, from afar of course. But under the strict gaze of Kiyo, Daisuke crumbled and gave in to his demand. He slumped forward as his knuckles drag across the splintered wooden beams.

“Fine. We’ll leave if we see anything.” Daisuke croaked with a frog-like sigh. “No fun.”

“It’ll still be fun,” Kiyo said gratefully. A smile peeked through the edges of his lips as he shoved his hand closer to Daisuke. Pointer and middle finger extended in custom to their handshake, a cultural greeting of the Paladinian people.

Daisuke stuck out his tongue and rolled his eyes at Kiyo’s notion of fun. Kiyo extended his hand out a little further and waited, fingers jammed into Daisuke’s side. Fingers shoved in deeper, Kiyo gave them a little wiggle.

“Stop, you know that—tickles!” Daisuke whimpered as Kiyo continued the onslaught.

“Shake it then.”

“Okay, okay!” Daisuke stuck out his two fingers and slid them over Kiyo’s. Clutched together they lifted their hands into the air. Releasing their grip on each other, Daisuke couldn’t help but smile back. His head shook from side to side as he turned to face the valley with Kiyo.

It was agreed. Did and done. All that remained was the trip down to the woods. The run there would not be much more than a short jog after they descended into the crater.

But it was time.

Unseen and unknown, the two boys scurried off down the wall. Adapted to the long stretches of the flat surface from the two years they met, the drop-off wasn’t anything too difficult.

The guardians posted above within the confinements of an overlooking tower took no notice of the two boys scaling down the exterior wall. Their attention remained focused on the surrounding lands, the edges of the cliffsides that scrapped away at the valley within. No attention, in the slightest, was paid to the two young Paladinians running off to play in the woods. They were kids who would suspect them to attempt such a thing?

Dodging their sight behind clusters of rocks and in the tall dry vass, they made it to the edge of the cliffside. All that now stood in their way was the two-hundred-foot drop-off. Essentially a straight nosedive into the singed vass below.

“Uhm. What now?” Kiyo asked as he bit his tongue.

“It shouldn’t be too hard. Just like the wall.” Daisuke replied with a friendly jab at Kiyo’s shoulder.

Daisuke and Kiyo slowly scaled down the cliffside to the valley below. Carefully they checked each divot and crevasse in the wall before they shoved their foot or hand in. Their caution was drawn out by the sliver of terror that a scorch-roach nest could be nestled inside. The dank moist crawl spaces were their natural breeding grounds.

The pronged and sturdy holes in the rock made the climb far easier than expected as they reached the bottom before even a half-turn. Each jumped down with a little poof of dust as the vass snapped under their weight against the crusty earth.

Crunch! Crunch!

Feet planted onto the gravelly rock soil, they took a second to take in the moment and catch their breath. They were almost there, a short run from the woods foretold of to hold grandeur wonders.

“That wasn’t that bad, I think,” Daisuke said proudly.

“Yeah.” Kiyo paused as he peered around, the atmosphere in the crater a little foggier than it seemed from above. “Does it seem quiet to you?”

Daisuke took a second to look around and spotted the usual rope and pulley elevator that consistently lowered workers into the valley. But no one was using it, instead, it sat at the top of the cliffside, motionless. No soul in sight on the road to the woods either. It was an empty canyon. A graveyard in the sense.

This only enthused Daisuke as the excitement creased his delicate pale face. Shrugging off the concern, he strutted past Kiyo. His softened leather coar cloak brushed against Kiyo’s bare arm, the stitching sending a little pinch of pain across his supple skin.

“Even better then. Look, we have the whole pathway to ourselves.” Daisuke exclaimed as he gestured toward the paved walkway to the woods.

“I guess so,” Kiyo replied with another glance at their surroundings.

“C’mon let’s go! Race you there!”

“H-hey, wait up!”

Daisuke dashed further down the hill to the forest dead ahead at the center of the crater. His ragged cream-white cloak flapped in the wind against his body with each bountiful stride taken. Kiyo, eager not to be left behind, took off after him.

Racing one another, they darted through the vastelly, wavy yellow-tinted vine-like grasslands that sprouted up at the base of the valley. The steep gritty hillside escalation cut off to a flat plane of vass as the duo darted to the forest.

Coars watched as the boys ran past them, chewing on the long crinkled blades. Their large sturdy brown blotched black fur bodies were unfazed by the duo. Snouts, quick to dive back into the meal below to sustain their massive bodies, gobbled up the necessary energy equivalent to a rhinoceros.

The boys blackened feet skated through the fields, the vines unable to grab hold of them. Each step to light and swift as they left behind slight indents in the vass. The small discolored bends were like snow prints beneath their tarnished skin. Yet the boys paid no attention to Earth's fickle attempt to latch onto them, minds carried on by pure bliss. Running wild and free.

Poof! Poof! Poof!

Daisuke glanced back in shock to see Kiyo already caught up to him, his pace biting at his heels. Cheeks rosy from exhaustion, Daisuke hiked into third gear as he took off in a dead sprint. Body drifting in the wind effortlessly. But it wasn’t enough.

Out of the corner of his eye, Daisuke felt his stomach drop. His pace and stamina simmered down. Forced to watch Kiyo casually cut past him, his face calm and collected. In that brief glimpse, Kiyo appeared unfazed by the race, only bits of sweat glazed on his forehead. He ran like it was nothing, effortless.

Reaching the treeline, Kiyo stopped to wait for a few seconds in the distance as Daisuke caught up. The difference between them was minor but enough for Daisuke to notice. To envy.

Daisuke panted for air as he leaned back into a tree. The gritty bark was a proper enough resting place as he leaned against it. His muscles yearned for a moment’s rest, worn out from the run. Yet his mind was still stuck on Kiyo’s sheer speed. The tiny amount of effort he appeared to put in to beat him.

“How—” Daisuke gasped for air and bent forward, elbows resting on his knees. “—are you so fast?”

“I didn’t think I was,” Kiyo said honestly, face tinted scarlet, flustered from the heat.

Kiyo looked up aimlessly into the sky and rubbed at his chin with his right hand. Deep in thought as he tried to make sense of Daisuke’s complement. Something he wasn’t used to; kindness. His bangs blew across his eyes as they hung down, a little twist in his lips from trying to figure it all out.

“I still can’t beat my father.”

How fast is he? Daisuke gawked in his mind, jaw unhinged at the very thought.

“Nevermind.” Regaining his composure, Daisuke stood upright and stepped over to Kiyo. “We’re here.”

Heaving in the heated air, they relished their arrival in the woods as they caught their breath. Daisuke, a little worse for wear, was beet red as sweat trickled down from his golden-tipped white hair. With perilous swipe after swipe, he was still unable to brush it all off.

“You ready?” Daisuke asked with a grin flashed over his shoulder. Kiyo nodded, lost for thought on what to say as he sucked in a hefty swig of air, his last breath outside the woods.

Turning away from the fields, the two stared deep into the lifeless gray woods. Dead ahead, a plentiful amount of sawn-down stumps laid out around them from the village’s harvest. The deeper they treaded in the more the trees crowded together and became compact. The boys' space to move around reduced to the edges of the paths already paved. Tight and claustrophobic.

They could both see the end of the main-battered path from the entrance. Broken in by the workers who commonly came down in groups to chop down the trees and keep a lookout for the beasts within, it only went in so far. Beyond that, the beasts reigned in control—the teratomas.

“Woah,” Daisuke uttered as he spun around in awe.

Kiyo was indifferent about the sight of it. A little alarm went off in the back of his head as he crept into the treacherous forest. Daisuke was too distracted to care about the thought of being afraid, but that was all Kiyo honed in on. His heart beat into his ribs as he focused on the lonesome echo of scattered gravel in the distance. Kiyo's mind was too rattled to pick up on the subtle natural beauties that were laid out in front of him. Nature’s essence was a beauty of the highest.

Countless long skinny dried ashen trees reached into the sky, their name designated by the Nippon chieftain of generations ago; deadwood. Despite its name and appearance, the lumber was far sturdier than any other within miles of the village. While the trees appeared menacing, their tender whistle from their mustard-colored canopy leaves soothed the soul of all passersby. Put all minds into an uneasy state of relaxation from the sweet sound.

“Listen to that, Kiyo,” Daisuke gasped as he closed his eyes and honed in on the delectable song that traveled within the air. “It’s so calming.”

“Y-Yeah. I-I think so.” Kiyo responded, eyes darting around to check for any sign of movement or hostility.

Daisuke glanced at Kiyo and saw a broadened dreadful glare in his eyes. Face crinkled in terror from the unknown horrors that lay beyond their sight. His fingers quivered as they stood there on the edge of another world. Nothing more than a new adventure in Daisuke’s mind.

“Let’s go see what’s up there!” Daisuke exclaimed as he sprinted off the path into the narrow gaps of the trees.

With a light shove, Daisuke spun around off Kiyo and dashed back further into the woods. Head tilted side to side, Daisuke waved for Kiyo to follow him further in.

To take the grand step forward into the woods.

To get lost in the moment.

To enjoy himself.

“Hey, Daisuke,” Kiyo called out as Daisuke continued to run further ahead, body almost out of sight between the trees.

Antsy to join him, Kiyo winced at the forlorn presence that echoed from all around, mind caught up in the world he feared to explore. Daisuke remained absent-minded about the outlandish noise. He was too impatient to think it out, caution simply thrown into the wind as curiosity embraced him.

“Wait. Do you hear that?” Kiyo whispered between cupped hands.

Silence was all that responded. Out of range, Daisuke ventured beyond Kiyo’s scope of sight, gone within the thick of the trees. But as the winds died down, the end of the sweet spring song dawned upon the woods. An eerie silence rolled in that carried on for miles on end. This bitter reality of the forest left to fill the air.

Then the silence was broken, obstructed by fear itself.

Footsteps. Running in every direction.

Kiyo spun around as he tried to spot the source, the creature stalking them. Faint crunches of leaves echoed in every which way yet nothing was seen. Kiyo glanced up at the trees for a hint of where it could be, a mere hint of the threat they were dealing with. But there was nothing in sight, not even Daisuke. They had become separated.

“Daisuke?” Kiyo muttered shakily, disturbed by the uncanny stillness.

It was far too quiet. A slight shudder rippled across Kiyo’s body, his nerves visibly triggered as he backed into a tree. But it wasn’t because of fear, the shaky emotions drawn out by worry for his friend. Lost and alone in the woods.

Craaaack!

“Daisuke!”