Kato proceeded to go back to sleep when Ulam left in order to gain his strength and to be prepared for his lessons later on.

“Wake up little Kato.” Ulam’s aged voice is heard along with the shaking of Kato’s body. Lazily the boy’s eyes open.

Ulam is holding another wooden bowl and wooden cup filled with purple Kruy and water, which Kato proceeds to wolf down.

Once the food is finished and the utensils packed away Ulam brings a big 2m in length by 1m in width piece of Blackstone which was resting against the side of the wall on the left hand side of the door to the abandoned shack, as the name suggests it is a flat piece of stone in the colour black.

Kato with his strength replenished to a certain extent is able to slowly sit up and look around properly. The building he is in has 4 walls, 1 window on the south facing building that has been broken and a door to the right of the window. On the floor next to Ulam’s bag is a black pelt and at the top of the pelt a pillow, which is most likely Ulam’s bed, once more the building does indeed have no roof.

“don’t worry little Kato, we won’t do this for very long I believe that your strength is not fully there yet ok?” says Ulam with his trademark warm smile.

“Ok” says Kato in a relatively hoarse voice.

“let’s start with simple Jiaquon. Jiaquon is the native language to the people of the Jiaquo continent, a continent is a large landmass and the Jiaquo continent as you may have deduced is the continent on which we are residing.

From history scrolls we can infer that our language was established 130,000 years ago, with the previous inhabitants speaking a variety of languages. This was until the first Grunkarr Emperor, Makar I conquered the continent and enforced a law which the common language would be the Messar language, later changed to Jiaquon.

Most people have the ability to speak Jiaquon however in the secular world the nobility are typically the ones who can write and speak fluently. If we take you for example you can most likely speak Jiaquon but have a very limited understanding when it comes to reading the letters and words of it, is this true?” Ulam finishes his relatively ambiguous talk about the history of the continent with a question and a smile.

“Yes.” Kato who is shocked with his mouth open can only utter one small word quietly after being told about the very vague history of the continent.

“Don’t worry child it will be fine, the Jiaquon language has 26 letters and relatively strict principles in the way in which it is written, but this will be covered later on, for now let us start by teaching you the forms of the 26 letters and their capitalisations.”

Ulam pulls out a piece of wood that is an odd shape. It has a point at the bottom made from what looks like a greyish metal that expands outwards by about a cm it then continues straight in a cylindrical shape by two and a half inches then curves downwards by another 2 inches but in a flat oval like shape.

“This is what is now as a pencil it is used to write on things” says Ulam who proceeds to write the 26 letter on one row then below them the 26 capitalised versions.

A little bit of time later Ulam who was absorbed into teaching Kato says with an apologetic look on his face “Little Kato it has been an hour and 45 minutes we should stop now, to allow you to digest the information from today. I’m sorry I went over the time limit.”

Kato who looks a tired a little from physical exhaustion but mainly from mental exhaustion says “Please don’t apologise Master Ulam, but I am getting tired I didn’t know that being taught can be quite tiring.”

“hehehehehe, that’s right little Kato but don’t get lazy I will teach you quite a bit from now on. I have also had this teaching and the basics are boring I know, but consider it as a building you need a foundation of boringness in order to get to the more important stuff, some of it is highly interesting whilst others are complex and will not be used for what you do in the future.” Ulam states with a light laugh.

Ulam notes that Kato’s condition is a little bit better now and decides to cook something tastier and nutritious. He walks to his duffle bag and pulls out a piece of see through wrapping containing a piece of meat, he starts the fire and places the meat on a Blacksteel pan.

Kato watches this with his mouth salivating from just seeing meat, he watches as Ulam throws all sorts of strange ingredients in the pan with a confused look on his face which disappears a few moments later when an extremely fragrant smell appears.

Once Kato smells this saliva spills from the corner of his mouth uncontrollably whilst his stomach is rumbling with a loud sound, embarrassed he wipes away the saliva and bows his head slightly but not too much that he can’t see the process of the meat being cooked.

Ulam he noticed let out a little laugh and then laughed a bit more noticing his actions.

A little while later the food is finished and placed on a wooden plate, Ulam pulls out some eating utensils, commonly known as a knife and fork, and begins to cut up the piece of meat into small pieces so that Kato doesn’t need to waste energy doing so himself.

Once this is done the plate is then give to Kato, who has slightly red eyes noticing the care the old man who hasn’t known him for long has given him.

Kato looks at the plate and sees small chunks of brown meat that is a little pink on the inside, pouring out the meat are red juices with the colours of the ingredients. To Kato this looks like a feast fit for a king.

He slowly begins to eat and places the first piece of meat in his mouth, when he bites into it, it is like eating butter. The meat itself is very tender and is cooked to perfection. The taste can only be described as extraordinary in that the juices flow into the corners of the mouth, it gives the urge of wanting to chew it even though you would like to savour it’s taste.

Kato quickly devours it and when it is finished he looks at the empty plate with lonely and heartbroken eyes.

Ulam noticing this takes the plate away with a laugh “That’s enough Khasa meat for today, it won’t be good for your body to suddenly gain a lot of calories.”

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He washes the plate with a wave of his finger and with another he fills up two cups of water, one is given to Kato whilst Ulam drinks the other himself.

Kato quickly finishes the water and asks Ulam “What is a Khasa?”

“A Khasa is an animal that is extremely common on the Jiaquo continent, it is a domestic animal that has two heads with a horn on the left side of the left head and one on the right side of the right head, it has four legs, a long body and a big bushy tail. It is raised in farms and harvested for meat and fur. You blanket is made out of a Khasa, it is very soft and comfortable and if it is made be an expert it can be a top quality blanket.” Ulam explains with a smile.

Kato examines his blanket and does indeed notice the neat stitching and can testify to its comfortableness and warmth himself.

Kato with slightly reddened eyes looks at Ulam’s smiling face and asks “Why are you so nice to me?” in a broken voice.

“Why?” Ulam asks ponderingly with a smile “The reason as to why I am here being because of the recent war, I came here by my own volition to aid not the soldiers but the civilians, the ones who are affected the most.

I have been here for about a year and have helped many, but I have only been in Zareth for about a week. As I was walking through District 3 I found you on the floor and decided to help you.”

Kato begins to cry, he remembers his father, who was a soldier. He was only cannon fodder at the frontlines so he is most likely dead. He remembers when the red armoured horsemen rode into his village. They killed the men, raped the women, enslaved the children and burned the buildings to the ground.

His mother hid him and his brother under the bed in their bedroom. A few moments after being hidden, men charged through the door and attacked his mother. they ransacked the house and when they got to the room where he and his little brother Airin were hiding, Kato’s heart stopped and his back felt cold from fear.

“Step, step, step” from under the bed Kato can see metal boots approaching, his brother is then suddenly pulled out and dragged out the room, whilst screaming and crying.

Kato, too shocked and scared to do anything lays there and doesn’t help his little brother, whilst a downfall of tears spills from his eyes. He knows that the soldier knew someone was hiding but not how many were hiding.

“AHHH” the sound of a man making a Deep yell is heard and the scream of a little child follows.

…

A short while later some kind of black smoke comes from under the door. Kato realises that it is smoke and that the house is on fire. He quickly rolls from under the bed and rushes to the door. As he goes to open it he pulls it slowly so that if there are soldiers remaining in the house they won’t notice him.

He pulls the door enough for him to see through, no one is standing there and there is a raging fire on the walls and the ceiling. He runs through and rushes to the window to see the rest of the village.

Chaos. That is all it can be described as, chaos. There are corpses of villagers on the floor fires are raging and soldiers are running about.

Kato ducks and crouch walks to the door, as he approaches he notices two large lumps on the floor to the side of the door. As he gets close his face becomes pale and his eyes leak tears uncontrollably.

His mother’s corpse with her legs spread open, tear stains on her face is there lying face up with her throat cut. His little brother who he had left is next to her a large slash mark from the top left of his chest to the bottom left of his stomach, and blood in his mouth.

Kato drops to his knees in pain and with his arm shaking uncontrollably reaches to close the eyes and mouths of his family. When he closes his brother’s mouth he notices it is bleeding but there are no cuts. Most likely his brother bit his captor as he dragged him away and out of anger he killed him.

Kato looks at their corpses with empty eyes and with great effort stands on his legs and walks to the door staggeringly. Because the soldiers destroyed it he can walk out easily.

As he walks out the house he turns right and sprints towards the trees hoping to escape. “THWACK” a loud noise is heard to his left and when Kato stops running to see it, he sees a red arrow.

“25 Tais to the one who is able to shoot the kid” says a voice behind Kato laughingly.

Kato who heard this thinks of nothing and carries on sprinting with all his strength to the trees. “THWACK, THWACK, THWACK” the sound of arrows continuously hitting the floor around him is heard.

20 metres away the sound of horses can be heard galloping towards him, Kato pushes everything into his little legs and slowly accelerates.

By the time he reaches the trees the horses are 10 metres away. The commander noticing, he escaped makes a grunt and the men turn around.

Kato not knowing this carries on running.

He runs and runs and runs until he collapses.

A short while later he wakes up, exhausted lying there for a good half hour to regain his strength he slowly gets up and walks tiredly in the direction of the black smoke in the sky.

10 minutes later the charcoal ruins of the village can be seen, Kato anticipating this outcome speeds up a little looking for survivors.

He looks everywhere, the centre the north side, the east side, the south and finally the west.

Nothing, no one.

He musters his courage to walk to his house and see his family once more.  Walking up the step into the main room he notices the two lumps that are his mother and brother.

The only difference is that now … they are blackened lumps.

Kato cries … he cries until he physically cannot cry and only his body is shaking. He drops to the floor hugging their corpses.

“MOOOOMMM … MOOOOMMM ... AIRIN … I’M SORRY … I LEFT YOU … I COULD’VE … HELPED … I COULD’VE … STALLED THEM …”

Kato screaming at the top of his lungs whilst shacking uncontrollably faints from sheer pain and mental exhaustion.

“Klop, Klop, Klop” he is woken by the sounds of hooves and assumes it is the red armoured raiders. Heartbroken and desolate Kato walks out the house unsteadily ready to die.

“Captain, we have a survivor her a young boy” when Kato hears this he looks at hi soon to be murderers and his mouth opens from shock.

The small group of horseman are wearing light blue armour and are searching throughout the village, most likely as the soldier says “looking for survivors”

The captain is a man on a white horse he has a small build and a bald head. He approaches Kato and says “don’t worry boy it will be fine now”.

Kato rather than being happy about being saved, feels nothing and in a desolate tone devoid of any emotion says “Fine … how is this fine … look around nothing Is fine … we were attacked by red armoured soldiers … you weren’t even here to save anyone … how is any of this going to be fine”

The soldiers and the captain who hear this, look down they feel shame and guilt.  They feel it is their fault for this chaos. The captain walks to the boy “I am sorry boy; we weren’t able to come in time. Please allow us to take you to Zareth with the other refugees from the villages.”

“it’s fine.” Says Kato in that unbearably emotionless voice “please kill me … I wish to end this … I wish to see my brother and mother and father … please”.

The soldiers are shocked and impacted emotionally and mentally by what Kato says. “Ok” says the captain. He walks to Kato and hit him on the head knocking him out.

The captain picks him up and puts him on his horse, looks at his men and says “Let us return to Zareth.”