I watched my sister as well as a few dozen other children disappear down the western hallway from their tribe. I was happy that my sister was going to be safe with the prince in his city. I myself wished I would have gotten such an honor.

The parents and older siblings of the children dispersed, now having to get the tribe ready for the Shuffling. We didn’t know the exact date in which it would happen yet.

I had to get to my post as a watchman, making sure no monsters came in from any of the pathways of the Labyrinth.

I whittled a piece of wood, watching as the sun slowly reached for the peak of the skyline. My mind was at peace, despite the looming Shuffling for some reason I felt as though everything would be alright.

With only a few minutes left in my shift I let my knife slide across the wooden shaft of the stake I was carving. After this I would go back to my little hut, sure my sister wouldn't be there anymore but all would be well, once the Shuffling was over I-

Then the world righted itself. My hand slipped and my knife cut into my thumb.

What. The. Fuck.

I blinked rapidly, the constant repeating thought on the kind and benevolent prince and his glorious city fading from my mind. I had just let my sister be taken away. Someone had messed with my mind, manipulated it into believing the words of the prince.

Was there even a Shuffling happening? Why would they lie about that and why would they want the children.

Before our parents had died they had warned me not to trust anyone not of our tribe and for me to keep my sister safe. At the time I had thought they were being foolish. In the tribe sometimes fights happened but it wasn’t as though people were killing each other over little arguments.

But now some stranger had scooped up my sister.

Despite this I waited the couple of minutes until the next person took over my shift then ran straight for the elders tent.

I wasn't the only one that had regained their senses, all the families of those that were taken were there, yelling at the group of three elders waiting standing outside the tent.

On the left was Elder Oruk, the oldest man in the tribe. According to what I heard from the adults in the tribe he had two Rares and three Uncommon cards in his Hand. On the right was Elder Iris, she had three Rares and two Uncommon. Lastly was Oldie, I don’t know if that was her actual name or if that was just what everyone called her. She was, quite literally, a skeleton. Her eye sockets glowed with green light and I could see the tattooed card marks of her Hand on one of her ribs. One Uncommon, three Rares, and one Epic, identifiable by the green, blue and purple color of the tattoo’s respectively.

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“We need to get our children back!”

“I thought you said we could trust what they have to say? Why would they trick our minds if they wanted to help?”

“Fuck that, we need to kill that Prince, how dare he do this to us.”

Oruk stomped his foot onto the ground. I could feel the reverberations in my bones from the force.

“We cannot,” he said solemnly.

Cries of discontent echoed out in front of the tent.

“I am sorry, but we do not have the ability to contest with the Prince and his whole city. The card that messed with all of your minds was Rare, and it was not even the Prince who had it but one of his knights. Imagine our entire tribe going up against dozens, maybe hundreds of knights with a full Hand of Rare cards.”

“We don’t need to go up against hundreds,” I yelled out. “We just need to take care of the Prince and get our family back. They are not in the city yet so they won't have the full force behind them.”

Others shouted in agreement with me. Again we screamed for bloodshed and to get our family members back.

“Then let me put it like this, the Prince alone is likely able to kill anyone and everyone we send after him, just him alone.”

“Even with you three with us?” one woman asked.

“Yes I believe so. There is a reasonably good chance he has a Legendary card and it is all but guaranteed that he has at least four Epic cards that most likely synergize with one another.”

“So we just let them go?” another asked.

“We must prepare for the Shuffling, once that has passed we can come back to figure it out.”

“How do we know the Shuffling is even actually happening?”

“We ourselves learned of the Shuffling yesterday with Elder Iris’s Precognitive Dreams Card.”

I thought it was a bit suspicious that the elder dreamed of the Shuffling but not the Prince kidnapping all the kids, but I had no idea how her card worked.

Some people, myself included, tried to complain more, but the elders were having none of it. Eventually the crowd dispersed, but no one was happy.

I went back to our tent. It was small, I had traded the old one when my parents had died, myself and Misu not needing so much space.

I looked at the corner where Misu once had her belongings. She had taken her sleeping roll as well as a few personal belongings including a wooden doll that I had passed onto my sister after our parents had died.

There was no way I could leave my sister to the unknown, I didn’t care if I went against the wishes of our tribes Elders. I would let the entire FallingBird tribe go up in flames before I let that happen.

I packed my own gear, food, clothes, a first aid kit and my sleeping roll. Then I snuck around the edge of the camp making sure not to catch the eye’s of any of the Elders, and left.

I was going to save my sister.