Birds chirped during a calm mid-morning, a strong breeze making chimes ring furiously in front of a house in a quiet town. The only disturbance to this tranquility was someone who stepped heavily onto the porch of this house; there was a slow pace to his calm demeanor, even though he was raging on the inside.

The man who lived in the house heard the footsteps on his porch and guessed what had happened. There was a very hard knock on the door. Sighing, the man got up from his chair next to the crackling fireplace, he went to answer the door passing a couple of bookcases. As he set his hand on the door handle, he let out another annoyed sigh. When he opened the door, he saw a large man dressed in a brown tunic and sagged pants held a boy firmly in his right hand. He tossed the boy around him into the house, and then said, "One of these days he'll be behind bars, hear that Shavo?"

Shavo replied, "Don't worry Marko, you know I do what is needed, but considering you are here now means you caught him before he did anything too stupid."

Marko turned around to leave, as he left, "If it weren't your boy, I would have set him behind bars long ago, understood?"

"I'll keep that in mind."

The instant Marko had left, Shavo closed the door and turned around to address the boy. However, he was not there waiting as he should have been. Shavo called his name. 

"Zilian!"

The boy Marko had tossed in appeared from the kitchen on the right, which he had sneaked into while Shavo was talking. His cream colored, curly hair usually had a dark hue to it, but looked almost black when he was indoors. He was not muscular, athletic or smart; in fact, he was average in height and appearance, standing just under five feet tall and just shy of being considered scrawny. A boy of his stature would make him seem he was innocent, but, looks are often deceiving.

"Stopped me right before I got out the back door, old man." A note of spite in his tone.

Shavo well knew he was changing the subject, ignoring his reply as he was used to it. "What was it this time?" 

Zilian just shrugged and stretched his arms. "Well... uh... nothing really."

Exasperated, Shavo exclaimed, "You did nothing? And yet you managed to get Marko ruffled up, he looked like he stopped a fight between the Jungle Apes and the Frost Lions! Either you tell me and I will make it easy on you or I go to Marko and ask him personally and I'll be a little harder on you, your choice."

Zilian thought about it for a moment, weighing the options and chose the first, "Alright, I may or may not was trying to borrow something from the merchants train."

"Let me guess, by borrowing you mean stealing from those who worked hard to get what they have... why am I not surprised it has come to this?" He dug his forehead in his palm.

Zilian tried to feebly defend himself, "Technically, I didn't steal cause Marko stopped me before it got to that. Besides, the merchants were practically begging me to borrow it, because they weren't even watching their stuff."

Shavo shifted his right hand under his chin, an awkward silence buzzed in the air, "Who do you want to be? What will you decide to be destined for?"

Zilian groaned in an exasperated tone and tossed his head back to further emphasize his point, "What are you on about now? Destiny has nothing to do with this!"

"That is where you're wrong!" He rose his voice harshly, almost yelling get his point across his son’s thick head. “Destiny is not something can't change; destiny is more, much more than that." His son needed to learn the lesson he had learned the hard way many years ago.

"Destiny is..."

He paused, hearing some shouting outside. Curious about the rising commotion, he looked through his window and was shocked to see several platoons of Mountain soldiers. They were dragging everybody into the center of their town. He grabbed Zilian by the arm half dragging him to the bookcase, and pulled on a book. With a click and squeak of ungreased wheels, the bookcase slid aside.

Shavo ushered Zilian inside, "Quickly." Shoving him into the hole, then he pointed to the edge of the hole, "See that sword?" The boy nods. "Good, protect it at all costs."

A series of questions rolled from his mouth, "What's going on? Why do I have to protect this sword? What is it with this basement?"

"Mountain Soldiers," he knew that by their armor, a red cross on the helm's back and a jag decorating the front of their two-piece breastplate, "I don't have time to explain, just do as I say."

Shavo closed the entrance to the basement, forcing Zilian to duck out of the way. Making a beeline to his room, he pulled open a panel that was concealed as a wall and took out several sheets of paper as well a few worn books, burning anything the empire might find useful into the fireplace. He was about to make his way to the secret basement when he felt something sharp press up against his back.

"Make a single move without my command and I’ll shove this through your heart," came a disembodied threat, "Now, you will stand up slowly and head to the clearing."

Shavo did as he was told and headed out into the clearing outside. As he did, the soldier pushed him into a group of men, arrogantly flaunting his power.

Shavo noticed immediately that there were two groups were huddled separately, the men and older boys in one group and the women and children in another; Both groups were surrounded by several dozen soldiers. A man stepped forward to address them; he was dressed in fancy red armor and golden-textured breastplate, the lack of helm suggesting his high position on the chain of command. 

Looking out among the crowd, he proclaimed, "This village is now under the protection of the Mountain Empire."

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An uproar broke out, "We don't need protection, this is a Neutral village. We don't want you here." 

The men had a fit of outburst, even risking to push off the soldiers, until he rose his hand to silence them. "Now, I don't want you to expect this protection will be free. All the men of the village will participate in the war while all of the women and children will be taken care of. If any of you choose to resist, you will be branded traitors to the Empire and the punishment will be immediate execution for you and your family." 

At his words, a deathly silence took hold of the crowd, and that was when one man stepped forward and said, "I'll join." One after another, more men started to follow his lead. 

Shavo picked up a straw hat that laid on a crate near him, he put it on so that it would cover most of his face. He spoke up to get everyone's attention, "I'll answer for all these men here! As tempting the offer is, we all would like to respectfully decline."

The man in the fancy armor scanned the crowd and found Shavo and walked towards him. He could not see the face behind the straw hat, crouching to get a better look under it. Shavo did not flinch under the man's gaze. "Who might you be to speak on behalf of these people?"

He countered with a question of his own, stalling for more time, "Is not it not bad manners to ask for someone's name before giving your own?"

"Very well then, my name is Garadem Deam. I am Major of this operation. Now I have given my name, what might yours be?"

"My name is..." He paused, "Shavo Ainn."

"Shavo?!" 

With swift movements, Shavo palm-pushed Garadem back and reached for his open right-hand sheath, the high ranking soldier stumbling to the ground on his back. A soldier behind him jumps forward, slashing at him from the side. Parrying the attack, Shavo locked blades. Flicking his sword under and unbalancing his opponent’s, he shoves the soldier backwards and parries the upcoming soldier's sword. Tossing it in the air, takes control of this sword as well.

Now he is surrounded by five soldiers blocking his way out, except he is not looking for a way out. One of the soldiers comes up on his right and he turns rapidly, blocking the attack then twisting the soldiers blade to his left. He grabs the soldier by the nape of the neck, forcing him down and making a contact with his knee; The soldier falls to the ground out cold. Two soldiers come up from his left and right now, these two more experienced. He exchanges blows with both swords efficiently, until Shavo finishes it by locking blades with both of them at the same time. He crouches low, angling to his right and jabbing the knee of the soldier with the hilt of his right blade. The soldier screamed, falling to his knees. The soldier on his left saw an opening and went for his side, but Shavo had purposefully shown an opening. He twists up to meet the soldier as he draws back, piercing his armor at the belt as blood spatters the ground. He finished with a killing blow back to the screaming soldier, piercing through the metal breastplate as well as the soldier's heart. Ironically, it was the man who threatened him earlier.

 As another soldier ran up from behind to stab him in the back, Shavo flipped his sword backwards on his right hand and leaned forward, spinning to bounce his blade away. With the man's back directed towards him, he used the tip to his other blade to pull out a dagger from his right pocket. "Thanks.” Flicking the sword with the dusha knife he had stolen from the soldier hooked onto the tip, they flew at the ammunition cart sitting just in front of the entrance to the town - thirty meters away.

The dagger exploded upon impact, although the small explosion was insignificant compared to that of the ammunition cart as it tossed inflamed debris everywhere. The fire quickly spread, and even Garadem's carriage started to burn. The townfolk took advantage of the distraction fleeing into the forest.

Garadem pulled on his hair in irrational distress, "No! Not my carriage! Captain, put out the fire on my carriage now!"

"Major Deam sir, you told us to leave all our reserve water behind to bring your things. Wouldn't it be more important to recapture the people?" Suggested the unwilling captain.

Garadem poked him on his chest, "I wanted to bring my belongings for a good reason. Now I am giving you an order, and you will obey unless you want to be thrown into the fire for insubordination!"

"Right away, sir!" The Captain complied, immediately gathering several soldiers to douse the burning carriage.

Shavo gathered everyone he could safely into the forest, Marko approached to offer assistance, "What do you need me to do, Shavo?"

Shavo replied, "Take care of everybody. Take them to my ally further in the north-east from here. You know who, right? 

Marko said, "Of course. Shouldn't you come too?"

"I have to go back for Zilian and I am going to see if there's anybody else left behind. One thing though, whatever you do, don't tell Zilian. I am sure he will discover the truth, but I want it to happen when he's ready, ok?"

"Will do, just make sure you stay alive."

"I will." He gripped the man’s shoulder to reassure him.

Shavo edged around the town scanning the area near his house, he saw the soldiers were still busy with the Major's carriage; but not for much longer. He took the little time he had left and rushed to the back of his house - the house was on fire too - wood boards creaked then snapped as he pulled on them. With the boards cleared, the way to the the secret basement was open.

"Zilian!" Shavo called.

The sound of coughing came from within the smoke, "Right here."

"Good, come here and bring that sword."

Zilian exited the basement through the hole with the sword held tightly in his hands; Making sure there weren’t any soldiers around, Shavo grabbed him by the arm and took him into the forest. Once they were safely in the forest, he sat down to rest for a bit. "Look, I have to go back to see if there is anybody else left behind. Wait for me here and stay out of trouble, got it?"

Zilian replied, "Wait, what if you don't come back?"

"Don't worry, I will, it'll be just a minute. Never be afraid."

Shavo left abruptly back to the village, he would not have much time left. He spied from the edge of the forest trying to find anyone, instead he heard a child screaming pleas of rescue. He quickly ran out of the forest toward the sound of the screaming, the cries were loudest just around the corner of a building. The moment he came around the bend he was surrounded by twenty soldiers, a few jumping out from the windows of the house to cut off his escape. Most of the soldiers held automatic crossbow launchers. Garadem stepped forward with the child in his arms, a comical grin painted on his face. He was obviously satisfied that he had trapped Shavo.

Shavo stepped forward in a stance, holding a blade on both sides, "Let the child go."

Garadem replied, "What? This cute, innocent girl? Very well then, I was never planning to keep her anyway." He wiped the tears off her innocent face, then let the girl down and allowed her to run off into the forest looking for her parents. Garadem simply said, "I was using her as bait, I knew you couldn't help but try to rescue her. Now that you are here, Men, take him alive!"

Several soldiers shot a barrage of arrows at Shavo he evaded by ducking. He launched himself toward a soldier with his blades crossed - a move to block attacks with a follow-up move, but he was entangled in bolas before he touched the ground. Sprawled across the dirt, he desperately attempted to free himself from this bondage.

Garadem stepped and kicked him down, he leaned forward towering over him, "So after all this time you were alive. I know I can't possibly break you, but I am pretty sure Emperor Malie would love to meet you in person. Who knows, maybe you'll be even lucky enough to be taken to the Ai-Kai-Ne prison, where you belong!"

He called for his Captain, "Take him and lock him up. I want him contained and under constant supervision; he is to be monitored at all times. We will go directly to the Emperor, this is something that cannot be postponed. The Emperor will be very pleased. Who knows, I might even get promoted." And Garadem started laughing hysterically.

The Captain responded like a well-seasoned soldier, "Of course sir, right away sir."

As the soldiers left with Shavo, Zilian spied nearby, witnessing everything. Tears streamed along his cheeks, "No, you said you were gonna come back."