Heart Of An Assassin

by Auscarsy

A Keidran named Austin is forced to abandon his life after his village is burned to the ground. He and Alena, his girlfriend, are thrown into a life they never thought they'd be in... the life of an assassin.

Heart of An Assassin
By Austin Foncannon
chapter 1: ashes to ashes
My life was simple, well... for as simple as it could be. I am what is called a Keidran, basically a mix between a human and a canine or feline species, in my case its canine. I am a fox of the coastal fox tribe and I wouldn't have it any other way. But back to the story, I was a normal Keidran in every way except for my natural abilities of balance, stealth, and my silver tongue. Me and my friend Alan Kurr were working out in the field doing our jobs we chose to help our village, when our shift was ended and we decided to head home. We were heading to Jakovasin, he was our source of ale, to grab a drink but when we returned to the village it wasn't quite how it was when we left that morning. A strong odor hit my nose, it was a smell I had smelt before, during nights when it was my turn to cook the meat for the village. then the terrible truth set in once we came into view of home, Our village was on fire! We rushed to help when I was struck from behind, by what I never found out because I was out cold. when I awoke, I was in a tent. I got out and stood up but found myself dizzy and lost my balance, a girl appeared from behind the tent to catch and steady me. In the daze I thought I was dreaming so I wiped my eyes and when I saw she was still there, I saw my girlfriend, Alena Riese. She was in tears and her clothes were torn to shreds. It wasn't but a minute before the sight of her condition made me support her instead, regardless of the pain I was in. I asked her what went on the previous night and got the worst story I have ever heard... The village didn't make it. Apparently the fire wasn't an accident, it was simply used to distract us so that someone could go and kill all of the villagers! I was about to ask her who did it, when she collapsed in my arms! I didn't ask what was wrong for there was no need, she had a gash in her back! how she had gone this long without passing out from blood loss I could not tell you, but it was a miracle of the sorts. I dressed the wound and told her to keep pressure on it so the blood would stop flowing. She was worried about me and told me to stay away from the village as if reading my mind. "It's not possible, I can't sleep quietly until I've done everything possible to help out." I said. "ugh, I guess I can't talk you out of going then?" "Nope." I said very flatly, "Very well, at least be careful." And with that I hugged her and set off to find what was left of our village. When I arrived there was but ruble, ash, and bodies left. It was the worst sight I have ever set my eyes upon, death and destruction at every corner of the ruins. The heavy smell of ash and sulfur was so strong I could almost taste it. My sharp senses picked up someone so I hid behind some burned barrels. I could hear them dragging away someone, mumbling to themselves that the girls were going to make them rich, but I didn't care about that. All I cared about was who they were dragging away, they were dragging away a bunch of my friends, but none of my family. I looked for Alan, Rach, or even Kag, all to no avail. There was one person in the group the caught my eye, it was Laura! The nice girl I had seen around the village, I was about to save her when I saw who was dragging her away, it was a group of wolf Keidran! I was in shock! I couldn't move, I almost couldn't breathe, my mouth went dry! I couldn't believe that Keidran would turn against each other like that! But most importantly... I didn't save Laura. Of all the things I didn't, or couldn't, do at that moment I hate myself the most for that over everything else. I didn't even know her but she was for all that I knew, was gonna be killed! All I could think about at that exact moment, was what about Alena! If they let Laura live, what did they have in store for Alena? I didn't wait to find out. with all the strength I had left in my weary legs, I ran. I ran, and ran, and ran to the point where my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. when I got there, I half expected her to be gone or dead. She was exactly how I left her when I arrived. I rushed over there to her and, much to her surprise, hugged her for longer than I had ever before. It was a cold night but seeing her alive and well after seeing our village in flames, it warmed me just knowing she was alright. But we both knew everything was not alright. sensing my dismay, she asked what I found when I left. Even through the shock that was tormenting my body I managed to tell her everything, detail for detail, from my experience at the ruins of our homes. then, with tears in her eyes, she suddenly got a look on her face that I will never forget in all of my life plus what comes after. A look of blankness came across her face and for an instant, I thought she was thinking, but she wasn't. Before I knew what was happening, she pulled a dagger out of her pack. Utter dread filled me as to what she planned to do with that blade. But what she DID do, I feared worse than death. She raised the knife in a high arc fashion like she was going strike me, but for me it was my worst nightmare, she wasn't aiming for me, she was aiming to end her own life! I shouted for her to stop at the top of my lungs "don't do this, it's not worth it!", I saw pain in her eyes. behind the pain though, I saw hope, and that was all that I needed. she brought the dagger downwards in an attempt to end it all but using my speed and balance I grabbed the dagger, by the blade, and despite the pain... wretched the blade from her hands. then out of either exhaustion or adrenaline, we just collapsed and sat there, wondering what was going through the other persons mind. she made the move first and hugged me in an embrace I never felt before. not a hug of love, family, or fear... but of life! We were both alive, and she was happy for it. it was all too obvious that when she saw that I was willing to rescue her, that she'd regretted the choice to try and leave this world without me. That night, we shared a tent. there were no intentions, no plans other than to simply lie down and keep close, knowing that regardless of what happened that day, we lived through all of it and had each other to pick up the other when all was lost. for that reason, I was able to sleep at night.
chapter 2: what doesn't kill me…
It was extremely dark, even with my keen eye sight, I couldn't see anything. I felt as if I was floating but I didn't feel water around me. then, as if on cue, a light appeared behind me. As I turned to face the source, I heard my name being called out by an unknown voice "Auuussstiiiin". I pushed it out of my mind and began to drift towards light, I saw someone standing there. "Auuussstiiiin" as much as I tried to ignore the voice it came back. The person, I now recognized it as a female fox Keidran, was still standing perfectly still. As if unfazed by the unknown entity calling out to me. "Auuussstiiiin", this time I did a complete circle trying to find out where the voice was coming from. Only now did I question my intelligence for not realizing that the voice was the vixen standing in the light. I drifted ever so slowly over to her and put my hand on her shoulder and turned her so we were facing each other and when I saw her face, it all made sense. It was Alena and when I saw her face, I put two-and-two together. she was my light, my hope, my everything. but surrounded by darkness I could only be safe with her. What this meant I do not know, but I was so distracted, that I didn't notice that she was slowly floating away from me. she outstretched her hand as if to grab mine. but I was too far away and with a smile on her lips, she vanished. And there I was, left in the darkness alone and scared. A hand rest gently on my shoulder and as I spun to see this individual, the unthinkable happened. I woke up. I jumped awake, startled by my unsettling dream. I accidentally woke up Alena, "what's wrong Austin?" she asked me puzzled by what just happened. "it's nothing..." I told her almost embarrassed to tell her she was in my dream. "doesn't sound like nothing." she countered, "it's ok, I'll be fine." I reassured her. We got up and stretched only before remembering why we weren't in our beds. Alena was about to cry, when I brought her close and was there to comfort her. she was on the verge but showed her strength and kept it inside. She was playing the tough girl, but I could see it in her eyes. The pain and the sorrow was almost unbearable to look at. I had to turn away and suggested we go back to the village to get supplies. with a pause, she reluctantly agreed that it would be best if we did. as we were walking, she stopped. I asked if she was okay and she just waved me off and said she was fine. I pretended to think not of it, but I was secretly keeping an eye on her for any signs of something wrong. We stopped at the edge of the clearing that marked the entrance of our once proud village. "well... here we are." I stated obviously. "yeah... I guess this is the worst shape its ever been in." she said. I saw her look down at her feet so I tried to cheer her up. "oh yeah? remember when Chan was our architect for the day?" that got the laugh out of her I wanted. it seemed to work for a bit but the sight of our broken down home was too sad a sight for me to keep her head up. I saw her current state and decided it would be best if we hurried in our search for supplies so we could leave. that's when it all went south. we got all of our supplies and were about to leave when a band of Keidran came towards the ruins. Normally, this would have been a blessing. But I was used to thieves and assassins so I could pick out a group of them when I see them. First tip-off was that the group was not a single species. I saw a dog, Two wolves, A tiger, and a Fox. Second was the way they were walking, they could cover each other from an attack at any angle. Assassins, just my luck. I grabbed two daggers and told myself that if only one of us was walking out of here, it would be Alena. They come up and spot us and start taking up cover positions. the tiger, obviously the leader, stepped forward and said "Did you burn this place down? because if you looking for a fight, you got it!", I was shocked at the possibility of avoiding a fight. "uh, no, this was our village before it was burned down." "hmm, I see. So you have no home correct?" "nope." "No family or friends?" "just Alena." "interesting...". Now I was agitated, "Look, if you don't get to the point... this conversation is over and we'll be leaving!". Now he looked agitated, "You have no patience, that won't do.", I felt he was insulting me. I retorted with the only thing I knew, my natural abilities. "My patience is not what needs improvement, it's you convincing me that this conversation is worth continuing!", now he had a look of curiosity to replace what might have been rage. "Ahh lack of motivation, is it?" "what's your point?" his look went from kind to stone-cold in seconds. "you have heart, knowledge, and I wish to see what skills you posses, if you posses any at all." I could see through his jeers. "You'll have to try better than that!", "heh, looks like you're a thinker. very well but that is not the skills I need to see." I was momentarily confused, "what other skills to you need to see of mine?" he smiled a wicked grin that was all too unarming for me to believe. "I wish to see what skills you posses as a warrior." he nodded at the daggers I was that were unknowingly clutched in my fists. I instantly understood what he meant and without thinking, I slowly took a battle stance. Alena was shocked at my choice to battle when there was no need. "Austin! we could have gotten out of here! what are you thinking?" my answer both puzzled her and impressed my opponent, "if they wanted us dead, they would have made a move other than giving us a choice. I was thinking they want us for something." she stopped, thought it over, and unwillingly allowed us to duel. this was the first step down a road I would soon regret and welcome all at once. "well," he said "come on. if we're going fight, fight me. but do not make me wait.". In truth, he was really testing my ability to take an opponent's taunts, he'll have to do try harder to get under my fur. I took a cautious step forward, He took a step to the side. I guessed he was trying to get around my defenses, so I kept going in the same direction and put my back to his allies. To most, this would have been a stupid move. But to one with experience, or the Knowledge, would know that as an assassin , there's a code they live by. The code wouldn't allow them to interrupt a duel, out here they could have gotten away with it. I prayed I was wrong. eventually he was facing me with his back to Alena, he could have captured or killed her before I could do anything. he did nothing. we both stood, facing each other and then as if by luck, some loose wood on what remained of a house fell. It caught his attention and I charged, no war cry, no warning of attack, battles don't happen like they do in children stories, they simply fight. soundless and wordless I charged and was almost about to attack his lowered right side, but when I saw his left, I hesitated. his blade was facing backwards, so when I slashed at his "unprotected" side, he could sweep back and slash backwards to end my life. I saw through this disguise and instead decided to take on his opposite side, where the blade was in a harder position to counter with. he took notice that I could see his plan and tried to counter but I was faster than he expected. took the handle of his sword (he had many weapons, one less could only help me) and twisted it along with his hand holding it. I had to at least of broken his wrist because I heard snapping, he gasp with pain but that was all he showed of it ever happening. I asked if he yielded, his response was less than pleasant. "like hell I'm yielding!" and with a heavy breath used his good hand to grab a throwing knife and clumsily threw it at my head, he narrowly missed and I took advantage of his obvious loss of balance and dug my elbow into his ribs, he fell backwards but was far from done. As he was falling, he twisted his body in a spinning motion and took me off my feet giving himself time to recover. we both got up, looking straight at each other... and he began to laugh! I thought of lobbing one of my daggers at his face, but my well-tempered discipline kicked in and I held my ground. It was just as I expected, a trick to try and drop my guard, it wasn't going to work. the minute he saw that trickery was not the way he was going to beat me, his face hardened. "you are not your average Keidran fighter, do you know why this is?" "not a clue." "then you are perfect for our cause." the tone of his voice was the most disturbing I had ever heard, it was not angry, vicious, or harmful. But it was also not friendly or kind, it was as if he was studying me for a purpose I would not like, I didn't know how right I was. "what cause are you talking of?", he looked me straight in the eyes, "why, I am of course talking about turning you into an assassin." I was caught off guard, if any of them wanted to kill me, they could have, but no one moved. I couldn't decide without doing what I thought was right, I had to consult Alena first. I put my daggers in their sheaths, and started walking towards Alena thinking the duel was over. it wasn't. As I was heading over there, he thought I was not paying attention and tried to stab me in the back. Only my sharp reaction time saved me, I was able to grab his hand, spin him forward, sweep out his legs, and keep him on an arm bar on the ground. This was a surprise to everyone except me. As I stood up, he looked at me, and nodded approvingly. I went over to Alena and we both sat down so we could bear the weight the conversation was about to drop on us. she was the first to speak, "I think you should join them," I was shocked "what? I thought surely I was going to have to talk you into it." her response made all too much sense, "Austin, look around! we have nothing. no home, no family, all we have is each other, we should go." "fine, I'll see what I can do about you.", I stepped away from her and walked over to the tiger assassin and as sternly as I could, I said "I will become as assassin, IF Alena can come with." the band of assassins looked warily at each other. then finally, with a sigh, he spoke. "Then I'm afraid you aren't worth the effort." I must looked pretty confused because he sounded like he was trying to cheer someone up, "Sad, I had plans for you. You would have been very good for our band-" "WHOA!" I interrupted, "I'm not interested in becoming a bandit and neither is the lady here, so move along." the other fox looked confused and the wolves sneered. The tiger stifled a laugh but it got out, he managed to tell me what he was in-between deep hearty laughs. "You really… think the we… we're BANDITS?" the word bandits got even more laugh from him. "Oh, I haven't laughed that much in years. No we are not bandits, nor are we adventurers, or bards, or messengers." while they were waiting to for us to guess what they were, me and Alena shared uneasy looks at each other, It was almost as if we could read each other's minds. Should we trust them? I don't know Alena, your call. That's not what I want to hear Austin, I'm just as confused as you. It was obvious that body language wasn't the best way of communicating, but we were at a loss. "Ok, I played your game, ha ha funny. Now who are you guys?" the big looking dog stepped forward but the tiger stopped him, he sent the fox forward. He spoke with a surprisingly deep voice for a smaller Keidran. "We, my dear friends, are what you know as 'assassins' and we don't have time for you to waste." he stayed as if challenging us to do something stupid and fell back in line when no one moved. "Come one Alena, we don't need to stoop to their level." I said out of anger, I actually thought of joining. But I thought about Alena, she deserved better, the life of assassins were never easy. We were almost clear and the tiger took one last dig, "What if I told you we knew who did this?" I stopped, Alena stopped, and if it could I'm sure time itself would have stopped with us. "Do you?" he smiled "No, but we could find out?" the offer was even more tempting than the last time, "Same conditions, If I go… so does my girlfriend." I didn't need to look back to know she was probably blushing and trying to hide it behind me. She had always been easy to flatter, now was no different than any other time. It was a stare down between me and a group of assassins, I was losing. Then the tiger broke the silence, "Very well, she may come and live among us, but know the consequences of living among assassins." with that, she was in. To whom ever gave me my silver tongue… I owe you one.
chapter 3: knowing your role
The worst part of becoming an assassin was the long trips for almost no reason, we stayed a little longer before we actually left the remains of our once proud village. I used this time to get used to my fellow assassins. The tiger leader told us everyone's name, "My name is Jyrik…" I saw his arm was in a sling, "Sorry about your wrist." he smiled, "None taken… the fox is Boone..." he stood and bowed "it's a privilege.", "the dog is Dante..." he also stood and bowed, but he's didn't speak. "Dante doesn't speak Keidran, or English. he was raised by a tribe of mixed races in a faraway place..." I looked at him, saw his size (he was no doubt the largest in the group) and simply left it at he couldn't speak. "and finally, the wolf twins over there, Natani and Zen, they are not part of our brotherhood... but one assassin looks after another, so they will be traveling with us for awhile." when I looked at them, expecting cold stares, I was instead greeted by a happy looking pair of brothers. this reminded me of the happy family I once had, and lost. everyone there, even the usually stone cold assassins saw how I stared off, thinking of my family, and had looks of remorse on their faces. everyone, even the giant Dante looked as if he would cry with me if I burst out in tears. I was about to, when I remembered I had something I needed to prove. I tried to shake off the feeling of loneliness but it wouldn't go away. That's when a hand gently rest of my shoulder, it was Alena. she saw what I was feeling and took no notice of the burly assassins around us as she hugged me and didn't let go until I had stopped sagging my shoulders and lifted my head up. Then I remembered why I wasn't sad anymore, I may have lost my family... But I still had friends there to comfort me. Jyrik asked if I needed a moment to myself, I told him I was fine but it was hard masking the pain so we could move on. We stayed the night there and we slept with no tents, we had none, but because the night was cool and there wasn't a breeze, it was perfect. In the morning I was the first to wake up so I quietly crept down to the nearby stream to see if I could catch some fish for breakfast. When I got there it was peaceful, And I thought about the calmness of nature taking away all my troubles and pains. the sight of the water snapped me out of my trance and I remembered why I came down here, to fish! Lacking the tools to properly fish, I decided to fish the way I was taught by my father, with my bare paws. I was in my prime! I used a figure eight pattern with my tail to attract them, then when they got close I would snatch them out of the water before they could get away. I continued to do this until I got the feeling I was being watched, it wasn't that I KNEW I was being watched, but more as I FELT I was being watched. I took the fish I had caught and wrapped them in a torn shirt, then I got out of the water and took a look around just to try and ease my paranoia. I saw nothing so I dismissed it as me being out in the sun too long, when an arrow flew all too close to my face! it would have just grazed my ear, but I took the right action and dropped the fish, rolled and then shot up to my feet, barred my teeth and brought up my fists as my only means of protection. "So, you didn't bring your weapons? how can you protect yourself?" I heard a voice call out, it was Jyrik alright, but from where I didn't know. "is this but another test?" the answer was another arrow all too accurate for a trial shot. this time I was angry at them, they had tricked me, used me for unknown reasons, and now they were going to dispose of me. I shouted at them "Is that all? do your worst!", you would think that an assassin would learn to stop estimating me, or stop testing my patience. But the archer shot yet another arrow, but the adrenaline flowing through me shot my hand out and I caught the arrow by the feathers, barely. but now I had a weapon and it would have to do! Finally, my assailants came bounding across the stream, the water did nothing to slow them down. Boone was the first to come speeding towards me, he was light and I easily hip-tossed him into a tree. An arrow nearly struck my midsection but it was off by mere inches. I turned to discover Natani and Zen firing arrows at me from afar, they were easy to dodge but that wasn't the problem. My main concern was that if I was busy dodging arrows, what will my remaining attackers do? will they attack? will they wait for me to wear down? Many thoughts like this were pushed from my head, they would only distract me... and distractions were fatal in life or death situations. This game they were playing with me had gone on long enough! I dropped the arrow that was my weapon and took a short sword from Boone, who was unconscious, it was a little clumsier than the daggers I was used to using, but they would have to do. Jyrik and Dante both charged at me, the barrage of arrows had ceased, I figured that they didn't want to hit their allies, this was good news because I could now focus all of my attention towards the oncoming power house known as Dante. He came in leaning forward so I did a risky maneuver and dived at him, instead out away from him. I hit him square on the shins and because his balance was leaning forward, he went tumbling down into the stream. I only had to worry about Jyrik now, we stood there staring at one another for minutes while Natani and Zen watched with anticipation. Then, next to my sense of déjà vu, I also sensed something else, I sensed a test. I ran at Jyrik like I was going to gut him, it was a fake charge and I stopped feet from him and he swung his sword early so before he could follow up with his backswing, I lunged and took him to the ground. Just before I could raise my sword and end his wretched life, Zen was at my throat with a knife and Natani was a couple feet away with an arrow notched and ready to fire, aimed right for me! Then to my surprise, no one moved! They could have killed me there and gotten it out of the way, but that wasn't the plan. Before I could question anybody, Jyrik started with his infamous chuckling and I was yet again left wondering why no one told me what was going on. It was the last test! "you passed this one with flying colors, you even took out all of us! We've seen the strongest assassins only take on one or two of us, you beat all three of us." he motioned for Zen to Sheathe his weapon, he did as he was told. I was tempted to go ahead and slit his throat, but I knew better and released the grip I had on him and stood up, I cautiously looked around to find that everyone was looking at me. I went to check on Boone and return his sword to him, he was still out cold and I checked him for bruises but found just scratches where he'd hit the tree. We poured alcohol on the small scratches so they wouldn't get infected (Jyrik often wet his whistle during celebrations) and that woke him up, while he was hollering like a child I asked Jyrik why he didn't get any bruises. "oh that? He is more resilient than he looks, you could toss him into that tree multiple times and he'll only get small scratches from when he hit the tree, and they'll heal a couple hours." This sure was an interesting group for sure. I was going to like it here. But what I didn't understand was why they kept testing me, hadn't I shown them I was worthy? Or was it a trust thing? This puzzling question mattered only for a short while because Alena came running through the trees and wrapped her arms around me sobbing "I didn't want them to do it, they wouldn't let me help you!" this news was not irritating, I could see where they were coming from. An assassin must be able to operate on his own, regardless of the odds, and letting her even be my eyes in the back of my head would be an advantage of the sort. "It's alright, they were just trying to see what I could do." this was little advice but it helped because she calmed down and I heard her breath return to normal. That was all I needed, we all returned to our temporary camp that morning with smiles on our faces and hope in our hearts for the future. I was told there would be no more tests so we all sat easy and continued to get to know each other as the day went on. That night, I sat there thinking that although it wasn't the life I had dreamed of, I was still happy for even being able to have a life after losing my family. This was as good as it was going to get for a long time.

Weeks passed before we got to the sanctuary, Natani and Zen had taken their leave days ago. All was quiet when the seven of us walked up the steps of the assassin temple. If anyone was watching us, they were doing so in the shadows because there was no sign of life until Jyrik walked up to the giant doors and knocked on them exactly three times. Then the sanctuary erupt with life, we heard scurrying as two people came running to the door and slowly opened the giant doors. They made an eerie creaking noise as they were pulled inward. There was a dog and a human there. "Humans…" I muttered to myself, I did not hate them but they weren't exactly friends with Keidran. The dog looked a little excited, "Jyrik! We knew you would return, did you get the mana stones you were sent to retrieve?" Jyrik pulled out a bag bigger than my head. "It's good to see you again Raymond, it was very easy… but it's not all I returned with." he nodded in my and Alena's direction. Raymond looked at us, his eyebrow raised as if guessing if I was worth the brotherhood. He stepped aside and we all went inside and it looked like every assassin was here waiting for mana stones, the Keidran assassins anyway. Then, as if there weren't any mana stones there, everyone looked at us. Not us as in all seven of us, everybody's gaze seemed to follow me and Alena as we followed Jyrik to what I guessed was the master assassin's quarters. We walked in and there was an old man, human, sitting at a desk furiously scribbling something on a scroll with an assassin standing next to him, he wrote for a minute before he finished, gave it to the assassin, and sent him on his way. He turned to us and looked at us for mere seconds and he said "they are worthy." I wasn't sure how he knew, but I somehow understood that he DID know. I didn't care how but I wanted to find out how he knew, I broke the silence and said "how do you know? We just got here." he looked me directly in the eyes and spoke softly "when you have seen what I have seen, you pick up on some strange abilities." his voice was horse with age, but I knew better than to dismiss him as an old man… he preferred the phrase "experienced". He stared out the window into the courtyard "well, we could test you…" I was confident I could pass, "I accept, just tell me who I must duel." he looked at the ground and sighed "… young people, always so impatient. Very well, any preferences?" I was not gonna take anything that would make me look weak, "How about you pick?" "hmm, you care not who you fight? That might be your downfall… he fights ghost." Jyrik looked shocked. I think he might have even doubted that I could win! I didn't shared his feeling. No matter who I fought, I would either win or go down fighting. Jyrik led me out to the yard and sat me down at a stool on the "red" corner, it was a few minutes before a man came fully dressed in assassin robes and a cowl on his head. "is this Ghost?" in response the masked assassin jumped the guard rail and he marched over to my corner. I stood as if to meet his challenge, but it wasn't a challenge… he stopped a few feet in front of me and held his hand out for a handshake! It was a surprise to me but I was a noble man, I returned the favor and we shook hands. Then he pulled me close and whispered in my ear "I won't hold back, I expect the same from you." and with that he went to his "blue corner" (they were color coded) and sat down on his stool sitting on his side. Jyrik came up and whispered in my ear, just like Ghost did, "he likes to play mind games. whatever he said, pay no attention to it." I nodded but I could help but wonder if he really was trying to help me… or ensure my defeat. Then someone came over and shouted out "there is a newcomer in the arena! Can he prove his worth? Or will Ghost have yet another win on his record? Only time can tell as these two test each other in a game of brains and muscle!" Ghost stood up and I stood with him, then the man who announced my challenge dropped his hand in a chopping motion and said "BEGIN!". Ghost charged at me hands at his side in the position to go anywhere they needed to. I took notice of our surroundings and grabbed the top rail and propped my feet against the lower railings, he started to slow down as he got closer but then when he was mere feet away, I let go of the top rail and pushed as hard as I could with my legs and sent myself tumbling into him. As we were both sprawling in the dirt, he smashed his elbow into my face and I rammed my knee into his stomach. We both rose up and he immediately threw a haymaker that probably could've taken my head clean off my shoulders. I didn't dodge the punch, but I instead grabbed it and took one step back to absorb the force of the blow. I had but seconds to think to I brought myself close and pulled his hand behind me to we were face to face, I thought I had him for a few more seconds but instead he head butt me and I went backwards giving him room to recover. He pounced but I fell on my back and threw my feet backwards. This took him by surprise and he went flying into the wooden corner post. His head connected with the pole and his cowl ripped but he held it with his hand and stood up, looked at me, and quietly said "I yield." at first, it was dead silent. Then Boone broke the silence "WHOOOO Austin!" everyone followed in his cheers and the crowd surged into the ring and everybody was slapping me on the back, saying that I could beat anybody, the usual "welcome to the club" kinda stuff. It was Dante who saved me by lifting me up on his shoulders and hurrying out of there. We got to what looked like a mess hall, and then he set me down and motioned for me to sit with him. "thanks for getting me out of there Dante, I didn't think it they would leave me alone until you got me… I have a feeling they won't argue if you want something." he looked at me and grinned a warm smile that had me knowing that he liked me already. Just as I was about to grab an apple when the dog that greeted us at the door, Raymond I think it was, came over and stopped me "hey man. I wasn't there, guard duty sucks, but I heard you showed Ghost what was up." I looked him dead in the eyes and said "I don't boast, there's no use in it." Raymond's eyes almost shot out of his head. "Do you realize who you beat?" "An assassin." he started to look agitated, "Not just an assassin! He is rated one of the top three assassins in our brotherhood, and you just wave it off." my ear twitched as it often does when someone makes me repeat myself. "Like I said, I get nothing from gloating over a victory… therefore I do not do it." he sighed, "We need more assassins like you… to many brag about victories and let it become how they think." "I hear yah, I had a man back at the village by the name of Rolaf… the man never shut up about how he beat our chief of guard." Raymond looked intrigued "what happened?" the memory came back "Well, the chief got tired of it and challenged him to an honor match, its where whoever loses has to leave the village." now Ray looked less confused, "let me guess, he lost and then he left?" the pain of the memory hit me, "No, he lost alright… but he didn't leave." now Ray's confused look came back "but you said-" "I KNOW WHAT I SAID!" I shouted so violently that even Dante jumped just a bit. Everyone in the mess hall looked my way, I didn't need to look around to need to know that. I sighed and looked down at the counter "I'm sorry, it's just painful to remember. He lost, but the dishonor was so great that he took out his blade and put it through his heart right then and there." Raymond just looked at me "Oh my god, Austin-" I cut him off "How do you know my name?" I caught him off guard with my question "Oh, Jyrik told me." Doesn't he ever shut his mouth I told myself, "damn it Jyrik. I'm gonna have to shut him up later." Raymond went back to looking grim "Again, I'm sorry if I brought up bad memories and… Austin? AUSTIN! AUS-" I had already spaced out, I didn't blame him. He was just curious but he was right, he brought up memories… memories of fire.
Chapter 4: Insomnia
Sleeplessness plagued me that night, endless thoughts of my past flooded my mind and brought back memories. Some good memories… Some bad memories. All of My friends I saw get carried away, My family that I'm sure was buried in the ruble of what used to be my home, and the fire… Oh god the fire. It was the worst memory of them all, even death was preferable than sitting here, in my quiet living quarters, and being stuck with the visions of the flames burning everything I love. I had to get out of this room and find something to take my mind off of the memories. The only place I could think of was the mess hall, I hoped it wasn't locked. With luck on my side it was unlocked and one of the chefs was still there. She looked my way when the door opened but she didn't want me out, instead she beckoned me inside. "Come on in, take a seat up here." I walked over to the bar section and took a seat. "Can't sleep?" I spoke to her, but I didn't look at her. "Yeah, I just wish I could rest for once." She didn't look sad or sorry, but she obviously cared "Insomnia's a bitch, ain't it?" "yep, looks that way." then she grew a more caring and friendly look, "Tell you what, how 'bout I get us some ale. Sound good?" I could only muster up a few words. "that would be nice." She smiled and left for about a minute before returning with Two bottles of ale. She slid one down the bar and I stopped it in front of me, "thanks." I said. She merely walked over and sat at the seat next to me, "It's not a big deal, almost everyone was restless on the first night." she went on about some crazy things that have happened the first night a new assassin was brought in. I did my best to listen but I couldn't keep my memories of family out of my head. I had to change the subject, so I asked her what her name was "Hmm, my name? OH! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Sherry, Yours?" "Austin." "Well it's nice to meet you Austin." I had to keep the conversation going, "So, are you a chef?" she giggled a bit "Not really, I just volunteer when I'm not on a contract." I was surprised that an assassin would volunteer to be a chef, "is it worth the boredom?" that got another laugh out of her "Yes it is, anything I can do to help out here is worth it." I looked around and noticed that Ghost was here too. "hey, is he always here?" she followed my gaze to Ghost sitting at his table "Him? Yeah, he's here almost every night." I was hoping I could finally see his face, but as usual he was wearing his white hooded robed with a brown cowl covering his face inside his hood. She dropped her voice to a whisper "I heard you pounded him when you got here." All I could do was shake my head and say "No, I got lucky. He's a hell of a fighter and me winning was probably based purely on the fact his cowl ripped during our battle." she just looked at me like Raymond had the day before, "You're kidding right? You beat Ghost, possibly the fiercest assassin we have… and you wave it off as you got lucky? At least be proud of yourself!" I couldn't do that, "What's the point? It won't beat him the next time we duel if I talk trash to him, will it?" she nodded in agreement "So true, that we should be learning something from you." It took me a couple seconds to realize she was rhyming on purpose "You do poetry?" she just shrugged "I do some rhymes here and there." I was half out of ale so I put the cork back in it and told her "Well, this was nice… But I'm going to see if the ale will help me get some rest." she gave me one last warm smile and said "Alright, if you ever find yourself sleepless again… come down here and visit. It gets awfully lonely because my ONLY COMPANY DOESN'T SPEAK BACK!" then I heard ghost speak up "Bite me Sherry." I couldn't help but laugh at them, then I bid them both goodnight and went to my quarters to try and get some sleep.
Chapter 5: killer in the mist
I woke up in the morning and it was quiet, and that is the best way to wake up for someone in my position. I went to my wardrobe and found a white assassin robe waiting for me. "pfft, these assassins have cheesy taste in clothes..." but I put the robe on anyway. Then I went downstairs, intrigued to see the reaction my fellow assassins would have seeing me in their robes. When I arrived downstairs no one was shocked or stunned, they only nodded and acknowledged the fact that I was quick to accept new things (I later learned it was a compliment). It was also bound to happen anyway, because today was my first mission! It was Jyrik who told me this, "Congratulations! Today's your first contract." I used as much sarcasm as I could in my response, "OH BOY, I get to kill people! I'll just try not to get too excited." he laughed and just said, "I'll keep that in mind, but I have bad news as well…" "I looked at him suspiciously "Ok, speak then." "I am not your Officer assassin on this mission." that took some of my hope away "Then who shall accompany me on this contract?" "well, like the rules are… we pick a senior assassin and you may choose one partner assassin as backup." "Then I'll pick my companion later, tell me who is my senior assassin." I grabbed an apple and took a bite "Ghost…" I almost choked on bits of apple. "You're kidding, right?" he just shook his head, "Afraid not." It wasn't so much bad as much as I have heard that when Ghost is chosen to be on a mission… it's a big one. I didn't need to think about who I was taking with me, "Tell Raymond that I require his assistance." he didn't argue with my decision, "I'll tell him." Then I went to Ghost to see what we were supposed to do. When I found him he was already equipping his sheath for his dagger and sword, "so we're working together, eh?" he just grunted and handed me the contract flier, it was on a Basitin who was raging across the country side and challenged almost anyone who even looked at him… this was a problem because he had also killed some Templars even when they denied his challenge. This was unhonorable so a bounty was put on his head, then we responded with sending me, oh joy. We waited at the entrance for Raymond to get there, when he finally arrived we departed for the part of the forest he was located in.

We found him at a camp, turns out he had a group of Basitins with him, that would make it difficult because, unless provoked, I could only kill the target. That was only gonna hinder my progress, I was going to kill this man. I had to think about how I was going to kill him, it had to be me. Ghost and Raymond were only there to assist me, but I had to be the one to kill the target. I needed to study the scene around me and choose the right approach… easier said than done. Then I Got a brilliant idea, "Raymond, can you use illusion magic?" he nodded "Yeah, why?" "I need you to use the magic so when I hit him with an arrow, they see it come from the other direction." he opened his mouth to protest, then stopped when he could see any flaw in my plan. He stood for a moment in our perch up in this tree, then his eyes turned solid yellow and a cyan aura grew around him. "Done." he said as his eyes returned to normal. I took an arrow out of its quiver and notched it on the bow string. I took careful aim and held it there making sure that I was dead on with my shot, then I heard Raymond "I bet five gold you can't hit him in the temple." I was one of the best archers in town back in my day, so I just stared at him, and did what I thought I would never do, I let go of the arrow and it went sailing through the air, and it hit him right in the temple! All Raymond and Ghost could do was stare at me and tilt their heads. "What? Archery takes practice… so let's say I practiced a little too much.", but their shock was short lived because we heard the Basitins starting to rally up and search the area. Ghost reacted as fast as he could "Come on, we'll lose them in town!" I wasn't sure if they had seen us or not, but I got my answer when we got halfway to the middle of town and I saw them following us. I did what I thought would work, I started to walk with a group of five humans and said "Keep walking, play along." The person at the front just turned and spoke to me "what is this?" I had to get them to go with it fast, "I'll pay you, just keep walking and if some Basitins start questioning me, I'm your slave." he was about to deny me when I pulled out all the gold I had… 100 gold coins. That shut him up and they circled around me and I took out a rope and had one of them tie my hands. Then it was the moment of truth, the Basitins came over and grabbed my arm. "you scum! We're gonna kill you!" then the humans started helping me out, the leader of the group said "HEY! Get away from my slave!" I played like I couldn't understand what they were saying. I spoke in a language I had heard someone speak in at the sanctuary, I was currently learning it so I was kinda rough around the edges. I looked at the humans and tried my best to play the scared Keidran slave role, the Basitin looked at the humans, then at my hands tied in front of me, then they looked back at the humans. "I'm sorry to bother you, he looked like someone I…" a female in the group interrupted "WELL ASK NEXT TIME!" the Basitins jumped back at the tone in her voice, I did too. They apologized and left in a hurry. When they had left, the woman untied me, I thanked them and handed her the gold. "keep it." she said, the man agreed and said "If you needed to hide from them… it must've had a good reason. It was the least we could do." I thanked them yet again and one of the other members of the group asked If I was in trouble, my response was "Only if I get caught." then I hurried off to find Raymond and Ghost. We regrouped at the tavern and didn't stay for a drink, we left the minute we had confirmed that he was dead. Ghost went back after he lost his pursuers and checked the body of our target. No pulse, eyes rolled in the back of his head, the arrow still lodged in his temple, he was dead for sure. On the way home, we stopped in a far off tavern in a shut away town for a drink. We were just getting our ale when I noticed a tiger staring at us from the corner. I thought it was the fact that we were three adult Keidran who aren't slaves, or our matching white robes, but he was eyeing Raymond's gold pouch. Usually, I would have said something about it, but this was a chance to find out something about this man over in the shadows. When he finally made his move, he walked over and got Ray's pouch. But Ray felt it and before he could turn, the tiger tried to run. I saw his plan and kicked my stool backwards and he tripped. On the way down, I grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his head so he was being held up off the ground, but it was very painful and he would have to give in soon. "Looks like you have something of my friends, and we're going to need it back… NOW! I might let you go afterwards." he grabbed the gold pouch and threw it to Raymond. His cries of agony as I only pulled harder echoed throughout the tavern. "You said you'd let me go!" he shouted, I pretended to think "Hmm, Oh wait. I did didn't I?" sarcasm was clear in my voice. "Now I have something to ask, and answer thoughtfully." he nodded faster than I had seen most men run. I got close to his ear and whispered "How stealthy can you really be?" he answered with "You're the first to catch me." I released his arm, he hit the floor and clutched his shoulder. "then I've got a proposition for you, follow me." I walked out of the bar, half expecting him to stay in there… he followed. I went to the back and he followed still till we were out of earshot of everyone. He spoke first with "Please don't kill me." all I could do was laugh, it was so funny I started to play a game. "I am not here to kill you…" he let out a breath "… If I wanted to I would've done so already." his relieve was replaced with more worry. "You've lived your whole live like this I am guessing?" "uh, what?" he was playing stupid, "stealing and lying by the looks of it." he started to sweat, "well, yes but… how did you know?" my lips were sealed "When you have friends like mine, it comes naturally… plus you just told me." now he looked confused, "I… I did?" "Mmhmm, I said that I GUESSED that you lived that way, not that I knew. Then I just waited for you to prove me right, you did." he thought it over and then his eyes went wide, "Are you… an assassin?" game over… "Yes, I am. And you could be too if-" "OH GOD DON'T KILL MY FAMILY!" I ran straight at him at grabbed the hem of his shirt and jumped in the bushes with him, I held onto his mouth with my hand. "Say a word and I WILL kill you." even though I whispered, he grew so stiff you would have thought I had just shouted death threats at him, and I kind of did the death threat part. A waitress I had seen inside came to investigate, as did my friends (I guessed it was to keep me a secret but who knows). They saw nothing and went inside… minus Ghost. He walked over and started doing pull ups on the branch in front of us, "you guys go ahead, I need to work out. I've been neglecting my training schedule anyway." the second I heard the door shut to the tavern, Ghost jumped down and looked over at where we were hiding. "quick thinking, but hid your tail next time." and he brought his heel down on my tail… hard. Literally ALL of my will power went into not howling and strangling Ghost, I managed to whisper in the lowest voice possible "Ghost… I'll hurt you when we get home." he laughed and said "IF we get home after more of your screw ups." I did what I thought was right, I said "good point." and I punched him in the leg forcefully and his leg tensed up with pain. He got the idea and we both hauled the tiger to his feet. "So, what's your name?" he just sat there and stared at us, we looked at each other and I said it again "SO. WHAT. IS. YOUR. NAME?" he shuddered like he broke from a trance. "Jo… Joey… my name is Joey." he was nervous, but wouldn't anybody be nervous if two big (not burly but bigger than him) assassins took them behind a tavern and started asking questions? Anyway, I had plans for him and Ghost new where I was going with this and followed along with it. He got as close as he could as his cowl would allow him to get with Joey, face-to-face, and said "What honor have you brought to your family?" He retaliated fast with "MY FAMILY HAS MANY HONORABLE TRAITS!" then I interrupted "But are you one of them?" he did not respond. He only gazed at his feet and said nothing. I knew what he was thinking and I tried my best to comfort him as well as do my job. "How would you like to bring honor to your family?" his eyes grew wide like he had just struck gold. "Are you serious?" then he grew serious "Wait, are you lying to me? It's happened before." I honestly couldn't believe that he had been lied to on the exact same subject before. "We are not lying, we could give your family honor. But at one cost-" "what cost?" he interrupted, "calm down, it's a big cost but worth it for the honor of your family…" he sighed, "okay, what cost?" me and Ghost looked at each other, and he nodded to me "Damnit Ghost… Umm, well. The cost is… you can't ever see your family again." he just stared at me with unblinking eyes. "If that is too much to ask of you, simply decline and you can forget this ever happened." he stayed silent, and then he started to walk away. Ghost just grunted and said "I knew he wasn't worth the effort." I leaned over and whispered "But didn't you join just two days before me? How can you judge?" he whispered back "One day, I don't have any recruits under my name. But look at you, first mission and your getting one, you're an expert right?" I turned in his direction "Don't be a smartass." he spoke without looking back at me, "I'm only saying that this is your first mission and you already tried to recruit someone. Just because somebody has the potential to be an assassin, doesn't mean they have the heart." I saw Joey's ears twitch, he heard us talking as he was walking away. When he left, I smiled at Ghost "You did that on purpose." he just shrugged "partly, I was half-telling the truth." I had only respect for his thinking at the moment. "Let's stay for one more night and see what he does." he bowed and said "Your mission, your call." I looked up "My call," I said "I like the sound of that." he punched me in the arm "don't let it go to your head." and then we went to sleep in our tavern rooms while Raymond went ahead to scout the area before retiring to his room for the night.
chapter 6: one more in the frying pan
Shortly after waking up, I got dressed and walked downstairs to grab a drink. Ghost was already waiting for me when I got down there. "Don't you ever sleep?" I asked. "Not when I can help it." he said with a smirk. I smiled myself "whatever…" then we were off to find where Raymond was. As we were leaving the inn, that tiger Joey walked over to us and said, "I've been thinking about your offer, and…" "HOLD IT!" I interrupted "Just know before you speak, that we don't forgive OR forget. Now… what were you saying?" he looked as though he would run, but he surprised us all and held his ground. "I will become an assassin." Ghost crossed his arms and I had only respect for him to go up to Two grown assassins, with little chance to defend himself, and act as bravely as he did. "You know what we do right?" I asked with a cocked eyebrow. He sighed, "Yes, I am aware of your duties." then I continued my anthem of acceptation, "Do you accept these duties as your own?" he lifted his head higher, "I do, your burdens are also mine." Ghost shook his head approvingly, I had heard enough to know he reminded me of myself at a younger age… shame his was coming out so late. "Then we shall see what we can do, follow us. We have someone we need to find." he looked at me, then Ghost, and said "Oooh, that's right. There was three of you." I had a wonderful idea, "Yep, he's the one you tried to rob. I'd regret that if I was you." he didn't even shiver, "I'm more scared of you than I'm scared of him." Ghost laughed, "And with good reason." I decided that we had wasted enough time. "Alright ladies, time to go find Ray." we left the town and used our sense of hearing, sight, and smell to follow the trail left by Raymond, it was not an easy task. "He's one of our best scouts, we're lucky that we have even found his trail in the first place." Ghost had said. And believe me, finding this guy was NOT an easy task. We had to double back at least five times and he went in many circles, he was a professional. We finally found him and I nearly struck him down where he lay, he was asleep! I jumped up in his little perch in a tree, kicked him out of the tree, and jumped down next to where he had landed. "Umm… Ow." I looked as serious as I could at the moment, it was very serious. "We have been searching for you for hours, looking everywhere… and your asleep." he looked off, as if thinking and said "Yep, sounds about right." I spoke softer, realizing he was probably walking all night. "We need to return to the sanctuary." he looked at Joey, "and him?" I nodded towards Joey, "He's one of us now." Raymond jumped to his feet, brushed himself off and held out his hand, "Welcome to the club kid." Joey took his hand and said "No hard feelings, right?" Raymond smiled "Yeah, no hard feelings." then we were on our way to return home. I was looking forward to seeing Alena again, then the most bizarre thing happened… A human girl stumbled out of the bushes, she was cut and bruised all over her body! She took two steps forward and lost her balance, I rushed over and caught her in mid-air. I didn't know what was going on, but I had to find out. "Miss!" I shouted "Are you alright?" her eyes just fluttered and she spoke softly "my village… my people… please, help." I glanced over my shoulder at my allies, Ghost spoke up, "Your call." I looked back at the woman "We'll help in any way we can." she smiled feebly, "Thank you, oh bless you Keidran warrior." I couldn't look into her hope filled eyes, if only she knew what I really was. That was for a different time though, now she needed to be cared for, "We need to get you patched up first. Did any others get away?" her smile faded, "They are all captive, I was the only one to get away." This scene was one I was all too familiar with, I had to put a stop to it. I hoisted her up and carried her on my back, "Which way is your village?" She lazily lifted an arm and I followed the direction she pointed in. Her village came into view… as well as the Templars gathering her family and friends into jail carriages like lambs to the slaughter. I set her down and started working on her injuries, "Come on boys, she's hurt and we have to help her people. Start hatching a plan." they bowed in acknowledgement and started working on a plan. I fixed the human girl up and then had them fill me in on the plan, it was brilliant. But there was one flaw in the plan… Joey wasn't in it. I had to make sure if he was both worth the trouble and willing to kill a man. "What about Joey? He's part of the team now, what will he do?" I asked. They looked at each other then Raymond spoke up, "Umm… we were going to leave him out actually." I shook my head, "No, he will help us…" I took off my bow from its place on my bandolier. "He'll be our support." I handed him my only ranged attack, and the arrows to match. Ghost nodded "Very well, it shall be." then it was settled, we would free these people and Joey would help us do it.
Chapter 7: Viva la revolution
I walked out of the bushes bloody and beaten with the girl on my back. I saw men with swords come towards me menacingly, but I was too weak to do anything. They carried me and the girl to the middle carriage to put us in the cells. They put the girl in the cell, then as I was being pushed towards the cell, I tripped and fell face down in the dirt. They were trying to lift me up when I saw the sad faces of the people in the cells, I knew what I had to do. Now, NOW, DO IT NOW! All of my being screamed for it, but I waited. As they opened the cell to put me in… I sprang into action. I raised my elbow and brought it down on the soldier that had my right arm and used my free hand to throw a right hook into the face of the other Templar, freeing myself, then I put my fingers to my lips and whistled loud and clear. The villagers in all of the jail carriages stood up, someone was even holding up the girl we found so she could watch too. My whistle let all hell break loose, Ghost and Raymond ran out of the bushes with Swords in hand cutting down the Templars closer to the outside. Joey was slowly but accurately slaying enemies from afar with the bow I gave him. I myself brought out my hidden short sword from under my robe and put my blade in the nearest soldier's chest. The others were momentarily confused so I had no problem taking them out. I shouted out for Joey to rally to me, he came bounding out of the brush. He ran over to where I was standing, "Stay here and make sure that no one is taken from these cells." he saluted and continued to shoot arrows at the Templars. The villagers cheered us on as we hacked, slashed, and stabbed at any oncoming Templars that threatened us or the villagers, so basically all of them. Then in the mist of the battle there was a giant, deep voice that suddenly called out "ENOUGH!" everyone, fighting or not, stopped what they were doing and looked at the direction of the booming voice. There was a giant of a man standing there in iron clad armor, he was a paw taller than me (that's Tall) and buffer than any man I have ever seen. When he spoke, everybody listened. "Now that I have your attention, enough blood has been shed here today. How about me and one of you duel for the rest of us. That way no one else has to die today." Raymond, Joey, AND Ghost looked at me, some friends, huh? I stepped forward and spoke in the bravest voice I could put on. "I shall fight you here and now, that way these people can live free once again!" that sent an uproar of approval throughout the villagers. I shrugged off my robe and was left in my rawhide bottoms, he did the same as this was duel appropriate, no armor during a one-on-one fight. Then I decided that, against my will, I was going to fight dirty. Anything that would help me free these villagers. He ran at me with his greatsword gripped in his hands like it was his life-line, I swung backwards with my short sword, knocking his blade from his hands, then I kicked him in the back of the knee with all of my strength, He fell but steadied himself on his knees. I took my free fist and hit him square in the face, he fell to the ground, bleeding from his possibly broken nose. The battle from the other Templars had drained me of my energy, there I stood, all drenched in sweat. His irregular breathing brought me back to terms with what just happened. I leaned in close and whispered "You lose." he nodded and got up slowly. And barley able to walk, he ordered his troops to let the villagers go, when all was done they up and left. It was quiet until the girl that brought us here came forward, she smiled softly and rushed towards me and embraced me in a hug. I kept my hands out to the sides where they belonged. Everyone cheered and she shouted out "I knew you could do it!" she released me and I realized that I didn't know her name, "what's your name?" Rochelle, her name was Rochelle. That night we were honored and we all ate a banquet in the town celebration hall, we didn't bother to tell them we weren't a traveling bunch of adventurers, nor a band of bards. We let them have the time of their lives while four assassins sat in the mist of them in sheep's clothing. We left during the banquet, it wasn't my idea. The boys told me that being celebrated wasn't really the thing to be okay with when you are an assassin. We didn't tell anyone we were leaving, we didn't just walk out the front door, we left so discretely that they were still celebrating when we walked out of the dark, empty town. The only one who found out was Rochelle, she walked out to get some quiet and noticed us leaving. She was going to say something but I held up a hand and she understood. I waved and she left it at that. Little did I know we would meet again someday.*************** When we returned to the sanctuary, everyone was in the courtyard listening to the Master Assassin. He spoke with confidence and never skipped a beat, "THEY TRY TO BREAK DOWN OUR WALLS… WELL NO MORE!" he not only shouted each word… but you could feel each word echo through your head, he wasn't just talking. He was commanding. "THE TEMPLARS WISH FOR OUR DOWNFALL BUT ONLY BRING THEIRS!" the crowd of assassins cheered at these word, "BROTHERS AND SISTERS! NOW IS THE TIME FOR US TO DO BATTLE WITH THE TEMPLARS!" more Cheers erupted from the bloodthirsty warriors. "THEN GEAR UP, we leave at dawn…" he looked over at us, then he waved us over. As we ascended the stairs, Ghost whispered in my ear "Don't tell him about the banquet in the small town." I said "But he'll find out soon enough. We fought the Templars and people PRAISED us for it! He'll know." Ghost sighed then accepted the facts. Me, Raymond, Ghost, and Joey all walked into the master's quarters dead silent. He sat next to his pet falcon and fed it. Then without looking at us, he said "I heard you rescued some village for out west…" Ghost swore. "but it was the right thing to do." then he took his falcon out of his cage and set it on his shoulder. "And I also see that Austin has had no first mission jitters, he killed his target and recruited an assassin for us… all on his first day." all the others looked at me. "I'd say it was a job well done." we all let out a small sigh. He walked over and started the same routine with Joey that he had started with me. "So, you want to be an assassin?" Joey stood taller, "Yes sir." his falcon screeched loudly. "How hard would you fight for this cause?" he stayed silent for seconds. "Hard enough." The master assassin looked at him with acceptance. "This young man shall do just fine around here… but he WILL have to be tested." I tensed. when I first arrived, they put me up against the toughest man here. God only knows what he had in store for the poor tiger. "I was planning on having you fight someone… but that's not the only test we have, you seem more like you could be a good Saboteur." I soon realized what a saboteur did. "Raymond, Austin, take him to the course." we did the traditional bow, Raymond put his fist on his heart then took a bow, I did the same. We left the room, then I said "So, where is the course at?" he pointed at the trench. "Umm… on the other side of the trench right?" he laughed nervously, "Austin, it is the trench." I couldn't tell who was sweating more, me or Joey.
chapter 8: flying blind
Before I decided it was time for Joey to plummet to his death, I had to see my girlfriend again. I told them my plans, "Ok…" Raymond said "Just be back soon, or we'll start without you." I nodded and left to find her quarters. I was surprised to find her in the courtyard training with a wolf as her mentor. "So, your finally gonna beat me up eh?" she turned around and hugged me tight. When she released me, she said "So, you finally realized I exist eh?" I knew what she was getting at. "Ok, I deserved that.", "Yes, you did. Now I have something to ask you before you go…" I was curious at what she could have to possibly ask me, "Ok, ask away." She looked at her feet for a couple seconds, then back to me. "Can… Can we get… You know…" She thought I knew, I hadn't a c

what she was talking about. "Can we what?" she shifted nervously on her feet, "Get… *ahem* married?" Nothing else in the world mattered except what was happening right in front of me. "Alena… Yes! Oh my god, I just… wow. I just wish I asked you to marry me instead." she looked confused "Why?" I honestly didn't know. "I don't know, it just seems… right." she crossed her arms at that. "pfft… men." I remembered Joey. "OH! Alena, hate me later. But I have something I have to do!" she kissed me on the cheek and then I ran back to where they guys were waiting for me. When I arrived, almost everyone was there to see Joey test himself. Jyrik and Boone came over to say hello, "What's up?" Boone said, "we just about to start." I was so close to being late. "That's bad." I walked over to Joey and The Master Assassin, "When does Joey start?" the Master looked at the sun. Then he gently looked back to me and said "after we're done speaking, we shall begin." I couldn't let do this alone. "I want to take the course with him." The old man sat calmly on the chair prepared for him on the edge of the trench, "Very well." Joey smiled, "thanks…" he said. "At least I can die with a friend." we both chuckled at that. Then the Master Assassin counted down "5!" we took running stance, "4!" tails up in the air, "3!" heads low, "2!" sweat is already dripping from my face, "1!" I examine the course ahead, "GO!" we race off and nothing has ever gone faster than we did at that moment. There were cleverly placed platforms, rails, and stones so we could traverse the trench in a, what they called "free running", fashion that was unparalleled by any other means of transportation. It was a simple course at first, Jump, swing, land, repeat. Then it added different heights and angles, it was getting dangerous before we were even half-way there. Then, Joey lost his footing on a platform and fell, I dived and stopped at the edge barely catching his hand. As he was being pulled up, I heard disapproval from the crowd above, But I didn't care. All that mattered then was pulling Joey up from the abyss. When he got on the platform, he sat down and I yanked him to his feet. "Come on! The faster, the better!" I shouted as we continued to traverse the bottomless pit known as "the trench". My agility had been my rescuer, but I was so distracted by Alena's request that I couldn't think straight. Everyone had so have seen it, but no one said a thing. the hardest obstacle was the low visibility, I could barely see in front of me. This only added to the fact that you were only on the ground for seconds at a time, as if I was an eagle, flying without the ability to see. eventually the last stretch of obstacles were almost done, the final challenge was a blind jump to a pole, where you grab onto it and swing across yet another guessed jump to a platform with a ladder, signaling the end of the course. Joey looked at me and said "Age before beauty." I nodded and said "Yeah, you can go first." he sighed and got ready to deal his cards to fate. He took the jump and When all looked lost, his hands found the railing propelling him across the gap. Next was me, I jumped but couldn't do it without being remembered for something… I did it one handed! Much like a monkey swings from a tree, I used one hand to shoot me across the pit, and Then used the other hand to catch the ladder and start climbing without even landing on the platform. Joey was hot on my heels as we climbed furiously up the ladder. When we got to the top, The crowd was dead silent but in attendance. The Master Assassin walked through the crowd and stopped in front of us. "Joey could have died…" he said without skipping a beat, "… and you risked your life to save him." I held my breath, "Too bad you're not going to be one of our Saboteurs, you'd make a brilliant one." I released my breath, then his face seemed to glow. "Well, people. That's three times that our new "officer" has proven himself to us… and he's won every time. I'd say he earned a day off." the crowd murmured in agreement. "but first, we shall raise our cups high in the name of our newest assassin, JOEY HODGE!" the crowd almost blew us into the trench with the echo of cheers and compliments that flooded the sanctuary. That day, Joey was the man of the hour, and it was fine by me. I had to go plan my wedding with my wife to be. We were just deciding where to have our wedding when we heard commotion outside. We rushed outside while I was scrambling to put on my robe. When we arrived outside, there were assassins crowding around a single, robe-less assassin. Jyrik looked over at us and waved us to him. "You guys need to do something about…" he saw my clothes, and fixed my shoulder sleeve. "keep it in your pants man." I was stunned at his thought. "NO! We weren't… Oh never mind. What's going on?" He grew serious, "Someone has been convicted of a mutiny." This was going to be just great I thought. "We need you to do something." he said, I was blown away. "WHAT? Me? Why me?" we started over to the scene, "Because I know that the assassins will already pick your side over most after what you've been through. They see you as a leader, now lead them away from killing one of us." Alena and Jyrik were both staring at me. "I can only try, but I'm not a hero." Alena was frustrated "Then be one and rescue this poor person!" I stepped back… into the crowd of onlookers, great. There was no going back now. I had to speak over the roar of the crowd, I mustered all of my will into one single word "EEENNNNNOOOOUUUGGGGHHHH!" no one said a thing. I even surprised myself a bit, but I couldn't show that, I was too far to be stopped. "Someone tell me why full grown men and women are fussing over someone who could be an innocent man?" WELL?" one man stepped forward, a brisk, bright looking human, "I'm with the new officer! Where's the proof that he had done anything wrong?" A woman held up the burnt remains of a lantern. "He set a fire in an attempt to burn the sanctuary down!" I knew where this was going and knew exactly what had happened. "Where was the lantern found?" I shouted, "Next to what was left of the bar." she responded, the human came in, "Could the lantern have… oh, maybe, FELL OF THE BAR?" the crowd fell silent. Then I spat on the ground "So, you falsely accuse one of your own and label him a traitor, and for what? YOUR OWN INSOLENCE?" again, no one said a word. It was final, the human spoke up, "Then he is proven to be innocent and…" An assassin ran through his comrades, "I SHALL END HIS WRETCHED LIFE!" he got past the human, he was fast, but I was faster. I used his momentum and kicked him in the kneecap, I heard bones shatter and he fell to the dirt with cries of agony, two honor guard assassins came and carried the assailant away. "This is not our way! He is not evil, and yet he is betrayed by his own. Damn shameful it is." I untied him and then he did the brotherhood bow in my honor, then he took off before more harm could be done. Now I was pissed, "Satisfied? Because I'm not, that was inexcusable! No one should have even touched him before he was proven to be guilty!" The human joined in "Damnit there needs to be order in this brotherhood! I saw only barbarians and savages…" everyone in the crowd gained a sudden interest in their feet, because they could only stare at the ground. He gained a cooler tone "Now, reconstruction must begin immediately. Now get to it!" the entire crowd dispersed faster than ever before. He turned to me, "That was an awfully brave thing for you to do back there, defending a man that you don't know. For reasons to be determined. I respect that." I smiled "Thanks, it's not every day that I yell like that and people stop dead in their tracks." we both shared a laugh, "That's true, by the way… my name is Callum, yours?" "My name is Austin." he thought about it for a second, "Never heard of you…" I was confused what he was getting at. "Nah, just kidding. I know you, you're the new recruit that has destroyed records in a matter of 24 hours." time to act modest, I thought. "It spread that fast already?" then I gave him a smug grin to signal the joke. "HAHAHA" his laugh was hearty and deep, "We'll get along just fine." I had saved a life and made a new friend, all in one move. "Well, I was busy… so I'm gonna get back to that." he grinned wickedly, "I heard, just take it easy on her." then he winked, "Damnit Jyrik!" he laughed and waved me off to get some rest, and I needed it. It had been a long day and sleep was calling. I found my Quarters and called it a night.
Chapter 9: Jealousy is a woman
When I woke up, I felt at peace. The morning just seemed right, nothing felt wrong or out of place. I rolled over and hugged Alena, kissed her on the cheek, and tried to rest some more and… Alena was in my bed. I rolled out of the bed and landed on the floor face first. She rolled over sleepily and said "Well, morning trippy." I was confused more-so than ever before. "What… What are you doing in my bed?" she just gave a small laugh, "I'm laying in bed with my husband." I just flopped down on the floor, "Warn me next time." I stood up and got dressed, keeping an eye on Alena to make sure she wasn't messing with me. I left and went to help with the repairs on the bar. When I got there, many assassins were already working on the burnt wood, replacing it with new, sanded wood. The work was not hard but it was time consuming. Then, suddenly… everyone stopped working. I wondered what was getting everyone so distracted, but I shrugged it off and continued to work. Then I heard someone walk up behind me, but it couldn't have been for the new guy so I just kept on working. Then I heard a feminine voice, "So, we've got a worker?" I set the plank I had in its place and turned to see a Western Basitin standing menacing looking up to me, literally. "Can I help you?" I said, she just looked at me, as if studying her prey, then turned and left. All eyes on me, I returned to work.

The day was long and hot, so I took off my shirt and worked with just my fatigue pants. Out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn that I saw that Basitin watching me. I pushed it away as a vision from the heat, but I couldn't shake the feeling I was being watched. After the job, I walked out to the courtyard to see how Joey was doing. On my way there, the Basitin girl walked over and gently pushed me against the wall, "Where are you going?" I didn't see where this was going. "To see Joey, why do you care?" she ran her fingers through my fur, "Oh, no special reason." and she left just as fast as she appeared. I just sat there against the wall, "What just happened?" These women were going to be my downfall. I arrived at the courtyard where Jyrik and Joey were talking by the tree in the center, and Ghost was using the tree as a pull up bar. They saw me coming over and sat up, Jyrik had news. "Austin, it's good to see you. And still in one piece!" I just looked at him awkwardly, "Yeah… I'm in one piece. Why wouldn't I be?" He leaned in real close. "The Basitin, Julian is her name, that likes you…" "Oh, that's what that is." he nodded, "Yeah, she's the jealous type." Needless to say, I'm slow at these things. "Keep going." I said, he "She'll probably try to beat Alena down to get to you." Nothing but pure anger welled up inside me, if ANYONE touched Alena… I would rip their throat out. I had to find Alena so we could talk about this, "I need to go, by the way… good job Joey." He waved then I was off to find Alena. She was in her Quarters, just sitting there on her bed. "Alena, we need to talk." she just looked up at me, tears in her eyes. "Is it true?" I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. "Pardon?" I asked, she sniffed and sobbed "I heard you were cheating on me with that Basitin woman." and she buried her head in her arms. "No." I said, "I never even talked to her! She likes ME, I can only love my wife." and I walked over to her bed, sat down with her, and pulled her close. She grabbed my arm like her life depended on it, "Promise me you'll never leave me." "I promise." her sobs slowly disappeared and She fell asleep in my arms. I wasn't tired, but I lay there anyway, just to assure her that I would never leave her side. I looked at the door way, and through the crack of the open door, Julian sat there. I knew who is was and I was not about to let her get her way. "Get out." I commanded, The shadowy woman hesitated. Then she left without a word or sound. Later when Alena awoke, I told her about Julian and everything that happened. She said that she would solve the problem. If only I knew what she was planning on doing. Women, let me tell you. If you get the chance, stay away from them. That day, women almost got me killed. Alena went off to find Julian and find out what was going on. I didn't think anything of it, but I should have when I heard Alena muttering to herself angrily, so I went to hang out with Boone and Dante to get drinks. It was a great time and everyone was telling stories, Boone and Dante had me talking of old times before my village was destroyed. It was an enjoyable day at the bar, which was now fully repaired. There wasn't anything going on that ruined the moment…that was the first clue. There's always something going on when you live with assassins. The second clue was that all the men were having fun in the bar, but where were all the women? Something was amiss and I was going to find out what, even if I killed me. I wondered the sanctuary searching, no female in sight. Everywhere I looked, not a single woman in any room in the sanctuary. That's what got me worried, the men may hold the spots for most skilled warriors, but the women were more ferocious than any man there. My search grew into a full blown woman hunt when the boys at the bar realized as well that the girls were all gone. For most of the evening, every male assassin in the sanctuary, minus the master assassin, was searching for the females of the brotherhood. There wasn't a sight or sound of the girls anywhere, I was getting worried because of this. And the fact that Alena and Julian didn't get along. Both of these facts fed my urge to find all of the females. God this reminded me of my teenage years, searching all over for tail… now I just had a better reason. Jyrik found me and tried to comfort me, "It's alright, we'll find them. These walls protect everyone inside, I'm sure Alena is just fine in here." that was it. These walls protected everyone inside, but if said group of people was to be outside the walls… I rallied the men, "Men, we have turned the entire sanctuary over searching for the girls. But what if they aren't in the sanctuary?" murmurs of both agreement and disagreement flowed through the crowd. "Think about it. We've searched everywhere, they have to be somewhere else." the group nodded in agreement, "Half of us will stay here, while the other half goes and searched outside the sanctuary. I'll lead the group that leaves, Jyrik shall lead the group that stays. Any questions?" no one said a word. "Then its settled." We split everyone into two groups and set off to find the missing women of our brotherhood. Hours passed and we didn't even see clues of them being around the sanctuary at all. Hope was being lost and the Master Assassin even tried using his falcon to find them. He shared a telepathic link with it, what it saw, he saw. Still we saw nothing pointing us towards where they could be hiding. I was becoming very irritable, something big had to be happening for Alena to run off and not tell me where she was going. It rained and I would've got a cold before I got back to the sanctuary. Luckily there was a small cave under a ridge, I decided to spend the night in there and return when it wasn't pouring down rain. I took notice that there was a torch on a pedestal like someone was meant to be here. Maybe it was for if this happened, nowhere to go and in need of shelter. For whatever reason it was there I was glad for it. I took off my wet robe and used my shirt as a pillow, I had no interest in watching the rain while I waited it out. I almost fell asleep when a loud cracking noise pulled me from the lull of sleep. What caused it I didn't know, but I was about to find out. It sounded like it came from further in the cave, but I was at the end of the small cave. I thought it was just dark to I grabbed the torch from its place on the wall, when I did this. The end of the cave opened to reveal a secret inner-cave! I had no doubt in my mind that the noise that had taken sleep from my grasp had come from within this hidden interior. I grabbed my wet robes but put them in my backpack as I would still get a cold from wearing them. I traveled deeper and deeper into this cave, not knowing what lie ahead. Eventually I got to where there was one empty pedestal and more filled pedestals down the cave. I put the one I was carrying on the empty pedestal and continued down the lit path. I heard shuffling, like that of the feet of a trained assassin. I knew I was being followed, whoever was following me knew that too, because they never made a move. Oh, but they were there, I knew it. I kept my ears up high so I could hear anything that might be my downfall. This tunnel was very long, no wonder we couldn't hear or see the women, they had an almost soundproof tunnel. Almost, I had heard the cracking noise come from inside the tunnel, I was sure of it. I finally arrived at a giant set of doors, rivaling those of the sanctuary doors themselves. Then the assailants following me made their moves, one came charging towards me. I took his arm and arm-dragged him, 1 down, 1 to go. This one came running at me with daggers in hand, I took a standing drop kick and hit him square in the chest. When it was over, I got a look at the attackers… It was two of the missing women! I was relieved and stressed at the same time. I had found the girls, but I had also taken violent action against a woman. I have nothing against female warriors, but I never thought I would be one to hit a girl. I couldn't sit and take pity on myself, I had found where the females were hiding and I needed to get them to come back. Before I made any progress, I set the girls in a sitting position against the wall, said my apologizes, and went to find the remaining women. I opened the doors and there was three girls sitting on the ground playing cards. "Hurry up…" one of them said, "Your late, the death match is supposed to be soon." Death match? Assassins could only duel, not kill each other. "What death match?" the girls looked up from their cards and saw who I was. "Oh my god, he's not supposed to be here!" They rushed to get up, but I held my hands up, "I'm not here to fight. I just want to find Alena." They relaxed a bit, but still held true to their swords just in case. I was allowed entry but at the cost of they didn't see me, I snuck in without permission. I gave them my regards and set out to find why there was a death match going on. Eventually, I arrived at a large dome-like room. In the middle, was a small arena like pit, and it was surrounded by seats, almost like a stadium. A woman walked into the middle of the arena and shouted "Ladies! Tonight, we shall see two girls go at it for the right to love a man! One's jealous and the other is defensive!" the crowd in the seats roared, "Oh no…" I said, I knew before it was said who was fighting. Alena and Julian walked into the arena. "No…" I whispered, the woman spoke again "These two have walked in, but only one shall walk out!" more cheers from the crowd of bloodthirsty women. "No…" I said louder. "BEGIN!" she screamed, they charged at each other with short swords. "NO!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, I ran into the fray with hope I could stop it. I had no such luck. I got past the guards and jumped in the pit, the combatants were too focused to see what was going on around them. All three of us met in the middle, Which was the ultimate factor in what happened next. I grabbed one of both girl's shoulders to keep them at bay, I only succeeded in catching a knee to the back and a sword through my upper left chest cavity. Everything else was in slow motion, as I fell I could see both girls forget about each other and try to catch me. They both missed and everyone grew silent as I fell to the floor with a sword in my chest. My vision blurred and I was starting to blackout, the last thing I saw was all the assassins rushed from the stands to try and get me the attention I needed. There was no sound that I could here, only silence as I was lifted up and carried back to the sanctuary. We had just reached the mouth of the outer-most cave when everything turned black.
Chapter 10: agony then pain
"RUN FOX, RUN!" I was running with all of my will but whoever was chasing me was just too fast. I couldn't fight, my arms felt heavy and I had no weapons. I was tired and drained, All I could do was turn and make a final stand. The rustling had stopped coming from one direction and was now all around me. When I turned, I found only darkness in my sight. Then all at once I heard a voice shout "AH, FOUND YOU!" and eleven figures dived out at me. I crouched and covered my head, awaiting the end. Then I woke up. When I awoke I gasped for breath, which freaked the medic out a bit. She came over and tried to put lay me back down. "Shhh, it's alright. It was just a dream. Get some rest, rest not sleep, and you'll be just fine." I pushed her hand away, "No, I need to sit up. It's happened before… trust me." she started to protest, "But you…" "I said, TRUST ME…" I interrupted. She backed down but wouldn't let me leave without coming with, I was fine with that and we walked down to Alena's quarters. The walk was ok in itself but the soreness in my arm was painful, I flexed my arm a bit and it wore off after awhile. When I arrived I knew she was going to be in either a sad mood or an angry one, so I told the medic to return to the medics station so she could watch over the other patients. After some persuading she left grumbling about losing her job, she wasn't going to so I put it out of my head and pushed the door to my wife's room and braced myself for the worst. The only thing I heard was her soft voice speak even softer than before, "Hello honey, recovering fine?" I opened my eyes to see her just sitting on her bed, head hung low. "Uhh… yeah, I'm still sore but it's nothing I can't handle." She smiled weakly, "At least your still alive…" then she started to stare off into space. "Come on…" I said, "Don't think like that." she grew more serious than she had ever looked before. "But I could have killed you!" I had to try and calm her down. "I'm here aren't I? It's ok…" "NO." she said. "You were hurt because of me. You would have been better off without me." that was the line. "Now see here…" she got louder, "WELL ITS TRUE! AND DON'T LIE TO ME!" for awhile, all we could do was sit there and stare at each other with only pity in my eyes, remorse in hers. Then I said what I needed to say, "Alena, if you ever think that I would leave you… stop it. You are going to be my wife soon, isn't that enough proof?" her eyes sparkled with tears, "Oh I have been acting like a fool." she was in a very pessimistic mood, I needed to cheer her up. "Acting like me?" she giggled, job well done. "Yeah, I guess so." Suddenly, images flashed in my head. Images of anger. Images of despair. Images of betrayal. I grabbed my head in the daze to try and keep steady. Alena saw that something was wrong, "Are you alright dear?" I couldn't give her one more thing to worry about. "No… I mean yes, yeah. I'm fine." she looked doubtful, "You sure?" I nodded but in my head, the images were still there. I felt constricted, but being next to Alena calmed my nerves. We had to leave this space together, "Come on Alena, walk with me." "Why? I really, really want to stay away from other people for a bit." This was reasonable and I could argue. "Fine, but I need to take a short walk. My head has hurt since I woke up." she was about to protest, but I really needed to have some time to walk. "Ok, but come back soon. There's still planning to do!" by this I hope she meant our wedding, "There sure is." and with that, I walked out to the hallway and tried to walk to the yard. I tried, but the farther I walked, the stronger the pain got. Eventually the wall was the only reason I was standing up. Then Raymond walked by, "Hey Austin What… Whoa man, you don't look so good." he came close to see what was up. Then the visions and flashes subsided. Just as quickly as they came, they left when Raymond got close. "Raymond, come here." he looked at me warily, "Ok… I guess?" he got shoulder length away from me and the visions had gone completely. "Ray, I've been having these visions… but whenever I'm near you or Alena, they disappear!" He thought long and hard on this one. "Time to see the sanctuary mage?" he said, I nodded "Seems that way." We walked down to the mage, she was busy. Books were floating around her, she had her staff of power in her right hand, waving her left hand to operate her floating spell books, "Hello." she spoke without looking up from her studies. "If you need my help, I'd appreciate it if you hurried." Me and Ray looked at each other, he shrugged his shoulders. Then I spoke to her "Umm, what do you know about visions?" she barley looked up as she acknowledge my question, "Enough to have seen that you have them, and some night terrors as well, am I wrong?" I was stunned, she had merely seen me walk in and she knew what was wrong with me. "Well, that's about it." she put a book mark in the nearest book, then closed it, the others closed as well. When all the books had neatly placed themselves on her desk, she walked over to me and stared intently into my eyes. "I can suppress this kind of vision… yes, but only if it never happens." "What?" I said. She looked irritated as if I should have known, "I can make the flashes of this vision stop, but only if it never occurs. If it occurs, then you can only put up with them until you fulfill the vision." that didn't seem bad at the time, so I took it. "I accept the…" "Oh please, stop right there." she interrupted. "Just say yes and I'll cast the damn spell." She had no problems speaking her mind. "Ok then, yes. Cast the damn spell." she smiled "That's the spirit kid, ok here we go. I need you to lay down over here on this table." we walked over to the table and I laid on it as instructed. Ray was told to sit as far away so we could feel the effects, as he walked to the opposite side of the room, the vision crept up on me like an insidious creature of the night. The more I fought the visions, the harder they fought back. "Do you feel the visions?" she said in a soft, gentle voice. I could not seem to make words, I could only nod. "Its worst than I thought, I can suppress these… but when they return, they will be immobilizing." through clenched teeth, I managed a "Just hurry… please." she looked at me with a softness in her eyes that wasn't there before. "I'll try." she whispered. Then she took a step back, and her eyes started to glow not with a solid color, but with an ember tint. And she spoke the words "Quod carere plaga oculis…" the visions started to repeat, faster and stronger than before. Her eyes glowed even more intensely, "Veniat ubicumque Unveil!" then the room plunged into darkness. A gust of wind from the casting of the spell had put out the candles, she lit more of them and we could see once again. "Tell me, do you see the visions anymore?" I looked, but I couldn't find it, I remembered what I had already seen. But only if I willed myself to remember. "It… It worked!" I shouted the words like I struck gold. Raymond came over, "Congrats, now you're not crazy… But I have somewhere to be. Can I go now?" I completely forgot we had just ran into each other minutes before. "Sure, can I come though?" he shook his head, "Sorry, if I could I would. But I'm not allowed to decide who comes and goes." I was saddened a bit but not too much, so he went on his own way and I walked back towards Alena's room. When suddenly, as I was crossing the courtyard, an explosion came from the east side. I wanted to go but I felt the bandage on my chest and remembered what happened last time I entered a fight I wasn't invited to. I tried to shake it off, then I heard someone shout "Procursusmentis!" and another explosion went off in the same area! This time, I could not ignore it, I had to see what was going on. I rushed up to watch from the sanctuary walls, and when I saw what was happening… I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a fight going on outside of the sanctuary, Templars against assassins, and it was extremely fast! There were live people flying faster than the arrows being shot around them. That's when it hit me, They had always been going easy on me! Of all the times I had fought and won, it was all lies. Down below I had seen, ever so briefly, all of the assassins I had beat in a duel. And they were moving faster than I could hope to move, hitting harder than I ever could, and swinging swords like a child with a stick. These were real assassins, not me. All I could do at the moment was sulk back to Alena's quarters. I entered her room, sat down, and told her everything I had seen. My walk of shame back to Alena went unnoticed. No one seemed to see the fox in the back take the longest way back. No one saw when I stood atop the sanctuary walls wondering why they would keep me there. Then I saw what was happening, I was pitying myself! That was not how I was going to solve this problem. Any feelings or thoughts towards me being inferior were left at the sight of that battle, when it is over I will feel them no more. I had to be better, but that was later. I've put off this wedding too long. She was writing something when I entered her room, "Knock knock." I said. She turned and looked shocked, "I heard explosions, is everyone alright?" I nodded, "Yeah, everyone's fine." she didn't need to know what I was feeling at the moment. "Now…" I said, "About the wedding." "Oh that." she said, "I had put some thought into it… and I think that we SHOULD get married… minus the wedding." She knew how to stump me. "Say what?" she shifted uneasily from foot to foot. "Well… these assassins are nice, but how would a wedding happen?" My heart turned to stone. Was she breaking up with me? Was there someone else? What was going on? "What are you trying to say?" I said, impatient to hear her response. "It's hard to say…" she spoke, clearly worried as to my reaction. I was more worried at her question. "I think I understand, but why Alena?" she looked at her feet, I came close and hugged her to try and comfort her. "We'll do whatever makes you happy. Because it makes me happy too." she sobbed and we sat down in the middle of her room, enjoying each other's company. After awhile, she had calmed down and tried to explain what she meant "It's like… Well, we're still married. But we just get rings and have a honeymoon, no actual wedding." I thought it over for a second, "Yeah…" I said, "That sounds like it would work. Let's go do it." she sprung up, "N…Now?" she always stuttered when she was scared, sad, or remorseful. "Yeah, why not? I have some gold, the sanctuary has a blacksmith, if they have either silver or gold… why not?" she breathed in, held it, then sighed. "Ok, let's go get some rings." we took each other by the hand and went to go get the item that would make our marriage official.

Alena studied her gold ring intently, "It's nice, very nice." I could only smile she had gotten a gold ring while I had one made out of silver. It matched us perfectly, "Why did you get silver instead of gold?" she asked, I said "Because I'm like silver, tough and no one wants to look at me, and you're like gold. Beautiful and everyone wants you, but only I have you." we drew close for a kiss. It was the best moment of my life. We sat at the entrance on a bench, talking and laughing like a group of teenagers. Then the cavalry came waltzing in. A huge group of bloody and bruised assassins walked in through the front door. I waved and greeted them, "Hey fellahs! How was the fight, did I miss anything important?" Jyrik came over, blood covered his suit, "You didn't miss too much, what's with the rings?" Alena giggled, "Yeah Austin, what's with our rings?" I couldn't help but laugh as well, "Me and Alena are officially married." the entire group of battle-hardened assassins cheered and celebrated at the sound of this news. We all had drinks in the name of our marriage as well as their battle victory and I could care less who fought harder, because no one dreamed longer or loved stronger than me and Alena.
Chapter 11: Cussack crusaders
I woke up in my room, that was abnormal. Could have sworn I fell asleep in Alena's room. I saw my robes hung up nice and neatly, also strange. I hadn't worn them it two full days. My head hurt, hangover, that much was clear. I put my robes back in the closet and went down for some coffee. The coffee helped but the headache was still there. It wasn't anything that I couldn't handle so I went to check on Alena, she can't really handle alcohol let alone the hangover to follow. I stumbled down to where the women's quarters were. The walk seemed longer than usual, but alcohol does that do you. I had finally arrived at her door. I tried to shake the headache away from my head, it worked a bit, or I just forgot the pain. Either way I went to reach for the door when it flung open and I was greeted by a naked Alena, "Whoa, are you drunk?" that was the first thing I said, real smooth. She just stood there, then she grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me in the room, slamming the door behind her. "Alena what's the ru…" I never finished, she pounced on me and we fell to the floor. She managed to pull my shirt off before I could react, "Alena! What are you doing?" she tried to rip my pants to shreds, "Ok! That's it!" that was the only pair of pants I had at the moment. I managed to pin her to the ground and she sat there, wriggling to get free and whining like I took something from her. I scanned the room trying to find the reason for her mood, then I spotted it. A half drunk glass of milk, "Who the hell gave this to you?" I asked. Milk makes Keidran women get weird and sex-crazed. And her response was to claw my arm. I released her and she dived at me, repeatedly kissing my face. I rolled her off of me, then she got up, yawned, and passed out on her pile of clothes that she should have been wearing. That was the best thing that could have just happened, because Callum came in and he was in a hurry. "Austin! I need you to-" he looked at Alena, then the milk, then at me, panting and sweating on the floor, "I'll explain later, just tell me what's going on." he shook his head, "Go grab your robes and meet me at the entrance. And put a blanket on her or something." and with that, he left. I put Alena on her bed and covered her up. Then I left to go get my robes as instructed. I locked her door with a lock spell just in case, it was a basic spell (I am not good at magic) but it would have to do. I found my way to the front door with my robes, Callum was waiting for me. "Good, you made it." he said, "Now, how hard can you hit?" I shrugged, "Hard enough I guess." I said. He looked unconvinced, "Hard enough to knock me out?" I thought about it, "Well, not to brag… but yeah, I could do that." he nodded "Good, then let's go." we left to go to a town some distance away, apparently there was a group of wolves that had killed some assassins and that simply won't do. As we were riding up there on horseback, I couldn't help but notice he had some strange armor on. "Where did you get that armor?" he held up his arm "Oh this? It's just some armor I get for being the head defense assassin, all of the higher generals have a set. It's called Apex armor, made of a strong steel and bronze mix." it was an impressive set I'll give it that, but how would any assassin move the way he or she should in it? The question was quickly replaced with another, why were we going to a small town and he was dressed for a war? I figured that I would find out soon enough. "Callum, what kind of town are we going to?" I asked, he sighed "The best kind, it's a small town under our protection. The most admirable trait is that Keidrans, Humans, and Basitins all live in harmony." I was stunned, that was almost unheard of! "You mean… there's a group of people that finally see past what race someone is?" he nodded, "Oh yes, and sometimes I come down and visit just to see the idea of peace, it doesn't last though… I always have to go home eventually." "…And fight?" I asked, he grew quiet. "Yeah… fight." he put his helmet on and we rode to the town in silence, if I had crossed the line… this was the clue. When we could see the town he surprised me when he jumped off of his horse and charged into the town. I had to full on sprint to even catch up to him. I caught a glimpse of him that I will never forget. He had only rage on his face, his eyes were glowing blue, and he was told me something I thought I'd never hear. "Austin!" he shouted, "If I try to hurt an innocent person, knock me out!" he continued "I am intelligent, don't forget that. Use your head if you have too!" and with that, he ran faster than I had ever seen someone run. Whoever was in that town… I felt bad for them. Just trying to catch up to him was a challenge, how was I supposed to knock this raging warrior out? Even the towns people, Callum's people, ran away from them as if he was hunting them down. "Come on! Over here people!" I shouted at them, Callum was too busy to hear me for he was demolishing a group of Templars. I wondered why they were there. What were they doing? The thought was lost when I saw that Callum had already finished the Templars off. "Great job Callum, now let's-" he threw me off to the side and the towns folk gasped in horror. I turned to look at Callum, through the eye holes in his armor I could only see a blue glow. He was walking towards me when a small child ran to their house, Callum saw her and turned to give chase. "NO!" I shouted and sprung up to intercept him. He almost caught the girl and I grabbed his arm to stop him. He turned and reversed it on me, he had control of both of my arms. Then I recalled what he said, "Use your head if you have too!" so I used my head, literally. I tilted my head back and head butt his helmet as hard as I could. Ironically, he was the one to lose consciousness, I almost did but I had a job to do. The people stayed clear of us, but I dragged Callum to the lake nearby, Took a deep breath, and threw him in armor and all. He came up sputtering, I was prepared for the worst. "Austin! What the hell was that for?" I was furious, "You tried to hurt a little girl! What was THAT for?" he looked at me (his helmet was up yards ahead) and just closed his eyes. "Sometimes… I can't control myself when lives are at stake. For better or worse." he sighed. I was just as angry as before, almost nothing could bring me out of this mood, "That would have been REALLY good information before you went on a rampage." I growled. He sighed, seeing that I was right. He may have just tried to kill us all, but he was my friend still, I had to calm down and help him at this moment. "Now, grab your helmet… say your goodbyes… and lets go see if we can't get something to take your mind off of this event." he smiled "Thanks." he said, we had to tell the villagers about what happened. They were as forgiving as can be, even to the point of bandaging my bleeding head wound, which cheered Callum up quite a bit. We said farewell and returned to the sanctuary to fill in the master on what went down. He listened to everything that happened and did not bat an eyelash when Callum explained his "moment." He just let him finish and exclaimed "Well… another job well done. Now Austin. I need you to-" "Hang on." I interrupted, "I have lived here for a week MAYBE, and I have done more than I did in my old village… Why am I so important?" that stopped him in his tracks, I either put him in an awkward position or I stumped him. He got up and walked over, put a hand on my shoulder, and said "It's time we got to that…" and he walked us out of his room to a big locked door. "In here…" he rapped his knuckled on the door, "Is the reason we need you more than ever." he produced a key from his pocket and unlocked the circular door, it slid open to reveal a small cave instead of a room. There were deeply carved and beautifully detailed hieroglyphics on the walls spanning to the end of the brightly lit cave. Some events I recall, a village fire, the journey to the sanctuary, a fort of massive proportions, a duel in the arena with Ghost. Then there were some that I didn't relate to, so I paid them no mind. But in the very end of the cave, dead center in the middle, was the one hieroglyphic that I will never forget… in the middle was the symbol for a fox. I immediately backed out of the cave, "Oh no, not me. Maybe it's another fox?" The old assassin grew irritable, "So another fox pair will become assassins, break every record we have, and fulfill the prophecy… very unlikely." Now I was just trying to talk my way out of this purely on desperation. It couldn't have been me. I was a normal fox until the fire, the fire was on the wall a voice in me said. I wanted to shout that it wasn't me, that it was really some other fox, but it was all hopeless. The facts were adding up, it was either me or Alena and she was finding it hard to cope with becoming an assassin, let alone kill someone or fulfill some prophecy. Then a thought hit me. back when we first recruited Joey, Ghost had said that he joined only a day or two before me. My hope had risen up once again, there was a chance that my wife and I could actually live in peace. I had to find him, "Umm… hey… yeah, where's Ghost?" I stuttered. The master raised an eyebrow, "In the courtyard doing his usual exercises… why?" he said quizzing. "It's not important." I replied and left to find him. There he was, like I was told, in the courtyard using a tree as a pull-up bar. I tried to act smooth and collected when I approached, suspicion was high but not high enough. "Hey Ghost, I need to ask you something." he dropped down and stretched a bit. "I respect you, so I'll stop for a bit. Now what did you want to ask?" I tried to find the words to put it lightly, "Has the master assassin showed you anything important… like a prophecy?" he stares at me unblinkingly "Actually yes, I thought it would be me. But I could be wrong, it could be you." I was miserable "please don't say that." even through his cowl, I knew he was frowning. "Are you ok?" he asked, clearly confused. "No, I'm not ok." I said "from what I get from it… either me or Alena is the fox it talks about. Then I thought it could be you, you're a black fox but a fox none the less." his eyes filled with worry. "Never mind, you probably never went through a fire anyway… that was the first hieroglyphic." now the concern was serious. It was silent for a minute, then he broke the peace "We need to talk." he spoke icily, "Déjà vu…" I muttered "But let's talk somewhere private, it's getting dark so the dining hall should be empty." he suggested, so we left to the dining hall where, sure enough, it was empty. The only person there was Sherry as usual, but she was happy for the company. She saw us, me more than Ghost, and smiled. "Hey guys." she said in a delightful tone, "What's so important that you talk to the lowly chef?" I thought she was serious then I saw her smile wickedly. I was about to answer when Ghost did it for me, "We need to discuss something important and we needed to be alone. Minus you, that is." she just shrugged "Then I'll get you some light ale on the house and leave you two be… but you need to hang out with me for awhile tomorrow as compensation." I knew Ghost was going to reject her, but she is always so lonely and outcast, so before he could I stepped forward, lunged my hand towards her, and said "Deal." we shook and she left to grab drinks. Ghost stared at me coldly, I shrugged it off and took a seat. He sat as well when Sherry brought us our drinks and she went to the kitchen to keep herself busy until we left. "Now…" Ghost said, "About that prophecy. You said I never went through a fire." He had me reeled in, "What? Did you?" he shuffled uneasily "Yes, but it wasn't just any fire." he stared off into space, I thought I crossed the line when he spoke again. "I went through a fire alright, just like you…" "Just like me?" I asked "Just like you." he said emotionless. "But I was unconscious when my village set on fire, I didn't even know what it was like. I only knew there was a fire." he laughed dryly "That's right, a piece of burning wood hit you in the back of the head. You probably went blank for most of the fire." I was stunned, I had known him for a week or so and he already knew more about my past than I did! But it was the details that he knew that stunned me. "How did you know?" I asked, he leaned back in his chair and said "I have my ways." then he took a big swig of ale. "How did you know!" I boomed, he sat straight and grew serious. "What I am about to tell you… stays between us unless I say so. Got it?" It was more of a command than a question, but I didn't care. "Yes, now tell me why you know so much about what happened." he hesitated to even move, then he slowly removed his cowl and for the first time… I see my friend Ghost's face. What I saw will stay with me forever. It was a burned, beaten, and blackened, but very much alive, Alan Kurr! The sight of my old friend was shocking! I could have sworn he was killed back when our village was burnt to the ground, then I shrunk down when I realized that I never searched for him. I needed to get that off my chest, "I never thought… My god. I would have searched if I only knew that you were alive!" I reassured him and myself. He chuckled "well… Assuming you saw the fire as well, I don't blame you." he said. We shared a grin that we haven't shared in what seemed like ages, but was in fact maybe two or three weeks. I had so many questions for him, but they could wait. Right now I was catching up with my old friend who I presumed was dead. "So." I started, "Will I see you without your mask more often?" it seemed like a joke, but I was serious. He just shrugged "maybe, it depends." he said cryptically, then his ears twitched. He listened for a second, then he put his cowl back on, smoothed the wrinkles, and acted like that didn't just happen. Not even a second later, Alena came walking in. "There you boys are, I was looking for you." she sounded more happy than worried. She came over and sat down with us, "Need a drink?" I offered her some of my ale, she took a sip but was insistent on staying sober. "What are you guys doing down here?" she looked at Ghost guessing it was because of him. He looked at me, raised his eyebrow as if asking for approval. "It's up to you." I sighed. He looked at Alena, then me, and lifted up his cowl. Alena gasp with shock when she saw our old friend. "But you died!" she cried out, we hushed her and waited for someone to come running for the source of the cries… no one came. Gho… Alan, Looked around and leaned in close "No one else can know about this." he growled at her, not a threatening growl but more of a "please don't tell anyone" type of growl. She nodded in agreement and asked the same question I did, "Can we start seeing you without your rags on?" she asked him. Behind his black fur I swear to this day that he was blushing, "They're not rags! It's a cowl!" he said defensively, "Same thing.." she quipped "But can we?" he sat back thinking long and hard about his answer. He finally answered. "Since you two are the only people who truly know me… I'll stop wearing my cowl, there will be exceptions, but smoldered hair be damned! If my friends want to see me as I am, so be it." and with that we cheered, finished our ale, and went to bed. He wanted us to meet him by his room in the morning so he has allies at his side if he needs to bash heads with anybody about his black, burned hair. We were going to meet him there, but sleep came first. It was off to my room and on the bed, it seemed I was going to stay awake all night before sleep snuck in and grasped me in its calming embrace.

Me and Alena woke up and got dressed in some comfy work clothes, no robes today. We weren't going to do anything, plus we were due to hang out with Sherry anyway, so it mattered not. I knocked three times before opening Alan's door, he was in the middle of the room in only fatigue pants doing push-ups. "Do you ever just sit and wait?" I asked, he got up and stretched "Not usually." he said calmly. It's not like he needed to work out anyway, He had an eight pack for abs and could probably toss me farther than he could spit. He shrugged on a brown sleeveless shirt and we hesitantly paced to the door. He paused with his hand on the door knob, "Come on." Alena pressured "If they don't see you for who you really are… how can you ever expect them to trust you?" her words hit home because his gaze settled on the floor, she grabbed him by the arm "I believe that you can do it." I came over and rest my hand on his shoulder "If any of us can, it's you big guy." He grew more confident and pulled his door open and the three of us stepped out into the light while he resisted the urge to go back and grab his cowl. Assassins, strange and familiar alike, gapped at us. Not because he was burnt black, many assassins had scars or battle markings, but because we got the secluded Ghost to come out of his shell as Alan once again. Alan was enjoying this, seeing his colleges stare at him with both respect and awe was humorous to him. "You'd think I just woke from the grave." he whispered to us walking to the dining hall for breakfast. "Well, for us… you kinda did." I reminded him, "We DID think you were dead until yesterday." he grinned at that and we opened the doors to the mess hall. Sherry saw me and Alena, "Alright, my shift ends today soon. So we could maybe grab some…" she never finished her sentence because the sight of Alan made her almost drop several mugs of drinks. "Hey." he said shyly, she walked over to him looking him over from top to bottom, "Either this is some serious Déjà vu… or I'm still asleep, I feel like I should know you. But how?" he smiled weakly "what if I said I was Ghost?" he pointed out calmly "You're a ghost?" she asked, Alan just laughed "Not A ghost, Ghost… I must bore you extremely if you can't remember me." he joked, she thought about it. Then her eyes widened, "Ghost?!" she asked aloud, he raised a hand "Please, everyone… Call me Alan." then we waited for Sherry's shift to end so we could explain more about her mysterious friend.
Chapter 12: the Calling
It was me, Alan, Alena, and Sherry all sitting out under the tree in the middle of the courtyard. Alan and Sherry were chatting about Alan's past, but it was when he got to the trip here that Alena and I started listening. "When Austin was struck in the back of the head, I rushed to help him. As I was carrying him out, Alena came running to his side, loyal to the end, and took his other shoulder so we could escape faster." every time he spoke a detail, I could see a small part of him die. He must have seen more than I did. "We were in the clearing at the entrance, when I heard someone from inside the village screaming. I had to help them, I could never had lived with myself if I hadn't.." I shuffled uncomfortably in my spot. He was willing to go to any lengths for his friends… and I didn't even look for him. "I told Alena to take Austin away from the village, he practically helped build everything there… it would have hurt him worse." I wanted to leave so badly, he showed compassion for me even when I could have possibly helped save the village. But something kept me glued to where I was, guilt or jealousy I couldn't say. It may have been neither but I didn't get up or stop listening. "Alena dragged him away, which left me to go see if I could help anyone in some way. The wolves behind the arson were taking prisoners, killing anyone who fought back. I ran with rage in my veins trying to stop them. But two of the bigger wolves grabbed each of my shoulders and sent me flying into a burning house. I hit a support beam full force and the energy was sapped from me so when the burning wood fell on top of me… I was helpless." I could see tears forming in his eyes. This could go on no further, but I hadn't the heart to say it. "You can already guess that's how I got the black fur.." he lifted his arm. "But the worst part… was seeing everyone being dragged away." he had to stop for a minute. He was crying now, softly, but he calmed himself before it got too out of hand. "I even saw you when you guys walked into town." he looked me dead in the eyes when he said that. "That fight with Jyrik was the strongest thing I had ever seen you do. You were the reason I lifted myself out of that hole, black and burned, and beat you to this place. If you could fight after what happened, I could too. We've both fought together before, right?" I nodded, afraid to talk for I might burst into tears as well. "The confidence and bravery you showed made me realize it wasn't over, not yet. I heard of this place and, to be honest, was thinking of joining anyway. So I just made myself the Ghost persona, broke records in a day, and waited for you to come running." he smiled as he said that. He did all that just to see us again, to be with friends again, He continued on with his story while I sat, envying him, for hope, bravery, and friendship he showed. "It wasn't much to get here. I knew where it was, took me less than a day. I just hoped I would beat you here, and I did." he stopped as if thinking about what to say next, when the master assassin came up to us. We all tripped over each other trying to stand and salute him. I just got my fist over my heart when he spoke up. "Now now, story time is over for the moment. Sherry… You can stay off duty, but I need to have a word with these three." she bowed and left. "Now then…" he spoke with a irritated tone in his voice, that was usually bad. "Since your arrival, everyone has been going mad over the prophecy. To add to that chaos, we now know that Ghost… My apologies, Alan, is also a fox. Well those don't mix. So we have decided to put all the foxes against a test to see who is truly the one spoken of in the prophecy." we all shared uneasy glances. "It won't bring harm unto any of you, I promise." with reluctance in our heads, we hesitantly agreed to take this test.

All of the sanctuary's foxes were lined up in the courtyard while all the other species of people were lined on the turrets and walls of the sanctuary. The test was simple, there was said to be an ancient stone that would find the chosen person or persons' when the time arose. The master had the stone in his hands, it was about to begin. He spoke to it like he would an animal, "Find the foxes." he whispered. A green streak of aura came from the stone and circled all of us, it stayed like this a full minute before he tried something else, "Maybe I have to be specific…" he tried again "find the foxes you have chosen." the line did not falter, it continued its race around all of us. I was getting irritated, mostly because I wanted it to not choose me. "This is ridicules." I mustered and went to leave. When the path of the aura moved with me. It was now shaped like a bow, curved. I had damned myself because I was apparently chosen… but who else? All of the assassins tried moving out of the way, but it was only deterred by four people. Alena, Boone, Alan, and myself! To be sure, we all stood close together and the long line became a circle around us. The master assassin grinned from ear to ear. "It looks like we found our foxes." Boone and Alan were enjoying this, Alena only looked confused, and I was hating every second of it.

"You four are the foxes from our prophecy…" he went on from inside his quarters. "That must mean something, of course. But do any of you know what?" no one said a thing. "I didn't think so, The chosen fox or foxes was supposed to lead us into battle against the Templars." everyone in the room gasped. "They weren't a problem… but when we discovered the prophecy, they suddenly decided that we were a threat to them and took actions against us. So we took the appropriate counter measures…" we could all see where this was going, but no one dared to say anything. "There were three assassins we sent to find out why they were attacking us all of a sudden, they never returned… They are being held at the Templar camp 'Liberation' get in there, get our people, and get out." he stated it like telling people to their deaths was his job, it might have been. "It's never that easy…" I mutter angrily to myself, "Then I wish you luck and Godspeed. Because if something goes wrong, we could lose one of you. And believe me, I'd hate that worse than I hate having to send you off anyway." he said. And with our weapons cleaned, our attire dawned, and confidence in each other, we left to go find the Templar camp to be known as "Liberation".
Chapter 13: The Unseen Mask
We were riding in on a horse drawn hay carriage, our cover if we got caught was that we were farmers taking our hay to sell in a far off town. "Well this royally sucks." Boone said dryly, "It could be worse…" I reply. He looks at me with stupor on his face, "How?" he cuts in sarcastically. "We could be-" "Now I'm gonna stop you both right there." Alan says interrupting us. "If this is as dangerous as it sounds it is, then the last thing we need is someone to jinx us." so it was no more talking about what could go wrong, now I was worrying about Alena. She may be able to hold her own against a thief or a bandit… but a Templar? I already made up my mind that I will be at her side the entire time, regardless of what the guys think. She didn't seem the least bit worried, her and Alan were catching up at the drivers seats. At least they were keeping calm. I've been stuck in the back with the hay, mice, and Boone… lovely. This side of Boone was one I hadn't seen since I met him. Now that I think of it, I have seen sides of everyone I haven't seen before. Boone's more of an ass than he seems, Jyrik hasn't acknowledged me since he returned from his bloody battle, Dante always snuck out at night, and I haven't seen nor heard from Joey or Julian since my previous encounters with them. Then I thought about it, before the destruction of my village I never really thought about people's personality. But now that I'm an assassin, it's my job to see what makes people tick. Now I notice small things about people I didn't see. Alan flicks his tail whenever Alena purposely strokes his ego, he likes to be complimented. Boone likes to chew on stuff, now its hay but before it was blades of grass, pipes, or even sticks. Alena's ears twitch when someone talks about their feelings, she has always comforted people when they needed her. And me? Well I like to sit back and enjoy my work when I'm done, from meals to houses, I always liked seeing results of hard work. "So." Alan pipes up, "What's going on in the back?" I was about to answer him when Boone piped up. "Oh, you know… rainbows and happy thoughts." Boone rolled his eyes and turned away. His guard was down because he thought no one would try and do something, wrong. I jumped off, cart still going, and grabbed his foot dragging him along with. He hit the ground and got up angry as can be. "You better watch yourself." he snarled, "Why? So you can sit here and treat us like crap? Go to hell!" Alan stopped the cart, he and Alena were only watching. We stared at each other anticipating the other persons move. "You either really brave or really dumb." he said quietly, "More like really protective." I quipped back. It was quiet while everything was still, then he nodded. "Fine, I'll ease up." he said calmly. Then he walked back over to the cart, jumped on, and laid back. "You better not be lying." I growled, he just shook his head. "I'm not two things: a woman and a liar." he said jokingly, no one laughed. "I challenged you to a game of chicken to see how far you would really go for a friend… you proved me wrong, I'll back off." he answered more straight forward. "Just wondering, why are you acting so mean lately?" Alena asked, I jumped on the cart and Alan kept on trucking. Boone just shrugged "It's not fair that we are chosen by some ancient hunk of rock and we suddenly have to go die for no reason. So, yeah… I'm a little mad." no one else thought of it like that, and when he pointed it out no one talked for awhile. The silence was broken when Alan announced the camp was in sight. "How do you know its Liberation?" I asked, "I don't." he replied. A pair of human workers were walking away from the camp, we decided to ask them "Hey, is this camp Liberation?" I asked them. "Stuff it you fur face!" the smaller worker said. I looked at Alan, then back to the Humans, "Was that necessary?" they looked at me mockingly "Keep talking and I'll sell your pelt to the nearest town." the bigger worker said. Boone got out and blocked their path. he was small to a Keidran, but still bigger than these two humans. "It's a yes or no question, now choose wisely." he said these words with a deep, threatening tone. They looked at each other, and shakily nodded their heads to say yes. We had found the camp. "Now get out of here." they walked away with wobbly knees and shaken prides. He watched them walk the whole way until they were out of sight. "Damn humans." he almost spat the word human. "Not all of them are prejudice as they were." I pointed out, "Oh yeah?" Boone challenged, "Name three." it was an easy choice. "The master assassin, Callum, and this entire town I found on the way back with Raymond, Alan, and Joey." he smiled "Ok, you got me. Maybe ALL humans aren't as worthless as dirt. But some hit pretty low on the scale." "Amen to that!" Alan whooped. Alena tapped me on the shoulder, "Get your men together, we still have people to rescue." she reminded us. We looked at the camp, it wasn't that big. It was a couple big tents for housing and a fort in the middle, I guessed that was the prison as did everyone else. "So anyone get information on who we need to rescue?" Alan asked "Yeah, three people. A wolf and two tigers." Boone answered. "Then we're gonna need an plan to spring them." we set to work immediately on what our plan to free the captives were.

"So that's the plan?" Boone asked, "What?" Alan said defensively. Alena scooted in between them "I thought it was a good plan." she said. I was gonna stay out of this but all eyes ended up on me, as usual. "This is a group effort here." I stated, "Don't rely on me, but if you need me…" I replied calmly, seconds fly. "It sounds like it will work." I finished. Alan clapped "Then it's decided. Boone, got anything to add?" he just shrugged "It might have been better than my plan… but mine was way more badass." everyone groaned "We are not about to let you blow up the camp Boone." Alena sighed. "WHY?" he cried, "It would look amazing!" he really enjoys seeing things explode. "Because there's people in that camp we need to rescue." I reminded him. His smile faded one he remembered why we came here in the first place. "So we set?" Alan asked, we all nodded and went off to our positions to help liberate Liberation.

"I don't like this…" I said as I overlooked the hill we were posted on, against my will they separated me from Alena. "Why? Because your girlfriend is away from you?" Boone snorted "Yes actually." I answered "Oh.". we were watching for the signal from Alena and Alan. The signal was when we see flames shoot into the sky, when that happened me and Boone were supposed to rain arrows down on anybody trying to get in the way of Alan, Alena, and the captives. My bow finger twitched repeatedly as I awaited for Alan to shoot fire towards the clouds at any time. I could almost hear the faintest sounds of metal against metal, but it could be anything. They weren't supposed to fight their way in, just a way out, it was bad news. "Man… they need to hurry." I said as I was getting more impatient by the second. Boone tried his best to calm me "Just wait a minute and we will see your supposed legendary archery skills." but none of it help, wonder why? Then, as if the luck of the foxes was with us, I saw a funnel of red hot flames shoot into the air. With the signal up me and Boone unleashed a folly of arrows. His were more centered at the men confused and staring at the fire spout, while I targeted the ones already responding to the ordeal. It wasn't soon before we ran out of arrows, "Damn!" Boone exclaims "We should have counted our ammo first

he swore some more and kicked a rock down the hill, "Too late for that now, grab your short sword and lets go help them!" I shouted and we ran full speed down the hill to get to the camp. I was armed with a claymore, it was heavy and hard to maneuver but that didn't out do the one hit kill ability of the giant sword. They all seemed to be heading towards the fort in the middle so that's where me and Boone went first. We stayed low and hidden for we would need all of our energy for the battle we might have, poised low to the ground I swept from tent to tent without alarming anyone. When we got close to the fort, I could hear nothing but battle cries and a death knell. I unsheathed my claymore ready for a fight, Boone already had blood on his sword. I looked at him as if we might not walk out alive. "Ready?" I asked him "Pfft, I was born for this moment. Trust me, a rock told me." we shared one final laugh and charged into the fray swinging in hopes of getting to Alena and Alan where the captives would be safe and no one would be hurt. Oh how wrong we were. As tiring as it was to swing a giant sword I didn't dare stop to see where we were or how it was going. We got about midway into the crowd before they started giving us elbow room, we used this time to stand back to back and evaluate what was going on. There was fighting still going on in the fort and the Templars near us were wary of advancing, with good reason. Out of breath and not done yet we had to think of something to help us get in the fort. "Do you know magic?" I whispered to Boone, "Some. Why?" he whispered back. "When I say now, shoot lightning towards the fort door." I said. We sat for a minute awaiting the first move, then it came. A Templar came running at us with his blade in hand, "NOW!" I shouted as I sliced him in half from hip to shoulder. Boone shot a lightning bolt exactly where I said to. It pierced a few Templars before bouncing harmlessly off of the stone wall of the fort. We made a mad dash through the opening he made. The Templars chased in pursuit, catching wind of our plan. As we rushed into to doorway I shouted "Boone! Put a barrier on door!" he didn't know whether I meant magic or physical, so he did both. He grabbed a table, flipped it onto the door, and magically sealed it into place. We stopped to catch our breath and re-evaluate the situation, only to discover the fighting had stopped. Both outside and inside was quiet except for the murmurs of Templars wondering how to get in. We braced ourselves for the worst and went deeper into Liberation. Walking down the stairs felt wrong. We should have been running for our lives, but all was calm. "Boone… this doesn't seem right." I said aloud, "Yeah, just remember I got your back." he called back. Every ounce of my being shouted at me to turn tail and run, but you know me… thick-skulled and not afraid of anything. When we reached the bottom of the flight of stairs there were Templars everywhere. We were surrounded and they could have easily taken us captive or even killed us. They didn't even acknowledge we were there. We walked through the Templars and they just casually shuffled about not even looking in our direction. One of them saw our confusion and spoke to us, "You aren't even worth our time, you'll be taken care of soon enough." he said then returned to having a drink. Boone and I looked at each other, "Are they for real?" I asked, he just shrugged. That's when we saw what they were talking about. Alan and Alena were being escorted into a door off in the corner. "Alena!" I shouted, I went to follow but a Templar grabbed my shoulder "That's not a good idea…" he said icily, "That area is off limits." another said just as coldly. No one would keep me from my friends.

"Was that necessary?" Boone asked, we walked past the unconscious bodies of the Templars that stood between us and Alena and Alan. "Since when do you care?" I retorted. He laughed and we walked over to the half open door where Alena, Alan, and hopefully the captives are. I took a deep breath "Ready?" "When am I not?" he answered, and I flung the door open exposing secrets that should have laid dormant forever. Alan and Alena were there, so were the captives… but the captives were dead and Alena was chained to the wall! Alan, I can never forgive him for this, was standing next to some Templars. He wasn't a prisoner, he wasn't about to be executed, He was with them! "Alan? What the hell is going on?" Boone asked, I should have said it but I was too stunned to speak. Alan turned and smiled evilly at us, "And here are the guests of honor." he spoke with a new tone that chilled me to the bone. "This better not be what I think it is…" I tried to sound confident but it only came out as a confused and desperate tone of voice. "Or what? You'll save the day like always? Be the hero once again? Don't lie to yourself, you're no hero." He laughed with hatred. "He's with them!" Alena shouted "Run! Don't let them-" Alan reached over and slapped her across the face, "Did I say you could speak up?" Rage flowed through my body. Before I could think I was running full speed across the room, I threw a haymaker at his face hoping to re-arrange it. He dodged it quickly and I punched a hole in solid wood. "Too slow." he taunted "Why?" I whispered, "I'm sorry, speak up. I can't hear when you grumble you pathetic waste of space." he was digging at me. "Why did you do this?" I asked him louder this time. He chuckled grudgingly "Because everything I loved was burnt to the ground and everyone I trusted abandoned me." I could only stare at him, "We helped you believe in yourself again, how did we betray you?" I asked furiously, after everything we'd done for him he had said something like that. "YOU LEFT ME TO DIE IN THE FIRE! YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK FOR ME! I SURVIVED… but who the hell do I owe that to? No one…" his gaze grew cold, "Of all the people I thought would leave me in the ashes of our proud town… you weren't one of them." now he was only talking about himself "You think you're the only one to lose something? We lived there too in case you forgot! We lost everything as well in the fire, when we found out you were alive we were happy! We had something again… a friend." I shouted, tears welled up in his eyes "Don't turn this around on me! You destroyed my hopes to keep on living, now I live purely to make you…" he pointed at Alena "…And you, suffer." I lost control, I ran at him with the intention to kill. A templar put himself in between me and him so I jumped at him hands first. He hit the ground and I landed on top of him, nothing was going to stop me from reaching Alan. I grabbed hold of his neck and twisted it to the left, then the right. His neck snapped and the life left his body, I turned my attention to my old friend. The only thing I saw was a fist smash into my nose. As I was losing consciousness, I heard Alan's all too familiar voice whisper "Déjà vu."
Chapter 14: keep your friends close…
When I awoke, I was chained up same as Alena. She was next to me gazing idly at the floor, "Alena, Where is everyone?" I asked quietly. She didn't answer, just continued to stare at the floor. I looked around for Boone but he was not to be found. I checked the ropes for frayed ends and cut ropes… no such luck. The ropes were chains, no chance of breaking that. I was running out of options. My escape plan was ruined when Alan came in with a stool. He set the stool down, sat down, and crossed his legs. "Well.." he began "I hope you aren't too… tied up." he chuckled light heartedly. "But I'm not here to make you laugh, I'm here to tell you why I seek revenge." I was already watching but Alena lifted her head to see when she heard that. "You asked how did you betray me. Well, allow me to explain." we were both listening intently to our old friend turned enemy. "My story I told you back at the sanctuary was half true…" he paused, looking almost regretful. "Why are you telling us at all?" I asked. He looked me in the eyes and spoke not with hate, not with spite, but with compassion. "Because I want you to see what I saw and check if you still think I'm in the wrong." he answered. "Where to start… Oh yeah, let's start at the part where no one came to see if I ok. And I wasn't lying when I said I saw you and Jyrik fight. But it didn't inspire me, no it set my dark thoughts in motion." he started blinking back tears. I realized he didn't only feel betrayed… he felt hurt. "I wanted you to realize that when you left me. I wasn't mad that you did… it's that you didn't even look. You didn't even care." he just shook his head and sat in silence. I normally would have tried to cheer him up, but he had me chained up, he slapped Alena, and Boone is still nowhere to be seen, now was an exception. "I expected my brother to run, hell even my father… but not you." a wave of guilt hit me. He expected even his own father to abandon him, but he thought that I, His closest friend, would stay at his side. "So forgive me when I say… that everyone in the sanctuary will die soon." he smiled as he saw our expressions change from guilty and depressed to angry and resentful. "I'll leave you with the reason why. I took all of the training I learned at the sanctuary and taught it to some Templars." we could only gape at him. "They're a special group of Templars trained to hunt assassins. Free-running can't save you now." he said icily. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go avenge my dead friends…" he waited to see how confused we were, we were very confused. "You think I would let you leave? I may be angry, but I'm no idiot. Goodbye… old friend." I sat in his direction, he was too far to hit but the message was received. He left and two Templars dressed in lighter armor came in with swords in hand. This was it. I saw no way to get out of this unless a miracle happened. The bigger of the two pulled out a curved sword, not traditional but effective, as he was readying a swing we all heard a shout from the other room. He was distracted so I head butt him in the stomach, his anger got the best of him and he swung too high cutting my bonds. I punched him in the face, then took a chop at his neck. I hit a nerve and he fell to the ground unconscious. The other, smaller guard was on alert and I didn't have time to grab his comrades sword so hand-to-sword combat was my only choice. Every time I tried to lean into a move, he would lean that way as well and block my entry. It was a stalemate until Alena kicked out at him, he lost his balance and as he fell I was on top of him and hands wrapped around his throat. I was intent on suffocation him until I realized what was happening, I was becoming Alan… I let him go, he was unconscious but alive. I stood and just stared at my hands, what was I becoming? I released Alena and we stumbled to the door awkwardly, "Ready?" I asked her, "Never better." she lied. "Now, let's go find Boone." I reply. I was soon realizing that the only way to win and keep my sanity was to accept the fact that war was a team sport. We searched the next room with great caution, all of our weapons were taken away from us when we were captured. We scavenged some daggers but a head on battle would still result in our deaths, so we tried to avoid confrontation with anyone at the moment. No one seemed to notice that we escaped so sneaking around was easy, the hard part was not ripping out their throats… There was a voice deep down inside that urged me to emerge from hiding and kill every single Templar in sight. It was agonizing, I knew better, I WAS better, yet I still felt the urge… dark, insidious. Sneaking up on me. Gnawing at me. Telling me to be someone I wasn't. I pushed that feeling deep down, but it would only last for so long. We had to get out of Liberation as soon as possible. But we needed to find Boone first. We heard him before we saw him, "Come on! Is that all you got?" he shouted, obviously agitated. "Well…. We know he's here, but where?" Alena asked, I walked around until his voice seemed to be directly under me. I moved some straw on the floor to reveal a trap door. "Found it." I called out not too loudly. We descended into a cold, damp under story to Liberation. A few steps and there Boone was, being tortured by Alan himself. I stepped forward towards Alan with blood on the mind but Alena grabbed my arm, snapping me back to reality. "Now…" Alan said icily, "Are you going to beg for mercy? Or should I keep it up?" the battered and bruised Boone only laughed and spit in his face. He wiped it off casually and hit Boone in the ribs Boone screamed with pain, I could only guess but his ribs must be broken. "I gave you a chance, remember that you brought this on yourself…" he removed a dagger from his hilt. "I can't do this." I told Alena, "I am going to distract Alan and the guards. Get Boone and get out. Don't look back.", There were two Templars guarding Alan, nothing I couldn't handle… But Alan himself, I was unsure if I could kill him, or that the problem would stop would be once I kill him I would go too far. Killing is one thing, bounty hunting is another… but when they become murder, problems start. Once again I hid my thoughts of what I might become and charged into the fray. Alan was busy with Boone and wasn't quick enough, but his guards were on the defense. These Templars had short swords at hand and intercepted me before I could end Alan's life. I dead stopped, narrowly missing a blade to the neck. My borrowed dagger couldn't save me now, but killing wasn't my goal it was just a bonus. I got everyone's attention so it was only a matter of time before Alena rescued Boone and we could leave this god forsaken camp. "Broke free, not much of a prison is this?" Alan smiled "More like a execution camp…" the guards took a step forward with Alan in tandem with them. Then the unimaginable happened… Boone shouted "Excuse me!" and punched a confused Alan square in the jaw. His elbow hit the Templar to his right directly in the throat, the other Templar was going to cut him down but Alena jumped on his back and sent them hurtling right into me. I used his momentum and nearly took his head off with a jab to his nose, he was out and Alena took a tumble. I caught her and couldn't have been prouder of her. "Hey beautiful." I said smugly, "Compliment me later, we need to leave." she retorted. Boone grabbed our arms and pulled us to the door "Come on! Let's high tail it out of here!" his words were commanding unlike he's ever spoken before, "Make a joke about our tails and I'll kill you." Alena added, and we shot out of that camp so fast Boone pulled a muscle, in all fairness he had been tortured so we carried him some distance into the forest before we decided we were safe. We set up a make shift camp and used a bag of mana stones to light the area (a trick he learned over the years). The amount of pain and stress we were experiencing was unparalleled, for us anyway. Boone had apparently been in enough life threatening situations to learn to cope with his pain, "Still hurts like hell, can't lie. Learning to deal with it is the easy part…" I didn't want to hear how it could be worse. "The hard part is showing for the girls." he winked at me and Alena. "Pig!" Alena laughed playfully. Weird, death was all around us today and probably still is, yet we're too happy to care. The day was taking its toll and sleep was looking like a blessing, then we heard people approaching from the woods. "Hear that?" I asked warily, Boone grabbed the mana stones and we were engulfed by darkness. "Fan out." Boone suggested, Alena climbed the tree she was sitting by, Boone tucked himself away behind a bush, and I crouched behind another tree. The footsteps weren't that of someone trying to be stealthy, it was more of a walk in the woods. "I don't know if we should be this close to Liberation, Hopson." a female voice said "I promise if anyone tries to hurt you…" I heard a blade unsheathe "I'll kill them, no one will touch you." the male said. "Now come on, they were freaking out and searching for someone, don't want to be-" There was a crashing sound, Me and Boone emerged from our hiding spots to find Alena collapsed on top of a male and a female Basitin. "I fell out of the tree." she said shyly, she got up brushed herself off and helped the Basitins up. "Sorry about that." she said apologetically, "Oh it's alright and… wait why are Keidran this close to a Templar Camp?" I got nervous. The girl just looked curious, but I couldn't decipher the male's look or why he was eyeing me and Boone suspiciously. "Better question…" the male named Hopson interrupted "Why did the girl fall from a tree?" No one could find the words to describe our situation, exhaustion set in and Hopson wasn't helping. decided to take charge I spoke with as much confidence as I could muster "We've had a long day and to make a long story short, the we're the reason the Templars are mad. Mind not adding to our long list of headaches please?" the both nodded in what seemed to be a mix of approval and sizing us up (FYI Basitins are…. Short). "Fine, I can respect that." the female said "come on Hopson. Let's leave the Keidran to their jobs." they started to walk away, Hopson looked at us one more time and left saying "Right behind you." just to dig at him, Boone whispered not too quietly "He's scared, I could smell it." I got a laugh out of that and he looked back and mouthed some vulgar language but no one paid him any mind. We were too busy being friends to get mad at him. "So are we going to set up camp again or are we going to hit the road?" Alena asked, we both shrugged and in the end we settled with resting up for one more night and taking the risk of being caught. Boone leaned against a tree and was soon soundly sleeping while Alena curled up with me and we laid under the open night sky, counting stars like they were gold pieces. I was at forty-three when I noticed Alena had dozed off in my arms. As not to wake her up I took out an extra shirt I snagged from Liberation and used it as a pillow. Before I could go to sleep, I saw a Keidran come into our small clearing, take a look at us, smile, and leave. I couldn't tell who it was but I only hoped it wasn't Alan. No one ever came back so I told myself it was just a random Keidran wanderer and finally dozed off with the lull of dreams calling my name. ironically I didn't have a dream, or a nightmare, I simply sat in myself conscious and enjoyed some of the few peaceful hours I would get in my life as an assassin. In there, I found some dark things. Emotions I never thought I would have, Hopes for a fresh kill, wishes for a long and bloody war, loss of my sanity as a comfort zone, no moral distinction between natural death and murder. And in the middle of all this madness, no matter what it is, is Alan Kurr and his disarming smile. HE was the source of all of my distress, HE was the reason I was losing my mind, HE was the reason I almost choked the life out of a man, HE was the reason I have bloodshed on the mind, and most importantly… He was the reason I could never have my old life back. He wants a war, well he's got one. All night long my mind was thinking of things to say to the Master Assassin while my body recovered from a day long struggle. Finally my mind was set to rest and I could truly sleep with my wife in my arms.
Chapter 15: Brothers wage war
I almost forgot how good it felt to wake up with Alena in my arms, a feeling I will never forget. No one was awake yet, and Alena was still passed on my chest so it was wait for her to wake up or hope if Boone wakes up he'll help me move Alena without waking her. My luck Alena was the first to wake up, it was a thing of magic. She slowly opened her gorgeous blue eyes and brushed her black hair back, stifling a small yawn. I could only smile as she lazily lifted her head and smiled back, "Hi there." she said just before sitting up and stretching. I sat up as well, looked at Boone, and sighed "I thought he would wake up before any of us." Alena looked and me then at Boone, "Yeah, what's up with that?" he was abnormally still. A few minutes ago he was breathing… but now his chest was still. I started searching for someone hiding among the foliage around us. My heart was racing and I had an unusual adrenaline rush, if he was dead I would rip this forest apart with my bear hands. We did not make it all this way for him to sleep and not wake up! I walked over to him to see if he was beyond resuscitating, I pulled my ear to his heart to see if it was beating and he grabbed my head and shouted "Not dead!" It caught me by surprise and, with a yelp, I fell backwards and just stared at him, he was laughing as hard as he could. Wiping tears from his face he managed to speak "Your face!" he mocked my surprised expression, then went back to laughing "THAT is never going away. I'll make sure of that." I just laid my head back and collected myself. When I thought I was under control I stood and spoke as softly as I could, "Not cool." he laughed a minute longer and even Alena started to giggle, till she saw me stare at her then she grew serious. He finally acted 13 and stopped laughing (on the outside) and we got ready to head back to the sanctuary with our dreadful message. There wasn't much need to pack as we lost most of our equipment back at Liberation so we departed as soon as we could in hopes of never returning to this place again, for the memories would already haunt us. The journey wasn't rushed, it was more of a casual stroll back to our destination. "I never want to go back to that place ever again." Alena said with a shiver, "As long as I live, I won't make you." I assured her. Boone looked at himself, sighed, and said "look at us, they're not pretty… but we got some awesome looking battle scars." when he pointed it out, I checked and he was right. We received some nasty scars but they made us fit the assassin look. I saw even Alena admiring her own scars, it pained me she had them but she paid it no mind. Then Boone showed us, once again, he can't be taken seriously "Hey guys, is my face ok?" he made a gesture across his face. I was thinking of what to say when Alena beat me to it "Besides the ugly… it's alright." Alena and I doubled over with laughter while Boone scowled "I'm not THAT ugly, am I?" When I could finally breath again, I reassured him that he'll find a girl for him… because the blind ones can't find him. After dodging a few punches and Alena calming him down we resumed our trip because these constant distraction were stalling us, then our luck changed. A passing farmer took one look at our condition and stopped, "You Keidran look tired, need a ride?" I was reluctant to give information to him, so I tiptoed around it. "We are traveling far away sir, you probably won't be heading where we're going." he only laughed "Nonsense! Where are you going?" I looked at Boone and he only shrugged so I thought of the one place that came to mind, "Unitate, it's a small city next to the Garange mountains." he smiled brightly "I'm heading to the trading city on the other side of those mountains, Ill drop you off." It wasn't my place to turn down his hospitality, so I jumped in the back of his hay cart and helped Alena up. Boone stuck out his hand like he wanted help, so I repaid the favor by sitting near the front and getting comfy. "I feel the love…" Boone muttered jokingly as he hauled himself into the hay wagon. It seemed like only an hour or so before we arrived at Unitate. We hopped off the wagon, said our thanks, and the farmer was on his way. "What is this place?" Alena asked, Boone answered it for me "It's a small town under the Brotherhood's protection. Callum comes here often, I don't know why though…" I nodded and pointed in the direction of the brotherhood. "Just a couple minutes walk that way and we're home free." I said, Almost as soon as I said that everyone's mood seemed to grow. As we walked up the ramp, I saw guards on the walls tense as they recognized us. I knocked on the doors even though it wasn't necessary, my old friend Raymond opened the doors and greeted us excitedly, for a moment anyway. "You return! Brilliant, now just…" he looked over my shoulder expecting more people, "Where's the captives? And Alan?" at the mention of Alan, Boone and Alena slumped their shoulders and looked solemnly at the ground. He saw their expressions and grew impatient, "What happened at Liberation?" he asked edgily. "Let's come in first, everyone needs to hear it at once."

The master assassin gawked at me, "And your sure he wasn't being controlled by anything?" I nodded, "By the crazed look in his eye, it's possible that he really believed in his cause." the other assassins in the meeting quarters (for only the highest of assassin officers) were dead silent, I heard the heart beat of the others as well as my own. "Then the situation with the Templars is more serious than we thought…" one of the younger generals stood "If it's as serious as you say then we should wipe them out, or kill enough of them to show them they can't win!" he was calmed by a senior officer. The senior officer, A female wolf, had her say as well. "If war is the only option, then so be it. But until then we should try to see if it's just a group of them. Austin…" he pointed to me, "You said they wore different armor, correct?" "Yeah?" "Then is may just be a group split from the rest, maybe a war can be prevented." the other officers agreed after a minute of thinking. One officer wasn't going down without a fight, "What of our resources? Are we all just gonna… drop everything and fight them to the death? Sustain casualties and move on?" everyone stayed silent. Then Raymond spoke "What about a special force?" all eyes turned to him, "Say that again." the master said. "What if we had a force of assassins dedicated to fighting the Templars while everyone else continued with our usual duties?" everyone looked at each other hesitantly, but the murmurs I heard were all positive. "How would we decide who gets in?" I asked uncertain of the plan, he just shrugged "It can be volunteer. I'm positive we'll get a nice force." he said with confidence. This was it, no one saw anything wrong with this and it could mean the very survival of the brotherhood. The master assassin nodded with approval "Are there any officers who would volunteer?" he looked around for someone to say yes. When no one spoke, I stood up "I volunteer." I said aloud. Raymond stood as well, and the female wolf stood, they took my side "If Austin does…" Raymond began "So do we." The female officer finished. No one objected, them taking my side was probably unnecessary as well. "Alright, if you will be the officers for the force then we will need soldiers too." The master assassin said, "Go find your volunteers and return to me, we'll discuss it further when you've gathered the troops." and with that he waved us all away, the meeting had been adjourned. Me, Raymond, and the wolf sat at a table in the mess hall. "So, what's your name?" I asked the wolf, "Ashley." she responded. "Nice to meet you," I said "So, how to we find our volunteers? Do we just ask them or what?" Raymond just shrugged and Ashley didn't say anything. I guessed that was the plan.

I waited in the room where we would address the group of assassins helping us in our war against the Templars. Not too much later Raymond walked in and gave me the sit-rep, "Ashley is rounding up all of the assassins that volunteered, hate to say it but there wasn't many." my hopes dropped but only a bit because they're may not have been many, but having at least one person follow us would have been enough. As if on cue, Ashley walked in with ten different assassins, may were familiar faces. "And these are our assassins?" I said questioningly, "That's insulting." I heard Callum speak up. I couldn't help but laugh, It was good to see all of my friends again. "Welcome assassins, to our little family…" I noticed a wolf in the back whom I've never met before. "Umm… I don't believe we met, wolf." she stepped forward just a bit, still halfway in the group, and I immediately knew she was shy. "I'm Cheyenne." she said with a squeak in her voice. "Fear not." I assured her. "We are some of the best and you could be of great use to us." she nodded and melted back into the group. "I'm assuming you all know what you are getting into, and if you wish to back out now… there's the door." I motioned towards the door. No one moved. "There's no going back, be aware of this." I said still looking for anyone who wished to back out, when no one did I moved on with a different subject. I tried to think up a quick speech, but I was never that good at giving them. "Well…" I clapped my hands once in a nervous fidget. After a few moments of silence I spoke up "Ok, I'm not good at giving speeches. Never planned to, but I must say that I wouldn't have anyone else follow me except all of you. Some of my dearest friends and some talented strangers. The Templars have taken action against us and we can't let them think that the brotherhood is weak… no we must show them that we are strong, stronger, even, than they are." an uproar of approval spread through the small crowd. "We cannot back down. We need to… no, me MUST help those who cannot help themselves. Without hero's to protect them the innocent citizens of every town would find themselves under the savage rule of the Templars. We mustn't let that happen!" yet another uproar I stepped back and looked over at Raymond, He came close and whispered "I thought you didn't give speeches?" He asked with uncertainty, "I don't." I responded. We let the assassins shout jeers at the Templars who were not present, clap each other on the back, and prepare for a war that had been brewing for years.
Chapter 16: Taken from me…
It has only been a few weeks after this team has been formed and most of us are already on edge, it hasn't been easy but some of us keep looking on the bright side, if there even is one. We made our way from the sanctuary and set up camp long ago, unfortunately we were forced to retreat from that area and find a small town to hide in. I have been walking through the town since, the battle is so fresh in my mind, but why wouldn't it be, it wasn't exactly that long ago. The Templars attacked us and we weren't prepared. I still remember that fight. We had just set up camp. Little did we know, we would have visitors soon. "Well that took long enough!" Alena joked, "We all had to do our best to put up this camp, or we would all be sleeping on the ground!" this made us laugh and Boone came over and said "Hey, this isn't all fun and games, Don't get too comfortable. the Templars can be around here and attack us at any moment." I scoffed, "Don't worry Boone, we picked a great spot. And there aren't Templars for miles, there is no way they would intrude here. They would have no reason too, and we haven't seen any for so long." I debated. I guess I wasn't that great of a leader so far, I thought for sure that we would be safe. I guess I got cocky and didn't think everything through, Because I told them the Templars wouldn't attack us there, that we would be safe. I guess I was wrong because that same night we were attacked. "I think we should take shifts for sleeping, Just in case." I suggested. "Actually I think two of us should take watch at one time, cover more ground." Joey announced, as Joey said that all the other assassins nodded in agreement. "Then it's settled, two people will take watch at once. Who takes first shift?" I said, "I will!" Boone shouted, "We need a strong warrior for the first watch when we're most vulnerable." he said proudly, everyone gave him a stern look. "I'll go first since it was kinda my plan." Joey said, after a long discussion about how the other shifts would work I ended up with Raymond. Nothing against him but I would have preferred to be on duty with my wife. Boone and Joey took up positions on opposite ends of the camp and those who could fell right asleep. I couldn't sleep, I know that I said it would be safe but it was all an elaborate ruse. I almost knew something was going to happen but what? I didn't know and if I did none of this would have happened. As I laid there awake, something approached Alena and my's tent. I took out my dagger for protection. Joey opened the tent flap and was shocked to see my blade unsheathed. "Hey, it's your shift. Boone and I are tired so go get Raymond up and set up." he said groggily. He walked off to his tent and I went to wake up Raymond. I went and lightly shook Raymond till he woke up and stared dumbly at me, "It's our shift." I said, that's all it took and he slowly got up and we went to take up guarding positions. "I'll guard the north…" I said, and with no protest from Raymond I headed out to my post to guard the others. I should have chosen the south side of the camp, I shouldn't have been so anxious to get out there and watch for Templars. I still regret choosing the north to this day. It was suspiciously quiet on the north side of the camp, But I couldn't just leave, I had a job to do. I admit I was a little worried about Raymond but I thought he could handle himself. I thought I heard something, but I listened and it was gone. I dismissed it but then it came back and I wondered what it was. It sounded a lot like… Battle cries and steel on steel. I knew right away everyone was in trouble. I started running as fast as I could back to the camp. "I never should have gone this far!" I screamed at myself, of everyone there I was the only one I could blame. When I reached the camp, Templars and assassins were engaged in bloody combat. Many of our supplies had been destroyed or burned. I tried finding Raymond and spotted him unconscious on the ground, I was about to help him when I saw a Templar creeping up behind Alena's tent. Fury and rage built inside me, I wasn't about to let him hurt Alena. I ran up behind him and pressed my dagger against his throat, he pleaded for mercy but it was too late. The anger had built to the point where I slit his throat without thinking, he fell to the ground with a bloody mess for a neck. I stood over his body and raised my head to see Alena staring at me with disbelief. She didn't think I would ever do that in my lifetime, and neither did I. I reached a hand out to help her up, "We need to help the others!" I said, she hesitated to take my hand which hurt me inside. Then she took my hand and the pain went away. We ran out to the fighting and I sent Alena to check on the others to see if everyone was alright, she went away while Callum, Ashley, Cheyenne, and I stood on attack against the remaining Templars. When the last Templar fell I checked on our supplies, most of it was useless, but not all of it. We scrounged what was left and decided if these Templars found us more would and the next ones would be better prepared than these ones. "We have lost too many supplies, we need to retreat back to the Sanctuary for now." I ordered, I could see it on their faces in the moonlight that no one wanted to walk home at a time like this. "I know this won't be easy but we can't risk it. We've taken too many risks already." I said encouragingly. Time passed and we made it to a nearby town, most of us were in a bad mood so we decided to stop by the abandoned town for the night. I was still worried though, What if the Templars followed us? I guess I shouldn't have worried so much. They didn't have a good enough trail to follow us after all. It wasn't extra supplies but the town provided beds so we took the bonus and stayed there for the night. Everyone got settled into their rooms and I got one with Alena, I left her alone once already I don't want to do it again. Alena fell asleep quickly but once again I couldn't sleep. I thought it would be best to go take a walk, clear my mind. I put my robes on and walked out of the building as quietly as I could, as not to disturb anyone's rest, it had been a bad enough day for everyone I didn't want to wake them up on top of that. I started walking through the town alone with nothing but hope on my mind, hope that we could get away from the Templars, hope that no one would get hurt.

About fifteen minutes of walking later I decided to head back to the room and get some sleep. I was walking when something made me start jogging, it was a scream, soon I was running at top speed because it wasn't just a scream. It was Alena's scream. When I finally reached the building I ran into our room and Alena was gone. I checked the entire building in a panicked frenzy but she wasn't there. I walked back to my room and saw Sherry standing in the middle of the room with her head hung down. I got the impression she knew where Alena was, "Where's Alena?" I asked desperately, Sherry couldn't find the right words, "Austin… It… It was Alan." she said finally. "Why didn't anyone stop him?" I asked furiously, "He was too fast! Please, you gotta believe me…" she pleaded, she had tears forming in her eyes, it took me a moment to realize I did as well. I was angrier than ever hearing that Alan had betrayed me yet again, I punched the wall as hard as I could, leaving a dent where my fist connected with the wood. "I told her I wouldn't let anyone touch her, that she wouldn't be taken from me, That she'd be safe." I was quietly crying with every word I spoke. "It's not your fault…" Sherry tried reassuring me, I had bottled up my anger and needed to let it all out, "None of this should have ever happened! I should be living a normal life right now! I should have never joined this damn brotherhood and I never should have got involved with the Templars! First I lost Alan, now Alena. Who else must I lose!" I shouted like I was angry at the heavens. The others slowly started gathering around the doorway, "Get the assassin's, we're going to hunt that bastard down and rescue Alena… The fire didn't get him so I will." I said angrily, Sherry bowed obediently and gathered the troops. Once everyone was gathered outside the building, I learned just how unhappy they were with my decision. "Austin, I know she's your wife and all… but you can't just throw away the missions for her." Boone said with an unusually edgy tone. "I'm in command here, and this is our mission. We stop Alan and we stop the Templars from killing off the assassins." I said spilling dominance in my words. "And I won't stop until every single Templar in our way is dead, I'll rip them all to shreds if I have to!" I shouted, everyone had worried looks on their faces, the recent change in my attitude had become fully visible now. The assassins didn't look too happy to be going after the Templars, some avoided eye contact, others shuffled from foot to foot, finally I got agitated. "Don't want to go? Fine! Go back to the sanctuary! I'll just go on my own!" I didn't wait for an answer, I trudged off into the woods following Alan's tracks, my old friend turned enemy was going to meet his end. I was going to rescue my wife one way or another.
Chapter 17: cross my heart, hope to die…
I trekked through the forest, angry at the world, I didn't bother to check and see if I was actually even following Alan. I just wanted to find a place where I could curl up safe from the world and cry, but Alena needed me. The sun was setting and clouds were overhead, thoughts of Alena were the only thing that kept me going. It started raining heavily and in only moments I was soaked from head to paw, I sneezed and new right away I was going to get hypothermia if I kept this up, I was already starting to feel weak. I ignored the threats of nature and eventually burst into a clearing, I saw a man sitting under what looked like a tent. I tried to call the them but the weather was getting to me and I felt too weak to say anything. I reached out in an effort to grasp their attention and only succeeded in wasting what strength I had left. I lost all sense of feeling and collapsed on the forest floor. My vision blurred and I smelt wet fur, it took me too long to realize it was me, the rain was still coming down hard, my mind wasn't working right. As my body was shutting down I saw what appeared to be shadows dancing across the foliage of the forest. "It's all in your head…" I told myself, I didn't have anything to worry about. My thoughts started to dwindle until everything went black.

I awoke with a jump, I was in a hammock. The wet grass glistened underneath me and Ray sat under a tree nearby. "'Bout time you woke up, thought you went crazy. Caught you mumbling about something, couldn't hear what exactly." he said calmly, I didn't expect anyone to help me after everything that had happened the night before so I was in a bit of a shock. "Why?" I asked in a stupor, he seemed surprised. "Why what?" he quizzed, "Why did you help me? After how I acted yesterday I thought you would all leave me to my fate." I answered, he only smiled. "I couldn't do that. Yes, I thought you went overboard. But that isn't a reason to abandon you, it's not like recent events were exactly 'normal' if you get my meaning." he said reassuringly. I sighed, after everything I did this man he still kept by my side, he had better morals and ethics than I could ever think of. I stood and wobbled a bit, my legs felt like jelly, but I held my ground. "Careful…" Ray warned, "I used a mana stone to heal your sickness but fatigue isn't curable." I nodded and stretched out my arms and legs just a bit. I felt stronger than the previous night but I wasn't in top condition like I had hoped. "So you came alone?" I asked, he shook his head. "The others are in the clearing, where we found you, I just thought you'd like to sleep without a sunburn." he said, I stretched once more then pushed apart some bushes to see all of my comrades exercising as though preparing for battle. I walked into the open and everyone stopped what they were doing suddenly at attention. No one moved, in the silence Raymond had placed himself at my side. I could only find a couple words to describe what I was feeling that moment, "Thank you." I said quietly think it was the right thing to say but it was all I COULD say. Sherry lifted her head to speak, "Just remember, we're doing this for Alena… Not for you." she said seriously, I almost believed her until she cracked a smile. It took me a moment to realize that everyone was smiling. "Come on, Don't tell me you're all crazy enough to follow me to… where ever the hell I'm going." I said , Jyrik raised his hand mockingly. "If we weren't crazy, you think we would 'a volunteered to travel with you in the first place?" he said, I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. These assassins, these people, these… heroes, were willing to risk it all to make sure that people they barely knew were safe. I was close to tears. Then something important hit me. "Wait…" I spun on a heel to Raymond, "How long was I out?" I asked quickly, I took him by surprise but he recovered quickly. "Umm… all night, the sun hasn't been out for very long-" I cut him off, enough time had already been wasted. "That's too long! Gods we… I have to find Alena.?" I shouted, I grabbed my sword laying next to a tree and sheathed it. As I turned I was met by my fellow assassins. "We're coming with you." I heard Boone say, I clapped twice. "Great, now anyone have an idea of where to go." I asked. No one spoke up, no one raised a hand, no one looked me in the eyes, no one had any idea of what to do. "Gods, we could… Uh… find his tracks err…. But-" then it hit me, "Wait tracks, why didn't I think of that! Dogs and wolves! Front and center!" I commanded. Raymond, Dante, Cheyenne, and Ashley all stood in front of me. "Dogs and wolves have the best sense of smell and hearing, I'm sorry to ask this of you but we need you to be our trackers." I said, they didn't seem too upset about this task and did the brotherhood salute. They commenced… "tracking" while the rest of us followed close behind. I was worried it wouldn't work when Dante waved us over. "Find anything?" I asked. Dante's investigation uncovered tracks, I had to get close and smell for myself but I recognized the scent. "It's Alan alright… Come on, follow the tracks." I ordered, everyone stayed close as we followed the faint tracks. I'm surprised we found them at all considering… "Wait…" I said aloud, everyone stopped in unison. "What is it?" Callum asked from the back, "These tracks… they're a setup." I said in a hushed tone. Some assassins readied blades but I knew it wouldn't matter, we were already on the road to disaster. "How can you tell?" Jyrik asked, I turned to my assassins. "Ladies and gentlemen it RAINED yesterday, these tracks should have been washed away. Remember, Alan has been twisted by hatred. Expect traps from what may appear to be blessings." I lectured, "Are we still following the tracks?" Boone asked, "Damn right we are, they're the only lead we have." I announced. We followed the tracks for what seemed like hours, no apparent sign of Alan or the Templars were visible. "I don't like this…" Boone sighed. I didn't disagree with him, the silence was eerie. I didn't even hear animals. No chirps, no squawks, no hooves, nothing. Only the calm before the storm. "Tread carefully everyone… Remember that Alan can be unpredictable." I warned everyone. We marched cautiously through the woods, not as to stray too far from the path in case of emergency. We trekked for what seemed like hours until we heard noises of struggle. "Everyone, listen" I commanded, we all waited for the noises again. We heard them once more and my heart skipped a beat. I heard Alena. I lunged out of the bushes but I was intercepted by Boone and Callum, they each grabbed one of my arms and we all flew back into the brush. "Are you crazy?" Ray whispered, I could've answered but I didn't. I was losing control of my body. Every time I heard or saw Alan or a trace of Alena I went nuts. "Hello?" Ray whispered a bit louder. "Sorry, Won't happen again." I assured them, but deep down I doubted that I would be able to next time. I told everyone to stay put and I started scouting ahead. Climbing through the trees I tried to get a closer look on the source of the conflict. I twisted my head to the left to get a better angle, nope. I tried the right next, nothing. That was odd, I could've sworn that the struggle was closer than this. I thought I just passed it, so I turned to go back some distance to find the location of the conflict when suddenly I heard it again. I jerked my head to the left and it got mildly quieter, I spun me head to the right and I could almost feel the struggle. I put my fingers to my lips and whistled for the rest of the assassins, as they approached I maneuvered my way through the treetops to Alena. The sounds of struggle were dying down but were noticeably closer. I missed a branch and crashed to the ground, ignoring the pain I jumped to my feet and retrieved a dagger from my belt. I scanned the area and noticed a path winding through the woods. I followed it cautiously until I saw Alena being dragged away by an all-too-familiar black fox. Against every fiber of my being, I tailed them to see what would happen in case it was another trap. He dropped her in front of a tree, I was confused until he pulled a tribal looking blade out and grinned wickedly. He was going to kill her. I had had enough, I rose to attack when I was flanked from both sides. Templars grabbed my arms and kicked out my legs, bringing me to my knees. They dragged me out to the path and Alan turned with his wicked grin mocking me. "You're… just in time, we were just about to do some good and free a tormented soul…" He whispered icily. Alena squirmed feebly and tried to call out but she was gagged and restrained. Seeing her like this enraged me but the Templars were larger than I was, I couldn't move. Alan saw me trying to break free and chuckled ever so mockingly. "Now…" He lowered his voice, "Let's show this poor man how it feels to lose everything…" And he put the knife against Alena's throat…
Chapter 18: When Worlds Collide…
I wish I could tell you I saved her, I wish I could say that I broke free from the Templars' grasp and rescued her from Alan. I WISH I could say that… but I can't. Through the flashes of the memory I have it consists of me crying out in rage and Breaking a Templars' arm. Then it jumps to me on top of the other one, using my fists as hammers repeatedly smashing his face. Alan was already long gone so I didn't bother to stop, I wanted his head to be on with the dirt. Jyrik and Dante burst from the cover of the brush and pulled me off of the already lifeless Templar. My memory jumps again, next I'm clutching Alena's limp form and crying harder and louder than I have ever in my entire life. My friends watched at a distance, afraid to worsen the situation. It was my worst nightmare come true. I snap back to reality. I'm standing over a makeshift, unmarked grave. Sherry has her hand on my shoulder and everyone has pained looks on their faces. The fur on my face is still wet from the tears I spent on Alena. Everyone said something about her then we had as moment of silence. Through it all I had one thing to say. "Alan will pay for this…" I growled. Once again, revenge was the only thing on my mind. Only this time there is no reason to stop me, no one to protect, no one to hold afterwards, no one to worry about, no one to- "Are you going to be alright?" Sherry asked, I opened my mouth to answer when it hit me. I did have people to think about, I did have people to protect, I still had a family. They were with me at this moment. "I'll be fine. I just need to make her know even in death that Alan will pay for what he has done here today." I said. I knew that he had to die, but I couldn't drag my friends into this. "You guys head back to the sanctuary, I'll finish this." I told them, they looked at me with shock. "Are you kidding?" Julian barked out. "Afraid not…" I answered, "This ends in one of two ways, I kill Alan or Alan kills me. Both mean someone is harmed and I don't want any of you to get hurt. Go back home." I said. No one had an argument to fight back with. I did the signature brotherhood salute, everyone did the same and we held it for a full minute. Then, with tears in our eyes. They said our goodbyes knowing I might never come back, I set off to avenge my wife. Marching through the forest I was absent mindedly thinking of creative ways to put Alan as close to death as possible without killing him. When I realized my alternative was do nothing and go home, it was obvious that I decided Alan had to die. I was going to cut off his fingers, one by one, then go to s tail and… I put a hand on my forehead, I was thinking like I murderer again. "You know what? I don't care anymore…" I said aloud. If the dark and malevolent thoughts kept my mind off of… her, then I welcome them. I tried my hardest not to think about Alena. Her soft features, beautiful eyes, hair slightly covering her eyes. I find myself short of breath. I slide down a tree trunk and just sat there, crying, unable to feel anything except misery. Toughen up, pansy. I hear a voice inside me say. I try to ignore it but it is like more than that of a conscience, it's almost as if this voice of mine… understands. What would Alena think if she saw you here? She'd probably just leave you for the worms. 'Shut up…" I whisper. She married you because you could protect her, look where that got her. "Shut up." I say again, louder this time. Alena was worth more than that. She's better off dead than alive with you. "SHUT UP!" I scream, the voice silences but those last few words hit home. She's better off dead than alive with you…Better off dead…It rings in my ears as though it was shouted at me. I don't understand any of it but one thing was clear. Everything that was happening in my mess of a head was all for one reason, motive. All this madness was for the sole purpose of motivation to finish what I started. I stood up and wiped away the tears, the time for crying was over.

After hours of trekking through the forest I found a Templar convoy. Seeing no other choice, I jumped on the back of a carriage and hid in the storage compartment. After what seemed only like minutes the compartment was opened and I stabbed the Templar in the throat. I jumped out and tossed his limp corpse in the compartment and shut it quickly. Low to the ground, I stalked through the camp and found my way to the lieutenant's tent. He was going over a map completely unaware it was the last thing he'd ever see, I buried my blade deep in his spine and checked on his map as he fell to the floor dead before he hit. The map had a distinct foxes head around the location of where the Sanctuary is and it had a note saying "Tell only the new fox. His job, not mine." good. That meant only the man laying dead on the floor new about the location of the Sanctuary. I shredded the map and searched the lieutenant for letters regarding the whereabouts of Alan. I found a hastily drawn letter labeled "Black Fox". I unfolded the letter and read it carefully, I caught one important sentence that stood out. It read "Take the flag to their base of operations, will find the flag and attack in 10 days." they were sending Alan to the sanctuary so he could sell us out! I dropped the note and ran out of the camp silently on return to the Sanctuary.

I finally reach the sanctuary, it's starting to get dark out. No time to rally the others, I have to find that flag. I search the outside of the walls with no luck, but as I gaze towards the tower looming in the middle of the courtyard I see it flying against the orangish-blue skylight. I rushed inside trying to find a vantage point to start my ascent up the tower. I was running through the courtyard when I passed everyone who volunteered to help me, Julian saw me and waved happily. "Hey, did you win or-" "No time!" I interrupted. I stopped at a very peculiar wall in the courtyard, it was wore down and bricks were sticking out all over. I used a jumping start and started climbing up high. My friends were probably thinking I had lost my mind, I'm very sure I did too, but at this moment that flag was more important than my public standing among the assassins. As I was climbing up I listened in on the cries of my friends. "What's he doing?""He's lost it… I knew it would happen""Get down from there!"Then they saw the flag and the jeers stopped. I was almost to the top when my foot faltered and I was left hanging by my right hand. Gasps from below, I gripped a ledge and pulled, "Come on…" I said aloud, "I can do a single pull-up." I hoisted myself up and reached the flag. Sensing victory, I snapped it in half at the pole and threw the banner in the wind. It fluttered away and landed safely in a tree a good distance from our sanctuary walls. We were safe. I looked around to see if the Templar assault was close already, it wasn't anywhere near us. With the coast clear, I climbed down and the minute I hit the floor I was pelted with questions. In the mist of them, I raised a hand to silence everyone. When it was quiet I spoke very softly as not to lose my temper. "Did anyone see the flag get planted?" I asked, when no one spoke I got my answer. "Ok…" I started, "I'll just say it then. Alan did it…" Gasps from everyone in earshot, "He was here, he planted the flag, and he almost had everyone killed." I finished emotionless. They shared worried glances but no one spoke up. "I just have to say, next time I return. Alan will be dead. If I don't return…" I didn't need to finish, the message was clear. I left without a goodbye to finish my mission once and for all. Once again trekking through the forest, I saw it fit to only stop during the night when it grew cold as to warm up by a fire. Morning comes and I once again remind myself what must be done, I must find the traitor Alan Kurr and kill him. The most repetitive thought I've had in the recent months but that single thought has probably kept me from going completely insane. I'm already of my rocker because my previous life was in shambles. Family is dead, no place to call home, I'm all alone… No, none of that was true. I can call the sanctuary home, I have a family made from my fellow assassins, and they will always be there for me. For every negative feeling I felt I searched for a positive one, this little back and forth killed time in my head until I came upon one place I thought I'd left for good… Liberation. I hated this place, in fact I almost died in its depths. But I was doing what was necessary. Skulking through the camp once again, I tried to keep the body count to a minimum as not to attract attention. I managed to avoid everyone except a young recruit who wandered too far from his battalion right into my blade. I reach the doorway and halt, this was where I first learned that Alan was the traitorous monster he is, this is where I learned that the brotherhood was being targeted, this is where it the war began. "No time for pity." I whispered to myself, I started down the stairs to see if Alan was here. I reach the bottom, darkness. There was a torch to my right, I grab it and ignited it with the help of a spare mana stone in my satchel. Illuminated by the light, I could see bloodstains from my last encounter with Liberation. I pressed on into the blackness hoping that Alan wouldn't throw something underhanded at me in the low visibility. As I approached the door to the next room I noticed there was light coming from underneath the doorway, He's waiting for me I thought to myself. He didn't need to wait any longer, I kicked the door in and there he was sitting on a stool twirling a dagger in his right hand. "It's about time, old friend…" He said casually, "I've been waiting for two days. Guess I was wrong about you're tracking skills. In fact, they're better than I expected, I was prepared to wait weeks for you here." He smiled icily. He knew he didn't need to say anything to ruffle my fur, his mere presence angered my very being. "You won't be waiting for anything ever again…" I retorted. He smiled and stood. this room was well lit, so I dropped my torch and unsheathed a dagger of my own. We circled slowly, not intimidating one another, but anticipating each other's moves. Finally I lost my patience and stuck out with a furry of slashes, he dodged my attacks taking only light cuts. I stumble on a swing and he brings an elbow down on my skull, but instead of dropping I use my hate to keep me standing, drive him to the floor, and lunge as to plunge my dagger in his forehead. He lurches his head to the left and I barely scratch his cheek. He puts a foot in my gut and kicks with all his might. I hurdle end over end until I regain my footing. There we are, standing a couple yards away, I'm panting hard. Alan's panting as well only not as hard. He chuckles deeply, then as a surprise to the both of us I chuckle too. He smiles thinly and speaks, "Is this it? Did it take all this?" he asks cryptically. "What do you mean?" I ask curiously, He stands straight up and opens his hands out to his side. "We shared one last laugh before one of us is ultimately taken from this world. Is that it? Did it take a war to become friends again?" He answers. I lower my hands slightly and he doesn't bother attacking, he's being honest. "Maybe…" I say quietly, he smiles bigger than I'd ever seen him smile before. "Then it's settled, we will kill each other. But We'll die the best of friends we can be." I can only smile at the thought at having my friend back. After everything he's taken from me, he did it all to get back at me. And here we are, friends at last. "So there you have it…" I say, "Friends to the end. Too bad Alena isn't here to see this." I finish, his smile instantly fades. "It was a shame, she was too innocent." he says edgily. "Yet you killed her anyway?" I ask "You know what this means…" he sighs with pity, "Indeed I do." he manages. "En Guard… Ol' pal." Then we charge.
To Be Continued….