He'd been young then, barely nineteen summers, and too busy chasing after Deyla Moran through the trees to realize that something was wrong. When he'd caught her and claimed a kiss as his prize, the ground beneath their feet began to shake. "See? That just proves that we're meant to be together," he insisted with a grin and reached to pull her closer. Deyla laughed up at him, slapping his hands away playfully just as the forest floor lurched again.
"What's happening?" she asked, accepting his hand as he helped her to her feet.
He frowned and held a finger to his lips, signaling for silence. Cocking his head, he could hear something that sounded an awful lot like… "Oh, my God." Releasing Deyla's hand he started to run back towards the city, only half-conscious of her following. He stumbled from the trees towards the edge of the cliffs and stared in horror down at the beaches where hundreds of his people huddled under guard of what he could only describe as soldiers. He'd never seen soldiers like this before – they all wore a strange kind of interlinking armor with metal caps on their heads. If he'd been better at his school lessons, then maybe he'd know who they were.
Deyla dropped to her knees beside him, her eyes full of the same fear that had to be in his. "Aris?"
"Stay here," was all he could think to say. He needed to find his family, and fast. His father would know what to do, just like always. "I'll come back as soon as I can." Aris ran the rest of the way into the city, trying to keep to the sides of the buildings and out of sight. Smoke rose from most of the dwellings, and the usually neat walkways were littered with glass, shards of metal, and stains that he refused to classify as blood. His own home looked as if a giant fist had slammed through the roof, and he ducked inside just as a group of the strange soldiers turned down their street. "Mom?" he called cautiously.
He found his mother in the next room, lying on her side. "Mom?" Aris asked again softly, fear turning his stomach to ice as he knelt beside her.
"Took…Riah. Find…find her, Aris. Don't let…don't let them take her," she gasped.
Tears threatened, and he knuckled his eyes viciously in an attempt to stop them from falling. "Mai'ma?" The thin material of her tan sundress was sodden with blood, the chemicals of the dye starting to turn the wet fabric a pale orange.
"Riah," his mother insisted, lifting a trembling hand up to touch his face. "Find her, Aris."
Aris swallowed past the knot in his throat. "Yes, Mai'ma," he choked, unconsciously reverting back to the childish form of address for the second time. He waited for her to speak to him once more, but she only smiled at him and closed her eyes. She didn't open them again no matter how hard he begged. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Aris leaned over her and kissed her cheek as if she were only sleeping, and spread her cloak over her motionless body. He was climbing to his feet as the remains of the door exploded inward and three of the soldiers burst inside to point their staffs at him.
Minutes later he was thrown onto his face in the sand next to another group of families and Aris struggled to his feet, desperately trying to look for his little sister. One of the guards swung a staff that connected with his chin, hard enough to make the world spin before his eyes. "Stay down," one of the other men hissed at him, grabbing him.
Aris jerked his arm free and tried to lunge past the soldier guarding them, only to be struck down again by another blow to his face. This time, sharp pain above his left eye brought the spill of yellow blood on the sand and he pressed the heel of his hand to the wound with a half-articulated curse. "This one has spirit," said a voice with oddly distorted accents. "Bring him."
Strong hands yanked him to his feet and the butt of a staff slammed against the base of his spine. "Move, slave."
As he stumbled towards another group of Ilempiri huddled together at the shore's edge, Aris finally caught sight of his sister. He wasn't sure who the invaders were and what they wanted, but he knew that he'd die before he let anything happen to Riah. He'd made a promise, and he intended to keep it.