Chapter 1: The Unforgivable

The dirt crunches under every step as he walked back home, his satchel full of sticks and food. His fur waved in the slight winds as his nose twitched being wary of predators. He was Turner, a rabbit, returning home from gathering supplies in the forest. It was dawn and most predators had returned to their holes but Turner learned that Dogs never sleep in this endless war the Island of Lugaru had been thrown into. Turner began to think about his mother, Lilith, when he heard a branch snap. Turner gripped the handle of his knife as he scoped the area. He then sees Jack, the village elder, on the hill. "What are you doing out here, Jack?" Turner calls out. Jack twitches his heard and then takes notice of Turner. "I was looking for you, Sarah seemed worried" Jack replies.

"Well, I'm just heading home now. There's an unusual amount of fish in the river today, if you want to help out?"

"I'd rather not, I'm quite busy and need to be heading back to the village"

"Alright, nice meeting you"

"Actually, hold on. I hired some extra reinforcement up at the Toonuk Temple, but they haven't showed up"

"Just let me drop off these supplies and I can head up there"

"Okay, thanks for the help, Turner"

Turner then faces back to the road and walks down it.

Turner sees the ruined stone tower and knows his coming into his home. The tower is one of the only things left from the ruined dog town. Turner sees his wife, Sarah, putting clothes on the line and Turner walks over to her. "Sarah, I'm back" Turner calls over to her. "Oh good, then maybe you could help me with something" She says.

"Sure, what is it?"

"April has climbed up the tower again and I can't get her down"

"Sure, I'll go see if I can get her"

Turner puts down his satchel and runs to the ruins and launches himself into the sky and grabs onto a window ledge and pulls himself up and through the window. He then gets into a room that has a missing wall and rotten floorboards, he slowly walks forward as the floorboard creeks. He sees a rope ahead of him and goes to reach but then SNAP! The floorboard breaks under Turner and he begins to drop through the floor but just manages to grasp the end of the rope. "Oh god! Oh my god! Who built this tower!" Turner yells out while grasping his breathe. Turner looks up again and begins to lift himself slowly up the rope until reaches the roof. He dusts himself off and sees April sitting on the edge. "April, what are you doing?" Turner asks.

"Oh, Hi dad"

"Why are you up here?"

"I don't know"

"It's dangerous"

"I see you jump off here all the time!"

"That takes a lot of training you know!"

"Okay whatever, I'll come down"

April turns around and gets onto her feet and Turner sees the sparkle in her eye. "Well, anyway, have a nice day honey, I'll be back soon" Turner says. Turners get on his knees and hugs April and then he jumps off the tower to go to Toonuk Temple.

Turner walks through the desert until he sees Toonuk Temple but notices it is unattended. He hears steps and goes to grab his knife and then sees a Temple guard staggering out of the darkness drenched in blood. He drops his sword and falls to the ground and a group of Raiders follow the guard and approach Turner. "Boy, it's too late" A raider says. "GET HIM!" four raiders then rush towards Turner as Turner begins to fight. When a raider goes to a land his fist into Turners face Turner grabs his arm and swings his foot into his elbow it break the raiders arm. The raider falls to his knees. Another attempts to run at Turner but Turner quickly counters by kicking the raider in the ribs and stabbing him in the shoulder. The other two raiders prove to be too fast to counter so he quickly jumps back to get his distance from the raiders. He prepares to fight back but then realises he had left his knife in the raider's shoulder and if they don't notice it in the corpse Turner might be able to go for it. The two raiders attempt to get Turner from both sides but Turner quickly runs at them making them need to change their tactics. It was too late for them by the time Turner had been able to land his fist into ones jaw and send them to the ground. A raiders goes for a punch but is quickly swept off his feet by Turner performing a sweep kick. Turner having his enemies on the ground gives him enough time to retrieve the knife and attempt to finish them. Turner grabs the knife but feels a pressure on his foot and is sent to the ground by a powerful force, he turns himself to see the raiders had quickly go back onto their feet but Turner acts quickly jumping back to get distance and get back on his feet. The two raiders charge at him and then Turner is taken from behind by the third raider with the broken arm. Turner quickly elbows the raider and throws him over his shoulder and at the raiders causing them to lose their balance and collapse on the ground Turner quickly manages to finish them with the knife before they get back up and then drops to his knees from exhaustion.

Turner looks up and sees the last raider who has obtained the guards sword. "You're not going to kill me" Turner mumbles. "We'll see" The raider says. Turner gets onto his feet and then charges the raider but the raider swings his sword quickly causing it to connect with Turners knife, he then gets behind Turner and smacks him in the back with the handle causing Turner to drop to his knees. The raider goes to finish Turner but Turner turns around and blocks the raiders attack. Turner pushes the raider back and then slashes at his knee caps and gets a direct hit. The raider falls to his knees and tries to swing at Turners face but Turner grabs the blade with his hand causing a deep cut in his palm. He manages to hold the blade and then repeatedly begins to jab the knife into the raiders throat until the raider falls and lets go of the sword. The raider begins to try and block his wound but he can't hold the blood and bleeds to death in front of Turner. "I better get back to the village and tell Jack" Turner thinks to himself.

Turner returns to the village and sees smoke coming from huts and bloodshed over the terrain. Turner felt his heart drops as he sees familiar faces covered in blood and lying lifeless on the grass, drenched in blood. "April!" Turner calls out trying to have hope. No response greets Turner and he is forced to look further into the slaughtered village. Turner begins to look at the sky and then trips over into the ground. He picks himself up and turns his head to see Sarah with sword wounds to the stomach and lying there lifeless. "Oh god no!" Turner screams out. Turner crawls over to her and grabs her head and sees her lifeless eyes and closes her eyelids. Tears begin to shed from Turners eyes and drop onto her body. Turner then hears a faint cough and goes to investigate. He walks through the village when he hears the cough again but louder. "Turner!" He hears. He turns around to see Daniels with massive wounds lying on the wall. "Daniel! W-Where's April?"

"I'm sorry Turner, I tried but..."

Daniel takes the blanket next to him off to show April's corpse sitting against the wall with one stab wound to the heart and her eyes closed.

"Who did this?"

"I saw Jack walking with the raiders, I would join but it seems I don't have much time left. Turner, be the shadow of the Khans and bring your vengeance upon Jack!" Daniel speaks as his voice becomes faint. Daniel slowly shuts his eyes and his grip loosens. "Dan...Daniel? DANIEL!" Turner screams out. Daniel is now nothing but a lifeless body in front of Turner and then Turner begins to see tears drop from his face and starts to breathe deeply. The though finally hits him...everyone's dead. He screams out in rage at the sky and grabs his knife and throws it at the concrete wall. He begins stomping towards a window and then kicks it out and then punches the wall. He leans his head against the wall and begins to poor out into tears. They roll down his face rapidly as whimpers and mumbles are heard. He slowly drops to his knees and slams his fist into the wall again and drops his head. "Why...WHY!" He screams.