Chapter 1

The encounter

Darkness, seemingly infinite pitch black nothingness.

So dark it was that he couldn't even see his own hand when it covered his face. He screamed… but then he was confused because he couldn't even hear his own voice. It was as if the nothingness was not allowing even the barest hint of life to reach him.

How long was he there? He has no idea he simply feels that this empty existence is better than where he was. Realizing his own thoughts he understands that he was somewhere else first.

So then why is he here? In his confused state he believes that he starts to hear something. It was faint yet at the same time so loud, it was as if it were right there in front of him. He was ecstatic, the first new thing to happen in what seemed to be years of nothing. So he focuses, trying to draw it closer with the simple act of paying attention.

It seemed to be working because he could hear something now. It was faint but its existence was now unquestionable. It was a very soft and very quiet oom. There it was again another oom but this time he could make out another one right behind it. More and more and so many oom's came together to create this horrid cacophony of noise.

As it got clearer the unexpected happened and he started feeling something with each oom. It was something he didn't something which he knew a lot about yet couldn't name. With more oom's came more of that sensation. The closer he got to figuring out exactly what it was that he was feeling. Then came a particularly loud oom but wait he though this one was more of a BOOM,

"hahahaha yes" he laughed in jubilation at his own discovery. But the joy didn't last for long, because with that boom came more of that weird feeling. This time though it was strong, really strong and he finally realized what it was. It was pain, his closes friend, his only friend really…

With that discovery, every time the Booms became more and more pronounced and clear, the pain that came with each one became worse. So bad did it become that he tried to run away. He tried to run but it was far too late and he was drawing closer and closer

He could finally hear his own voice now. Something that would have brought him joy if he wasn't screaming in pain. There's a light now up ahead, where it came from he doesn't know. All he can tell is that the light, the pain, and the BOOM's are coming from the same place, a place he no longer wishes to go, so again he tries to struggle to push himself away from that pain, to do just about anything except to go towards it.

But he fails, so sad but the inevitable is slowly approaching.

"Hey guys I think the trash is waking," says an unknown person.

"Trash? Who are they calling trash?" he asks himself.

"C'mon" trashy, isn't this fun. Said another voice followed by more pain

For some reason he starts feeling water coming down where his face should be

"Awe, Mark, look crying trash, HAHA, who knew trash could cry" said another voice

"… So that's me? I'm crying? Wait does that mean that I'm the trash their talking about?" He thought.

"Yeah Lou, maybe we should tell someone, we'd probably get an award. HAHAGHYAAA." Suddenly one of the voices cries out in pain in an odd voice, like a cat and chicken being skinned alive at the same time, it the one called mark. He hears another voice now a voice obviously an old man, crying out; "Hey you stink'n brats, what do you think you're doing"

"HAHA, elder Umbra we were simply exchanging pointers and got a little caught up in the " said mark while rubbing his sore forearm, that Is already purple from where it was hit by the rock thrown by the old elder. While sweat runs down his back.

With his eyes now open, through his own tears the boy could now see the old man. The most shocking thing was that he was missing a leg and was leaning on a cane. His leg was gone along with half his thigh. He was bent over that cane to the point of almost looking right at it. He also had an old set of clothes, so old and filthy were his rags that if any would pass by him at any time they would feel see him as a beggar. In fact if you considered him one you wouldn't be entirely wrong, because he did nothing except, abuse the kindness of the city. At times he would skin some animal to make clothes but that too he got from the city. So yes a beggar in all but name.

Upon hearing mark and his two friends respond with such words, elder Umbra could not help but scoff disdainfully at them. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do.

"Go back to your parents you poorly weened brats." Said elder Umbra while waving his fist at them like a crazy man with spittle flying out of his mouth, eyes blood shot.

When the ones who were just now beating on the now conscious boy saw this, they felt their young hearts tremble and could only run away with one thought going through their heads "crazy, too crazy".

"Perfide", called out the elder, "get up now it's not that bad, nothing some rest won't fix."

Hearing this and seeing the face of the old man looking directly at him saying his name and telling him to get up, he started to remember everything that happened before he found himself waking up on the ground being beaten. He remembered leaving his family's home, in the slums, in search of today's food. He remembers going to his secret spot where he kept his makeshift knife and the thick stick he calls a spear. He remembers managing to actually find a Derolf lying on the ground with a broken leg. He remembers crying while he killed it, all the while apologizing for taking its life, mumbling "I'm sorry, so sorry". He remembers the doing what he had watched the hunters do to Derolf's when they catch them and managing not to throw up. He remembers dragging looking up at the sky seeing it getting dark and using all of his bags and even his own shirt to drag back the Derolf meat, pelt and anything else he could sell.

He remembers seeing the source of his nightmares coming from far away looking for him. The one in the lead as always was Mark, though he and Perfide were both 8 years old, they were complete opposites. While mark was slightly short and very pudgy for his age, his two friends were simply average. But Perfide stood taller than them all by at least 3 inches at 55 inches tall. This caused him to stand out and receive all of marks animosity.

Still, Perfide remembered seeing them and knowing what was to come, and in order to protect the Derolf meat, hiding it in bushes then running away.

"The Meat" exclaimed Perfide, as he suddenly remembered that without it his family wouldn't be able to eat today. That intense worry over his family's well being cleared his haze filled mind, and gave him the determination to pick his bruised and battered body of the ground.

But before he goes off to find the meat he hid, he turns to elder Umbra and says, "thank you elder, for saving me" he continues saying, "I would stay but I have to quickly get back home to my family, good bye elder."

Before he could go, the elder stops him and asks him why he didn't fight back and why did he simply lay there and take it?

To which Perfide responds, "I used to do it, fight back I mean, I used to try when they came, but it didn't do me any good" Perfide laughs very self depreciatingly and says, "they only hit me more when I hit them back, so if I don't fight back it's not so bad, today was just not a good day."

Again he tries to leave but once more the elder stops him when he says, "Before you run off like an idiot, will let me give you some advice? Or are you too arrogant to listen to an old man?"

Suddenly the atmosphere which was normal and tranquil, has become oppressive and constricting. Perfide felt as if by attempting to walk away from the old man's advice that heaven has decided to punish him. And his heart shook. So terribly did it shake in fear that he promptly fell to his knees in supplication to the elder before him in the hope of staving off the anger of heave.