POLOGUE

"Olixia!" Owler lifted her head from her work, she was sure she had heard her brother call to her.

"Owler where are you?" now he was using her pet name her parents gave her trying to sound as if nothing was wrong but she could now hear the muffled bangs and sounds of metal hitting metal as her brother called for her.

"In here Marcus" she called back putting the maps away.

Her brother Marcus ran into the room to find his sister sat at a desk with her owl Hermes perched on the back of the chair she was sat in "If only our parents could see her now, so grown up since that day, yet, still so small and frail" he shook the thought out of his head as he realised the urgencies of the current situation

"You need to hide! NOW!" he shouted the last part as he heard someone fall at the top of the stairs leading to the captains room, the room they were trapped in.

"Why? What's wrong?" she asked lifting herself from the chair sending Hermes flying to a perch at the window with a loud screech.

"Were being attacked" he said hurryingly pushing her into a small compartment hidden unless you know where it was.

"Hermes fly!" she cried out not letting her brother shut the door until she saw him fly out the window.

"I love you Marcus" she whispered putting her hand on the cool wood of the door and letting her warm tears run down her face she knew this was the end for him she was going to be on her own, this time truly on her own, closing her eyes she went back to the day her parents died...

[FLASH BACK]

"Mama! Dada!" a young roman child fought against a soldier who held her away from them

"Quite child!" he snarled throwing her backwards, as she rose trying to get to her parents who were inside a burning building she felt warm, strong arms wrap around her looking up she saw Titus a young man who worked with her brother and farther on she ship yard, she started to cry even though she didn't want to make herself look so child like in front of him she was after all 9 summers old

"Don't look, Don't listen" he murmured to her keeping his eyes locked with hers in fear she would turn around and see the roman guards pulling her parents out of the building screaming and her baby sister, without thinking she closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears, burring her face into his chest she felt his arms wrap tighter around her lifting her up and walking away, he didn't want her to see or hear her parents being killed.

"Come Olixia you belong with your brother now" he sighed knowing she can't hear him as he carried her back to his home where her brother was waiting with Aula his wife and their baby boy (Titus's wife and baby not her brothers) .

[END FLASH BACK]

After listening to the fight for many minutes she could smell smoke and burning fabrics , she knew the sleeping area was on fire, she also knew that in the room after was barrels of gun-powder, lots of gun-powder.

Within minutes of identifying the smell the ship exploded, somehow Owler survived the explosion, using a piece of wood she floated to land and passed out, the last thing she saw was Hermes flying close by.

Hermes flew close by for a while before flying towards a small clearing of sort in the forest where a small boy was crouching down near a rabbit, now Hermes had stayed with Owler all his life and wasn't fearful of humans and he knew that he was hunting the rabbit as he had often gone with Owler on the rare occasion that her brother let her venture far from towns.

He let out a screech getting both the boy and the rabbits attention and flew towards the rabbit killing it before it had time to realise what was going on.

He flew to the boy, who by now had a scowl as the owl had just killed his prey, and he dropped it at his feet looking at him with bright eyes before flying off towards the beach.

Not exactly sure why but the boy decided to follow him, maybe it was the bells n his leg proving that he belonged to someone or maybe he was curios, the bird had after all killed a full grown rabbit and dropped it at his feet and flew off, so followed the bird out of the forest the rabbit forgotten.

As the boy came to the beach he saw the bird on the ground next to a person who by the looks of it had been washed up a ship wreck was his first idea by all the wood on the beach.

He took a closer look at the girl, she was dressed in a blue and gray gown that was wet and clung to her, she had a few freckles dotted across her face and a small scar under her left eye standing out on her slightly tanned face, she wore pearl encrusted earring's and a ribbon round her neck with glass beads sowed into it, he also noticed her hair, or what hair had come out of a braid, it was red hair making him think of fire and tied with a leather band and a piece or green silk ribbon was braided into it.

She made him think of someone, someone he loved so much yet had not seen in such a long time. His mother.