Chapter 1: The Village of Holmes

"Are you ready Markus, this could turn out to be more dangerous then we'd thought."

"Are you kidding Kurtis? You're losing your edge, we've gotten into far worse then this and come out smelling like roses."

Several armed axe wielders started advancing on the two swordsman, their backs towards a crude palisade wall, and fires erupted all around them, providing the only flickering light in an otherwise pitch black night.

Gripping their blades, and with hearts a blaze, Kurtis advanced on one, slicing his sword across his belly and parrying the counterattack, while Markus attacked the two bandits to his left.

The fight was rather brief, as after the two brothers fought off three of the bandits the other two turned tail and ran away. Kurtis kneeled down to the last one that was alive, whispering into his ear, "Go now, and tell your friends never again to threaten the safety of our village.

Later that day, in Holmes Village

"It was complete success father, we won't have to worry about those bandits again." Markus stated to his father, Albert, who had just put the book he was reading away.

"Good job, I can see your skills improving more and more everyday, a totally new man then the boy who couldn't even lift a sword two years ago." Albert said, his voice gleaming with affection for his son.

"Well its all thanks to you and Kurtis, without your support there's no way I'd even be half as good as I am today." Markus humbly confessed, leaning on the wall next to the door of the house.

"Oh by the way Markus, your friend Trevor left you a message, he asked to meet you at the smithy when you were finished with your mission." Albert stated.

"Got it, thanks dad, I'll be back later." Markus replied, grabbing his coat from the rack and leaving the house.

Three days ago, word from traveling merchants on the eastern road came that there were bandit groups from the Purple Dragon Mountain bandits poised to attack Holmes Village, the place where Markus and his family lived. In retaliation Albert sent his two sons Markus and Kurtis to intercept the encampment, where they first set fire to it, then started attack the distracted men as they attempted to put out the flames. This whole thing wasn't new to Markus, for the past year he had been on jobs like this alongside his brother Kurtis, his father Albert, and occasionally his best friend Trevor, who was quite the accomplished bowman.

When he was 15 Albert told Markus about his family's history, about the Reid Brothers and the Tragedy of Faucon, and explained that after killing his brother Darry fled to Manster, and worked off his conscience by protecting the inhabitants of the village that sheltered him. Their family up to date had lived entirely in Holmes Village, southwest of Manster Castle, very rarely traveling outside the surrounding area, but while Markus was willing to stay by his father's wishes, Kurtis wanted to leave Manster in explore the continent.

"All we'll ever do is rot away in this village stuck in the middle of nowhere Markus! Don't you want to get out and explore the world?"

As he walked to the smithy where Kurtis worked his words rang in his mind, his brother having brought the point up last night as they were on their way home. Markus didn't want to go against his father's wishes, he was such an important character in his life, and Markus felt that he needed to pay him back for all of the skills he taught him in swordplay. But Kurtis was different, whereas Markus got along with his father quite well, his brother challenged Albert's every word, and the two butted heads almost everyday.

Markus thought the feud had to do with him, Albert had told him once that Kurtis "Didn't have a lick of talent" in his swings, while Markus was an incredibly fast learner, mastering techniques that took Kurtis days of practice to nail in only a few hours. And so Kurtis scorned Albert for giving him so much attention, Markus thought, but not all things are as simple as that.

"Hey buddy, Kurtis told me about the whole fiasco with the bandits, did you two really take on the entire camp by yourselves?" Trevor asked, his very eyes bouncing with anticipation for the response.

Before answering his friend, Markus saw that Kurtis was busy at work inside the smithy, which was perhaps the only thing Albert admired about him, it was a lot cheaper to buy raw materials then weapons.

"Of course we did Trevor, you don't doubt us, do you?" Markus snidely replied.

"Not even for a second." Trevor stated, walking forward to join Markus in a man-hug.

Trevor was a youth whose family moved into Holmes when Markus was 5, becoming fast friends with the quirky child. Unfortunately Trevor's parents neglected to inform anyone why they had moved, apparently his father had worked up quite a lot of debt, and were on the run from collectors. Only a month after they had moved in Trevor's parents were slain by mercenaries from Conote, Trevor only living through it by hiding in the closet. Albert felt responsible for the incident, and took care of the orphaned Trevor, living among Markus and Kurtis like brothers, only recently moving back into the house where his parents were killed.

"Oh by the way Markus," Trevor said, reaching behind him to bring out a small package, "Happy Birthday."

Markus was taken aback, he had completely forgotten what day it was, after receiving the gift from Trevor, he found inside contained a small bottle of perfume, the really expensive kind that came all the way from Silesia.

"Perfume? Why would I need that?" Markus asked, unsure about the nature of the gift.

"It's not for you man, it for the girlfriend you need to get." Trevor joked, laughing to himself as Markus stood still with the look of disbelief across his face.

"Okay, fine, the real gift is a collaboration between me and your bro, come in here for a look.

Stepping inside the smithy, Markus saw that Kurtis was still working on his "big project" as he stated. Recently they had been to a fair in Manster, and Kurtis had the chance to test some swords from Isaac, which were long and slightly curved, with only a single edge. Ever since then, he had been hard at work building his own Isaacian blade from directions given to him by the owner of the blades, the project has taken him months, and only recently Markus saw the blade being brought for polishing. It was quite a beautiful sword, with the etching of some sunflowers by hilt.

Kurtis paused the polishing when he realized his brother and Trevor had entered. "Happy Birthday Markus." He stated, breaking up the soot on his face when he smiled.

"Uh, where did you put the package Kurt?" Trevor questioned, calling Kurtis by his affectionate nickname.

Kurtis scanned the room, pointing at a long wrapped object by the back door. Markus walked up to it, smiling to himself as he realized what it was. Opening the wrappings revealed an ornate blade, most likely made by Kurtis, the scabbard contained a long silver blade 1 metre long, with a finely chiseled hilt made with steel and adorned with silver and gold, two prongs jutting out the sides made of twisted silver, and a small ruby in the centre of each hilt on both sides.

"Wow, I'm at a loss for words guys, thank you so much!" Markus exclaimed, taking a few practice swings with the sword.

"We both chipped in, Trevor bought the materials while I made it." Kurtis stated, returning to polishing the blade he was working on.

Before returning the blade to it's scabbard, Markus raised it high above his head and proclaimed, "I hereby dub this sword Orion!"

"Well now that that's done, lets all go out for a few drinks, on me!" Trevor stated, earning mass approval from the brothers.

"At the risk of sounding foolish, I'd drink to that." Kurtis joked, causing Markus to groan, his brother was never any good with the jokes department.

So the three left the smithy for some drinks at the local tavern, unknown to them that this small innocent act would later start a war between Lenster and Thracia.

A Brief Overview on Characters Introduced This Chapter

Markus: Albert's younger son, a headstrong swordsman who is very talented, which tends to make him quite cocky. While he can seem like an arrogant man, he is a nice person at heart, quick to help out those in need.

Age: 18 Class: Lord

Kurtis: Markus' older brother, he has little talent for swordplay, but is very determined, and that determination leads him to practice hours on end, eventually surpassing his brother's natural talent. He took on metalsmithing so he can trust his weapons. A kind and quiet man, though he almost seems to despise his father Albert.

Age: 20 Class: Swordmaster

Trevor: An archer who lived with Markus and his family after his parents were killed by debt-collectors, he has a deep abiding respect in Albert for taking him in, and often works with him and the brothers. He regards Markus and Kurtis as family.

Age: 17 Class: Archer

Albert: A mercenary who devotes his time to protecting Holmes Village. While he stubborn and arrogant with Kurtis, he adores Markus and washes much affection over him.

Age: 43 Class: Hero

Author Note: Houston we have liftoff.

Seriously, to whoever my first commenter was, thank you, I wasn't going to even start the first chapter until tomorrow, but that inspired me to kick off this story with a bang. This chapter is mainly for introducing main characters, there's some real action next chapter, and the actual kickoff of the plot.

Just for fun, I put in the character's ages and class, if anyone is interested I can also maybe put in levels, stats or even growths (though those would be for bonus chapters if anything). My one gripe with writing this is that I have to use SkyDrive, since I don't have Word on my computer. This means I have to copy it to Wordpad before uploading... and then I have to take out a lot of BS that gets put in because of it (It takes out all of my italicizing and bolding)

Apparently Metalsmithing isn't a word, go figure.