Chapter 3

The Call of Battle

They had walked in silence back to their house. Not a word had passed.

The child keeping himself to himself, wanting to speak but seeing the look on his mothers face and deciding to keep silent. When they had finally entered the home, he unwound his hand from his mothers, running inside and slipping his shoes off. Sliding on a pair of slippers, his mother doing the same, they both returned to the living room. After a few moments of silence, the child finally burst. "Mother, what just happened?"

"I've told you before, Tseng" she snapped back, "Don't question my decisions. I'm doing what is right for you..."

Instantly after saying it, the look on her child's face caused a pang of sorrow mixed with guilt to run through her. Sighing, she closed her eyes. Opening them again and walking over to her child, her slippers clicking against the wooden floorboards, she bent down.

"Oh Tseng..." She whispered, running her fingers through his hair. "... I'm sorry... " Wary, but enjoying the affection, the child embraced his mother. "I'm going to tell you something... And you must listen to me, Tseng. The world is a cruel, horrible place. People kill each other over nothing. People will hate you, will loath you for your entire life, even if they know nothing about you. People are monsters, they aren't afraid to bite. There will be people who pretend to be your friend, but behind their smiles they're glaring."

She was unsure wether he was taking any of this in, but he listened. He didn't question her advice, her knowledge. He respected her as the adult, as the superiour. If he dared question she'd cut off his tounge with a sharp slap or punish him. So he simply nodded against her shoulder. The woman sighed again, withdrawing her arms and her affection. "Come on, little wolf of mine. It looks like I'll have to be the one to mark you" She smiled, touching the child's forehead. "I've never done this before, so don't blame me if I do this wrong and you look like an idiot for the rest of your life."

He laughed, the innocent childhood laugh he had learned to perfect. It was a false laugh, one he had pracised day in and day out, pretending to laugh against the world that so seemed to loath him. Right now, he was more nervous than anything. The idea of her mother marking him on the forehead struck fear within him.

Days passed, and life carried on. The dot shape on his forehead matched that of the rest of the children. The small tattoo of the black wolf around his belly button had came out fairly well aswell, considering his mothers lack of skill. In school the kids tended to ignore him now, too intrested in the excitement of having their animals discovered. It was better than being mocked, he had supposed. Things continued as normally, teachers taught, mothers cooked, fathers worked, drunks fought. No one could have prepared for the monsters that loomed on the horizon.

Dawn broke another day. Birds sang in joy, singing to the gray clouds that adorned the eternal canvas. A great black river snaked its way through the gray, threatening rain or perhaps even thunder later in the day. Light pools of sunlight broke the clouds, forming celestial rays in the distance. It was saturday, and under his mothers order, Tseng was studying. It was just another day, though it would be this day that would revolutionise his life. As his pencil flowed, the scrappy lettering moving elegantly across the page, the chocobo's snorted. As he came to finish his sentance, the helicopter blades spun. As he placed the pencil down, looking for his book, the first scream ripped through the air. As his head snapped up and he rushed towards the window, the first bullets where fired.

Outside, dirt splayed beneath Chocobo claws, the birds suited in red armour being dragged about by their masters. He saw a flash of red as fire materia was used, but the man who had cast it was quickly slaughtered. That weas the first time he had witnessed death, seeing the blood sray from the young man's jaw, his neck snapping back and the lonly figure falling down amoungst the dirt. Chocobo's stampeeding over him.

He heard footsteps soon after, his mother's arms around him, trying to drag him away from the window. Yet he was locked, transfixed on the body that lay, unaware that he was screaming in terror. His mother finally pulled his fingers out from the windowledge, dragging downstairs. He could barely hear what she was saying, lost within his own world. He felt his mother grab his cheek, forcing him to face her. They where at the bottom of the stairs. He had never seen so much fear in those azure blue eyes.

"Tseng, go out the back door. You must hurry and you must hide near the undergrowth by the mountain side. You know where I mean?" He nodded. "If i do not join you by nightfall, then you must leave. No matter what happens, go down the mountainside, follow the road to Wutai. Only go at nightfall, do you understand me?"

He nodded again, tears forming in his eyes.

"Keep still and keep silent my darling, no go."

"Mother, why?"

She didn't answer, simply dragging him through the living room and throygh the kitchen, forcing him out the door. The young child looked back, he was terrified out of his wits. Confused, unsure as to what to do. Yet he obayed his mothers words, running cutting through the field near his home and burning himself in the undergrowth. Thorns stung at him, but he kept still and the pain began to subside. There was where he lay, watching his house.

After about half an hour, he saw two soilders knock on the door. His mother answered, and that was the last time he saw her, alive or dead.

She welcomed them into her home.

"You're name?" asked one of the soilders, pointing a gun in her face.

"Seya Namikawa"

"You're occupation?"
"I clean houses."

"You sure have a nice house here, if you don't mind me saying, Seya, how could you afford a place like this?" asked the soilder on the right, a thin smirk froming over his face. There was a gleam in his eye, one that Seya caught. She loathed him more than ever.

"It was my mothers.."

"Got any kids?" asked the same man, "Hiding them in cupboards somewhere?"
"I am childless" she hissed.

"Good, don't want no brat seeing what's going to happen to you. You got two choices, you fight us and die here, or you come with us and get a nice little job at ShinRa."

She spat in his face, disgust coming over her features. "Do you not know of Honor? I would never let myself come with you. This is my home, I was born here and I will die here"

The man's face turned into something of rage, and he grabbed the back of her hair, coiling his fingers into a tight fist and driving her head down against a table. She cried out in pain, but no tears followed afterwords. She would not let them see her fear. "You little bitch. I gave you a fucking chance. I'll just have to teach you a lesson before I drive three bullets in your pretty little face."

"Aren't you being too harsh on her?" asked the second soilder

"Get the fuck out if you don't want to see this then" Came the harsh reply, to which the other male complied, leaving the house and standing outside.

The first soilder returned to his pretty little Wutainese prize, bring his lips to her ear and licking it. She tasted good.

She shuddered in rage, trying to force herself around to claw out his eyes, but as he smashed her head against the table again she went limp. Unable to fight it any longer. Her words came out in a hiss, her nose broken, blood spilling out over her lips, yet still she forced the words out. "This has happened to me before, if you think I fear this, I don't. From the last time I bore the most beautiful child I have ever known, something scum like you could never understand. So rape me. Kill me. But you will never have me or my child." She spat blood in his direction again, missing his face.

A few seconds later, a gunshot fired into the air, causing the three crows that had sat on top of the house to scatter into the sky.