Akinen watched as Arelle bandaged his wound, wrapping it in some sort of cloth, as he sat upright on a bundle of furs in the tent. Moren had healed him first with magic, but it hadn't completely healed him. He still had a few wounds. Arelle was just finishing up the job. Arelle was obviously still mad at him, as she avoided all eye contact with him. Not that he blamed her. He had single-handedly destroyed his entire family's reputation by joining the Cutthroats. Or so he might guess. He actually hadn't told anyone but his mother that he was joining the Cutthroats, but news like that always seemed to leak out. Anyway, joining the Cutthroats was looked down upon more than almost anything else, and, as he remembered, Felwithe was all about reputation and status. Well, probably the whole High-Elf race was all about reputation and status. Maybe that was why he joined the Cutthroats. Nah, he just wanted to live a dangerous life and get lots of loot. He remembered back in the days when he lived with his family. He was never too close to his family, especially not his brother Aekash. Because, truth be told, he was jealous of Aekash.

When he was twelve, Aka's father, Balish, fell sick with some sort of disease. His disease seemed incurable. All the doctor could do for him was tell him to rest and eat, and hope his body would overcome the disease. Balish was a farmer, though, which meant that now that he was sick, there wasn't any money coming in for his family. Akinen's mother, Seril, tried hard to make money. She sewed, repaired, and also tried to keep part of the farm going. She didn't have enough to feed her seven-year-old son, Aekash, so she sent him to live with his grandparents. Her twelve-year-old son Akinen, on the other hand, was just the right age to be able to help her with the farm and to take care of Balish, so she kept him at home.

While Akinen labored away all day, Aekash was getting a good education. His grandparents loved him dearly and always encouraged and praised him. Aekash's polite manner, intelligence, and wit were making himself a respected part of the community. His grandparents hired a tutor to teach him lore, and did many other things to help his career, hoping he could be more than a farmer as his father was. Aekash was well spoken of among the whole community, and this made Akinen burn with jealousy. Akinen hated his home. While he loved his parents, living with them in this state was awful. Balish was too sick to even speak most of the time, most of the time he lie in his bed, totally still, and gravely pale. As for Seril, she was also having a dreadful time, working day and night. Seril was very pretty in her younger days, with a long braid of golden hair and a warm, cheerful smile. Now her hair was cut shorter and was always in a bun on her head, and her eyes were dull and lifeless as if every day she did the same routine with nothing in life worth being happy for. She had dark circles under her eyes and wrinkles across her forehead. And as for Akinen, every day he had to work on the farm. That was his main job, but if anyone in the town needed help with something and were willing to pay, Seril sent him to do the job. He had few friends because he didn't really have any time for them.

And so it went for two years.

One day Seril and Akinen were both on jobs elsewhere in the city, while Balish was home alone. Balish sat upright in his bed. He pulled off his blanket and stood up on the floor, something he hadn't done in months. He painfully made his way to the back door. He opened the door and went out to the farm in back where be took a tool resembling a hoe. He made his way to one of the fields and began hoeing it. And he hoed and hoed, only resting every so often. Though the pain was terrible, he thought he could bear it.

When Akinen returned home after his job that day, he went straight to the fields to work on the farm till sunset. But what he saw there horrified him. Balish was lying there, dead, on the field, hoe in hand. He screamed and ran up to his fallen father, but it was too late to help him. He cried, there by his dead father, until Seril returned.

Balish's death was terrifying, and for the first few weeks Akinen thought Seril might die of grief. But somehow, because he had been so sick for so long, it wasn't all that much of a surprise. And in a way, it was almost relieving to know he would have to suffer no longer. Now he could finally rest in peace, and Akinen's family could move on. There was really none who had expected Balish to recover. Finally it was ended.

Akinen walked into the living room where his mother sat on a wooden stool, her face expressionless. He stood in the hall looking in until he finally decided to speak.

"Mother?"

She looked up at him and half-smiled at him, though it looked rather forced. She bade him to come nearer, and he did. She stood up and hugged him.

"Akinen, Akinen. You have always been such a helpful boy. What would I do without you?" She asked, more to herself than actually questioning him. "Life has been rather cruel to you thus far, but I have yet high hopes for your bright future. She stopped hugging him now and pulled away. "My mother and father, your grandparents, are going to let us live with them. We will sell the house and farm, and from now on we will all live together in my father's house. All of us. You, me, and Aekash. It's a shame you two haven't been closer. Now you'll have that chance"

And so it was that Akinen and his mother Seril sold their house and farm and moved into Seril's parents' home. When Akinen and Seril first moved in, Aekash was very excited, though he was a little scared of his brother now because now he barely knew him. Still, he thought it would be great to have Akinen and his mother live with him once again. Unfortunately, wherever Akinen and Aekash went together, it was obvious who had an education and who had lived on a farm all his life.

Akinen was jealous of his brother and teased and tortured him unmercifully. Suffice it to say, the two got along very poorly. They were far too different.

Things were basically going well now though. Seril continued to sew for money, but she wasn't so desperate now that she lived with her parents. She was still in mourning over her dead husband, though, and usually wore black. Aekash was becoming friends with respectable boys his age, and learning quite a lot in his studies. Akinen tried to learn in his studies, but he was already so far behind. He discussed it with his family and decided instead of learning lore and writing and such, he would learn a trade so that he could support himself. It was far too late for him to learn to be anyone of an educated trade now. So Akinen became the blacksmith's assistant. Still, Akinen did not at all feel proud or self-confident about himself when his younger brother was learning so much and was so honored among the community.

That's when Akinen began to spend a lot of time with his friends. The problem was, he befriended the wrong kinds of people. Akinen now became friends with Rogues-in-training and amateur thieves. Akinen longed for an adventurous life like his friends, always getting out of dangerous spots in the nick of time. They told him all sorts of tales about gold and treasure, and about all the adventures they'd had. Akinen now dreaded the thought of having to be a blacksmith all his life. So he decided to be a rogue, and secretly began the training. Of course, none of his family knew of his decision.

Akinen began to go on Rogue quests now. Many included stealing. He found stealing was easier than he ever imagined, and even when it wasn't part of a quest, he began doing it for fun. His friends were always right beside him in everything he did, and they all became great friends, willing to risk their own necks for each other. This made Akinen feel like he had another family, and this one, he thought, understood him better. On one particular escapade, Akinen stole the Mayor's scarlet red scarf. He had stolen it off the mayor himself while he was sleeping! This made such a tale between his friends, they began to call him the "Scarlet Thief". Eventually Akinen was officially pronounced a full-fledged Rogue. It was one of Akinen's happiest days, and he wore his scarlet scarf around his neck all day that day.

One day Akinen and his group of friends were mugging a couple in the alleyway, something they did somewhat often. It wasn't anything new, but something happened that day that changed Akinen's life forever. The man had resisted, and one of the boys had punched him in the stomach before he could draw his sword. Akinen and another boy joined in on beating the man, while another held a dagger to the woman's neck. The man stopped when he saw his lady in danger. Suddenly, out of nowhere, flames began burning all the thieves, including Akinen. The couple yelled in surprise and hurried to get away from the burning boys who seemed to be on fire. The heat was intense, Akinen felt it burning his flesh. He dropped to the ground, unconscious from the pain. But before he collapsed, he saw a magician in rich clothing standing at the entrance of the alleyway.

When Akinen woke up (no telling how much later) he recognized his surroundings as the inside of the Rogue's guild. He yelled in pain, his face burned like nothing he had felt before. Later he learned that the left side of is face was very badly burned. The rest of his wounds would heal, with the exception of one on his back, but this one was too bad to ever heal completely. Of course, right now it was the ugliest thing Akinen had ever seen. His Rogue friends tried to help and encourage him, but their wasn't much they could do for him.

After staying in the Rogue guild under their care for three days, Akinen asked to go to home. The Rogue guild sent two of his friends to help him to his home. As you might imagine, when he got home his family was quite horrified. At first, Seril, the one who opened the door, didn't recognize Akinen. When she did, she broke down crying and screaming right there and then. It was very painful for Akinen. The rest of his family took it similarly, except they didn't even hide their disgust for the ugly new face of his.

And of course, the news couldn't be kept secret in the town for very long at all. Soon everyone in the town knew. Of course, no one knew the reason he had the huge scar, but they all had their theories and speculations. As for the real reason for the scar, Akinen decided to tell his family when he was completely healed. Of course this took a while. Two and a half months, to be exact. Or, it took that long for him to feel better, but the scar was definitely still there.

Finally one day when his mother was sitting next to him, singing to him as she sewed, as she had got accustomed to lately, he told her. He told her everything. The stealing, the mugging, and how he got the scar, and then, how he was actually a full-fledged Rogue. She cried the whole time he was telling her, and when he had finished telling her how he was actually a Rogue, she suddenly jumped up and ran out of the room sobbing loudly.

After that, he packed up his most priced possessions (most of which he had stolen), and ran all the way to the Rogue guild. Once he got there, he talked to his friends, telling them how he planned to run away, he couldn't face life here with the scar. They suggested joining the Cutthroats. Akinen wasn't surprised as some of them had previously been in the Cutthroats. And so, he decided to join the Cutthroats. He told one of his friends to deliver a message to Seril, in which he wrote his intentions and bid her farewell forever, thanking her for her kindness. He decided from then on he would call himself Aka the Scarlet Cutthroat, so as not to disgrace the name of Mah'Alimah. Before he left, his friends warned him that the Cutthroats were far more cruel and dangerous than he might think, and that he would have to be very careful. He thanked them for their advice, and bade them all farewell. It was a sad parting.

Leaving the city of Felwithe behind, he crawled through the tunnel the Rogues had built under the city walls, out into the gloomy woods of Greater Faydark. He wrapped his scarlet scarf around his neck as he turned away from Felwithe and ran into the forest.

It was quite a difficult task to join the Cutthroats. They gave him many difficult tests to pass, but he prevailed through it all. In fact, before the Felwithe guards had destroyed the band of Cutthroats he was in, he had actually become second-in-command.

And now, here he sat, watching his own niece wrap his wounds. She was so pretty. His brother was fortunate to have such a calm, serene, as well as beautiful, daughter. He secretly longed for children of his own, but he couldn't have a family, not while living with the Cutthroats. He recalled how he had gotten these wounds of his. It must've been at least three days before. He remembered it clearly. It was in the middle of he night, and he awoke to the sounds of his comrades screaming "Attackers!" He grabbed his sword and rushed out into the battle going on outside the tents. An army of Felwithe soldiers was chopping down Cutthroat after Cutthroat like blades of grass. Either the Cutthroats who were supposed to be on watch had fallen asleep, or else they had been betrayed. Either way, this would make a quick end to the band of Cutthroats Akinen was in. He fought hard, but was wounded in the stomach, leg, and right shoulder. When he fell to the ground, the Felwithe guards must've thought he was dead. After killing all the Cutthroats, they had begun dragging the corpses to burn. Akinen waited for a moment when there was just one guard by him. He killed the guard by surprise, and ran off into the forest as fast as he could.

For what seemed to him as an eternity, he had made his way deep into the forest. His mind was blank, and his vision was hazy as if he was in a dream. He didn't feel the pain much. It was if his whole body had jut gone numb, and his mind seemed numb as well. He wandered this way for about a day or two, killing the occasional orc that passed him, and it was in this haze that he first spotted Moren and Arelle. But he always had a special instinct that made him never show his weakness in front of others. He found in the Cutthroat clan that when you did that, that was when people jumped on you. So he was brought out of the haze. He sensed that Moren was a good person and hoped to take advantage of him by first having him treat and take care of him, and then when he was completely healed, he would steal Moren's belongings, killing him if necessary.

Of course, he couldn't kill either of them now, now that Arelle was his blood-relative. But he still planned to steal from them when he was recovered. Not that they had much to steal, especially not Moren. But Arelle did have a wooden box she kept in the corner of the tent, which he thought might have something moderately valuable in it, seeing how she was keeping it in the corner farthest from him under a stack of pelts. In fact, he probably wouldn't have noticed it, had it not been for him being an expert thief. But first things come first, he would have to heal completely before anything else. Suddenly Arelle stood up.

"I'll be back." She muttered as she left the tent. He sighed and lied back down on the mat.