"What I had seen shining in the reeds was Igneous' manacle. The sun was really bright that day and making light reflect off any available metal surface. Anyway, I found him lying face down in the water, bleeding from a couple cuts on his back and arms. some of the invectids must have thrown some blades at him after he jumped and managed to hit him."

"What did you do Slate?"

"My dad came running over and brought him out of the water," The blond knight explained. "Once he was on dry land, he checked to see if Igneous was breathing."

"After jumping over the edge of a cliff into deep, rough water below, wouldn't he have drowned?" Corona asked.

"He almost did. He wasn't breathing for a while and my dad had to give him CPR." Slate sighed, feeling some sweat beginning to roll down off his forehead. He hated this part of the story. "I'll tell you, I've been in many battles before, many of them with Igneous, but I've never been more afraid than when the body of that child was just...lying there dead as my dad tried to bring him back." He decided to leave out some of the other details, for Hunter and Corona's sake. Diner was going to be served soon and he didn't want them to get sick. Hearing about how cold and lifeless Igneous looked then, with skin paler than pale, bleed slowly seeping out of his wounds and his eyes shut in such a relaxed way it looked like he was sleeping wouldn't do their appetites any good.

Why was he telling them this? If Igneous found out, he would freak! Some friends would threaten to kill each other for giving away secrets like this but not Igneous. No, he'd do something far worse. Why was Slate risking that just so he could tell two people who, while friendly and nice enough, would never be able to fully comprehend the impact these events had on Igneous?

Oh right. It had been close to ten years now and holding onto this any longer was going to drive both him and Igneous mad.

"Luckily, my father was able to get him breathing again after trying for a bit and we carried him into the village to receive proper medical help." Slate froze for a minute, struggling to find a way to say this next part. "...It's a miracle Igneous didn't die that day."

"In the center of my village, an infirmary had been set up for refugees from the other village. Everyone was trying their best to help out and tried to do all they could to make sure these poor people got better...It was awful. I was only a child but when I was bring Igneous there with my father...I saw them."

"Saw what?"

"The victims. In total...we were able to save and help fifty six people from Igneous' village, out of a total population of 3000. That's less than one percent kids. I tell you, it was a total massacre. Everywhere I looked, I saw mothers screaming for their children, people shaking and crying, children begging and pleading with people to take them to their parents. There were people looking desperately for the lovers and...and they weren't there. It was worse to look at them than to look at the injured because...because the injured were just grateful that they hadn't been killed like their friends and neighbors."

"Oh Oracle..."

"We took Igneous to one of the medics and were told that they were going to have to sew up his cuts as quickly as possible. They took him aside and set to work, leaving us waiting to hear whether or not he was going to be okay. During the three hours we waited for answers, my dad tried to locate someone from his family but..."

"But what?"

"No one claimed him as part of their family. His mother and Tolkin weren't there. Given the number of causalities...it didn't take a genius to figure out we were dealing with an orphan."

"So what happened next Slate? What did you do!?"

"My father and I continued to wait until someone finally came and told us of his condition-"

"And?"

"...And they said that his cuts had been sewn up and the chances of him recovering were strong but-"

"But?"

"What do you mean but? How much more did he have to go through?!"

"But he had slipped into a slight comatose state while they were giving him the stitches needed to keep his wounds closed and they didn't know when he was going to wake up. Knowing we'd done everything we could, my father and I went home. But something inside me had changed that day. I had seen what true pain was in the faces of those poor people, I had seen hell in it's evilest form. That's when I decided that I was going to keep visiting that boy my father and I saved from the lake, until he woke up."

Since their village was considerably small and every knew each other well, both Monnie and Stony didn't mind letting their son wander off on his own. Usually, he'd go play soccer or pretend to be a knight of Arachna like the other children but lately that wasn't the case. Lately, their son would come home with his head held down in defeat and a nonexistent smile. Some days, he'd leave with food or toys or books but he never came back with them. This continued for quite sometime before Monnie finally decided to see what was bothering her son.

The next morning she followed him out of the house, staying a good number of steps behind the boy and watching carefully as he trucked on with one of his favorite books tucked under his arm. He could have been reading stories to some of the younger children in the village but that wouldn't explain why he seemed to be depressed every time he came back home. What else could he have been doing with that book though?

It didn't take long for Slate to reach his desired destination, since, once again, their village was on the small side. He stopped in front of the infirmary that had been set up after the destruction of the neighboring village, and looked up at the sky, as if seeking some advice from the clouds, before stepping inside. Curious as ever, his mother followed close behind.

Two weeks had passed since her son and husband found a boy, younger than Slate, half-dead in the lake near their home and it still gave the poor woman the chills. She often wondered what would have happened if it had been their village that had been targeted instead of the other one, and wondered if someone would be finding her child close to dead somewhere. The scenario could only be called and described as her worst nightmare.

"Hello Loreali," Slate said to one of the medics currently tending one of the survivors that had had one of his arms ripped off during the chaos and was still recovering. "I was wondering if there was any progress since yesterday? Has anyone come forward as his family? Has he woken up yet?"

"I'm sorry young Slate." The medic said softly, trying to keep a soothing tone so she wouldn't wake any of the sleeping patients. "But your little friend hasn't awoken yet and no one has come in claiming to be a relative of his." She sighed, beginning to change some of the bandaging on the patient's side. "No one else is claiming to be a survivor and I fear that this small group may be the only ones."

"Oh." The young boy said and his face, one that used to always used to display a happy-go-lucky smile, fell into a sad pout. He had been hoping that the other boy would have waked up so he could finally talk to him. Things didn't always go the way you hoped them too though. "Can I go see him?"

The young medic nodded and she couldn't help but smile sadly. Before her stood this young child, a usually happy and friendly child, and he came into the infirmary every day to see how the child he'd helped saved was doing, even though he knew that he was going to leave sad and disappointed. He would come in sometimes with sweets and would try and coax the other boy into waking up and when he wouldn't, he'd leave them on his bedside table. Sometimes he'd bring toys for when he woke up and other times he'd bring in a book and try and read to him.

It was one of the things that restored her believe in the possibility of happiness and peace after seeing how cruel the world could be.

"Thank you." Slate said softly and started walking towards the cot where he knew the younger boy was resting. They hadn't moved him since he slipped in his coma weeks ago, fearing it could cause his stitched to brake open. This made locating him easier for Slate although he would wish to go somewhere else with the stranger, somewhere outside and fun, where the sun would beat down on them and they could act like children should act and have some fun.

Knowing that the young boy would be visiting every day until the other boy's recovery, Loreali made sure that there was always a chair by the cot for Slate to sit in when he talked to him. Sometimes, without Slate's knowledge, she'd stand on the other side of one of the curtains and listen to him when he tried to have a conversation with the poor kid. Often they went like this:

"So have you ever heard of the hero Quake?"

"..."

"He's my hero! Some of the other kids and I pretend to be spider riders and often I'm giving the role of Quake!"

"..."

"Maybe when you wake up, you can play with us too!"

"..."

"I'll even let you be Quake if you want!"

"..."

It was kinda of cute in a heart braking way.

Monnie and Loreali hid behind one of the curtains together that day as they listened to Slate read to the unconscious boy from his favorite book, one about the many adventures of the hero Quake and how he and a man named Digger Steele saved Arachna. After that day, whenever Slate left to go and see how the younger boy he saved was doing, his mother always tagged along with some sweets for the other patients.

"That is actually really cute in an incredibly sad way."

"Well, I'm glad to say that things got a little happier from here. Slowly and surely, it starts getting happier."

A couple days after Monnie started to tag along with her son to visit the survivors, Slate saw something that caught his attention. As usual, he was sitting beside the boy, reading from his book describing all of the greatest stories about spider riders, hoping for any sort of reaction to show that the other boy was even vaguely aware of what was happening. His mother was helping Loreali tend to some of the others, asking if they had any other family nearby to stay with until they got back on their feet and their village was rebuilt so it was just him and the younger boy. Light was shining in from one of the windows, causing light to reflect off any metal surface. Slate was in the middle of one paragraph about King Arachna when something made the sun reflect into his eyes. The boy winced, dropped the book and attempted to cover his eyes.

"What the-?" He asked, trying to figure out what could have caused this since it had never happened before. He slowly opened his eyes and began looking around to see what was causing this.

The younger boy was lying on his back, one arm lazily resting above his head, the sleeve of his yellow shirt slipping down to expose his arm. Around his wrist was something Slate had only seen in books before, something that made the sunlight reflect into his eyes, something that he always wanted to see in real life before. A spider Rider's manacle.

How was this possible?! There was no way that someone this young could have been an actual spider rider! This had to be some kind of fake! There was only one way for him to tell though. Slowly, Slate set his book down, stood up and went to the other boy's bedside. He stood over him for a few minutes, trying to get a better look at the manacle before he finally accepted that it was impossible to tell whether it was real or not without holding it. With extreme caution, Slate reached over the boy's face to touch it.

Suddenly, the other boy's eyes burst open and he snapped, sinking his teeth into Slate's extended hand. Slate let out a loud scream before yanking his hand free from the other kid's mouth and stumbled backwards in a mix of shock and pain.

"You bit me!" He screeched. "You just totally bit me!"

The other boy sat up in his cot, his navy blue curls falling down into his eyes but it was quite obvious that he didn't care. His eyes were wild, almost feral. "Who are you!?" He hissed, "What do you want with my manacle!?"

"YOU BIT ME!" Slate screamed at him, looking down at his hand. The other boy had managed to brake skin and some blood was slowly dripping down from the mark on his hand. "IT'S BLEEDING!"

"Where am I!?" The other screamed in response, whipping his head around, taking in all these new and strange surroundings. "Why'd you bring me here!?"

"MOM! LOREALI!"

The two women came running, Loreali had some bandages and herbs in her hands, having been doing inventory when she and Monnie heard the screams the two boys were making. Slate was screaming and looking down at his hand, the other boy was screaming and shooting a million questions at him rapid fire, trying to inch as far back on the cot as he could possibly get.

"Haha, know we know why you used to call him Fang, huh Slate?"

"That was the idea, yes. After we became knights some of the others thought I needed to have a cool nickname too and Iggy decided that Claw went really well with Fang."

"I don't understand though, if you and Igneous had such a bad...introduction, how'd you get to be such good friends?"

"Believe me Corona, it wasn't wasn't at first but once Loreali and my mom set us down, put a bandage on my hand and made us talk things out, we came to an understanding."

After constant reassurance from the medic Loreali and informed all about Slate and his father's part in his rescue along with the current state of his former home, The strange boy was left feeling...rather weak and unable to speak. He just sat on his cot, looking down at his feet and trying to make sure he didn't start trembling.

"So..." Monnie said softly, placing one of her hands on the young boy's shoulder. "What's your name, honey?"

"Ign-igneous." He said weakly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His heart ached and he was sore all over but spending two weeks in a coma, lying in one of the most uncomfortable beds imaginable would do that to you.

"Do you have any family in any other parts of Arachna?" Loreali asked. She was sitting in between Slate and Igneous, trying to keep them away from each other just in case they started fighting. Igneous must have still been sore and he was still recovering, getting into a fight with someone who was perfectly healthy wasn't good for him.

He hadn't thought about it before but now that they had brought it up...there was a new and horrifying thought bouncing around in his head. Now he knew that he was truly alone in the world. "No..."

Unable to stand it anymore, Slate blurted out the main question on his mind. "Where'd you get that manacle?" He asked, directing the ladies' attention to the device. "I thought children weren't allowed to have battle spiders and you had to be a certain age to even be considered for one."

Igneous's hand hovered over the device. "I...I got it from my dad..."

The room fell into an awkward silence. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened to his parents. They were dead and now their child was alone and in desperate need of some help. He wasn't going to survive into his teens if he didn't have parents or family to support him, to put a roof over his head and give him some food. If someone didn't take him in...he was going to end up dead in the streets!

Monnie's motherly instincts kicked in seeing Igneous in need and she brushed one of his curls out of his eyes. "Igneous honey, would you like to stay with my family for a while? Stony loves kids and having another kid around to play with might keep him from causing his usual mischief.

"Oh!" Igneous exclaimed, a bright red blush spreading across his face. "I-...I don't want to impose..."

"It's not imposing!" Monnie insisted, "We live on the farm and we can take you on as an extra hand!"

He had no choice. Igneous was out of options and besides, this lady seemed pretty nice and if she tried to do anything bad than he could just go get some help from the other adults in the village. He'd help them out on the farm and earn his keep and then, once he was old enough, he would travel to Arachna and kill every last invectid to avenge his family!

"Okay." Young Igneous said with a small and shy little smile.

"So that's how it happened. Since he was out of options and my parents were more than willing to take him in, he came to stay with us. My parents treated him like one of their own and we came to look after each other. We became friends." Slate said slowly, just about to wrap up the story. "Time passed and we started to grow up. I went through it first, since I was two years older than him, and when he did he slowly started to change things about himself. He started gelling his curls up, acting serious and the fun and innocent quality he used to have...was slowly drained from him."

When Igneous was younger, he had to have been one of the most innocent and happy people in the inner world and that changed in a flash. He went from a loving family in a huge, beautiful, well respected village to an orphan boy living in a tiny, farming village. He couldn't really complain though. At least he was in a good home with people who weren't going to hit him or anything. Still though, seeing your dad and brother murdered in front of you, adding in the death of your other brother and mother, than you're not going to be okay. As a result of that, he developed night terrors and held them for years, as well as abandonment issues that still remained.

To put it simply, Igneous wasn't the same.

...And it was killing Slate to see his friend transforming into someone he wasn't.

In the seven years they'd known each other, Slate had only seen Igneous genuinely smile a number of times and each time it was beautiful. His nose would scrunch up and his eyes would sparkle a certain way and his smiles could light up the darkest rooms. When he laughed he would always grin, and snort in a way that was actually quite adorable. Not that he'd ever say that to him. Slate enjoyed being in one piece.

"I started to get more and more interested in joining the Arachnian knights. Igneous was interested all along and so when we were finally able to get the money, we moved here and signed up." He laid back against the dirt, taking another look up at the sky. "...So now you know."

Corona and Hunter sat silently beside him. The girl had her knees pulled up to her chest and was looking as if she was at a funeral. Hunter was frowning, lying on his back just like the blond himself. The two of them actually looked really upset and concerned. He warned them though. He told them that this story wasn't for the faint of heart.

"Remember, you can't tell Igneous or treat him any different now." Slate warned the two of them. "If he finds out I squealed about his past than he'd kill me! Besides, Igneous is a strong and stubborn guy, if he wanted to tell anyone about it than he would have a long time ago."

Neither Corona or Hunter said anything, they just sat there, letting Slate's story soak in. In the distance, the dinner bell rang. About time too, it was getting really late and if Slate stayed outside with these two any longer he might have gone about revealing everything he or Igneous ever tried to cover up. I'm talking about real embarassing crap like the time they had to cross dress in order to infiltrate an invectid event or the time they accidentally drank some mead and ended up drunk and puking all over the main corridor in Arachna castle or even worse, how before the vomiting, they accidentally kissed and...how Slate actually liked it.

No one could know about that.

He rose to his feet and stretched for a minute, offering the two younger riders a lazy grin despite the dark topic they had been discussing. "Come on guys, dinner!" Knowing they were surely going to ask him more questions on the way inside, Slate started walking ahead of them, also knowing they'd follow close behind. When Corona wasn't cooking dinner, everyone rushed to get to the table.

"...Hey Hunter?" Corona said softly, still looking sadly at the ground, struggling to understand how something so awful could have happened to anyone let alone someone so noble like Igneous. "...I...I don't know what to think now...Poor Igneous..."

"He has to be bottling all of this up inside him." Hunter said in agreement. "It would explain his short temper and how emotionally distant he is from everyone. He doesn't want to get hurt again..." He jolted upwards. "We have to find a way for Igneous to let out all of his pent up emotions!" A grin slowly spread across his face. "And I have a good idea how we're going to do it but we're going to need some help from good old Prince Lumen and the others..."

On that note, he began whispering his plan to Corona who smiled eagerly in response.

Wow, so guess what I've decided to do? I've decided to add another part. So yeah, said this was going to be a three parter but I don't want it to end all sad and gloomy so I threw in some stuff. I think I liked the 2nd chapter a little more but this one was cute right? Lil'Slate trying to wake Lil'Iggy up by reading and talking to him as if he's actually coherent...sad but cute.

Enjoy.