All Adventure Begins with Tragedy

Chapter I: together

"Silvey! Catch!" Clare hollered from across the village commune. Suddenly a rock was airborne and heading directly towards my head. Effortlessly I reached into the air and snatched the rock from the sky, before throwing it back.

As soon as the other village children saw us playing catch, we had a crowd of twenty some clambering for a ball game.

We ended up playing Yahhooch. Yahhooch is a game where there are two equal teams, and each player has a rock in his or her hand. The goal of the game is to get all of your rocks through the other teams goal. The goals were really just the space between two trees. Spread across the playing field are barriers to hide behind. If you have a rock in your hand, you can tag a person from the opposite team. If you get tagged, you are in jail. The only way to get back in the game is if a person from your own team catches an enemy ball. Once a rock makes it through a goal post, it can not be recovered. You can steal a rock from the other team by catching one of their "balls". When all the rocks are gone, you count how many balls you got through the enemy's goal. The team with the most wins.

After the game finished, Clare and I walked back to our huts. (We won, if I recall correctly) Clare had been my life long friend, and now girlfriend. We were only around fourteen then. As soon as we got back to the huts we grabbed some food for lunch, shoved it into a bag, and left the village. We often hiked into the woods to eat. It was much more peaceful, and we both loved nature. We hiked down to the small creek that ran about a mile below the village.

We soon had our lunch set up neatly on the creek's bank, and were preparing sandwiches. Clare leaned her head on my shoulder as I continued to make our food. It had nice fresh baked bread, a slab of pig meat, some tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese. We had new goat's milk and water to drink. I probably remember it so clearly because it was the last time it would happen.

We ate our sandwiches with relesh (not the food) before laying back to look at the sky. We rested for a long few hours. Clare curled up next to me to stay warm, or maybe just to have the comfort of another creature. I stayed up for a while, unconsciously guarding one of the most precious persons to me.

I eventually drifted off with the calming atmosphere of the river side. It is very surreal thinking back on it.

She woke up first. I immediately was awake and alert because she had risen. I realize I had always been like that with her. She smiled blurry eyed at me. I reached over and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She stretched and got up.

She was a beautiful person. The image of her stretching is forever burned into my mind. She had beautiful greyish-blue eyes, black hair down to just below her shoulders, and a stunning smile. She was shorter than me, but a fit young woman. She was independent, but cared for the ones closest to her with her whole heart. She- i'm sorry, i'm rambling on. You are probably wondering why I describe her so much. It is because I will always remember her. And despite all logic- I hope I will one day see her again. And then we will be happy.

I should really tell you why I am not still in that secluded village with my only love. Well, I will continue then...

I pushed myself up then turned to help her up. I extended my arm and she grabbed it, and again, I will always remember that touch. Aw well- moving on.

We folded our blanket up and put it into our picnic basket. Instead of plates, we had tortillas that we then ate at the end of the meal. They were thick and more like french bread. Just shaped like a tortilla. I put the basket over my arm and Clare's arm over the other. We then headed up the hill again. It had been a good five hours since we left the village. It was slow going, Clare was still tired, plus we were enjoying our hike. We reached the outskirts of the village and stopped dead.

I dropped the basket in shock, and I felt Clare go weak and support herself on me. In front of us stood a burned crop. A destroyed palisade. And a burning village. We had never had outsiders, never had travelers. Nobody knew we existed. To this day I know not how they found us. A mixed army of dragons, a few reformed monsters, and humans had attacked us. Our families were probably dead.

Then all hell broke lose. A squad of men spotted us. They shouted something at us. I looked over at Clare and said the final words. "Clare, I will hold them off for a bit, then run, I will try to find you. Go to the river. You know where the boat we built is kept. Take it and run. Sail away. Try to at least reach Kry. If you can, go to Fya. They have lots of jobs and you can make a life there. Now go! Go!" She turned to go, then thought better of it and kissed me. I held her for a good ten seconds, then she whispered, "I love you Kamichi, we will meet again. And when we do, we will be happy. Good bye." Then she sprinted back down the hill.

I turned my attention back to the men. They had been far away to begin with, all the way across the field. By now, however, they were within bow range. One started to knock an arrow to his bow. I thought quickly. I had always been a good slinger, and had always one the games that the village held annually. I unhooked my belt. My belt was also my sling. I loaded a rock, a smooth river stone, into it and started twirling it over my head. I started to advance on the men. We were quickly closing the gap. The bowman was having trouble keeping his arrow knocked while sprinting. He soon got within my range and I carefully aimed. The stone took from my sling like an angry wasp, headed directly for the man. He was sprinting at me. He had a hole in his head. I had killed someone. Now I was launching them rapidly, only giving them a few twirls. They had started off as twelve. I quickly thinned them out to five. Still five to many. They began to duck and weave, attempting to dodge my stones. I got one more, but was missing to many. I loaded one more stone into my sling, and awaited them. The first one leapt at me, closing the gap between us instantly. He had a long sword raised above his head, ready to strike me down. I quickly dispatched him, swinging my sling like a ball and chain. It smashed into his skull and he died at my feet. The remaining three looked at me wearily, before slowly approaching me, weapons at the ready. I let out a sob of fright and shock at what I had done. I turned and ran.

I sprinted through the trees, sure they were following me. I rounded a tree and u-turned, hoping to catch them off guard. Then I saw the first one. He had a short stabbing sword and a big round buckler. I sprinted towards him. He was surprised by this move and instinctively raised his shield. I leaped. For one flying second, time slowed down. Then my feet slammed into the shield and we went down. I grabbed his sword and finished him off then.

I dropped the sword, it was too cumbersome, then sprinted away again. The second of three had flanked me and laid in ambush. I walked into it, and before I knew what was happening, a man twice the size of me was barreling towards me. I neatly side-stepped when he was almost on top of me, then flicked my wrist in one fluid motion. The sling slammed into the base of his skull, finishing him off instantly.

The third man found me some hour later still stealing away. He jumped at me, and as before, I swung my sling, but this time, I missed. He had a long sword, with a un styled hilt, and gleaming blade. It had a fencing hand guard, though it was not a fencing blade. The blade itself was medium sized, long for a child of fourteen. It had blood channels carved into each side. The metal was so bright, it looked like silver, but as I dodged, and the blade slammed into a rock, I noticed it did not even chip. The blood channels were not straight as customary, but windy like a river all the way to the hilt.

He swung at me again, and again he missed, though this time I knocked the blade from his hand. He looked in surprise, before grabbing a similar fashioned blade, though this was a short dagger, from under his coat. Suddenly he was on top of me, and my hands were around his wrists, forcing the knife away from my neck. We wrestled like this for a few minutes, both constantly rolling back and forth. We were both trying to slit one another's neck. I was weakening, and his stronger build was starting to tire me. Then in a second I was on top, and the sword was lying next to me. He suddenly pushed me off of him and stood up. I grabbed the sword and thrust upward. He tried to deflect the blow with his knife. Instead, both the sword and the knife plunged into his chest. I retrieved both weapons and meticulously cleaned them. I tucked my knife into the sash I wore that connected to my belt/sling. I slid my sword into a sheath a stole from the dead man, and attached it to my sash on the back.

I was now alone. I needed supplies, but did not want to venture back to the village. I wanted to find Clare, but knew I needed supplies. I decided to sleep the night in the forest, but to go to the village in the morning.

Then the thought came back.

I was alone