Chapter Eight

                                    

                                          
In a village not too far off from the coast of the vestigial Atulian bay, a boy with brown hair and similarly colored eyes ran, his father had stayed true to his words and stayed behind to protect his village yet the burning embers of chaos could still be seen. This would likely be the last time he would have seen him, and the burning tears that plagued his chocolate eyes proved his childish heart's innocence. 
                          
He had to leave his home, the home he had stayed in for years, since his birth, and now the teen had no where to run. 
                          
He contemplated giving in and going back, but the stern and raging look his father had given in the blazing fire at his suggestion stayed in his heart, his words echoed around. "Protect yourself, Leonidas Atulu, protect yourself and run away from here, never to return nor look back at all!" 
                          
He felt deep setting sighs of the situation putting his guilt wracked conscious down, the cheeks that were stained by red and translucent tears, or perhaps sweat running down. 
                          
He was a coward, and he knew that. He knew he could have helped, yet he left his father and mother alone in such a time. Where was his bragging heart now? Claiming to help his father a long time ago, now only a deceased shell that panged his stomach harder than any Timberwolve's claws would. 
                          
The Timberwolves had put an end to all ends with their attack on his village, one that would scar the last remaining survivor for life, if he would have survived that is, for just in the corner in his eyes could he see deep set panick strike by, chaotically making him run away from the twice as taller man-wolf hybrid who ran on all fours, it wouldn't be much long till his soft and succulent flesh would be torn apart into, razor sharp teeth adding a terror of unbending display to his young and uncherishing body. 
                          
But, all of a sudden did the way take the turn for the better, a man wearing apparels so divine and bizarre that he felt touched by God's grace even, what he couldn't understand was what happened next. 
                          
The wolf man suddenly attacked the white shirted Miguel as quickly as he could, switching targets from an untasty boy to a succulent man was as easy as it could be, yet the accidental scarring given to him by the panicked young adult in the form of the blunt knife set everything to utter shambles, the blade sticking in his eye with the claw mere inches away from his face. 
                          
The boy looked at the cold faced and unshrinking man in noble clothing with reverence and asked, "mister, who are you?" It was such a simple question, yet the head tilting of the man suggested confusion. 
                          
    "Who am I?.. well, call me Miguel.. and you are?" Slow, soft as if comforting a being that had just lost everything, and calming to the child that had indeed those present qualities. 
                          
    "Leonidas..Leonidas Atulu." The name made him freeze for just a second, for it was the name of the boy's ancestor, was it not? And to his knowledge, no one else had that surname, no one across the lands. As fate would have it, the man and monkey had met once more, and saved once more aswell was he. 
                          
Miguel had saved Atulu yesterday from a couple hunters by accident, taking him and his tribe into the scroll and running off, believing it to be a private property when it was in fact no one's, only bound by nature and the criminal scum that patrolled the area religiously for fresh meat. 
                          
Miguel wasn't horrified, but he was slightly startled, having just nearly been clawed to death, and now meeting Atulu's direct descendant directly after? 
                          
   "Leonidas Atulu.. quite the name you have there, Atulu, for I knew your ancestor quite well. Do you know why?" 
                          
The boy looked at him slightly puzzled, what was an ancestor? "An-ses-tor? What's that? Why?" 
                          
   "You see, my name is Miguel Ohara and you can think of me as however you'd like, a friend, an ally or even as a brother and I want to show you why I knew your ancestor. The answer is.. right here, Atulu." A blue quivering light beset on the sun down stage passed by Leonidas as quickly as it could, opening up something like a portal to another area, far above his imagination's possibilities that were being thought of currently, his mind's fears being grinded for results as he just looked at the man dead in the eye for answers. 
                          
Beckoning him forth with a small back handed wave and curl of his fingers, he stepped into the portal, now showcasing a large city built of sandy stones, the yellow and arid sense that the place gave off alongside the humidity made Leonidas nearly cry out in a startle. 
                          
    "This, is why. Hundreds of years ago, your kind arrived here in these lands by accident, my fault no doubt on that one, but you all soon scattered, populating the lands with your own species, your own kinds. Your ancestor, Atulu was definitely one of them, as you can see by yourself standing here right now, a spectacular marvel is it not?" 
                          
The boy couldn't believe his eyes, the beast folk were down there right now, living their lives in peace as the portal just beside them showcased the utterly terrifying view of the sun setting sky alongside burning embers and ashes of another village going down. 
                          
The beast folk used carts, had higher and taller buildings and much better infrastructure, their men and women seemed superior to him in every other way aswell, for how could they have not lost, seeing such an advanced civilisation? 
                          
Now on his knees and contemplating what the entity next to him was, he looked just a few years his elder, yet the way he spoke and watched with a curious head made him believe otherwise, centuries old at the very least, but was that truly possible? 
                          
    "What.. what are you?" He asked, he had no idea who the man was, nor if he was dangerous. He had currently though otherwise however, as he was his saviour after all, otherwise he'd have been dead meat, being chewed on by hungry wolves right now. 
                          
      "Me? I'm Miguel Ohara, call me whatever you want. And what I want to see is.. can you actually bring your race back from the dead? Back from the ashes, like a Phoenix even?" 
                          
He used words and terminologies Leonidas couldn't understand, he used expressions that didn't make sense, yet somehow he could understand him, no language barrier at all, and what he couldn't understood was almost always rounded off to the nearest comprehensible analogy. 
                          
But what he did understand now was a drive he had now, if he could have power, he could have everything. The beast folk had power, that was why they lorded over them, the Atulians all cowardly due to being powerless and unchanging of the ways. 
                          
He would bring about an utterance of a new Era, as they walked back to the path of the forest way that Leonidas had been escaping from once more, he took a step towards his village, looking at it's burning made his own blood boil in rage, his teeth gritting as he looked at the man beside him with confirmation, with affirmation and a decisive, determined heart he replied. 
                          
    "I'm ready, I can do it all!" With a heavy heart and one with the reminiscent thoughts of his childhood still in his way, Leonidas made a smile stretch it's way to Miguel's face by accident. 
                          
   "All, alone? Perhaps not, take your best skill and think of it as useless if you do not help out your brethren, it is all for naught if you kill undisparingly, and commit atrocities just for the sake of it. Protect yourself, but protect those behind you and by your side aswell, and grant mercy to those you think deserve it, Leonidas." 
                          
He shook his head while holding the knife by the bloody blade, it didn't affect his hand nor his conscious as long as he just imagined it to be water instead; sticky, smelly water. 
                          
    "Take it, this can be said as a gift, and this aswell, take it from my hand."
A small blue bead that tasted too sweet, it made him go into indescribable euphoria, his taste buds erupted with the flavour seemingly. 
                          
The blade he gave was bloody, but sharp. It seemed able to cut down anything in his path, and even with it's short length, he felt able to knock the Beast folk off from their high horses now. 
                          
Looking back at the man to thank him, he found no one instead, and he would have thought it was all his mind playing tricks on him had he not rechecked his hand for the comfortable grip of his blade, the King's blade.