Chapter 1

"Demons, hellfire, and fury, my vengeance will be total. Not only will I take their lives, but I will damn their souls as well. I will not rest until their blood mingles with mine. I no longer see the faces of the people, I only see the ugliness of my enemy. How dare they! How dare they! I swear on all that which has been taken from me that I will not rest until they are all dead.

"Time has no more meaning for me. Day and night blur together and blend with the darkness of my soul. I have become a predator who preys on anything that lives and breathes. If you cross my path you will pay. I wander the countryside becoming more savage with each and every day. With each massacre I leave in my wake I become more enraged. More enraged! More enraged!

"I thrust my dull and rusty dagger so far into her eye that it sticks out the back of her skull. The warmth of her blood running down my hand is the only warmth I now know. Why? Why! Why did she have to cross my path? She did nothing but look my way and now she is dead. Can't they tell from the hell written on my face that they should stay away? Can't they tell that my compassion left when I went insane? Insane. Insane! I'm insanity enraged!"

But it wasn't always this way. Once Christopher was a gentle boy on his way to being a decent man. His mother and father raised their four kids in a loving home in the village of Diffident, which lies in the northwestern corner of the Westlanders Plains in the country of Hisperia on the island continent of Krokaw, which is one island continent of many on the world of Verve.

More than once they laughed themselves to sleep. His two older brothers Jessip and Jarid, even though they played rough, it was easy to tell that their bond was one of love. It is also easy to tell they are brothers, for they all have sandy blond hair and blue eyes, just like their father.

Christopher's baby sister was a gift. Oh, his sweet baby sister Sarah. She was born into this world so that he might know the love of the gods. She is so beautiful and so smart. Christopher was nine years old when she is born. From the moment he laid eyes on her he makes a vow to protect and watch over her throughout life. Christopher may have been just a boy when he made that pledge, but he swore before the God of War to give him the strength and courage to do it. Every time he looks into her big brown eyes, which looks just like their mom's, his vow is reborn. Her eyes are her mother's, but her hair is even more blonde than her brothers and father's.

If Christopher's life was bliss before she was born, it is divine once she arrives. As she gets old enough to go out, and at a time when Christopher's older brothers think they are too cool to be around ones so young, at least in front of their friends, Sarah and Christopher become the best of friends. Everywhere Christopher goes she follows, but he doesn't mind because she is his little buddy. She is his baby sister.

From the ages of nine to sixteen are the best years of Christopher's life. He watches her grow and learn of the world around her. At the age of seven it is obvious to everybody in the village that she is going to be someone special. With her long blonde hair and big brown eyes she can have anything that her little heart desires. But she is not that way. Her endless beauty is only over-shadowed by her heart and mind.

For sixteen years Christopher has known peace, love and family. He grows into a young man of five foot ten marks tall, and is getting thicker and stronger all the time. Never does he believe that there is a force strong enough in this world to take that away. Of course he has never seen war. His father and brothers ride off to defend the land.

Christopher wants to go, but dad tells him, "Please, son, I need you to stay and watch over the girls."

Christopher is sixteen years old when he watches them ride away. He is not happy about being left behind, after all, his dad and brothers taught him how to be a warrior. He is excited about the war and is waiting impatiently for his turn.

Later he realizes, "I was young and naive." Never did he believe that his dad and brothers would be killed, never to return home again.

His kingdom loses the war and becomes a conquered land. This is the beginning of the end for him.

"I protected my mom and baby sister the best that I could."

Christopher becomes the man of the house and works hard to keep food on the table and all of them safe. They are treated like dirt and their things taken away. Christopher is sure they even hurt his mother once or twice, but she will never say anything about it one way or the other.

It is shortly after Christopher's seventeenth birthday that things start to slip away. This is truly where the story begins. Would you like to hear it? It's not pretty.

It is three days after Christopher's seventeenth birthday and Sarah is now eight. You see the bond between Christopher and his baby sister is more than just family, they were also born on the same day, just nine years apart. The ones that study the stars for signs of prophecy and design say they were born under the sign of Leo. Destined for strength and greatness. Supposedly a lion is a creature that is a ruler of the wilderness kingdom. Christopher has read many wonderful and vicious stories on them, and reads them to Sarah to help her fall asleep at night, but he has never seen one.

His beautiful mom, with her long brunette hair and the same soft brown eyes she gave to Sarah and who always has a wonderful grace about her, says, "They must be real, though."

"But I had no idea."

On this third day of his birthday he is working in the garden, as always Sarah is in the garden right at his side helping with the chores. It is a hot and dusty summer day, and it takes all of their efforts just to get the ground to give them enough food for just one more day. Christopher is wearing his brown breeches and a green shirt mom made for him, and Sarah is wearing her favorite summer dress that is white with red designs in it.

Their village that once numbered around a sixty now barely has half that. The men are dead and the vibrant women are taken away. All that is left are old women, mothers with their children and old men. Even they are dying.

"Our conquerors did not care."

They take what they want and leave them in despair.

The village of Diffident is entirely on a hill rise, the highest hill in the vicinity. There is one road winding its way southwestward up the hill through the village and back down the hill rise again, disappearing westward into the rolling land of the Westlanders Plains. As soon as the road comes up into the village it turns westward and snakes its way through the twenty-three cottages. Sarah and Christopher's family home is the fourth cottage on the south side of the road. The cottages are made from stone and mortar. The stones are light gray, dark gray, almost black and some mixed brown, but the mortar is a reddish brown because of the high clay content in the soil. Some of the nicer cottages have wood trim around them, stained to a dark brown color, but still highlighting the natural patterns in the oak wood. It is ... It was a nice place to grow up.

Then on that third day from out back of their cottage where the garden is, Christopher is gazing southward out across the plains when they hear riders come up to the front of the house and dismount. Sarah and Christopher hear the banging on the door. Christopher meets Sarah's fear filled big brown eyes and is also concerned. They can hear the soldiers struggling with their mom as they drag her away.

Sarah and Christopher can hear her screaming, "What about my children?"

Christopher runs around the front of the cottage just in time to see his mother scratch out one of the eyes of one of the soldiers. The soldier becomes angered and pulls his dagger across her throat. She gurgles as she falls to the ground, and just before she dies her beautiful brown eyes meet Christopher's. And then a pool of blood starts expanding.

"I remember little of the next few minutes. It was as if I was in a dream. I looked down and saw a hoe in my hands. I remember my legs walking me towards the three soldiers, but I don't remember telling them to. I remember the soldiers looking at me and laughing. I could see the hoe flashing, but I don't know how it was swinging. Flash after flash the hoe flew by my vision. It lasted an eternity or maybe just a second or three, but it was the sound of Sarah crying that brought me back to my senses."

Christopher looked over his shoulder and saw Sarah leaning against the stone and mortar cottage sobbing horribly. He looks back to see what she is staring at, and he sees the three soldiers hacked to pieces.

He remembers thinking to himself, "Who did that?"

When he notices his mom lying dead on the ground he drops the hoe and kneels down beside her and Sarah runs to him.

"We cried and cried, but not one neighbor came out to help us. These were the people we had known our entire lives."

The fog starts to lift from Christopher's mind and consciousness comes to his waking dream. He realizes the danger they are now in.

He tells Sarah, "Sarah. Sarah! Go pack some clothes and food for the both of us."

First, Christopher pulls his mom inside their cottage and covers her with her favorite quilt blanket, and then apologies to her for not risking the time to bury her. Sarah comes over and puts her little shaking arm around his shoulders as they are looking at their mom one last time. The both have tears in their eyes and sorrow in their hearts, but they cannot let their grief flow yet because Christopher must get Sarah to safety.

Then Christopher goes through the enemy soldiers stuff and takes all of their weapons and supplies. He thinks about taking a horse for each of them, but if they have to run it will be safer if they are on the same one. Just before they leave, Christopher looks down at the dead soldiers and at their dark gray and black uniforms with the higher-ranking one wearing chain mail. It is the look of his enemy, and one he soon will not forget.

"It was the first time I had killed and a chill started to surround my soul, but Sarah was my beacon of light and our love kept us strong."

They are seventeen and eight. They are alone and afraid. Christopher's vow is to protect her, but she is his strength.

Even the nights this late into summer stay warm. Christopher had once traveled to the forested mountains with his father and brothers to camp and learn the skills needed to survive there.

"I guess it was a good thing that my father had been a soldier before the war."

It is nearly a week's travel to either the east or the north, but it is the only place Christopher can think of that they might be safe. All they have to do is get there, and hopefully he will remember enough so they can survive and disappear.

As the word and the search spread for them nobody would help them. Their own people turned their backs on them. They would not give them food or shelter.

"Once Sarah was asking this lady, "Ma'am, if we could just have a little food, please." An old man walked out and pushed her, telling her to get away. When he pushed Sarah she fell to the ground.

"I drew my sword and walked towards the old man to kill him, but Sarah stopped me."

Christopher was angry with the enemy for taking his family away and sending Sarah and he into hiding, but at their treatment from their own people he began to become enraged.

"Fear or no fear, you don't let children starve."

They are hungry. They are scared. In a kingdom full of their own people they are alone. Christopher had never become that great of a hunter to begin with, and with an occupying enemy army around the hunting game becomes even harder to find. What they can't hunt or pick for themselves they steal. Even though they took with them all the food they had at their home, they begin to run out after the second night. Another five moons through the sky and they should reach the Harken Mountains.

They are riding through the foothills at night doing their best to cross as much of the rolling plains as quickly as they can. Always finding a safe place to hide during the day. It is an odd lesson that Christopher will remember, that things are better in the folds of darkness.

It is just around sun up of the fourth night when they hear an enemy patrol approaching from the south, "Shh, Sarah, listen." Christopher wraps his arm tighter around his baby sister who is sitting in front of him.

They duck behind a hill covered with trees that are full with their dark green leaves, and hold their breaths as the soldiers ride by heading north. Christopher's heart nearly stops when he realizes they are coming around the hill.

"We can't wait for them to see us." Christopher kicks the horse as hard as he can and points him northeast. They tear through the foothill plains for all they are worth. Having to dodge the occasional group of trees or rock outcropping, and even on one occasion they have to jump over a small creak. Unfortunately the horse is also under nourished and tired, and soon begins to falter. Christopher looks back over his shoulder and notices that pursuit has begun.