Two years later, Akai was an 8 year old boy. He and Kidd had become good friends and often practiced their swordsmanship. Practicing in the same field the village militia used for their training. Young men and some women of the village who practiced with weapons, ready to defend against threats. Though, none of them were warriors. They were normal people with no real ambition to fight, only to stay in enough shape to have a chance.

  This morning, however, Akai was not going to be training. He was pulling a pair of boots on as he and his father were getting ready to go hunting. Akai hadn’t gone hunting before, but he had begged to come along this time. He had proven good enough with a bow that his father Rei had agreed.

  Coming with them was Lamorie’s father Drake, who had a crossbow, and Kidd’s father Liam, who was coming mostly because his wife insisted. Christie had insisted Liam go as she worked with Akai’s mother Jennifer to prepare for the meat they bring back. Drake’s wife Emmie remained at the forge, taking over the day’s work temporarily.

  The three men and 1 boy headed north into the woods. Akai was rather excited to finally join a hunting trip.

  A hand landed on Akai’s shoulder and he looked up at his father as they walked. “Don’t be too nervous, Akai. We’re hunting Kabers, they’re not the most difficult prey to catch. Just don’t get too close, okay?”

  Akai nodded his head, and Drake butted in. “Kabers are some of the most delicious things to put in stew. When I heard Jennifer wanted to make some for us, I almost jumped for joy. Don’t tell Emmie, but she isn’t half as good at cooking as Jennifer was.”

  Liam chuckled and said “I’ll be sure to tell her.” and Drake looked back with an exaggerated expression of betrayal. He even put a hand on his chest. The others chuckled at his expression.

  Rei lifted a hand and said “getting close, quiet.” and stalked through the woods quietly. Soon they stumbled upon a small mountain stream and Akai looked over a bush and saw their prey. In front of them was a Kaber. A creature that looked kind of like a rabbit with long floppy ears, but it had sharp teeth and more forward eyes. Its paws had sharp claws and white spikes ran along its back, contrasting a dark brown fur. It had a long tail behind it that currently was dipped into the stream. The kaber turned around and pulled out its tail, a large crayfish grasping the end of it. As it pounced the crayfish and began to bite into it, Rei gently tapped Akai’s shoulder and motioned for him to take a shot.

  Akai nodded again, raising his short recurve bow. Knocking an arrow he carefully stepped beside the bush and slowly began drawing it back. He exhaled and when he felt confident in the shot, the broad headed arrow flew. It struck the Kaber and the animal began letting out whining squeaks as it began trying to run away. But the shock from being hit was disrupting its ability to run well, it slipped and stumbled a while as the others began walking after it. Less than a 100 yard from where Akai had shot the kaber, it lay still and panting as it was bleeding out.

  “Here, son. You need to put it out of its misery, it would be cruel to make it suffer more. Remember how I taught you to do it.” Rei said, drawing a knife and handing it to Akai handle first. Akai took it and took a deep breath. He approached the Kaber and watched as it failed to get up and run, and was kicking weakly to try and keep him away. Akai frowned but leaned in, putting his weight on it to hold it still and drove the knife in, stabbing its heart. He held it as it grew weaker and soon enough died.

  Akai wiped off his father’s knife and gave it back. He felt strange about killing it now that he had actually done so. But Rei patted his back and said “You did good. Don’t feel bad, either. I know that look on your face.”

  As Liam was tying its legs together and picking it up, Rei said. “The land provides these animals for us to eat. We show respect by making sure they don’t suffer too much, and by not wasting any of it.”

  Drake nodded and said “Aye, I’ll be tanning the hide and Emmie will make tools from the bones. The organs we don’t eat go to the pets and the rest gets eaten by us.”

  The four continued their hunt, catching a 2nd kaber. The 2nd one started running towards them and Akai panicked, missing his bow. As Rei readied his bow, Drake got it with his crossbow, pinning it to the dirt as it was about to jump.

  Liam tied its leg and bled it before carrying both over their shoulder. Content with the amount of meat they have, Liam tied its legs and carried both of the kabers over his shoulder. Now around 7am when they got back, the sun was low in the sky but plenty of sunlight. Though, when the group were coming back home, Jennifer ran up to Rei a bit frantically.

  “Rei, Rei, someone is in the tool shed!” she said in a hushed yell. Immediately the three men went tense and Rei said “Jenny, take Akai inside.”. Akai wanted to protest, wanting to help what was going on, but Jennifer grabbed his wrist and began ushering him inside. Akai quickly ran up to his bedroom upstairs and watched from his bedroom window.

  Akai watched as Rei approached the door followed by Liam. Drake pulled a bolt from his quiver and stood off to the side, ready to help in case things go wrong with his crossbow.. As Rei approached the shed, he heard the sound of someone shuffling inside. He put a hand on the knife in the sheath on his belt and grabbed the door. He opened it suddenly, expecting to see someone trying to hide or rush past him to escape. Well, he did see someone trying to hide but it was not who he thought it would be.

  Trying to hide in the corner behind leaned brooms, rakes, and shovels. He saw a kid. Not Akai’s age, this one was around 14. The notable thing was she was covered in bandages. He could see her blue eyes filled with terror. She was shaking in place, clothed only with bandages, wool cloak, and a pair of trousers entirely too large for her.

  Seeing Rei freeze, Liam leaned in and his eyes widened at the sight of this girl. He looked back at Drake and shouted “Go fetch Jennifer and Christie, tell them to bring a blanket” and Drake was a bit startled by the urgency in his voice. But the blacksmith nodded and quickly jogged inside. Soon the women came out. Akai saw over the next few minutes as the adults coaxed a shaking, scared girl out of the shed and brought her inside. He wanted to head downstairs but after a few moments, Rei was on the other side of his door as Akai opened it. Rei said “Stay in your room, Akai. I get you probably want to help but let your mom handle this. Okay?”

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  Akai reluctantly nodded and stayed in his room. He hears some of the talking going on downstairs. Hearing his mom and Christie both asking this girl questions. What her name was, Where she came from, why she was hiding. Akai’s curiosity was burning so he sat by his open door and tried his best to listen. His father, who was also banished from being downstairs, sat and listened as well. They heard a soft, squeaky voice tremble out some of the answers. “My name is Lacy.. I, I ran away from some.. Awful.. Awful people.. I didn’t know where else to go.. I’m scared.”

  Jennifer and Christie took a few moments comforting the teenager before Akai heard with keen hearing “Goodness, you’re covered in cuts and bruises..”

  After almost an hour, Jennifer called out “Rei, Akai, come down. I need you two to fetch some medicine.”

  Akai and Rei quickly got up and headed downstairs where they saw the girl. She had tangled strawberry blonde hair that Christie was currently gently brushing and some of her bandages had been pulled back, revealing various scars. Lacy even had burn scars across her face that she was trying to hide.

  Akai didn’t realize he was staring and Jennifer piped up “Akai, go with your father” in a stern tone. Shocking him back to his senses and Akai nodded, running out the front door to catch up with Rei. Rei had a solemn look on his face after seeing the state this girl was in.

  As Akai and Rei quickly made way to the village’s primary herbalist, Jennifer sat down across from Lacy and spoke softly. Christie is still gently brushing the knots out of the girl’s unkempt hair.

  “What can you tell us about the people you ran away from?” She asked in as gentle of a voice as she could. Lacy shuddered but Christie chimed in “We want to protect you from them. Nobody who can do what they’ve done to you can be any good. It’s okay, Lacy.”

  Lacy's emerald green eyes rose to meet Jennifer’s gentle hazel eyes as she begun to tell her story.

  “When I was a girl, My parents were far too poor to raise me or my siblings.. I was a little sickly so I couldn’t work, so they sold me off to a group.. I don’t remember their name, but a bastard named Kell bought me. He runs a gang of outlaws and..”

  The way they could see Lacy trembling, Jennifer gently put a hand on her shoulder and said “You don’t need to say more about that.” gently.

  Lacy had tears welling up in her eyes and eventually mentioned. “Kell is awakened with sorcery.. He never let me out of his sight unless I was chained up.. Its been about 6 winters but he finally made a mistake and I had been running through the forest for over a week.. This house on the edge of the village is the first building I saw and I just wanted to rest.. But seeing you all, I panicked and tried to hide.”

  Jennifer brought Lacy in for a gentle hug, softly stroking the girls back. Saying “It’s okay, you can stay with us and we’ll make sure that kell never comes to hurt you again.”

  When Akai and Rei returned with a medicinal salve, they were sent upstairs again. Akai sat on his bed as his father sat in a chair on the other side of the room. Akai knew his father didn’t know much more than he did, so they were stuck waiting until Jennifer and Christie were done helping Lacy until they could figure out what was going on. And when they did Akai felt angry about hearing what this ‘Kell’ monster did. Akai had always been a cheerful kid so this anger was new to him. He felt burning in his chest at the thought of someone who’d brutalize a girl like Lacy. A literal feeling of heat welled within him for a moment, but soon relieved when he suggested “She can stay with us.” and his parents agreed with no contest.

  Rei put a hand to his chin and said “Though, we don’t really have much room.” Before akai butted in “She can have my room. We have space in the attic from when Auntie Emmie ran Uncle Drake out of the house, I don’t mind sleeping there.”

  Jennifer and Rei looked at each other, not seeming ecstatic about the idea. But Rei shrugged and said “I don’t see why not. We can figure out a better solution later, but that works for now.” Jennifer nodded and agreed.

  Now that Akai was allowed back downstairs, he saw Christie putting Lacy’s now brushed hair into a braid. Lacy was wearing one of his mother’s dresses under the wool cloak as Jennifer made her way to the kitchen. Liam having already dressed the Kabers, she was getting the food prepared. Akai locked eyes with Lacy for a moment. She then turned her gaze away after staring at his silver hair for a moment. People seemed to do that for some reason when first seeing him after seeing his parents.

  Akai left the house, heading to his and Kidd’s usual hangout spot. Seeing Lamorie already there, sitting on the fence with a bored look as Kidd was doing sword drills with a wooden sword.

  Akai took a training sword from the rack and joined him. Beginning to share the story about what happened.

  “Yeah, our dads mentioned something about that when they got back from the hunt” Lamorie said, finally perking up a bit. “Something about a strange girl in bandages hiding in your shed.”

  “Did you get a good look at her, Akai?” Kidd asked, bringing his sword down in overhead strikes one after another.

  “Not really, she was covered in bandages and a cloak when I saw her. But she had green eyes and yellow hair.”

  Lamorie asked “yellow hair?” before kidd sighed and said “Yellow hair is called blonde hair, guys.”

  “Ooooh, that’s what blonde hair means.” Lamorie said. Kidd looked unamused before shaking his head. He previously lived in the city north of the mountain so he had a better grasp on the outside world. Blonde hair was not common in this part of the world, so kids who had never left this small village before wouldn’t have known.

  “I wonder how ugly she is if she hides under a bunch of bandages.” kidd muttered before suddenly a wooden sword smacked into his shoulder.

  “Don’t be rude, Kidd.” Akai scolded him. Kidd rubbed his shoulder and said “I was just joking, geez.”

  Lamorie muttered “My dad said she was covered in scars though. Before Akai’s mom shooed him away, he saw her face and she had burns all over it.”

  “Yeah, and she told us who did it.” Akai said, tightening the grip on his training sword a bit more.

  “What? Who did?” Kidd asked, stopping his sword drills to face Akai. The two 8 year olds looked at each other and Akai halted his sword drills as well. He turned to face Kidd and Lamorie and began to re-tell the story of what happened. By the time he finished re-telling the story, Lamorie looked horrified and Kidd had a dark look in his eyes. For the rest of the day, Akai and Kidd were sparring more fiercely than usual, Lamorie staying by in case they got hurt.