• “The Way Heroes Should Be Born….”
    On a normal day in the lands of Arcchi, a young girl was walking in the markets of a village called Plitz looking for materials for her grandfather’s shop. At the same time a young boy was falling, not off a cliff or tripping over a rock but from the sky, towards a forest near the very village the young girl, now heading to a nursery, was living in.

    “Good morning miss,” the nurse said looking up from a babies crib.
    “Good morning, do you have any mucsmaloi herb?” asked the young girl.
    “Why, yes but what would you need it for?”
    The girl smiles but says nothing. The nurse decides she isn’t going to tell and gets the herb from a counter, handing it to the girl.
    “Thank you,” the girl says heading out the door and running back to her grandfather’s shop. Meanwhile the boy is waking up, remembering nothing of where he is, how he got there, or who he is for that matter. He looks around and sees a town nearby with many people running about. He decides to head towards the town.
    “Hey, watch it, brat!” yells a man in a crowd hustling to and fro. The boy looks at the man and continues to walk, wondering what kind of place is this?
    The girl, going into the shop, calls out, “I’m back grandpa! I brought the materials you needed!”
    “Good, good. Bring into the storage behind the kitchen Ori,” replies a craggy old voice.
    Ori heads into the storage and spots her grandpa tinkering with something on one of the counters.
    “Grandpa Sage is up to something again?” asked the girl.
    “Nothing special, a few knick knacks that some customers ordered Orines,” replied Sage.
    “What have I told you about calling me that grandpa Sagenius?”
    “Now, now, I was just teasing. You didn’t have to retaliate; anyway could you give me the materials you brought?”
    Orines or Ori, as she prefers to be called, handed the basket to Sage, who then took out the materials inspecting each one. As he was doing that, Ori watched her grandpa at work. He had a big chin that stuck out from his blue and cream colored robes, His head had a bald spot along right in the middle surrounded by silken white hair which in turn is connected to a long beard that hangs down from his chin but didn’t seem to quite connect. Ori never understood how he could do that with his beard like that. He continued to inspect the materials one by one as If looking for some flaw or defect; Ori knew well that he is serious only when he is dealing with materials for his shop. After a while Ori decided it was boring and decided to start her chores for the day. When she finished it was almost midnight and moon was out.
    “Grandpa I am going out for some air.”She headed out the door.
    The moon is so beautiful tonight. I wonder what the moon is seeing from up there. As she was thinking she saw a boy running across the road with a struggle. She saw he had something in his hand. She relaxed again.
    An Orphan boy stealing some food from a nearby bakery, probably for the better, I should let him get away. I never liked the baker anyway. At the next moment she hears some yelling and smiled looking at the boy running triumphant with his reward. She got up and headed back into the shop to get a few hours sleep before the customers begin rolling in.



    The boy ate happily in the forest where he decided to call home until he could find out how he got into this strange land. So far he has found what the town that he was in is called and what kind of lands he is in. His place of refuge seems to be called Begon Forest and many people fear the forest out of superstitious beliefs and rumors of scary monsters but he likes it and wonders what is so bad about this place. The people are the bad ones, chasing him for taking a loaf of bread and some meat from the market. Then again he did take without asking permission but he was hungry so he had no choice.
    After he had eaten he decided to sleep for tomorrow and he can learn more about the town. He stared up into the night sky thinking how pretty the stars and the moon were until he fell asleep. In his sleep he dreamt about flying beasts that breathed fire and beings that shot lightning out of their eyes. He did not have a good night’s sleep that day.



    “Is it ready yet?”
    “No.”
    A shadow appeared from the darkness within a cell, looming over a girl in chains. His eyes, bright and yellow, shone in the emptiness of the cell. The girl started to tremble and shake.
    “You should hurry up and find a way, or I will consider you useless and get rid of you, even if you were a princess, understand, Fera?”
    Yes, Master. I will do my best.” The dark figure leaves the cell locking it on his way out.
    He faces a crude looking man and says, “Be sure to get rid of her by the next full moon and begin searching for a new one.”

    “Yes, Master Vish, but what about the other matter?”
    “Ox my good and loyal servant, you do not need to worry about that. I will personally handle that little threat of ours. Come to my room at midnight and I will tell you what you need to do before than, am I understood?” replies Vish.
    “Yes master. I will be on it right away,” bellows Ox.



    Ori wakes up and heads downstairs to begin serving customers, but as she got to the counter of the shop she realized that her grandpa didn’t change the sign outside to open. When she went outside to open up, Sage was already there with a group of shady men talking to him. She stood by the sign and she realized that they were not customers come to pick up an order. They were a gang of robbers come to raid the shop.
    “Get away you thieves! We did not do anything so why did you come to rob us?!”As soon as Ori said that she regretted it because one of them had a knife to her throat in the blink of an eye and she had no weapon to defend herself.
    “Who do you think you are calling us thieves you brat?!” yelled the man.
    “Stop, leave my granddaughter alone, I will get you the ransom by…..Two months time I swear!” cried Sage.
    The man let go and rejoined the others. They began to talk amongst themselves and the man who had his knife to her throat kept shaking his hand.
    “What is this? What’s going on grandpa?” Ori demanded.
    “I will explain later but for now just keep quiet and cooperate with the men,” said Sage.
    One of the men came up right then, it seemed they had reached a verdict.
    “We have decided on holding that deal but if by tomorrow you don’t have it your entire shop is ours for the taking, understand?”
    “Alright, I will get want you want and you will leave us alone?”
    “Until the next payment we will.” The man smiled when he said that.
    Sage looked stern and nodded then the men left leaving Ori and Sage alone in front of the shop.
    “Well? Are you going to tell me grandpa?”
    Sage looks at Ori and begins to think, holding Ori by the hand he takes her back in the shop. He closes and locks the door shut behind them, heading upstairs all the way to the attic. Ori hardly remembers the attic anymore, it has been a while since she was in there but she used to come in here and hide whenever she got angry when she was very little.
    “‘Listen to me, Ori, I want you to pack up your stuff and run away as far as you can but take this book with you,” said Sage. “Why? What were those men talking about back there? WHAT IS GOING ON?” Ori demanded. “There is no time for explanations, those men are really crafty and know how to track a person and kill. I want you out this land before they get you-“
    “No I am staying. This is my home and those men have no right taking it from us….The thing you were working on yesterday was for them wasn’t it?” Ori looked Sage straight in the eye and he knew he couldn’t convince her.
    “Yes. Although I did to trick them and finally thought I could get rid of their kind but somehow they found out and now they want the ransom.”
    “What ransom?”
    “There is rumor spreading round of an orphan boy suddenly appearing in town and started living here. They want him. They even have a description of what the boy looks like but so far no one could catch the boy spry boy.”
    Ori was suddenly intrigued.
    “What does this boy look like?” asked Ori.
    “He has yellow hair, short and ruffled, yellow tattoos all over his body and yellow eyes. He also has light skin with a scar on his face and is supposed to be a magician. Pretty strange description of a boy though, I doubt there is anyone like that anywhere,” replied Sage.
    Ori suddenly ran out of the attic and into her room, starting to pack her things. Sage looked in the room and nodded, leaving the room and heading out to do his weekly shopping for supplies. Ori waited for him to leave and she suddenly bolted upstairs to her room, unpacking everything. She took out a strange looking wig out from under her bed and began dressing as the boy who is to be captured.
    Forgive me, Grandpa.



    As the boy continued his leisurely stroll through the forest he hummed a song he heard when running by a bards’ market. He was planning how he was going to get his supper for tonight. When he saw a figure that looked awfully familiar ran by. He couldn’t’ believe his eyes, but he thought he saw himself run by just now. He decided to follow the figure that looked like him into town. Luckily no one thought he was the thief stealing all their merchandise because he was a black robe he saw lying in the forest some day.
    The figure noticing it was being pursued suddenly turned an alley and he followed but the strange person that looked like him was no where to be found. He stopped dead in his tracks and swore out into the sky.
    “Who’s there?”
    The boy stiffened, aware that someone heard him.
    “Oh, why don’t you come in and cool off friend.”
    He followed the man inside a cavern hidden inside a wall. The man gestured to what looked liked the wall but was actually a person. The boy watched as the really huge person that was the wall left and the man pointed to a room. The boy went in and was awestruck by what he saw. There were a dozen men sitting at a table, all dressed in the same black robes he was dressed in. There was one man at the end of the table who had more than just black robes; he had strange looking armor with a “V” on it. The boy decided to sit down on the far end of the table with another who seems to just come in.
    “I am glad you are all here today for this special occasion,” said the man at the front.
    “We are all glad to be here in the name of the Great One! The Almighty! Master Vish!”
    “Yes. Now I have here what our master as been wanting for quite a while now, Neinsha, the boy who lived and has escaped him for the past 3 years!”
    The boy watches as they bring in the imposter wondering what was going on. The imposter did a pretty good job trying to look like him but he does not those kinds of eyes and a very delicate face. He wasn’t that short either.
    “My brethren, I shall, as our master commanded us, kill the one who threatened our master!”
    There were lots of cheers and yelling as the man in the armor took out his knife and was about to kill her. He raised the knife over his head and was about to strike when someone pulled away, stopping him.
    “You shall not hurt this person!” demanded the one the man that as a traitor.
    “Why? What reason is there to go against the will of our master fool!? He will sentence your death in the blink of an eye when he finds you betrayed us!” yelled the man.
    “No, you are wrong because…,” the boy took off the robes,” I am the one he is really looking for! The one over there is an imposter!”
    He takes off the wig and, to his own surprise, sees a young girl about his age in front of him. She looks at him and then falls on her knees trembling. The boy stood there dumbstruck while the man took this chance to attack. The boy noticed a little late and narrowly dodged but was wounded as well. The man turned around and grabbed the girl.
    “Surrender or the girl dies!”
    The boy began to think hard on what to do but he had no choice he couldn’t escape with the giant blocking the only way out.
    “Alright I will, just let the girl go.”
    “Capture him!”
    The men surrounded the boy and tied him up in chains, while the man continued to hold the girl smiling.
    “Let her go now. You have me.”
    “I am afraid I can’t do that. She has seen too much and knows of us. She has to die.”
    “NO!”
    As the man was about slash her throat, the boy began to get angry, very angry. He had tricked, captured but worst of all, he let a girl get killed and it was his entire fault, his entire fault. Those last words sunk into him and he just couldn’t bear it. Suddenly a voice in his said,”Do you want to save her?”
    Yes.
    “Then let me help you. Open our mind and let your anger loose. Let everything else go.”
    The boy began to feel strange. His vision blurred. He began to throb madly and painfully.
    Suddenly it was dark and empty, but then a strange light flowed through his body and there was massive pain and throbbing going thru his body. It ended, and he fell unconscious.



    The boy opened his eyes slowly, trying to take in the light. As he got up, reality suddenly kicked in and he threw the pillow to the wall, putting his face into his hands.
    “What’s wrong?”
    He jerked his head and saw the girl sitting next to him.
    “You’re alive? But I thought-“
    “Thought the man killed me? He would have if you hadn’t used that power of yours to save me.”
    “Oh. I’m glad then, but…where am I?”
    “In my home, in my bed, you have been asleep for a week now. By the way my name is Ori, nice to meet you.”
    “I am…” The boy suddenly realized he didn’t know what his own name was.
    “Neinsha. Your name is Neinsha but I will call you Nei instead. Is that okay?”
    “Yes, It is. I should thank you for taking care of me.”
    Ori blinks then laughs. Nei doesn’t get it but she tells him to get dressed and come downstairs to meet her grandpa. He did as he was told and headed down.
    “What is this? This is the boy? But where are the yellow eyes? Oh well. Boy-“
    “He has a name grandpa. It’s Nei.”
    “Right, Nei. Nice to meet you my name is Sage but you will call me grandpa, got it?”
    “Yes grandpa.”
    “Good from here on out you are refrained to go out without one of us accompanying you. I don’t trust little petty thieves like you.”
    “Yes grandpa.”
    The old man turned around to leave and Nei made a face. Ori giggled.
    “By the way you will be on cleaning duty just for that rude remark.”
    Nei tripped over himself unexpectedly, and for about 7 months they lived just happily.

    Everything was going well around the shop. Grandpa Sage lightened on Nei and they began to look like a family. A really strange looking family, as everyone thought about on the streets. Ori was getting agitated with Sage for not looking like a real shop owner but a hooligan beggar. She would fuss with him over every little detail, but little did she know that the only reason for that was because he and Nei would go out most nights in secret. They would train on how to fight with swords and their fists, even though at first Nei was surprised an old man could do such a thing with such skill, but he didn’t question him ever since that day when they first started training.
    “There might come a day when Ori gets into deep trouble and I won’t be around to save her, so I want you to take over for me.”
    Nei noticed he was serious and he understood that day would come.
    “There will also come a day when you yourself will have to fight for those precious to you, Nei, that day is closer than you think and it draws closer every minute. We must hurry.”
    Ever since then Sage has pushed Nei over his limits and trained him hard in the ways of sword and fist fighting, as time would roll on they started forgetting the dangers that they were facing.
    At the end of the seventh month, it was Nei’s turn to go shopping. He packed up and was about to leave when he noticed Sage writing something, but he ignored it and left knowing full well what it was. Upon Nei’s return he regretted being right, for the whole shop had been attacked and destroyed. It looked like an abandoned ruin. He ran to the back of the shop and then suddenly stopped. Even though eh knew it was coming, he still couldn’t brace for it. Sage was dead. Ori was nowhere to be found.
    Why now? Why? Did Sage have to die? No, this isn’t right! “You can still do something about it.”
    It is that voice again. What do you mean I can still do something? “The man was writing something, wasn’t he?”
    That is right, Sage was writing. I should look for it. Nei began to look around and finally found it under a pile of rubble. He read the letter and finally understood why he was here and what he must do. He packed up the sword Sage trained him with as well as some money for it will be a long trip. He found the book the writing was referring to and headed out towards the Skille Mountains past the Begon Forest, where he first came here.
    “So it has begun, huh?”
    Yes my journey has begun for I am Neinsha, the Last One of his Kind. He looks back at the path towards his old home.
    I will rescue Ori and stop the man named Vish with this book and the voice in my head.
    Then I will come back to bury Grandpa.     And so you have seen the birth of a hero, now the journey has begun and the story of a hero is unfolding….Or is it? The End…Of This Story

    If you managed to read this story then congratulations you are a reader!
    This is only the beginning of Neis story so if you want to know what is going on then you can either guess,look around my Avi, or ask for more.