Mark of a Hero

Prologue

“Ah, there we are.” Veronica bent down to get the dark soil she needed for her serum, but as she scooped it up, she noticed something that looked like a piece of metal. She kept digging and eventually found a piece of black armor. “Whoa…is this really........maybe I can save him.” She went home and got her shovel. After a few hours and a lot of digging she uncovered the rest of the body. It was starting to decay, but she hoped she could still save him. She grabbed his arm and dragged him back to her hut. Once she got there, she started putting together a resurrection potion, which took awhile since she had to go out and get some reagents, but she worked as fast as she could, but Veronica was still scared that it might not work after so long. She dumped the potion in his mouth and his decayed body started to look brand new. All she had to do now was wait.
“Uhhh,”
“Hey, are you awake?”
He tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn’t cooperate, so he tried to at least stay conscious-and that only worked for about four seconds.
After about three hours, he started to wake up again. “Hey, wake up. C’mon, you can’t lay here forever”
“I’m going to kill that rat!
“What?”
“That blubbering fool thinks he is safe now, but I’m going to ruin that safety! I’m going to kill him!”
“Oh…kay that’s good to know, but before you go and do all that, you need to rest. You’re not completely healed yet, and it doesn’t seem like you did so hot last time. Just saying”
“I almost had him, he was giving up, I had already won! Then suddenly he got this miraculous power and over powered me.”
“Well, when I found you, your body was already starting to decay, sooo this ‘rat’ might not be alive anymore.”
“RAA-Ahh!”
“I told you that you needed rest, and yelling won’t help.”
“I must have revenge on him! He must fall at my hand! He-.....“ The man paused and seemed to come upon a delightful realization.
“.....Umm you were just saying how you needed revenge on this 'rat'”
“He’s out of my way…Hahaha! I have no more obstacles! I can finally rule all the realms!”
“Yea okay, but again, before you do all that you need some rest, which would work much better if you just went to sleep. Oh, and my name’s Veronica.”
“He looked at her, and actually studied her for the first time. She had long, black, and very strait hair. She was wearing a black dress with long black arm sleeves. Her nose was perfect and she had narrow green eyes. She had small lips and perfect teeth. For the first time ever in his life, Dagathora thought someone was beautiful. “And I’m Dagathora.” He said calmly.
“Nice to meet you.” She stuck out her hand, and Dagathora accepted and shook hands with her. “Now you need some rest, and so do I, so good night.”
“Good night”
The next morning Dagathora was feeling great. He got up and looked around and found that he was in a creaky old hut in the woods. Veronica was already up and making breakfast. “So this ruling the realms business... Would you like some help?”

Many years later Veronica and Dagathora had taken over almost all of the realms, but the Light realm was especially hard for them, since light was their weakness. The only other realm they hadn’t yet conquered was the human realm… They tried before but their advanced technology was very difficult for them. They were currently taking a break because Veronica was pregnant, but as soon as she had her baby they would attack the human realm again, then they would wait for the child to grow up and attack the light realm with the three of them.

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A few months later, on the full moon in the Dark Real, twins were born. One with a mark on his right arm, and one with a mark on his left arm. Their parents, Veronica and Dagathora, were both very evil people who sought to rule all the realms, but they both knew what the mark on these boys' arms meant, so they were going to kill the one with the mark on his left arm, for it meant that he would be a great hero that would save all of the realms, but before they could, the Light Sage came and rescued him. He would raise the boy and train him to be a great fighter--one that would save the world, and kill his own family. The Light Sage brought the infant to his temple and cared for him until he grew up.
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Chapter One
The Beginning

”Hey Bendek!” shouted Shoran as he came running down the leafy path that led into the woods. He was wearing a baggy, grey, and long sleeve shirt with a black skull in the middle and baggy blue jeans. “Look at my new biggest catch!” Bendek the Light Sage got up from the bench that sat right in front of his small hut in the middle of the woods. He was wearing a white robe with a gold trim. They had been forced to move to the human realm because Dagathora and Veronica, after endless efforts, finally succeeded in conquering the Light realm. “Well that’s some catch Shoran!” he took the large, slimy fish from Shoran’s fishing hook. “Looks about three feet to me” said Bendek. “This would make great dinner. Or we can mount it if you want.”
“Let’s just mount the head, and eat the body.”
“Ah, even better.” He walked in his small hut, which only had two rooms (or three depending on how you look at it) - A living room, a bathroom, and a small space in the living room that resembled a kitchen. He took the fish into the kitchen area, put it on the counter, grabbed a knife, and cut the head off. “Shoran, go outside and get some wood for a mount, so we can hang this fish head up on the wall.” Said Bendek.
“Okay.” Shoran walked out of the house, grabbed his small sword, and went outside to cut some wood for a mount. He brought his sword up and started to cut a chunk of wood out of a tree. But before he finished he heard a voice that sounded like a little girl say “Hello,” He stopped cutting and looked up and saw a small girl with blonde hair up in a ponytail. She was just a little bit shorter than Shoran, and her eyes were different than normal. They were slit--like a cat’s. “Do you know where the river is around here?" asked the amiable little girl, "I was walking along the river trying to find a fishing spot, and then I got sidetracked and, well, now I can’t find the river again... “
“Hahaha yea just follow that trail over there and it’ll lead you to the river, there’s also a fishing spot right around there.” He pointed behind him to the trail that he came from just a few minuets ago.
“Thanks!” She said, gave him a quick hug, and ran off into the woods
“Uhh… Sure.” He said, even though she was already gone. He finished making the mount and brought it inside to Bendek, who had already started cooking the body of the fish. Bendek looked at him and said “Were you talking to someone out there?”
“Yea, and she had cat eyes” Bendek froze at this, but only for a moment.
“Cat eyes huh? That’s peculiar.” Being only ten years old, he didn’t think much of Bendek’s pause. “Yea. She also gave me hug even though I just met her”
“Ahh yes, young girls can be very energetic.”
“How did you know she was young?”
“I heard her voice.”
“Oh. I guess that was kind of obvious.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll learn to catch these things with age." Bendek said with an encouraging smile, "Now it’s time to eat, and after that, you need to practice.”
“Okay.”
They got done eating and walked outside. Bendek went behind the hut and got out a straw dummy. “Okay, we’re going to work on melee first. Now I want you to use what you learned yesterday and hit the dummy on all the weak points that I showed you. Shoran stood for a moment, remembering his lessons from yesterday. “Okay, I’m ready” he said and ran towards the dummy. He stopped just before he reached it, turned and kicked the dummy's left shin with his right foot, and, without putting his foot down, kicked the dummy’s left knee. Then he put his foot down and uppercut the dummy in the solar plexus, hit the dummy in the neck with the side of his hand, then hit it in the nose with his palm. “Good job. You forgot the chin and the ears though. But you did well for your second practice.”
“Thanks.”
“Now we are going to work on some elements.”
“Oh are you gonna teach me lightning now?” Shoran blurted before he had time to finish the thought.
“Yes, I am.”
“YES! I’m gonna be able to shoot lightning from my fingertips! Do you think I’ll be able to create thunder? Oh, I bet I’ll be able to turn a light bulb on while it’s in my hands! Oh wait even bett-”
“Shoran, calm down” interrupted the Light Sage.
“Right. Sorry”
“Now first you need to learn how to make lightning. And to do that, you need to focus your negative and positive energy. Tell me when you achieve this, and we will move on.”
“Okay.” Shoran closed his eyes and tried to focus on his body's negative and positive energy. After a few minuets, he finally said, “Okay” with his eyes still closed.
“Now separate them.” Bendek instructed. After a few seconds Shoran nodded his head “Okay, now bring them back together as hard as you can.”
“Uhh…okay.” Shoran stood idle for a moment, then suddenly opened his eyes and said “Whoa! There’s this feeling inside of me, and it’s amazing! It feels like a whole lot of energy inside of me!”
“Good, good, now move the energy to your fingertips, and release it. And make sure you aim it up, or else you could cause plenty of generally bad things.”
“Yea got it.” Shoran stuck up two fingers and put them together. He looked for the best spot to shoot his lightning, pointed his two fingers at it, and moved the energy through his body, up his arm, and out of his fingertips and created a bolt of lightning. A flock of birds flew away as soon as he shot the lightning. It was a small and short bolt, but still the Light Sage praised him for it. “Good job--for your first time”
“Thanks.” As soon as Shoran said this, an arrow shot strait for Bendek’s back, but Shoran used air to deflect it. Bendek felt the air and looked back at Shoran, “Why did you do that?” he asked.
“Because you almost got shot by an arrow.” The Light Sage turned around and saw a man crouching on a tree branch with a bow and a case of arrows on his back. “What do you want?” asked Bendek
“We just want all your valuables.” Said a man who came walking out of the woods. Bendek looked back at the man who was in the trees, but he wasn’t there. He looked back at the man who came out of the woods and saw that on either side of him was a man holding a club and archers behind him, and three captives whom where bound at the wrists behind their backs, and all three had a rope around their body that bound them to each other. The captives consisted of a well-fed man, a rich-looking woman, and the cat-eyed girl. Bendek estimated the archers to be about seven or eight in number. The man who came out of the woods was wearing a white tux with a red tie, and he had a very fancy white and gold bow and arrow set on his back. The men holding clubs wore brown rags and the archers wore brown robes.
“Pin up the boy.” The fancy dressed person said. The archers shot at him, but he used air to jump up into a tree. “You two,” The fancy man said to his clubmen “get the old man. Archers, you come with me to get the boy.” Shoran shot a fireball at one of the clubmen, but the clubman easily dodged. “Come here, boy!” shouted the fancy man. He pulled out his bow and nocked it with an arrow. “You know with those two tyrants taking over all of the realms, there are many refugees from the other realms here in the human realm. I am a refugee from the fire realm!” declared the fancy man with a hint of pride. He lit his arrow on fire and shot it at Shoran. Shoran jumped from his branch onto another one and kicked with air, trying to blow the fancy man away, but the fancy man just ran into the woods and started jumping from tree to tree in order to climb up to where Shoran was. Shoran looked down at the other archers and used earth to trap them in an earth-tent. Then he closed his eyes and started focusing his energy to create lightning. He focused and separated his energy, but before he could smash them back together, his arm suddenly jerked back. He opened his eyes and discovered a flaming arrow in his shirt sleeve.
Meanwhile, the cat-eyed girl ran over to a tree and started rubbing the ropes that bound her hands on it. She looked over at the Light Sage and saw that he could use some help. He was easily fending off one clubman, but then the other one came from behind him and hit him in the back. He yelled out in pain, turned around and punched the other clubman in the face. Finally the cat-eyed girl cut her ropes, untied herself, and ran up behind the clubmen whom hit Bendek in the back and jumped on his back. He fell face-first to the ground and the cat-eyed girl took his club. “Here.” She said and tossed it to the light sage. He caught it turned around and hit the other clubman in the head with it, and the cat-eyed girl put her hands on the clubman’s back as he was starting to get up, and said “Verlam” The clubman froze and fell back to the ground.
The cat-eyed girl looked up to the trees and saw Shoran with one arm on fire and pinned to a tree and with the other fending off other flaming arrows. Shoran got an idea. He waited for the fancy man to fire another arrow, and while he was nocking another arrow he shot a fireball at him with his foot, and with his free hand he used air to push him off the branch. The Fancy Man fell and landed on a root with his back, and a loud “crunk” came from his back, like someone muffled the sound of a tree branch breaking. “OW!” he yelled “YOU RUNT!” After Shoran got done putting out all the fire and got his arm free he jumped down from the tree, using air to slow down his fall. “Uhh, hey guys, that guy with the club won’t be paralyzed for much longer.” Said the cat-eyed girl “Don’t worry, he’ll run when he sees that he is the only one left.” Replied Bendek. The three of them walked over to the fancy man, who was laying there on the root with his back broken. “What should we do with him?” asked Shoran. “Well I was just about to go back home, so I could take him to the jail in my town.” Offered the cat-eyed girl “That is a good idea.” Replied Bendek. “Oh please! How cowardly can one be? Aren’t you even brave enough to finish this fight like respectful people?”
“I would love to.” Said Shoran
“Yea!” agreed the cat-eyed girl
“You know very well that you are in no position to fight.” Said the Light Sage.
“Yea, ugl-“ Before Shoran could finish insulting the fancy man, Bendek slapped him on the back of the head. “Ow! What’d ya do that for?” asked Shoran “There is no need to insult him. He has already lost his honor.” Replied Bendek
“Yea, loo-“
*SLAP!*
“Ow!...Okay, I’ll stop.” The cat-eyed girl laughed for a moment, then said good-bye, tied up the fancy man, and dragged him away with her. “Well, that was a bit exciting for my old body, so I’m going to go relax on the bench while you get the hang of creating lightning.

Chapter Two
Growing Up

Shoran was walking through the market getting things he and Bendek needed. As he was walking, he noticed that nothing was moving, even though he was walking. He looked down at his feet and sure enough, they were moving, but he also noticed that the ground wasn't changing at all. He started to run, he still didn't go anywhere. He started panicking, running as fast as he could but still nothing happened. He looked up and saw that it was getting dark, even though it was still early. He looked around and noticed that every single living creature was blankly staring at him. All of them were as still as a statue. Even some of the non-living things had grown eyes and were staring at him. All of them seemed to be staring through him. he looked up and saw the moon lining up with the sun. he looked back at the people and all of them started sliding backward--as if the ground were stretching out and taking them with it. He looked up and saw the moon coming into perfect alignment with the sun, creating an eclipse. As soon as the eclipse began, Shoran suddenly felt a lot stronger, more focused, and his hearing was sharper than ever. He looked down at the people and saw that they were parting to let someone through.
He studied the man who was walking through from his feet up. He was wearing heavy black armor with a sword on his left hip and a large shield on his back. Shoran recognized the man, but he couldn't think of where he'd seen him before. As Shoran was trying to place the man, the man kept walking and eventually got to a distance of about two feet from Shoran and stopped. Shoran finally realized why the man was so familiar. It was the spitting image of himself, except darker apparel. The darker Shoran opened his mouth and in an echoed voice that seemed to surround Shoran said "Hello brother. I've been anxious to meet you." and then he leaned in and whispered in Shoran's ear "I'm going to kill you." and laughed deeply and maniacally. The world started spinning and getting darker; the laughing grew louder, and the blank faces grew darker. Suddenly Shoran found himself laying in his bed staring at the roof of his small hut in the woods with a small amount of sweat covering his body. He sat up and saw Bendek sitting in his humble wooden chair against the wall next to his bed.
"You seemed a little nervous in your sleep there Shoran. I think you are about to have some questions that need answering. Are my suspicions accurate?"
"Ya. Tell me about how you found me again."
"Ok, well the truth is, I've never told you the truth about that, so brace yourself. I have always told you that your parents were young, and weren't ready for a baby, and so, they gave you up to me to be your parent. This is a complete lie. The first thing is: that mark on your arm is a sign that you are meant to kill the two evil conquerors of the universe; Dagathora and Veronica. The next thing is: These two are your parents."
"What?!? The two tyrants who have been conquering th realms and killing hundreds of people are MY BIRTH PARENTS?! And I'm going to have to kill them?!? Bendek, are you fully awake yet? maybe you should get a little more sleep."
"No Shoran, I'm fully awake. This is all true. and there is one more major detail. You're not an only child--you have a twin, and he has the same mark that you have, although it's on his right arm rather than his left arm, and it has the same affect as yours has on you."
"You mean the full moon thing?"
"Yes, and also, when a solar eclipse occurs, you both not only grow in strength, but all your other senses are sharpened too, and you are more able to control yourself."
"Ya, in my dream there was an eclipse, and I felt a lot stronger. Plus I saw me, but in dark armor, and he said I was his brother and he was anxious to meet me. And that he was gunna kill me."
At this Bendek looked very alarmed.
"Oh no. Shoran, I never expected this to happen so fast, but your brother is coming for you. We are in a remote place, so he won't find us easily, but it wont be too long. We have at most a month before he arrives. I have no idea what skills he has, but I know that with the parents he has, he is most definitely NOT going to be an easy opponent."
"Huh. So my long lost twin brother wants to meet me, then kill me. Is he aware that I have been training for 17 years of my life as well as him? Listen Bendek, I don't plan on giving him an easy fight at all, so let's get to preparing for this big encounter that we are expecting."
"I like your confidence, but don't get a big head. We have no clue what he has been up to, now what he is capable of. The best thing to do now is to assume the worst, and train accordingly." Bendek paused and thought for a moment, then continued: "I think you should go to the shopping center and get some food and other things we will need while I prepare some training exercises for you."
"Sounds like a plan."

As Shoran walked through the forest to the shopping center, he thought about what he had just learned. He always felt like there was another part of him somehow, but he never would have imagined it to be an evil twin brother, but now that he thought about it, that's exactly what seemed to be missing. When he was younger, one of his favorite things to do was pretend that he had a twin, and he and his twin were always having battles, but when he imagined this, he never thought that he and his brother would be rivals. He started to think about what he would say to his brother when he finally met him. He was somewhat anxious to meet him, but at the same time, Shoran resented his brother because he was evil and had been helping his parents conquer the realms, but he was still his brother, and then again he didn't even know his name.
As Shoran neared the exit of the woods, he heard screaming and other sorts of chaos. When Shoran came out of the woods onto the street by the shopping center, he was stunned at what he saw. A couple yards in front of him was a girl, about his age, fighting four trolls, and one giant orc. The girl seemed to have just arrived, because the trolls were just starting to move in, and the orc was standing back, waiting for his turn. Shoran started running but continued to watch the fight. All four trolls swung their weapons at her, but she put out her hands, and said with a firm voice: "Druk!" and when she said this, a blast of energy came from her hands and pushed the trolls about two steps back. As soon as the trolls regained their balance, Shoran drew his sword with his left hand from his right hip. He ran up to one of the trolls and cut its side deeply, and then moved on to the next one. This one had more time to react, so when Shoran went to stab him, he used his ax to move the blade away before it impaled him, leaving Shoran's body wide open, then caught Shoran in the diaphragm with his fist. Shoran thrusted forward due to the momentum he had. The troll pivoted around to the back of Shoran and used his ax handle to choke him. The girl ran toward the troll and jumped in the air and kicked the troll that was choking Shoran in the ear. The troll fell to the ground, writhing in pain from the blow to his ear, dropping his ax in the process.
Shoran turned and looked at the girl, and, when he saw her, he immediately recognized her. It was the cat-eyed girl. They had no time to reminisce, as the other two trolls started coming at them, and the second one was getting up.
Shoran pulled moisture out of the air and splashed it on the troll who was on the ground and then froze it so he would be trapped in ice. While Shoran did that, The cat-eyed girl put out her hand up to each one of the trolls, and said "spesifieke stadige beweging" and the two trolls started moving slowly. Shoran turned to the troll that was currently swinging a club at his head at a very slow rate. He stabbed him straight through the stomach, and decapitated the one that was, again, very slowly, attacking the cat-eyed girl. He then finished off the other two trolls and him and the cat-eyed girl turned and faced the giant orc.
The orc stood about twenty feet tall and had a very round stomach. There were muscles bulging out of the orc on every inch of its body and its skin was a light gray color, and he was wearing a brown loincloth. He was armed with a giant bone that looked like it could have been a bone from his father's body. He had two small black eyes, two fat scratched up lips, and a single dull tooth sticking out of his mouth. The orc squinted and took a deep breath and lifted up his bone with his right arm and swept it across the ground at the cat-eyed girl and Shoran. The cat-eyed girl jumped up and did a somersault over the bone, and Shoran used air to push himself up. As soon as he touched the ground Shoran charged at the orc and jumped on his hand, and started running up his arm, but the orc simply jerked his arm, and Shoran lost his balance and fell off. As soon as the cat girl landed, she took a bow off her back and knocked an arrow to it. Just when Shoran fell off the orc's arm, she said "Klein ontploffing." and released her arrow which then proceeded to hit the orc in his left shoulder, and caused a small explosion. Shoran got up from his fall just in time to see the arrow hit the orc, and as soon as it did, he took his opportunity. He ran behind the orc and cut the orc's heel as deep as he could. The orc let out a yell of pain and lifted up his newly wounded ankle and kicked Shoran back. Shoran fell on his back and threw his sword at the orc. Shoran's sword stuck the orc in the lower right part of his back just as the cat girl landed another arrow, but this one didn't explode, it just stuck. The orc fell on his right knee and dropped his bone, then leaned forward on his right hand, and lifted up his left hand in a fist, and came down towards the cat girl. The cat girl jumped to the left just before the orc's fist landed on her. She lifted up her hands toward he orc's face and yelled "Vuur spuit!" and spray of fire came out of her hands and burned the orc's face. Shoran had already jumped on the orc's back at this point and pulled his sword from its back. Just when Shoran was reaching its shoulders, the cat girl sprayed fire in its face and the orc stood upright, still on its knee, but Shoran managed to stay on the orc's right shoulder, and as soon as the orc stopped moving ad Shoran regained his balance, he stabbed the orc in the throat, and purple blood came flowing out of its throat while the orc's arms dropped and became limp, and the orc fell th the ground, dead. Shoran walked over to the orc's neck and pulled his sword out, which was now covered in purple orc blood.
"Ah man, I need to clean this." He remarked.
"That's just another reason why I use arrows and magic." commented the cat girl. "Hi, my name's Ira. And you are?"
"I'm Shoran. Nice to meet you. Hey, I'm going to get some shopping done, then go back to my hut and do some training. Would you like to join me?"
"I don't want to be a bother. I've got plenty I need to take care of."
"You sure, it'd really be great to actually talk to you after all the encounters we've had."
"Alright, for a bit. But I won't stay for too long."
Since Shoran still had to shop, they agreed to split up and meet back at the entrance to the woods. While Shoran went about the market, Ira searched the dead orc's body to see if there was anything she could make use of. She didn't see anything that would be useful to her, but she had a suspicion that the orc's blood may be special in some way, so she took out a small vial and collected some of the blood for the stab wound in it's neck.
On the way back to Shoran's hut in the woods, Ira and Shoran didn't talk much. Shoran spent most of the time thinking about his dream, and how that dream may relate to the orc. Could it have been that the orc was somehow connected to his brother? Or was the orc just random? Would he and Ira be seeing more of each other in the future? Maybe they could become friends. or even partners. They already had fought together a couple of times, and they seemed to be a pretty good team. Also, he was curious about Ira: her past, personality, what made her eyes like a cat's, where she learned her magic, where she lives, and where she was raised. He wondered if they would ever get along. She seemed to be hard-headed and bold, much like himself. As he thought about her more and more, he kept glancing at her and eventually started to notice more details about her: she had long, straight blonde hair that went to the sides of her head, revealing her forehead. Her eyes darted around, taking in whatever they saw as soon as they picked it up. She wore tight black pants, a red and black striped spaghetti strap shirt, and black gloves with the fingertips cut off, and a black sleeve on her left arm. She had about three freckles on either side of her small, narrow nose, thin lips, and small cheeks. Her body was slender and a little bit shorter than Shoran's.
When they arrived to the hut in the woods, Shoran walked ahead of Ira and told her to wait outside while he went inside to tell Bendek that he brought her with him. Bendek came out with Shoran and gave Ira a smile and said, "Hello friend! It's so wonderful to see you again! How have you been? You've grown a lot since last I saw you!"
"I'm fine. I thought you would've been dead by now." At this there was a short, somewhat awkward silence and Ira realized that she may have been too blunt.
"Well," Shoran broke in with, "me and Ira came here to train a bit. I figured that since we always fight together, we should start training together. Don't you think Bendek?"
Bendek smiled at Ira to assure that there were no hard feelings between them, "Yes, I think that's a good idea. Maybe then, next time something come's up, you two would know how to cooperate a bit more than you had in the past, but even without training, you two have worked with each other very well in your previous battles. Before we start with training, however, let's have something to eat. Shoran, bring all that you bought at the market inside and I'll fix us something to eat." He smiled and added, "I'm sure you two will have plenty of catching up to do."
For the first few minuets, they didn't actually talk much. After a couple of awkward silences broken here and there by small talk, Shoran looked at Ira and said, "So, where exactly did you come from? I mean, your eyes look like a cat's, and you're the first person I've ever met who uses magic. Where did you learn all of that?"
"My parents were magicians. They t--"
"Were?" Shoran interrupted.
"They died when I was six years old. They taught me a lot before they died, and since then I've just been teaching myself with their books."
"So what about the cat eyes?"
"Is this some sort of interrogation? Do you need to know everything about me?"
"Sorry, I just get curious sometimes. I didn't mean to--"
"Just be quiet."
"Right."
After a couple of minutes of uncomfortable silence, Ira calmed down and said, "So why are you still living with your grandpa?"
"He's not my grandpa. I'm not related to him at all, actually. I'm living with him because he took me in when I was a baby. My parents...abandoned me..."
"Why would they 'abandon you'?" Ira could tell that there was more on the subject, but she just went along with it.
"Because...they knew my future."
"How? And what about your future was so horrible that would make them aban--"
Before she could finish talking, Bendek opened the door and announced that the food was prepared.
Shoran and Ira looked at each other and went inside to eat. The door creaked behind Ira as she walked in the hut. She looked around at the rickety structure of Shoran's small residence. The roof looked like it was about to cave in, all the walls and the floor were made up old wood. The only things she saw in the kitchen were a small black pot sitting on a gas-powered stove, a messy counter, an unstable looking table with four chairs, and a mounted fish head. They all sat down to eat what Bendek had fixed them. It was a steak with mixed vegetables on the side. A moment after they started eating, Shoran told Bendek about the orc in the market. Bendek gave Shoran a concerned look that was supposed to be discreet, but Ira noticed, and she knew something was amiss.
"That's strange." Bendek commented. I don't think the Human Realm is an orc's natural habitat. I wonder how it got here."
"Yeah, that is strange. It had to have been sent or summoned by someone. added Ira, closely watching how Shoran and Bendek would respond. At Ira's comment, Shoran gave Bendek a worried glance. As soon as Ira saw this, she became angry with them and said, "Alright, now I know something is up here. You two are looking at each other like you know what's going on. If there's someone or something after you, I can help you, but you've got to tell me what's going on here."
Shoran looked at the Light Sage, who was blankly staring at his plate, deep in thought. After considering it, Bendek looked up at Ira and said, "Do you know about the two people who have been terrorizing the realms?"
"Yes, I know of them. Are they after you? or him?"
"Well, not particularly them, but their son--Shoran's brother."
"Why would their son be after him? And how is their son his brother?"
"Simple; he is their son too. He is a twin."
Ira was shocked by this. She looked at Shoran and said, "Those people are you're parents? So then what about them 'abandoning' you? Why wouldn't they 'abandon' your brother like they did you?"
"Because I am destined to kill them, and he is not--he's destined to be their little killing machine. As if they aren't powerful enough by themselves. They knew the prophesy about me, so they were going to kill me, but Bendek rescued me before they got the chance."
"So you've been training to kill them, and your brother?"
"Pretty much. Last night I had a dream that involved my brother, and Bendek thinks tat it was a message from my brother himself."
"So you think he sent the orc?"
"I guess. I mean, I have no idea as to how he would've done it, but there's really no other explanation."
"So," Bendek broke in, "if you would like to help us, you're welcome to, but just know that Shoran's brother and his parents are both very strong, so it will be very dangerous."
"I know."
"Alright. Then let's get started with you guys' training."
"Alright. I'm ready. Just tell me what to do." Ira seemed excited at the thought of preparing to kill Dagathora and Veronica. She herself had been planning to kill them one day, when she was ready. She was glad that she had someone to help her.
Bendek instructed Shoran to get the dummy out.



Author’s Note: This is just a rough draft. I intend to revise it later on.

written by: Austin Riggs
original idea: Josh pittman (Ponoichi)