Chapter one


My eyes flashed open for a quick moment as a torrent of colors and images flashed through his mind. He saw bright orange and yellow lights licking and whipping all around him. Then every thing went black.
As I came in and out consciousness I saw broken images of the color fading. My senses where confused by the two contrasts that enveloped my body. Part of me was facing a blistering heat while the other side was consumed by a deep cold. My breathing came in and out as slow, ragged breaths that burned my lungs. I lay back giving up my sense and floating into nothing and the burning pain slowly begins to reside.
I wake up my surroundings are completely unknown to me. I feel the drenching cold that surrounds my body and I slowly drift from consciousness once again.
A stinging pain in my right arm makes me stir and I try to push away the rough object that is causing the rising pain. The pain shoots up my arm to my shoulder I try to move away from the source but something holds me down until I once again fade from consciousness.
I can hear the soft chatter of birds and the babble of a small broke not far away. The smell of the forest and of wet soil brought on by a fresh rain make me restless and I open my eyes for the first time in what feels like an eternity. Black. Nothing is all I see though my other senses tell me there is life all around me. Slowly I try to raise my left arm to my eyes, but the stiffness in my arm makes it a slow and painful process. By the time I finally get my hand to my eyes I’m exhausted, too tired to react to the bandages that cover my eyes and left arm. I slowly lower my arm back to my side the exhaustion pressing against my mind until I give in and are once again shrouded in darkness.
“Mullahaa!!” I cough and choke as water streams unwillingly down my throat.
I lift my left arm, this time with little problem and push away the water being dumped in my mouth. I try to roll over but a splitting pain explodes through my right arm as I tried to roll over it. Settling on my back my breath comes in as sharp gasps as the pain lingers, and very slowly fades.
“I’m so sorry but you have to drink,” Came a soft whisper by my ear, “lease.”
Slowly I was helped into a sitting position and a small clay jug was pressed into my left hand. Carefully, with help from the one unknown, I bring the jug to my lips and begin to sip. I choke as the icy water scrapes down my raw throat.
“Thank you,” I gasp. After the jug is taken from me I once again reach my left arm up to my eyes. Still bandaged, I thought
“What’s wrong with me?” I asked not sure if there was really anyone there.
“You’ve been burned,” came the soft voice of a girl to my left, “No questions now you need a lot of rest if you want to heal,” and with a gentle hand she eased me back down.
“lease tell me your name,” I asked.
“Bree,” was the only reply.

Though it felt like I had only closed my gave in to sleep seconds ago I knew from the burning thirst in the back of my throat it had been hours maybe days since I had last been awake. I slowly rise careful not to move my right hand. I move my left hand up to my eyes I feel the bandages and begin to look for the seam desperate to get them off and have the pleasure of seeing something, anything. The wrappings, that held two healing swaps in place easily, unwound itself and I pulled the patches off from each eye. Clamping my eyes shut I waited until both eyes where uncovered and I was ready to see if I would ever see again.
My eye lids slowly lifted to reveal a world of color that hurt my eyes. I shielded them and waited for them to adjust to the light. When it was finally bearable I took a look at my surroundings. I was lying in a small one person bed in the far corner of a small house.
I could see every thing in the house except for be hind two doors. One was the front door I presumed and the other would be a second bead room and maybe a restroom.
When I got my fill of the inside of the small house and had finally worked up the courage I looked down at my marred body. I was appalled and instantly felt sick to my stomach. A cold sweat spread across my forehead as I took in the sight of my injured arm. My right arm had recently been unwrapped for the old bandages and a new ones lay beside the bed, but my arm was a chunk of barbeque. A horrid open wound that covered my entire arm. As I looked it over I could taste the acid in my now empty stomach come up to the back of my throat. My hand was completely foreign most of the flesh was bright and angry looking and the entire right side of my body throbbed. My vision swirled as I began to pass out, but an image at the corner of my eye anchored down my consciousness.
There in the entrance to the second room stood a girl. She had a look of shocked wonder on her face as see looked at me and I looked back. We stayed like that for what felt like forever neither one of us said any thing and the awkward silence continued.
Her face still the picture of shock I took advantage of her silence, “Are you Bree?”
Slowly the shock faded and she slowly nodded.
“My name I Jin,” I answered, “Could I have some water please?”
She moved to a counter on the opposite side of the room and picked up what I suspect is the same clay jar as before. Kneeing beside my bed she handed me the jug.
“How do you feel?” her soft voice wasn’t much more than a whisper, but it was full of sympathy and concern.
“Well,” I paused and looked away from my arm and instead at Bree. She has dark black hair that was mostly pulled back into a pony tail with the rest falling over her face hiding half of it from view. She had light fair skin with a small nose and small full round lips.
“I’ve been better,” I paused and allowed a look at my arms, “did you do the bandages?” I asked
“Yes, I was in the middle of rewrapping your arm but I forgot the ointment and went to get it.”
I nodded and looked away from my arms and at the little bottle that was clasped in her hands.
“Thank you,” I said as I looked up and stared into her bright blue eyes.
“How’s your vision?” was what she asked in reply.
I looked around and noticed that every thing was looking blurry, “The things that are far away are a bit blurry,” I lifted my left hand and rubbed each eye. Nothing changed.
“Hopefully that will fade with time, but I can’t be certain of the extent of you injuries,” she said
“What happened to me?” I asked
“This might be hard to hear but I think that your recovered enough to take it,” she paused and took several deep breaths before continuing, “Your entire village is gone. The have been invaded and you are the only survivor. Your house caught fire with you inside some how you ended up inside a small deep well inside your house and it protected you from the fire. I was going there to sell some herbs and saw the attack from the hills that separate your village from my town. When it was all finished I went down to look for any one I could help, but I only found you.” Her voice was barely a whisper by the time she was done.
As she talked vague memories began to appear in my mind. It was morning I had just woken up and was finishing getting dressed by tying my katana to my belt when shouts from out side reached my ears. Before I could get outside, to see what was going on, the wall to my right exploded and caught fire knocking me unconscious as I hit the floor.
“Who did it?” there was no real reason to ask there was only one person that would do some thing like this.
“They where soldiers. Practitioner soldiers.” Replied Bree.
I nodded. The Practitioner was a tyrant that had attacked the entire continent, fourteen years ago, taking over all but one nation the one farthest west. Now his troops practically ran wild through our small nation known as the land of water pillaging any village they wanted. For this is reason my village had been plotting ways to sabotage the Practitioner from the land of water most people in my village had been skilled in some sort of fighting, the only reason I could think of for why our village would have been attacked is some how the Practitioners army must have found out about our plans, but how?
“Was there anything left of my house, or any objects?” I asked.
“There was one thing,” she got up and went into the other room, “I found it sheltered from the fire close to the well,” she said as she came back into the room holding a long object wrapped in a thin blanket.
Bree handed it over to me and I unwrapped one end of the blanket to reveal a hilt. I sighed in relief. Though I was grief stricken with the loss of my family I was just glad to have one memento of the life that was stolen from me. I pulled the blanket off and handed it over to Bree. I forced my right arm to listen as I brought it up to grab the sheath. I struggled to ignore the screams of protest in result of moving a single hair of my right arm, but I still forced it to grasp the sheath not fully healed skin on the back of my hand began to split as my grip grew tighter and tighter. I grabbed the hilt and pulled the blade free of its home.
The blade was long and elegant with an ornate handle. My left hand felt more at home at is usual place at the bottom of the hilt, but seeing how I was having trouble getting my now trembling and bleeding right hand to release the sheath, I kept my left hand gripped tightly beneath the rounded hand guard.
I slid the blade back into the sheath and used my left hand to help pry my other from its grip on the sheath.
When I had finally gotten my hand free I put down the sword and turned back to Bree, who was looking away with a pained expression on her face, “Where am I?”
“Vantte. The city about five miles north of your village.” she got up and went to the right side of my bed and opened the small bottle of ointment, “I’m sorry if this hurts,”
Despite her warning there was no need to fear, for her touch was surprisingly light and completely beyond feeling. She quickly spread the ointment that instantly drained the burn of its pain and constant itching.
I let out a sigh of relief, “That ointment is incredible. Where did you get it?”
“I made it my self from herbs I found in the forest.” Replied Bree.
“Thank you. For every thing I owe you my life.” I said.
Bree kept her gaze at my arm that she was now bandaging, and from where I was it looked like her cheeks flushed a delicate pink.
“I am forever in your dept Bree. If you ever need any thing just tell me, and I’ll be there,” If she wasn’t blushing before then she was for sure now because as I said this her face went from pink to scarlet. I even think that my heat sensitive arm felt the heat emanating from her cheeks.