• Chapter 2
    Smoke had risen in the city of Kouketsu. Fires raged all around as the sun crept up over the hills that surrounded the city. Men, women, and children left without homes, food, and clothes. Every part of the town corpses of the dead soldiers that tried to either destroy the city or protect it. Others injured laid in rubble of destroyed buildings. At the entrance of this destroyed city the king stood dumbfounded as to how it happened.

    “WH-”

    “Sire!” Cloud was brought back from his memories as one the advisors called his name. A small embarrassed smile stretched on his lips as he looked at them.

    “Yes what is it?” He politely asked the advisor that had called him.

    “We are here to discuss the terms of the treaty with the Tristan Kingdom.”

    “All right tell me the details.” He sighed after saying this knowing this was to be boring and hopefully generic enough for him to agree to without paying attention. The advisor had begun to read aloud the terms and about half way into the terms he slipped back into his memories.

    “WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!” The king shouted as the villagers began to crowd around him trying to explain the details. Throughout the din of the villagers explanations Marakov began to get angry.

    “SHUT UP!” He shouted over the villagers and looked towards the guard that told him what happened during the night. “Which one of my sons were here last night?”

    “Prince Cloud, sire.”

    “I see.” He said softly and turned to one of the of well bodied villagers and spoke to them.

    “Go to the capital and get Second Prince Cloud, NOW!”

    The villager nodded and ran off from the village. It would take a few hours to get to the capital on foot for anyone that wasn’t well trained. Marakov looked around at each villager and waved them off for now. The villagers seeing this order dispersed and went around the town to help the injured. The king had turned to the soldier once more and looked at him.

    “Where are the attackers?” The king had angrily said. “And why did you run?”

    “I-I don’t know sir.” He stammered in fear. “I ran to inform you I left before the battle was over….”

    A loud smack was heard as the king’s arm had stretched about a foot hitting the soldier hard. The soldier was knocked down gasping in pain looking at the king surprised at his actions yet he had heard of the king’s cruelty.

    The sun was overhead as Cloud walked up with the villager to Marakov. Clearing his throat to get his father’s attention had allowed him some seconds to calm his nerves. Marakov turned around and looked at him sternly.

    “You were here three hours before the attack why?” He questioned without any emotion in his words.

    “I was fighting some soldiers before I went home to read.” His answer came quickly with a hint of fear hidden in his tone.

    “Read? I forgot you are one of the ‘scholar’ types in our kingdom.” The insult stung Cloud but he knew what he was going to say next.

    “I assume your going to have the army attack blindly at every kingdom in the vicinity until you find the culprit?” His words bit into Marakov as if his son was calling him uneducated.

    “No, You are Zenaku will help you this will be good for your brother to see real combat.” He left with those words hanging in the air disappearing using an old magic.

    Cloud stood there stunned, his beloved brother in combat? He was a good fighter but that was with soldiers and himself. The words Marakov had said resonated in his mind over and over again. This order from his father was going to be disobeyed, but before war he needed to find out who exactly attacked them.