Part 1, Chapter 2

"Alm. Wake up." someone whispered loudly into Alm's ear.

"Whuzzgoinon...? Robin?"

"We're not alone here. Luka heard people moving around in the forest."

Alm sat up from his makeshift sleeping pad and looked around. The small clearing they'd decided to rest in seemed tranquil enough, though it was still nighttime, and Alm could only make out the second row of trees into the surrounding woods.

"I can't hear anything but leaves rustling," started Alm, but Luka shushed him. He was a few yards away, listening as hard as he could.

"They've stopped moving," he said. "They're probably deciding what to do now that we've woken up."

Just as Luka finished his sentence, a man charged out from the line of trees and hit Luka squarely in the chest with the butt of an axe. Luka grunted and fell to the ground.

"G-Go! A-after him!" Luka choked out. Alm looked toward the attacker. He'd grabbed one of their sacks and was dashing back toward the trees when—WHAM!

Grey had come seemingly out of nowhere and tackled the man down, and making him smack his head against the hard earth. Grey stood up triumphantly over the now-unconscious thief and gave Alm a wide grin, saying,

"I figured they might make a grab at our bags, and I was right! Ha ha!"

"Nice one, Grey!" said Robin. "Get that axe from him, while you're at it!"

"Wouldn't that make us thieves, then?" said Cliff, who was still crouched on the ground.

"I'm going to call it 'ensuring our safety,'" said Robin. Grey picked up the hatchet, and then nudged the man with his boot. No reaction.

"What're we going to do with him?" asked Grey. Luka, who had recovered, answered,

"If he doesn't wake up, his comrades will retrieve him. If we're lucky, they'll wait until we move on. They may have decided that we're more trouble than we're worth."

It seems that Luka may have been right; the five of them took turns with the watch, but there were no more disturbances that night. In the morning, the man was still out cold where they'd left him. He was still breathing, but unresponsive.

"Are we really just going leave him there?" asked Cliff as they were heading off.

"Yeah," said the other four in unison.

"Don't be such a softie, Cliff!" added Robin. Cliff shrugged.

"Shall we continue, then?" said Grey.

"Indeed," said Luka, "we should get to Headquarters as soon as possible. We also need to find some place where you four can get some actual weapons."

"What, you don't like hatchets or wooden swords?"

They continued traveling for two days without any incident. Hiking, resting, hiking, resting... it felt like an endless cycle to Alm. On the afternoon of the third day, however, they came across a cave that looked like it had recently been inhabited. An investigation, however, yielded no signs of anyone else in the cavern, only the discovery of a fresh water spring. The weather outside was particularly chilling on that day, so they decided to rest in the caves for a while.

Their rest was rudely interrupted, however, when a band of brigands returned to their hideout to find five young men trespassing in it. It only took a few seconds for the situation to turn from bad to worse.

Cliff, Robin, and Alm brandished their swords (wooden though they were), Luka readied his pike, and Grey gripped the axe he'd picked up from the thief he'd knocked out. The first bandit charged at Alm, but the bandit swung his club wide, making it easy to dodge. Alm, adrenaline rushing in his veins, retaliated automatically with a fierce blow to the back of the man's head. Upon impact, there was a sickening crunch and a loud snap—the wooden blade of Alm's sword snapped off of the hilt. The man remained where he was for a fraction of a second, then he went limp and tumbled to the floor of the cave, the wooden blade embedded in the back of his skull. The hilt of Alm's broken sword clattered to the floor of the cave, echoing loudly.

Alm didn't need to check the man's pulse to know that he'd killed him instantly.

Everything around Alm was suddenly blurred. The only thing he could see clearly was the pool of blood slowly forming around the dead man's head. Alm's heartbeat was deafening in his ears; all other sounds were muffled noise, as though he were underwater. He felt someone shaking him, but he couldn't make out whom it was. Not that he really cared. The only thing that mattered now was to that he'd killed a man...

Cliff dragged the resisting Alm over into a corner of the cave. Alm struggled and tried to get back to the dead man, but Cliff threw him to the ground and yelled, "Stay there!" Alm was unresponsive. Figuring that would have to do for now, Cliff ran back to join the others in the fight near the entrance.

Grey and Robin had managed to incapacitate one of the men together, and Luka had given another a grievous wound to the leg. The one of the three remaining bandit was occupying Luka with a flurry of swings of his sword. The other two charged toward Robin and clotheslined him, knocking him flat. Grey struck one of Robin's attackers them unconscious with the blunt end of his hatchet; however he, too, was knocked down by the other man, who then turned toward Cliff. Cliff swung his sword, striking the bandit in the side, but the man grabbed the blade end of the wooden sword and wrenched it from Cliff's hands. He kicked Cliff to the ground, and he drew a knife from his side. He readied it to slash Cliff, when Alm charged the man and hit him in the temple with a forearm strike.

Cliff looked up at Alm and grinned. Alm offered his hand and helped Cliff to his feet. They looked toward the entrance of the cave to see the last bandit on his knees, having surrendered to Luka. Grey and Robin were recuperating on the floor of the cave.

Alm and Cliff helped them up, and they walked out to Luka's side. The man who'd surrendered was stammering:

"G-Go ahead... yeh can take 'er..."

"What are you talking about? There's no one else in these caves!" barked Luka.

"What? Yer not here t'—" He stopped himself short. He looked down, avoiding the looks of his defeaters.

"Well, now you're going to tell us," threatened Robin. The man glared at him, but begrudgingly complied.

"There's... there's an underwater passage in there, an' on th' other side, there's this old shrine place. There's a... a lady there. We caught 'er lost in the forest. She's a sorcerer or summat—we got 'er tied up, but anyone who goes near 'er collapses."

"I'll check it out," said Grey, and dashed back into the cave toward the water spring. Alm turned back to the man.

"Is she all that is behind there?" he asked. The man shifted uneasily.

"We've also got some equipment stored there..."

"Well, I think we'll be helping ourselves to that," said Cliff. Robin raised his eyebrows at him. "It's ensuring our safety!" he said. Alm and Robin laughed.

Luka, taking a more serious tone, said to the man, "Now, if you value your life, get out of my sight, and tell any more of your friends not to pursue us."

The man nodded and ran away, disappearing into the nearby forest. Alm, Luka, Robin, and Cliff headed back toward the cave and dragged out the bandits (though Alm chose not to involve himself in removing the dead man).

The four of them sat down. Alm was the first who spoke.

"I've never taken a life before," he said. Cliff and Robin looked down. Luka said to him,

"Alm, I was once a soldier for the Zofian Army, and I've trained dozens of soldiers for Zofia and for the Liberation Army. No one is happy with himself after having killed another man. But it is our duty as soldiers, and we will have to take more lives in the future. That goes for you two as well, Robin, Cliff. You must steel yourselves against fear. Remember what we have set out to achieve: the Liberation of Zofia."

"Guys!" said Grey's head, which had just popped out of the water spring. "You've got to come check this out!"