Book 1 Chapter 2: Division of Ideals

Alexander woke with aches across his entire body. The most pain came from his back, while his throbbing skull was second but almost equally as nerve racking. His eyes were severely unfocused, but soon within the blur a figure stood over him and lightly pressed him back down onto a light cot bed before pulling a blanket back up over his shoulders.

"Brother...where is my brothers" Alexander croaked out as he finally closed his eyes.

An old woman was looking down over his face, a hidden turmoil within her eyes. She stood there silently for a while before speaking, "Rest child...rest...", she then looked over to another child hunched in a corner next to a burlap body bag.

He didn't speak since the time he had come back late into the night. If it wasn't for her forcing his hands into luke warm water he might very well have lost his fingers. Even when the pain came back into his warming hands he didn't call out as alcohol was dabbed onto the blisters or when she had to re-stitch cuts. He was simply mute, with his eyes full of vengeance as he stared at the body of his brother placed in the body bag.

Like this, days passed as his surviving brother slowly healed but he still did not speak. When his brother awoke, he too hunched in the corner and stopped speaking. She had no choice but to move the body, even after sealing it with several alchemical ingredients. They didn't protest, but they surely followed her to where she moved it.

*crr*

*shhta*

*crr*

The two spent hours digging a hole out in the closest forest to the city. This was territory bordering a forest known for beasts and creatures and yet they seemed not to care. She stood there, watching them dig through ice and snow covered ground for those many hours. When the last bit of dirt was placed in the hole they both slumped to the ground in exhaustion but would not move no matter how much she tried.

She sighed and left to go to her shop to get some blankets and a tent, about an hour later she came back to find that they were both gone. She shook her head and looked down to the course earth slowly being covered over again my snow.

"Why is the world so dark sometimes?" She asked herself, knowing nobody was around to answer her unanswerable question. She set the blanket and small tent next to the space of Azrael's grave and finally left after a prayer.

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Solomon looked out from a high rise amongst the trees to the city not far off in the distance. Alex, or rather Alexander his brother stood next to him with a dull glaze over his eyes.

After a while Solomon turned to him, "We aren't strong enough…"

Alexander didn't turn back to face him, "I know…so let's become strong enough"

"Where would we even begin?" Solomon asked as his eyes looked up to the snow falling from the sky, to the ice capped trees spread like an ocean around them, before resting on the glistening white earth surrounding their feet.

His brother shook his head, "I don't know honestly…I just don't know…" He too looked at his feet after a while of gazing at the city.

Rustling sounds moved about behind them amongst the trees, but seemingly the two acted as if they didn't care. A beast slowly drew out from the brush and neared them ready to strike at a moments notice.

Alexander and Solomon looked at each other finally, and when their gazes met a thick killing intent pervaded the air around them. It didn't congeal, but it certainly was noticed by the beast behind them.

It stopped in its tracks, as if to size up the two meat sacks in front of it.

Solomon was the first to speak, "When we grow stronger…we will murder their entire family, and leave no child or man alive. I will wash their blood to the earth, and rinse this city of the evil they let lose. I will avenge Azrael." The killing intent started to congeal around him.

Alexander didn't nod, but his eyes flashed a steely color, "I will wash this city in their blood, and then drown others that are as evil as them until this city is cleaned. When I gain great strength, I shall avenge Azrael." His killing intent matched up to his brothers, and for a second the air warped before fading away. The two finally turned around to the beast they had heard stalking them, it looked into each of their eyes as its own darted back and forth between them.

It slowly tread backwards into the brush, in the same places it had stepped before it backed up until it disappeared into the trees. Solomon and Alexander turned for one last gaze at the city before leaving down from the high point set upon the hill above the tallest trees.

A man with a silver spear in his hand was watching them from afar. His gaze was deep, and he easily heard every word that they had spoken. He wore a silver colored armor adorned with many sigils and designs, and a deep grey cloak made of an unknown wolf hung from his shoulder to the earth at his feet. Yet around him there were no foot prints, and even when he leaned forward slightly and seemingly disappeared even the steps where his feet were before didn't have any traces of his presence.

"I think…I found some disciples, or rather…some good soldiers" His voice lingered for a second before fading into the snow and whirring sounds of the forest.

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Alexander and Solomon walked for many hours at a time, with no pertinent direction in mind. They came across a merchant on its way towards the city, and out of a strange miracle he had gave the two poor looking boys some fur clothing and shoes while at the same time deeming them 'Wayward Souls' before parting from them.

Night came, and with it a weak and sullen orange glow from a fire. A rabbit roasted over the fire letting off light sizzle sounds now and again as its smell permeated the area.

Two small children stumbled onto the fire and into the sight of the man roasting the rabbit. He looked at the two before waving for them to take a seat on a log across from him. They looked at each other for a second before stepping forward near the fire to warm their hands and dry the fur upon their bodies.

"Lost?" The man asked after a while.

The two nodded simultaneously.

"No…in life?" He asked again.

They hesitated, but nodded again to his question.

"I see…I see…" He pulled over a leather satchel, unstrapped it and handed the satchel to them open. Inside were several other rabbits folded with cloth, a knife, a kit to light a fire, and miscellaneous hemp rope.

They looked into the bag and then back up at him, he merely smiled and grabbed the rabbit in its entirety and began to eat away at it. They counted 3 rabbits inside the leather satchel, and took out one of them along with the knife. They didn't speak with the man, he merely moved his hands and they followed with their eyes as they began to skin the creature.

He eyed the rabbit, and then nodded to the stick that was hanging over the fire. They each grabbed a non-hot side of it, stuck the rabbit through and then hung it over the fire.

He rolled his hands, and then held up 10 fingers which in a sense meant roast it evenly for ten minutes. They nodded and then stuck their eyes to the browning creature in front of them.

After a while, sizzling sounds were let out and the man reached forward and grabbed the rabbit and the stick to inspect it. He nodded in appraisal and then began to eat the rabbit. They gave him a questioning glare, but soon while he was eatting he motioned to the bag. They looked inside, and two were left and so repeated what he had taught them without asking for pointers.

As he had taken the stick, they went and found another and he pointed towards the end of it and then waved his hands over his knee as if snapping it. They did as he showed, and then sharped one end while twirling the other until the bark was a knot with a piece hanging over to turn with. He waved his hand towards the fire, and soon ten minutes later another rabbit was cooked.

He picked it up, inspected it and nodded in satisfaction before he began to eat it.

This time however, the boys didn't exactly understand what he wanted them to do.

He finished the rabbit and wiped his hands off on a cloth, "So?"

"If you show us what to do, then you eat it?" One of them asked while looking at the pile of rabbit bones next to the man.

"No…" He said forwardly.

"Is it because we don't have enough strength to keep the rabbit ourselves? Or are we insane and repeat the same mistakes without learning?" The shorter of the two asked while again, like the boy next to him, looking at the bones next to the man.

"No…it is because you didn't ask to eat it, I merely showed you how I would eat it and yet you never showed me how you would." He pulled out a rolled cigarrete from his dark cloak that covered most of his body. Lighting it with the fire, he looked up to find the two were handing the satchel to him. He held the cigarrete in his mouth while his hands danced over the rabbit, its skin appeared next to its clean body along with its organs.

Their eyes widened as the man reached into the fire without being burned and pulled out an iron rod that had been buried in the coals. He stuck it through the rabbit, and then hung it over the pit.

By now if their mouths weren't watering, then they definitely looked like two water falls as hunger and curiosity left their mouths agape.

"Want to learn that too?" He asked while turned the iron rod, slowing roasting the rabbit.

They both nodded without hesitation, he in return smiled and inspected the rabbit before handing it over to them. They devoured it, and even broke the largest bones to try and get the bone marrow. As it was the last rabbit, they had to make the best use of it right?

A while after they finished, he pulled out another satchel and from it a large pelt which he draped over them. "Sleep then, and I shall teach you." He then strolled over to where he had sat before, and only every several hours would he get up to go grab some logs to keep the fire going.

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Solomon and Alexander awoke to a snow blanket covering them, thinking they had been frozen they hastily got up to find the snow come off in a sheet to reveal a fine pelt below. They also discovered there muscles weren't horribly aching and thus assumed the man had given them the pelt to sleep with. They looked up gratefully to the man still sitting in the same spot he had been before.

"Good…you're awake, hand over the pelt" He motioned with his hand.

They picked it up and shook it off as best they could before handing it over to him. He stood up and gripped the two upper edges of the pelt and closed his eyes. Seconds later hot steam rolled off of the pelt, melting the snow particles left on its fur right off before the water too evaporated into the air.

The two stood gazing in awe at this miraculously feat, but the man payed no mind to their gazes.

"You won't receive that pelt again until you have earned it…follow me" After stowing the pelt back in the second satchel he had brought with him he pointed to the satchel he had handed them last night previously full of rabbits.

They scurried over to it and picked it up to bring it over to him, but he shook his head and began walking off through the forest.

"Should we?" Alexander asked his brother the question on both their minds.

"He is mysterious, and strong. I WANT to be both of those too. We need to be…" Solomon grabbed the satchel and ran after the man. Alexander stood there for a second before his head began to nod, "Me too..."