Eden's POV:

The last thing I remember...

Smoke

Smoke

Fire

Ashes

Burnt flesh.

I was loosing my mind I didn't know what to think

The pungent smell of blood and burnt human flesh was choking

I was so scared and confused

There was no one alive...

But me and a dying man

He gave me a weird sword that had no blade and told me to watch over it.

I don't remember anything that happened earlier

If I had a family ...who were they? Where were they ?

Probably dead I guess

The man died eventually, but before he did he told me something.

Something important perharps.

"If anyone asks, your name is Eden Faustus"

I don't know who that man was but I could feel emotions from his words.

Fear, Pain, Strife, Agony.

Me bearing the name is probably his dying wish.

I wanted to know more about my family, what happened, why there was such a great slaughter and how it had anything to do with me

I guess it can't be helped the past is in the past.

I need to move on

From now on, I am Eden Faustus

**********************************************************

THE OUTSKIRTS OF AVIA: One of the provinces of the kingdom

     Hermit comes out of his old mansion and sees his granddaughter returning from the woods with her basket full of herbs and a kid standing next to her.

He was shocked at first but then he decided to keep his cool.

"Lynn, you're back early and I see you brought home a friend"

"Oh, he's not a friend he's just some kid that got caught in one of the booby traps I had set in the forest", she sighs then continues, "The little brat is so careless and now I have to take responsibility for his injuries"

"And who's fault is that prey tell"? The kid claps back, "who the hell sets random traps in the forest without giving warnings for innocent travellers"?

Lynn and the kid go on for a while pointing fingers and tossing blames at one another  which seemed adorable to Hermit.

"Alright break it up you two, it's been along day. Lynn go prepare supper and tend to his wounds. I've got work to do" he strokes her hair and leaves carrying a sack on his shoulders.

Lynn gets supper ready and calls out to her grandfather. He invites the kid to have dinner with them and asks about his family and why he was alone so late in the forest.

"I have no family", he replied Hermit with his face down staring blankly at his bowl of raddish soup.

"And also this soup tastes terrible"

Lynn was like a volcano ready to explode but her grandfather wasn't ready for any of her drama he tapped her on the head severally which helped in cooling her down.

"By the way, what's your name lad"? Hermit asked fixing his red down turned eyes on the kid sitting adjacent to him at the dinning.

"My name ? My name is ...Eden . Eden Faustus", the kid raising his head slowly and finally fixing his eyes on Hermit's.

  The name Eden Faustus rang like a bell in the head of Hermit, he gave off quite a shock on hearing the name. He quickly took a sip of water from the plastic cup beside his plate and tried his best to remain calm. The kid, Eden, had a feeling that the old man knew something but wasn't going to say anything. He then decided, since he wouldn't say it then he shouldn't bother asking, but Hermit's reaction bothered him quite a bit.

Later on, Lynn was left to do all the dishes while Eden had a chat with Hermit in his study.

There whole place was filled with old letters scattered everywhere and a couple of them were burnt.

"What are all these"? Eden asked Hermit as he held some of the letters trying to read the words written in them.

"A bunch of old letters from back in the days. Some are requests for new blades, some were a bunch of love letters and yes I was rather good with the ladies and the others are a bunch of who knows what, I write alot"

"I can tell", Eden quickly replied still trying to make meaning out of the letters he was holding.

"Do you know what a messenger hawk is?" Hermit asked Eden while getting up from his seat and walking towards a shady corner of the room.

"I've heard of them but I've never seen one up close"

"I see", Hermit brings out a bird cage with a messenger hawk inside it, "Now you've seen one up close"

Eden stares at the bird with a light *woah*, it was his first time being close and touching a hawk. The messenger hawk that belonged to Hermit Nickel

has been with him since the early days. He used it to send private messages to different parts of the kingdom.

"Majestic isn't it? His name is Majesty"

"That's a pretty dumb name", Eden quickly spitted out

"Is it? Lynn came up with it"

"Of course", Eden gives off a light sigh then he continues, "is it okay if I stay here for a while? I really have no place to go"

"But of course, you can stay here as long as you want." He smiles stroking Eden's silver blonde hair, "Now if you excuse me, I have a letter to send, Lynn will show you to your room".

      The next day, Eden was taking a stroll round the mansion gazing at all oldy shaped furnitures and artifacts set up as decorations. Some where carvings of animals he has never seen before, a few seemed like sculptures of ancient diety and a couple of others he didn't quite understand.

"You're up early", Hermit  came out of his study with a light smile, holding an old scroll in his hand and a large sack that seemed to have something very heavy inside. But the weight of the sack didn't seem to be giving Hermit any trouble. He was an old man, yes, but also a blacksmith, his several years in the job had him looking all buffed up and many would doubt on hearing how old this man actually is.

"Are you going somewhere", Eden asked trying to figure out what on earth was in the sack the old man had on his shoulders.

"I'm going on a trip and I...",

"Grandpa, you're traveling?! Can I come with? Please say yes grandpa", Lynn immediately cuts in

"Ugh.. actually I..um", Hermit scratches his head not exactly sure how to respond to his granddaughter

"Pumpkin, it's just a two day trip, I'll be back before you know it. Besides you need to stay back and take care of your little brother"

He headed out of the mansion to get his carriage ready.

    Lynn still being reluctant to stay runs after him.

"Grandpa, you can't leave me here with that kid. I don't even know who he is",

"He's your kid brother from now on and I expect you to treat him as such. I'll be in Botiva by sun down, you kids take care of yourselves", he heads out on his journey after waving his daughter and his new grandson goodbye.

Eden packed his stuffs with intentions of leaving the mansion while Lynn sat on the ground at the courtyard, sobbing. She raised her head and saw Eden carrying his stuffs out of the mansion and got totally pissed.

"And just where do you think you're going"?

   Eden ignored her and kept on going

" Hey ! Hey! I was talking to you"!

He ignored her again and at this point Lynn was ready to release all the anger she had been surpressing and ran after him. She tripped over a stump and fell on him, they both had a quick trip to the ground.

"Get off me you crazy person", Eden groaned.

      He succeeded in getting her off him but she laid on the floor in pain. It must have been one heck of a fall.

      Moments later she sat up with her head on her right hand, spitting out curses at Eden. Then an argument broke out, they yelled and pointed fingers at each other then suddenly Eden began to feel uncomfortable. He sensed someone watching them.

"Did you hear that just now"?

"Hear what"? Lynn got up dusted herself having enough of Eden. "Listen, if you wanna go just go. You were never my problem in the first place. I'm going back" she turned to leave.

"And hopefully I'll never see your ugly face again", he replied still feeling uncomfortable but decided to  leave.

      He walked a few meters further and this time he got more worried about Lynn and decided to go back and check on her. He ran back as fast as he could and saw that half of the mansion was destroyed.

When did all this happened? And how did this happen? He kept on asking himself sorting through the ruins of the mansion in hopes to find Lynn.

He called out for her but got no answer

Where could she have gone?

Is she safe?

Did she get kidnapped or worse, crushed by the building.

Half an hour past and Eden still hasn't heard anything from Lynn

     "Lynn! Lynn! Lynn"! He called out for a very long while but no one answered.

He felt so terrible inside, if only he had listened to his guts earlier perhaps Lynn would still be alive.

He sat on the rubbles beating himself up when suddenly the rocks bega to move moving. He got excited and quickly ran over to check it out with hopes that it might be Lynn. He pushed over the huge slabs and saw a man with severe injuries on his head, bleeding profusely. He looked so pitiful and at the verge of death, he's lost so much blood he didn't look like he was going to make it but then where the hell did this guy come from and how did he get such terrible wounds? Eden wondered still staring blankly at him.

        Just then he heard a voice similar to Lynn's from behind him yell, "Eden duck"!!!!

He turned round around and saw another man about 6feets swing a sword at him. It was a close call, thanks to Lynn he was able to dodge the hit but still ended up having a cut on his left cheek.

Lynn quickly slammed the side of  Eden's attacker with  sledgehammer and landed a finishing hit on his head.

      Eden was shocked and impressed at the same time. He tried so hard to control his breathing while being stunned by Lynn's ability to handle herself. She wasn't the granddaughter of a famous blacksmith just for show.

"You okay peepsqueak"? She asked giving off a shit eating grin.

"I've been through worse", he replied finally catching his breathe.

"Any idea who these jerks are and why they trying to kill us"?

"Not exactly sure but they look like soldiers from Botiva", Eden held his chin examining the dead soldiers

"Botiva? How'd you figure that out"?

"I've been travelling around Ashterah for a while now princess, trust me I know"

"I just hope my grandfather is ok and ...."

Eden quickly interrupts her, "Um Lynn I think it's time we got the hell out of here because we um ... Turn around"

"Ooooh shiiit"!!

"That was close", Lynn stopped by a tree to catch her breathe.

   She leaned on the bark of the tree breathing profusely with her hands on her knees. Eden threw himself to the ground being totally worn out from running. They were chased by a bandit of assassins with matching outfits bearing the Botivan symbol on their armor.

"Any ideas who those guys were and why they want us dead?", Lynn finally asks after getting a hold of herself.

"They looked like Soldiers from Botiva. But that's almost impossible, The Botivan Soldiers are almost never seen outside their camps".

"Are there any Botivan camps you might have sighted in Avia?"

"No I doubt highly, Lord Anna would never allow it. Come on, let's get out of here"

     Eden gets off the ground and stretches a little bit of muscle getting ready to leave the forest as soon as possible before who knows what will happen. He takes a few steps forward and realizes that Lynn was still behind him and he was kept wondering. She stood still with her eyes wide open and watery, a clenched fist and still having a shock treatment on herself. She was totally terrified by something or the next scenario that might happen on their way.

     Eden walked over to meet her, but before he could say anything he too was already held in a shocked state and found it difficult to think at that moment.

    A carriage that looked exactly like the one Lynn's grandfather rode earlier, bashed into a pile of large rocks and was looking like what wasn't steady. One of the horses laid dead on the ground and its blood spilled everywhere causing. It wasn't exactly a pretty pocture and the other horse probably ran off on it's own with no trace of it or got stolen.

Lynn fell on her knees, with tears gushing down her eyes,her crimson red hair covering must parts of her face.

"It- it can't be...it just can't  be.........Gran.......father.......pa...........Oh no Grandpa !!! Grandpaaaa!!!"

    Eden felt so sad for the poor girl, she had just lost the person she could render as her only family. But was he actually dead? If he was where is his body? Is this a trick or some sort of illusion?

He did a thorough search and couldn't find a body. Perhaps he wasn't dead he was probably kidnapped by some bandits or who knows even worse but not death.

"What the hell are you talking about? You never cared about me anyways,Besides what are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be gone already? I thought you hate me. Please, just go. My whole world is already in ruins. You might as well have a good laugh and leave"

   Lynn tried to avoid getting her hopes up that her grandfather might probably be alive. She had being an orphan all her life and truth be told, she doesn't know anyone else save the only one who stood by her at all times which was her grandfather. The thought of her grandfather being dead clouded her mind with various illusions and hallucinations, she felt like her whole world has collapsed right before her very eyes. She had lost all her enthusiasm,courage,pride,esteem,happiness and was looking highly traumatized by the situation before her.

"Would you just listen to me?! I'm trying to help you!" He takes her by her hand with his eyes fixed on hers with all the dripping tears from her eyes.

   She was reluctant at first but then, whatever,She was hopeless. She thought if there is a possibility that her grandfather was still alive it wouldn't hurt her to try at least just a little and save him.

"Alright fine", she wiped the tears off her eyes, and brushed back the loosed strands of her hair that covered her face. "So what were you saying again?"

    Eden told her about the weird letters her grandfather kept receiving from from The Botivan People and there was no sign of even a little bit of threat in those letters. It was probably just a camouflage for them to act on a plan or something but he sensed terrible despair and couldn't say all but to twist it to her ears to give her a tiny bit of hope since she was already looking like all is lost.

"So what you're saying now is...? But this doesn't make any sense, what could they possibly want with Grandpa? And why are they trying to kill us?!",

It appeared that Eden's plan was working, he gave off a light sigh looking away from Lynn, staring into the distance. "I don't know but I feel like whatever burning  questions you have right now there's only one way to get the answers"

"What are you saying?"

"We're going to Botiva"

Lynn somehow felt a little relieved by the words Eden spoke to her and had a little ray of hope. But what if it was all false?  

"What if he is really dead?"

"I guess we'll never know unless we find out", Eden gives off a soft smile stretching his hands to reach out for Lynn's.

"Don't make me like you, you stupid idiot", she spits out to ruin the moment, "Besides, what makes you think I'll ever let go of an opportunity to go on an adventure? I'm in and you can bet your money on that"

Eden was happy that his plan worked but was also pissed off about something. He had an expression of disgust on his face while looking at Lynn's shit eating grin...again.

"You make me sick, you know that?"

"Whatever, Let's go, I can't wait to get to Botiva!!"

    Then they began their journey to Botiva, Lynn was for once really excited. It was her first time leaving the forest, she had been living there for the past seventeen years alone with her grandfather and had never been granted the opportunity to go anywhere out of the forest because her grandfather told her "Leaving the forest was dangerous.

After some hours of walking they finally got into one of the cities of the Avian province.

"So this is what a city looks like, it is a little bit different from the drawings in the books I've read but the descriptions are quite on point",

Lynn walked through the cities streets with loads of excitements making the best out of every moment. She went through several shops buying stuffs that she needs or might need including the ones she didn't need, and a couple of other stuffs she just felt would be nice to tell people that she owned them.

     She saw different faces, met actual people and had short conversations someone who for once wasn't her grandfather or a huge loud mouth who was mostly rude to her.

"You're quite the spender, where did you get so much money from?"

"Um my father is a very famous blacksmith,you saw how big our mansion was, did we look poor to you?"

"Um...well.. not...quite.....I never said anything about you being poor,besides I don't care if you are or were rich or not"

Lynn cuts in immediately, "Exactly, Now that grandpa's missing,all the money in the house, including the ones he hid in his study, my life time savings and a couple of other stuffs are free for spending. Until we find him, i guess"

"Jeez, well then I'll be over there getting some supplies", Eden points at one of the shops behind them, "You know,stuffs we actually need to travel with. You need to go and find a place where we can spend the night and stop spending money on stuffs that do not need so much value. We will meet back here before sun down, Do you understand me?"

"Yea yea yea and stop sounding as if you're my father or something"

**********************************************************

It was almost sun down and Lynn was still misusing her money, she bought so many stuffs that she had to buy a barrow to carry them. She pulled the barrow along the streets with a map in her hands marking the shops she's being to and the ones she hasn't.

"Looks like there's still a couple of shops left and I..", she pauses for a while and then realizes

"It's Almost Sun down!!"

She began to hurry back to the spot where she and Eden planned to meet, she pulled the barrow forcefully as she tried to move faster but it was slowing her down.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!!"

She couldn't keep up with the struggle for speed much longer, the barrow was too heavy and yet some of her stuffs kept falling off the barrow. She threw herself on the ground breathing heavily.

She was almost out of breath, almost like she was lurking at the brink of death

"OH MY GOSH, I can't do this anymore, I feel that I might die"

Sweating profusely, She took off her shirt and swung it around, in a circular motion, in the air to cool herself. This was a nasty habit she picked up from her grandfather,hey, it was her first time in public she couldn't care less what people would think of her behaviour.

****She had a cute brown inner wear on so it doesn't count as stripping.

Wait does it?***

Meanwhile, Eden was waiting for Lynn at their supposed meeting spot. He had being there for a while, sitting on one of the benches on the side walks.

"Where could that idiot actually be? What is taking her so long?"

He grumbled still waiting for her to show up.

A lot of time passed then Eden finally decided to go look for her, not exactly knowing where to start from he hears someone yell "Thief! Wait! Someone stop em!" From behind.

"Wait is that ...Lynn?", He turns to find Lynn shirtless (she has her inner wear on) chasing a masked man who was tagged as the theif.

"That is Lynn, like what the Heaven's name is she doing this time?!!"

"Excuse me, pardon me, coming through", she followed the masked man into an inn. She ran through the main entrance ignoring the maidens and the people who lodged in there and was focused on catching the man she was chasing.

He had snuck up on her while she was on the ground earlier and stole something from her barrow. Lynn immediately ran after him and abandoned her barrow, the stuffs she bought and her shirt on the street. She followed him into one of the rooms of the inn, it was so dark she could barely see. She hit her head on something hard and fell on something soft and quite comfy.

"Ouch my head, that hurt alot. Where's that son of a... Wait where am I?"

She sat up a little rubbing her forehead, "tsk, I hope my head isn't swollen or anything", she played back the entire scene of what just happened in her mind and realized she had bumped into someone's room.

Plus whatever it was she was sitting on was warm and felt ..alive. she couldn't help but feel the entire surface with her fingers. It was so smooth and was quite nice to touch

"Are you done?"

She gasped and quickly got off, "What was... no wonder it was so warm, that wasn't a pillow it was a person!"

The lights in the room got turned on suddenly and she saw a half ***** man on the bed. He had long brown dreads and scars on his shoulders but ignoring his scary gaze and the fact that she had bumped into his room unannounced, goddamn this dude was actually good looking.

"I'm I'm uh..um... I'm sorry I was... It was ... A thief...dude... I ...hi", she couldn't speak right and her face was all burned up.

"I sat on a totally hot stranger!

I sat on a totally hot stranger!" She murmured to herself repeatedly, trying so hard not to freak out.

She squatted at a corner of the room with her hands on her head, shivering and blushing at this the same time.

(***Is this possible though..lol😂)

"Are you done? Then get out", he turned and covered himself with the bedsheets.

"What just happened?", She pauses for a while with a confused look on her face. He totally ignored her and didn't even bother to ask who she was or why she was in his room he just told her straight up to get lost.

"Wait a minute! You're the thief !"

"Huh? Oh shit you led them here"

"Huh? Me? It's not my fault I was chasing a thief", Lynn panicked

There were about Seven security guards present in the room, the manager alerted them as soon as Lynn barged into the inn like she owned the place.

"A mad woman is upstairs making ruckus. Go up there and get rid of her"! The manager ordered

They grabbed Lynn by the shoulder and were about to leave when one of the guards quickly pointed.

"Hey you!" He pointed at the man who initially logged in the room

"Who? Me?" He replied almost immediately

"I know you, You're that annoying brat that's been causing trouble around town lately"

"Are you sure it's him? I could make a fortune out of that kid", another guard added.

"Okay fellas, let's not make any hasty decisions here.." the guy on dreads said pretending to be calm but he knew he was in trouble.

"Wait a minute, it is him. Ooh I'm goanna be stinking rich today!"

"This guy... he has some kinda bounty on his head?" Lynn asked dangling off the ground with her arms still held by the security guards.

These men were about 7fts tall and looked like they could weigh about a hundred ton, their hand span was about the size of Lynn's head or bigger. Technically, Lynn's feet were no where near d ground.

"Get rid of that woman he's worth a  heftier price"

They flung Lynn outside the room and progressed to bounce on the guy on dreads but before they could lay a finger on him, he slipped through their fingers and jumped out the window.

"Is he mad?! We're about a hundred feet off the ground!"

"Stop exaggerating you dumbfuck ...this inn isn't all that big, look he landed safely"

They followed after him leaving Lynn behind.

"Hey! Wait a second, that guy stole my stuff!"

Just then Eden came in and gave Lynn a heavy blow on her head that sent her to the ground.

"OUCH! What the hell was that for?"

"For not listening to me you crazy psychopath, what part of meet me at dusk did you not understand?"

Eden was all sweaty and looked pretty much exhausted he had been running for a long while in search  for Lynn.

"Oh my gosh, were you actually worried about me? That's so cute "

"Shut up and let's get out of here"

Eden turned around to leave.

"But what about my stuff"?

"It's not worth it, let's go before ..."

While Eden was still talking more guards came in and it appeared that they had come for Eden.

"You there !", They yelled

"Uh-oh"

"What did you do this time Eden ?"

"Nothing I swear", I just ...may o r may have not barged into the inn like a complete maniac and ran into every room disturbing the peace and also may or may have not hit a bunch of people on the face ...", He replied with an awkward smile on

"You ...idiot!"

"Well you're one to talk, you left your barrow and the ridiculous stuffs you bought with the only cash we had unguarded on the streets,

"But-", Lyn pauses for a while then she continues, "Ok you have a point, so what's the plan now?"

"Plan, ugh .. ask the huge and scary men nicely to let us go. Don't forget to smile", Eden whispers to learn trying to keep a cute smile on but his lips keep failing him. He was quite scared.

Lynn looks back at the window and turns to make eye contact with Eden. Eden confused as ever failed to read Lynn's expression.

"Follow me", she ran towards the window and Eden follows after he without a second thought.

"Ok, now what?"

"Now we jump!", She jumped out the window and lands on a nearby bush.

"Come on big mouth let's go"!!

"I'm so not going to like this", Eden tried to jump got  held by the shirt by one of the soldiers.

"Oh no you don't peepsqueak"

Eden quickly pulls the shirt and falls out the window. For one thing, he's scared of height another, him falling off totally wasn't planned.

"I'm going to dieeeee!!"

He falls on a tree branch with a light thud. Eventually it breaks and sends him to the ground

"Ouch"

"You okay Eden?", Lynn helps him up and sits him against the tree.

"No. No I am not". He scratches his head a little the pushes Lynn away. "You had one job, find a place for us to spend the night. But what do you instead? Spend a fortune on some stupid random junk you find in the street, then you abandon them on the street, barge into an inn like a crazy person, jumps out a window and buys a stupid barrow!

Who the hell in their right senses buys a barrow?!"

"I needed em to carry my stuffs and...my barrow!!"