The sky was dark as a Blackstone. I was lying unconscious in the middle of a deep dark forest. The moon's weak rays were barely falling on the ground; even the slightest of the rays were blocked by the deep forest. I woke up; I had bruises all over my body that I could barely walk on my legs. Somehow, I dragged my feet with the help of the other and came by a river. I was throbbing in thirst; I haven't eaten anything since two days. I picked up some water on my palms and tried to drink it, and then I saw a horrific view in front of my eyes. There were two fiends', tearing down a man, they were eating his flesh. Blood was spread all over. I was traumatized; I couldn't move for a moment, I was frozen right away. I didn't make any noise and moved a little, but then a twig poked my arm that it started to bleed. Immediately, those fiends' swapped their target and started to run after me. I was exhausted, still I ran for my life. The chase lasted until my leg dashed into a rock and I fell. My end was near; I could not do anything to save myself.

Then there summoned Master Divit, he came like a savior to me. He was up there against those two fiends' and I was lying helpless for myself. With just one blow, he dashed away them. Before the fiends' could come to their senses, he fled, taking me along with him.

Hope all this ends soon. Remembering that day still gives me chills. We have to work for it together. Our team has to give our best for the sake of humanity...

In the valley -

"Will anyone tell me, where's Ken!?" Uma was annoyed; they were looking for Ken since a very long time.

"Uma, please calm down. He must be here somewhere."

"But he isn't here, Mei! We will be late to reach Master Divit on time." She was frustrated.

Gabriel, Mei and Einar, who was just a little guy among them. They didn't want to interfere her. Uma began slicing everything around her with her wind blades. Ken just arrived on time or else she would have done worse than that.

"Hey, dumb head. Where were you huh!?"

"None of your business." He annoyingly replied to her.

"We are searching for you since an hour; you think we are some piece of crap? You want us to get scolded by Master Divit?" She was going to eat him; the others hold her from behind.

"Calm down, Uma." Mei said in hesitation, while holding her.

Ken avoided them. This is my team, pathetic. He sighed in helplessness. He smirked looking at them and left on his jet flames.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Uma got no chill; she chased him on her wind jet. Others followed them back.

Master Divit awaited them in the Scion Glory guild hall. He was in a cranky mood. It's been hours since they left and he was getting infuriated as time passed. Right at that moment, Ken arrived there and greeted Master Divit. The others came one after other and were sweating in fear seeing Divit angry. He exploded on them.

"Is it any time to come!?"

"But m-master-

"Enough! No one will get the food today. Just have something from the forest from your own." He burst on them and left.

In the forests, down the hill -

The sun was about to set. Their stomach was rumbling, they were starving. They looked for something edible all over the forest but could find nothing. They were exhausted in hunger that they could hardly walk. Uma got mad at Ken again.

"It's your entire fault!!"

"What did I do?" Ken naively replied.

"You ask what you did. Because of you, we got scolded by Master Divit and he punished us to get food by ourselves. And its night already and we haven't found anything to eat!" She yelled and started to pant.

"I'll get some for you all, just stop yelling." Ken said so and left into the forest.

The forest was full of creepy sounds now. They were trembling in fear. They walked ahead to get out of the forest when they heard a sudden crack coming from a grove near them.

"What was that?" Gabriel was horrified.

"You go and look." Mei said to him.

"Why me?"

"Well, you're a man. You should go ahead and see." Uma said in between.

"If that's the case then Einar's there too." Gabriel pointed at Einar.

"He's still a kid!!" Mei and Uma yelled at him together.

"O-Okay, I'm going."

Why these girls are so bossy? Gabriel moved forward to look in the dense grove. In that meantime, a shadow moved swiftly behind them. Gabriel felt strange too so he turned back at them, Uma asked him, "Y-You felt that?"

"Y-yes."

That shadow again passed near to them swiftly. But this time, Uma followed the shadow's movements. She got to see a masked person who covered his entire face with a piece of dark cloth. The man in the shadows disappeared from her sight in the very next moment. She calmed herself while the others were still frightened to think of it as an evil spirit. Suddenly, a massive jet of flame propelled at them.

"Hey, watch!" Uma jumped in the air and diverted the path of the flame back. The flame burnt everything around them. "Ken, if you are joking around, I'll break your face!" She yelled out loud, she was pissed.

"I fear I'm not him, beloved sis." A voice emerged out of nowhere.

"Beloved sis? Ken is never going to call her that." Mei said in amazement.

"Is that really Ken?"

"I would dive into the ocean if Ken calls her that." Gabriel started to giggle.

Ken arrived there running. He had several types of fruits around his arms. "Hey, what happened here?"

"Ken?" Uma saw at him in surprise.

"Who were it then who emitted flames on us?"

"How will I know!?" Ken yelled.

"Did I ask you?" They started quarreling in between.

Mei, Gabriel and Einar made a helpless face. They were trying to stop both of them. Mei and Einar were trying to stop the furious Uma, whereas Gabriel was holding the frustrated Ken. "Guys, focus on that intruder." Mei stated.

"Oh yeah." Uma took her position. She generated a gust of wind around her, and soon it grew into a twister, the others moved back. She dispersed it around the place. The twister soon started to suck leaves and small trees within it. But soon after the twister suddenly disappeared.

"What just happened?" Mei asked in amazement. "Where did the twister go?"

"How the-

"It's just that you're not strong enough for such a lethal art, Uma." Ken said in incuriousness.

"I don't need your advice!" She said in defense.

At that moment, the person in the shadows emerged out of the dense grove. He hid his face with a piece of cloth, and he had fumes around his body. "Hey there." He waved at them. Just when he arrived, Ken propelled a stream of flame at him. Luckily he jumped and dodged it. "Hey, are you mad?"

"Who are you!?" Uma took out her sword and pointed it on his neck.

"Hey, careful." He complained. The others also took their position.

Soon that guy's body covered in flames and grew stronger. The heat was difficult to endure, even for Ken, who was a flame elementalist. Uma's sword began to melt, she quickly threw it away.

"How did it melt?" Uma thought for a second and she remembered that the sword may have been switched. How can I be so careless? She thought.

Seeing all of them, unable to endure his warmth, he slowly cooled his flames down. He gradually walked towards them. Seeing him coming, Uma quickly cupped her hands and generated a sphere of wind. She discharged the rapidly rotating wind sphere at his head. He dodged it but the sphere cut off his cloth, with which he covered his face. The cloth fell on the ground and his face was uncovered. He had dazzling grey hair, yellow eyes and small scar near his right eye. Uma was the one who was too surprised to see him. She dimly said, "Bhai.."

"Bhai!?" The others said together in shock.

"Uma? Is he your brother?" Mei asked.

"If yes then why did he attack us?"

Uma didn't say a word. Her eyes dimmed, her eyes glistened in tears, and she ran to him and hugged him. He held her and patted her head. "Hey, you okay?" He asked. She handled herself and looked at him and said, "Where have you been all these years? Idiot."

"Ah, I was in training with Agaru."

"I thought you died that night." She wiped her tears.

"He saved me."

Immediately after that she punched him on his stomach. Ow! He held his stomach. "I shouldn't have led my guard down." He said in regret.

"Who attacks like that, meeting after so many years huh!?" She scolded him.

Others were looking at them silently, thinking what was going on there. Uma turned at them and introduced him to them. "Here, meet my sworn-brother, Kiaan Fireheart."

"Sworn.. Brother..?" Gabriel asked, he was confused.

"We took oath to serve each other as bro-sis."

"That's something uncommon." Ken affirmed.

"Not for me." Kiaan replied. "So, you might be Ken?"

"Yeah, Ken Lightfoot. How do you know?" He asked confusingly.

"They thought that I was you and I got to know little things about you." Kiaan explained him in short. Ken looked at them cautiously. They all pretended to know nothing about it.

"And what's your brother? You're tough guy it seems."

"It's Gabriel, Gabriel Warmane. Nice to meet you, Kiaan."

"Nice meeting you too." He shook hands with him. "What about the lil' guy?"

"Uh, my name is Einar, Einar Fang. Nice to meet you big bro."

"Nice to meet you too, Lil' bro." He gave a heartwarming smile to him. Then his eyes fall on Mei.

"And her?" He asked Uma, pointing at Mei.

"Why don't you ask her only?" She giggled.

"Can I know your name please?" He asked her, hesitating.

"Mei Tourmaline." She gazed at his eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Mei." He rubbed his nose.

"Yeah, same here."

Ken smirked looking at them; Gabriel, Uma and Einar giggled looking at each other.

~ To be continued...