It was a cold night, the winds seemed to be telling Claudius something, he had a gut feeling that something bad would happen, so he hurried back to his village. Claudius Hart was a 17-year-old boy who lived in a town formed by his own family, only the Hart family lived in the Vain village, but near this village, another village wanted to spread their land because of overpopulation—the Orlo village. At the time, Claudius was rushing home with a pile of firewood on his back, his father made a living out of selling firewood and cutting wood, and Claudius helped, but as he got nearer and nearer to the village, he saw crimson trails of blood, giving a stark contrast to the white snow. He started shuddering at the sight, but he had to return home, so he quickly ran over but soon, his steps slowed down and his breath hitched in his throat. "Mom… Dad… Uncle… Auntie…?" He called out.

There was blood all over and some houses were on fire, Claudius went further into the village and almost screamed, there stood a pile of dead bodies and the top ones were on fire, the flame was slowly engulfing the bodies on the lower part. It was a horrifying sight, Claudius froze in his place when he saw his little brother, Charis, on the lower half with his hands cut off and eyes rolled back. Claudius fell to his knees and cried quietly right there, he knew that the Orlo village had something against them, but to resort to such measures was low, even for them. The fire enveloped the bodies and the sun soon started to shine, but the clouds stopped its rays midway, just like how the Orlo village stopped the generation from blooming midway, Claudius didn't know what to do now that he was the only living human in this village's premises.

He hid behind a wall, waiting for some Orlo citizens to enter the area, he had a log of wood in his hand, and his eyes were gleaming with unshed tears. As he heard some noise, he got ready for strike, a man came near the wall he was sitting behind so he grabbed the man and tied a cloth around his mouth all in one swift move, basing the man's head in with the log in hand. He killed 3 women and 18 men one by one, doing the same as the Orlo village did, piling the bodies and setting them on fire, he just needed a few kids to complete the pile but the other civilians started to notice some people were missing. They all thought that they had gone for a stroll or were exploring the area so they let it go, and now, something happened that was bound to happen from the start of this day, Claudius was surrounded by the people of the Orlo village.

He had nowhere to run, nobody knew Claudius was even hiding there but they would get to know he was if he stood up now, so he waited for the perfect time, when the people would be out for lunch. Just as he thought, the people returned to their village for lunch a few hours later, and Claudius slowly emerged from behind the wall. He held the jute sac of firewood in his hand and set the pile of dead bodies on fire, he watched as the dead bodies burned but there were no screams, Claudius realized he liked this, he wanted this silenced violence. He stood there for some time but ended up running away in the end, he ran until the snow was forming blisters on his foot, he wanted to get as far away as possible from the villagers, he wanted to remain uneen.

Now that Claudius was far away from his ruined home, he fled to a different city, the city was big and was called "Sherwood", the city was prosperous and rich. Claudius sold the remaining firewood he had and earned some silver coins, "My first earnings for the day… Dad would've been so proud of me…" he whispered to himself as he got the keys to the room of his inn, he walked up the stairs to reach the floor on which his room was and how lucky he was, he found an adventurer's guild. The guild members were arguing in the hallway about something, "Excuse me, are you all hunters?" Claudius pried, the members looked at him with confusion but one of the members spoke up, "No we're not, One of us is a healer, two of us are hunters, one of is a map guide and one of us is a magic user. I'm the magic user and leader. Though we are looking for another hunter, are you willing to join?" the apparent leader asked with a smile on his face. Claudius' eyes lit up, he nodded vigorously, another member scoffed and said : "The kid doesn't even know how to fight!" Claudius's face fell, "I don't know how to fight properly, I may or may not get hurt. I may or may not life. But know how to use my surroundings to my advantage. So it's up to you, do you want a kid that can be a burden but also be useful? Or do you just want to walk around with only 2 hunters in your guild?" Claudius dictated before turning to his room door and unlocking it.

Wait, wait! We'll accept you, I am Flint Milton." The leader interrupted, Claudius looked back at them, "Great! I'm Claudius. Where are you all from?" Claudius replied, "I and Cash Falcon are from Allion," Flint said, Cash was the member that didn't want Claudius here. "Frankie Malliah and Billy King are from Sloan," Frankie and Billy waved their hands, "Lastly, Kaira Gomez is from Evren." Flint concluded, Claudius bowed and introduced himself from a now deserted village called Vain, they all went out for drinks and they asked Claudius for more information about himself. As for the members, they all were unique in their way.

The leader, Flint, had long and black hair, he had a mask of a fox hung on the side of his head, his hair was tied but two little braids could be seen, he had pale skin and blue piercing eyes. He had red tattoos on his face that resembled a fox's whiskers, he wore a black beaded necklace that was not too tight but not too loose, he wore a white turtle neck under a black inner robe and a white outer robe, the hem of the robe was checkered in the colors grey and brown. He had a blue coat hung on his shoulders, his nails were long and red, his fingers were long and slender, and he carried around a rose and always fiddled with it when he had the time. His demeanor was confident while him being quite thin.

Cash Falcon was the rude and meanest person in the group, he had medium white hair tied in a low ponytail, there was a strand of dirty blonde hair in his bangs, he wore a necklace that hung low on his perfect body, and his skin was a little tanner than Flint's, he had big and red eyes, he wore a grey inner robe and a black outer robe. His fingers were painted black and he carried a fan around, yelling and being angry at people was his job, practically. Then came Frankie, Frankie didn't look any older.

He had tan pinkish skin, he had short grey hair. He didn't wear any accessories other than a black eyepatch, he had cute black eyes, and he wore a black shirt under a light blue overcoat that hung on his shoulders, he wore black jeans and black boots. He carried a white umbrella around, and then, next was Billy, he was slender. No doubt he was just a kid, even younger than Claudius, he had yellow hair and yellow deceiving eyes, he wore no accessories and he dressed in a black crop top that didn't reveal much except for his naval. He wore a white jacket, properly, this time, his lower was just black jeans and white shoes.

He was putting on a show of being nice, so his guildies wouldn't kick him out, he needed a place to stay and some bearable company after all, he was still a kid. And lastly, Kaira Gomez, she's the oldest but not the leader, because of her lack of leadership skills and little to no experience in real fights. She had dark skin and light brown hair, her hair was long and kept open more often but here, she was seen with her hair open and small pigtails, she had icy blue eyes and a natural blush on his face almost always. She was wearing a gray sweater with a dark gray lung skirt, her sweater was tucked in with a black belt that could barely be seen, she hung a green purse over her shoulder and a golden chain hanging on her waist, she didn't have such a big bust but she looked girly and tough at the same time.

Claudius, now that he was getting along with his new friends, noticed that Kaira didn't talk much, she either nodded or shook her head. At times, she would mutter an answer that wasn't a 'yes or no' question, or she would just shrug if anyone asked a long answer question. The roles of all the members were diverse, Flint was the magic user, Cash was a hunter, Frankie was the map guide, Billy was the healer and Kaira was another hunter. They needed another hunter and Claudius was quite good at the job of slaughtering.

While walking back to the inn at the time of sunset, Flint asked Claudius a personal question, "Why did your village become deserted?" "Oh… Um… Well…" Claudius stammered before sighing and continued, "Another village's population was increasing, so they insisted that we move to another village but gradually, all of my family spread to different villages, and now we can't see each other…" Flint nodded understandingly, "Apparently, something similar happened to me too." he spoke with an underlying tone of sadness, Claudius hid the fact that he regretted saying whatever he said just now since all of it was made up on the spot to avoid further interrogation, "Why? What happened? It's only fair if you tell me about your village now that I told you about the fall of my village." Claudius concluded. "I guess so." Flint chuckled softly as he said so, his white hair was waving around with the wind, creating an ominous effect with the sun also setting in the background, the other members caught up and insisted on narrating his story. Flint nodded, "Alright then," he paused for suspense, "I'll tell you." he added, everyone huddled around him and listened intently.

......................

          ו•••×Flint'sו•••×Pastו•••×

......................

When Flint was young, perhaps around 13 years old, a man showed up in his village and killed almost everyone, he and Cash were able to get away. But Cash didn't remember any of it, he was only 6 years old at the time of the incident, Flint was cursed while he was running away.