Chapter 1 : The Mageseekers

"Shhhh!" A young girl and an older boy sneaked between the grass, quietly observing a small baby squirrel look around with its beady, curious eyes.

Unfortunately for them, the squirrel's senses were keen and adapted, so the ratting of the bush quickly scared it away and made it frantically run up a tree.

The young girl sighed, and the older boy facepalmed.

"I told you not to move, look what you've done. You've scared it." The boy's words were muffled by his palm, as the girl hissed back offendedly.

"It was you that SCARED IT!" The girl stomped in a child-like manner, causing the boy to smirk and laugh.

"You should be more careful with your emotions, or they might take a hold of you one day."

"Stop stealing Elder Zakan's words and labelling them as your own, stupid."

The young boy just smirked and turned his back to the young girl, which caused her to pout and sigh.

"One day, I'm going to join the Demacian army and you going to grovel at my feet!" The girl's eyes were in slits, but the playfulness could be seen deep through her angry facade.

"At your service m'lady." Ajel only groaned these words, before looking back at her. "Do you know why we were called down to the main village?"

"Dunno." Elana only shrugged.

They both lived in a small orphanage in the agriculture part of Uwendale, in Demacia.

They were brothers and sisters, but not by blood.

He was ready to be the next meal of a Silverwing raptor that took the lives of his parents, who he never knew the identity.

Then he was saved and taken back to the only orphanage in the Agriculture section.

He was 14 and was ready to ascend to adulthood and join the hunting team. He was praised for having a sharp eye and steady hands, so he was trained by a hunter in the hunting section of Uwendale and received basic marksmanship with a wooden bow that he always kept on him.

Today he was instructed to go to the main village, the hunting party, and was told to go to the biggest house there and wait for further instructions.

If it had something to do with his hunting or coming of age, they would have got him alone, so why did they ask a 12-year-old to go with a 14-year-old?

Slowly descending the hill, Ajel felt sharp sensations prickle his skin as he looked down to the bustling hunting city that was now... quiet.

Nobody could be seen, the merchants or the peddlers selling the meat and skin and the luxuries such as tobacco.

They were all gone, on a day when the market was meant to be at its peak.

Walking down the desolate streets and examining the floor, Ajel looked at the dirt track and his brows furrowed.

Rounded hoof prints were on the dirt floor, one's that couldn't be made by a human, but an animal.

A horse.

Why are there horses in the village?

Looking at the houses, Ajel keenly picked up several gazes from the villagers, as they stood inside their houses...

did they seem scared of something?

"Brother, I don't like this..." Elana quietly complained, before keeping her eyes to the ground.

"Elana, did you do something?"

"No..."

"You didn't steal, or commit a crime?"

She looked guilty, she was hiding something.

They all dispersed when their gazes met, and one even.... prayed?

The one that prayed expression suddenly changed, before he whispered something.

Ajel's eyes sharpened as he slowly observed the man's lips.

"Run."

Ajel's expression changed, before he grabbed Elena, causing her to look confused.

Turning back and running the opposite way, Ajel saw something coming his way.

A spear.

A spear made out of a white-pearl like substance that Ajel had never seen before.

Elena's eyes darkened before they morphed into an expression of pure fright.

"W-why i-is there... that symbol on the spear?"

Ajel eye's flashed to the spear, noticing a crest that didn't ring any bells.

"What is it.....?"

Then he noticed a person coming out of the woods.

then another.

then another.

then another.

Several people with weapons that resembled the material of the spear.

"Its....its... the mage seekers."

Ajel's face morphed into pure fear.

"W-why...why are they here?"

Tears poured down Elena's face.

He hadn't seen her cry for so long.

When she first came to the orphanage, she was a small child.

He remembered that day clearly.

Highly trainer soldiers, that could nullify any magic with them, were tasked with dealing with powerful mages that could pose a threat to dementia.

The orphanage were followers of the Winged Protectors, that duty and honour should be upheld at all times. However, they told stories about how even the weakest of mages were hunted down relentlessly and forced to bow under Demacia.

"Magic....!" Ajel's eyes morphed from fear to joy. "If we just show them that we don't have any magic, we will be free to go! right?" His face showed a smile, but one could determine that he was just giving himself an excuse for the situation, a brief escape from the reality that he could take away. "R-right....?"

His eyes became empty and dull.

They wouldn't be an elite task force that was directly under King Jarvan III, and they wouldn't come here on a whim.

The year was 981 AN.

He was afraid he couldn't see 982.

Ajel's hands trembled as he slowly reached for his bow and nocked an arrow on it.

And then a man came out.

He was surrounded by several people, with the same material that made the weapons strapped around him.

What..... what was going on?