Intermission

A basket was floating on a slowly flowing river. The river itself is ten meters in width and a few meters deep. From the basket a cry can be heard. The cry of a baby that is only a few months old.

The basket keeps on flowing down river, while the baby cries. Its cries aren't heard by anybody, as all there is in the area is a large forest with no people passing by. After flowing down stream for a while, the river splits into two streams. The basket flows towards the left stream. Further down the left stream, the river starts to flow faster, more rocks also appear in the river. If the basket hits one of the rocks, it could capsize, which would not end well for the baby inside it. However, against all odds, it didn't hit any of the rocks. The basket seems to be safe for now, but it wouldn't last for much longer. The sound of the river would then start to become much louder, the further downstream it goes. The basket will approach a waterfall if it continues downstream like this. If it falls down, the baby will most likely not survive as it would drown. It approaches the edge of the waterfall slowly, but surely. It gets within a few meters before falling, is there really nobody here to save the child?

Before the basket would to fall, it suddenly stopped moving and was frozen in place. Near the river stands a person holding out his hands. He is the one who stopped the basket from falling down. He used telekinesis, a form of demonic magic. Demonic magic is a form of magic that can only be used by those who have thrown away their humanity, by monsters with enough intellect to cast spells or by Gaerans.

The man in question is indeed a Gaeran. He has grey hair, with red eyes and dark skin. He also has a pair of wings on his back. These are the typical characteristics of a Gaeran.

He pulled the basket towards him and into his hands. He was then surprised by what he saw. It was someone's child.

"Who would leave their baby in a basket and put it on a river. If I wasn't here, you would have probably died."

The baby was still crying, but the man tried to comfort the baby, so it would stop crying. He did this not only because nobody likes seeing a baby cry, but there was an army of humans nearby, still sieging the palace of their king. The man was relatively far away, but he still couldn't risk being found by the humans and be killed.

The man is a refugee, fleeing from the carnage of war. When the human army arrived in their country, all their countrymen resisted the invading forces, but they couldn't hold them off, they suffered a lot of casualties as a result. In fact, the humans actually slaughtered all of them mercilessly. They left no survivors. Not even children.

This has made the Gaerans change their mind and flee instead of fighting back, not wanting everyone to be completely slaughtered.

This man has fled to the capital city at the edge of the forest, but when the invading forces arrived at the capital, he decided to flee into the forest.

He followed along the river, but he stopped when he heard the cry of a baby.

So, he took the basket with him and fled further into the forest until he knew he was safe from the invaders. He then sat down to take a closer look at the child. He removed some of the clothes covering the child. At first it seemed like a normal human child. Pale skin, red eyes, a little bit of white hair on its head, but when he looked further, he saw wings. That's when he knew he was dealing with a Gaeran, since they're the only species besides Dragon Borne to have wings similar to theirs. However, he was certain it was not a Dragon Borne, since the child lacked any scales.

"You look way different from a normal Gaeran though, usually we have dark hair and skin. You on the other hand have pale skin and white hair. Doesn't matter right now. What matters is that I need to get somewhere with people again. I can't stay in this forest forever."

With that, the man continued onward. However, he would soon be stopped in his tracks.

"Everyone! Spread out! We got to look for any one of them trying to escape!"

The man heard in the distance people talking. These were not Gaerans, that he was certain of. He had to get out of there quickly before he was seen, but that might be difficult, since on the other side, enemies were also approaching quickly to his location.

He decided that he had no other choice but to just make a run for it, even if he would get seen. Flying wasn't an option, as that would give away his location instantly and even risk him being shot.

He started running as fast as he could, away from the enemies. As expected, they saw the man trying to escape, so they quickly started chasing after him.

"There is one! Go after him!"

The enemies were chasing after him, but he was ever so slightly faster, so he had hope he could get away. The enemies weren't so stupid to just chase after him, so they had archers shooting arrows as well. It wasn't an easy feat to hit him, since trees were blocking the arrows.

Their commander decided to take matters into his own hands and readied an arrow on a crossbow. He aimed at the running Gaeran and shot the arrow. The arrow hit him in his left side, making him fall on the ground and dropping the basket.

"Shit, I got hit!" The man screamed out in pain.

He saw the enemies quickly approach him with swords in their hands. He knew that if he didn't do anything, both he and the child would die. That's how brutal the humans have been in this war. They've only been slaughtering everyone, without sparing anyone.

The man decided to cast a fire spell with all the magic he could muster. He knew this would be extremely dangerous, since the fire could easily spread across the entire forest, but he really had no other choice.

So, he set a few trees ablaze, causing the enemies to back off. The fire quickly spread, blocking off the path towards the Gaeran. This allowed him to get away to safety.

The Gaeran picked up the basket again and kept running in one direction until he collapsed near a cave at the bottom of a cliff. He already lost too much blood. He was barely hanging on.

Then, to make matters worse, he saw a few soldiers approach as well. He knew this would be the end.

"Why are you putting so much effort into chasing me here. I've ran across half the forest, set fire to a part of it and you still keep going. For what? Just to kill off one man?"

"I think you've got something wrong here, pal. We're not here for you. We're here for her."

The man pointed at the basket he was holding. "So, the baby is a girl" , the man thought.

"What could you possibly want with this baby?"

"That is not just an ordinary child. It is the child of the Taurcaran royal family. The child of the king and queen of the Gaeran kingdom."

"What?" The man says in surprise looking at the child.

"I'll give you a proposition. You hand over the child and we'll consider leaving you alive, well as long as you will be alive for from looks of it." The soldier says looking at the blood that the Gaeran has lost.

"You really think I'll fall for that? All you've done so far is kill each and every one of us off! You didn't even leave a single survivor in each town and city you take! You really think I would give the child to you, knowing you'll just kill her?!?" The man yells at the soldiers, visibly angry.

"I see you have made your choice. Men, go kill h-"

But the man couldn't finish his sentence. The other soldiers looked at him and they all saw an axe buried into the skull of the man. His body fell down spewing blood all over the place.

All soldiers looked confused as to who could have done that. They then heard footsteps coming from the cave behind the Gaeran, out of it came a large creature, wearing a rugged looking mantle. Its head resembled the skull of a deer and in one hand it held an axe. The same kind of axe that is currently buried in the skull of the dead soldier.

This creature is called a Terunian, one of the many monsters brought into this world a long time ago to bring terror upon it.

This one however wasn't about to bring terror upon them, but was actually trying to save the man and the child.

The soldiers all prepared to fight the Terunian. They readied their swords for a head-on fight, but they didn't expect the next thing that would happen.

The Terunian held out its hand and it cast a spell, which shot out stone spikes in the direction of the soldiers, impaling a handful of them. The remaining soldiers instantly went on the offensive, however their swords couldn't even reach the Terunian. Before one soldier could swing his sword, the Terunian swung down its axe, cutting the soldier in two from his head to his crotch, leaving only a pile of blood and gore. Not only was the Terunian strong, but it was also quite fast. This caused the other soldiers to back off in horror and retreat. It wouldn't let them escape so easily though. It held out its hand to the ground and made spikes appear out of the ground beneath the escaping soldiers, impaling all of them, killing them instantly.

With this, all of the soldiers that were chasing after the Gaeran were killed, thus saving him.

"What the-" exclaimed the Gaeran.

Then the Terunian turned around to look at the Gaeran. He was starting to panic, thinking he was going to be next. The Terunian crouched down to pick up the Gaeran and the basket. This surprised the man. It brought them inside the cave. In it he saw what looked like a house, with a bed, lighting and a stack of books and papers.

It put the Gaeran on his stomach on the bed. It then broke the shaft of the arrow and started wrapping up his wound in a bandage.

The Gaeran hadn't realized until now that he was actually being treated by the Terunian.

"Why though? Why are you helping me?"

He didn't expect it to respond, since monsters usually don't have enough intellect to comprehend languages. However, this monster wasn't an ordinary one.

"Because I would be considered an 'evil monster' if I didn't."

The Gaeran looked at the Terunian in shock.

"You… can talk?"

"Yes. I can. I'm not like the other monsters. I'm what some would consider… a 'monster with intellect'."

It then approached the basket that was laying on a desk.

"Is this your child?" the Terunian asked.

"No. Apparently it is the daughter of the Taurcaran royal family, who rules our kingdom."

"Hmm… so she is the princess?"

"Yes, I found the basket floating on a river, the soldiers were chasing after me to- Arghhh!"

The Gaeran then screamed in agony, the bandage may have stopped the bleeding partially, but he already has lost a lot of blood. His chances of survival are very slim.

"Please… can you… take care… of… her… for me… for the… Gaerans…"

And with those last words, the Gaeran passed away.

The Terunian looked at the child for a second, before looking back to the dead Gaeran saying, "I will, rest easy now."

The Terunian carried the body of the Gaeran outside to bury it.

Afterwards it returned to its cave and took a closer look at the child. It took out the child from the basket inspected her.

"I can see you have the wings and eyes of a Gaeran, but you don't have the typical hair and skin color of one. Could you perhaps be one of the rare 'albino Gaerans'?"

The baby just looked at the Terunian with a neutral expression, not responding, because it doesn't understand it yet.

"I think I have read it somewhere in one of these books."

It began looking among its large collection of books and documents for a specific article. After taking out lots of books and making a mess of its book collection, it finally found what it was looking for.

"Here, I found it. This is an article in a book describing the birth of an 'albino Gaeran'. It is said that the incidence of this is extremely low, about one in fifty thousand or so. The first case of one being born was documented a century ago, right after when the Gaeran kingdom was founded. Gaerans have great capabilities when it comes to both magic combat and physical combat. However, an albino Gaeran has capabilities at least a dozen times greater. Those usually end up in high positions in the army of the Gaerans."

It then continued through the book until it came to a specific page describing the typical characteristics of an albino.

"…typically has pale skin, white hair, red eyes…"

The Terunian then inspected the baby again and confirmed that she was indeed an albino Gaeran.

"Looks like I lucked out and got my hands on a rare specimen of an albino Gaeran. I must take great care of you then. You seem hungry, let me get you something to eat."

The Terunian goes out of the cave with ropes to go get something for the Gaeran child to eat. It's only after a short ten minutes before it is back again.

It returned with an entire cow, with its legs bound by ropes. It put the cow inside of the cave on its side. It then picked up the baby and put her close to the cow's udder.

"Here's food for you."

She then put her mouth on the udder and started to drink the cow's milk.

After a short while, she stopped and had a happy look on her, indicating she was full and feels well now.

"If I'm going to take care of you, you will need a name though. Right now it won't have an effect whether you have one or not, but once you grow up and gain the ability to talk, not having one will be problematic. But what name would fit?"

It thought for a while, wandering around its house, trying to come up with a name. It then knew what to name her.

"I know! There is this book that I really liked. It was about the tragic story of a poor single mother with her daughter, trying to come by. The mother eventually died, leaving the child on its own in an orphanage, but the child eventually got adopted in a happy family. What was the child's name again…

It was looking through its collections of books to try and remember the name.

"Oh, I know it again!"

The baby looked at the Terunian with a curious look.

"I'll name you… Yasmin."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Terunian initially took care of Yasmin like somebody would take care of their dog or cat. But as time went on, it started to consider her more like its own child.

Yasmin is now about 2 years old, she can already walk and speak somewhat, though not perfectly yet.

"Sildok, what you have catched for dinner?"

The Terunian's name is Sildok. It is a name it has given to itself. Sildok is different from most Terunians, because most of them act like feral beasts. Sildok on the other hand has more intellect than the others and tries to become more human-like. It learned that one of the attributes of humans is that they have names. So, it came up with a name for itself.

If Sildok isn't hunting for food, then it is collecting various books and documents to study more about various topics of this world. One could say Sildok is very studious.

"It is 'caught', not 'catched' and I have caught a large fish for us at the river. So, for dinner, I'll make you fish stew."

"Yay! I love fish." Yasmin says with a bright smile.

Upon seeing her smile, Sildok experiences a feeling he hasn't experienced before during his lifetime in this world. He can't really describe it well, but it feels 'fulfilling'.

After they finish dinner, they get ready to go to bed. Sildok had made a bed for Yasmin to sleep in when she was still a baby. Initially she was sleeping in the small basket, but as she grew up, it would become too small, so Sildok decided to make a new bed for her.

"Sildok, can read story to me?"

"Sure, let me see what story I haven't told you yet."

Sildok looks inside its collection of books again, but seems to realize most stories have already been told to her.

"Actually, that reminds me. I've found a new book today in one of the ruins far from here. It seems to be about some princess with long and beautiful golden hair being locked up in a tower by an evil witch."

"I want to hear."

"Alright, I'll read it. So, once upon a time, a couple lived in a faraway land. They lived a very lonely life, and their only desire was to have a baby. The house next to…"

Sildok continues telling the story until late into the night.

"…and both went to the kingdom near the forest and lived happily ever after. The end."

After reading, Yasmin seems like she is about to fall about. Sildok then closes the book and softly says, "Goodnight, Yasmin."

She then replied, "Goodnight… dad."

Sildok pauses for a second, looking her into the eyes with a straight expression. Then he smiles and says, "Goodnight… daughter."

After that, he dimmed the lights of the house and went to sleep.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Many years have passed and Yasmin has already grown up a lot. She even learned flight on her own not too long ago. This allowed her to travel at an extremely high speed.

Her being an albino Gaeran has as a result her being very strong, both physically and in terms of magical capabilities.

Today, she and Sildok are about to move out from their old home, which was inside the cave. The reason they wanted to move, more specifically Sildok wanted to move, was because they started to run out of space. Not only was there barely enough space for just two people to live, but Sildok's collection of books and documents and his research papers started to pile up. Yasmin was then tasked to find a suitable location to set up a new home.

"Dad! I'm back!" Yasmin yells, while descending down from the sky.

"Oh, welcome back! Have you found a suitable location?"

"Yes, it's towards the north, almost at the edge of the forest. It's also near a region full of mountains. There is a big open spot where we can build a new house."

"Oh, that sounds perfect, indeed."

Sildok was already packing all the things that they needed on a carriage, however they are currently faced with a problem that they need to overcome.

"Okay, Yasmin, you remember what our plan is?"

"Yes, you hide in the back, while I hide my identity using a mantle."

Their current issue was that the only way to travel all the way north was via a large path that goes through the forest. This path is often used by humans to traverse through the forest. Since Sildok is a Terunian, a monster and Yasmin is a Gaeran, who are still being hunted down by the human nation that has usurped the Gaeran territory, they can't just use the road like that.

They needed to hide their identities somehow, so they came up with a plan.

Their plan was for Yasmin to sit at the front and for Sildok to hide in the back. Since Yasmin looks like a normal human for the most part, minus her wings, she can easily hide her identity using a large mantle. Sildok however is a very tall man with a deer skull for a head, which isn't easy to hide.

After they've packed everything they needed, they both enter the carriage and start their journey to their new home.

They entered the main road and started going north. Currently the forest is mostly the same trees, but once they reach the point where pine trees start to appear, that's when they know they're near their destination.

They occasionally come across other carriages with humans on them, but thanks to her disguise, nobody suspects anything.

Sildok then says, "You know, I remember long ago, there wasn't any road at all that goes through this forest. Almost nobody went to the forest either since there was no reason to. To the north is a large mountainous region, that nobody went to. But after the war, people started to set up mines in the mountain region. That caused a few mining towns to appear and now there is a large road through the forest for transportation of important ores and minerals."

"I don't remember any of that."

"Well, of course not, you were still a very small child at the time."

After a few hours of travelling, they notice that pine trees have started to appear. They knew that they were close to their destination and had to enter the forest soon. They had to continue until there was a path through the forest wide enough for an entire carriage to pass through.

However, they would soon encounter an obstacle.

Yasmin quickly stopped the carriage after noticing that there was a line of carriages in queue, waiting for something.

"What happened? Why did we stop?" Sildok asked Yasmin.

"I don't know, I'll ask the people here."

"Okay but be careful."

"You don't have to worry about me, I can handle it myself."

She gets off the driver's seat of the carriage and approaches the carriage in front of them.

"Excuse me. Why is there a line of carriages waiting here?"

The person on the other carriage responds, "There is a carriage control up ahead."

"Carriage control? Since when has that been here?"

"Since not very long ago. Ever since more people have started to use this road, the state has placed a control post up ahead to investigate the movement of potential illegal goods."

"Oh, well okay. Thanks for the explanation."

"You're welcome, miss."

Yasmin went back to their carriage and sat in the driver's seat.

"Okay, so, apparently there is now a control post up ahead to investigate the 'movement of illegal goods', whatever that is supposed to be."

"That sounds problematic. What are we going to do about me?"

"Perhaps we can use one of the large cloths to cover you up?"

"That could work. Let's try it. However, we do need a back-up plan in case we do get discovered."

"Can't we just kill them, if that happens?" Yasmin casually suggests.

"No, that will cause even more issues. Besides, there will be a lot of eyewitnesses."

"Alright… Oh, I know something to use as a back-up. Don't worry about it, I got it covered."

After waiting in line for a while, it is finally their turn for the carriage control.

"Hello, we're border patrol, we're here to investigate the goods that you're transporting. Do you mind if we look in the back of your carriage?" the man wearing a uniform asks Yasmin.

"Sure, go ahead. We've got nothing to hide." She says with a fake smile.

One of the guards goes to the back and enters it. He sees large boxes and a piece of cloth covering something large. He first opens a few of the boxes. Most of them contain books and documents, which is fine for the guards. Some boxes contain furniture and cooking utensils, but then he approached the large cloth covering something underneath it.

The guard came close and grabbed the cloth, after which he pulled it off. What he saw afterwards was just another large pile of books stacked on top of each other.

"Uhm, please try not to touch it, you may cause the books to fall over and make a mess. I would prefer not to have to clean it up."

The man then puts the cloth back on top of it and exits the carriage.

"Everything seems to be alright. You can continue on." Says the man.

Yasmin then continued riding the carriage onwards. After a short while, she said, "Dad, it's alright now, you can come out."

Sildok then appears from underneath the cloth, where he was hiding under.

"I thought I got discovered there. What did you do to them to make them not notice me after removing the cloth?" he asks, wondering what trickery Yasmin pulled off to fool the guards.

"Remember how you've been teaching me all about demonic magic? More specifically psychological magic. Well, I've used your fear inducing spell and tried to create a derivative spell of it, that allows me to alter the vision of people. That's what I did."

"When have you been able to do that?"

"I have a lot of spare time, when you aren't teaching me reading, writing and magic. So, I took the opportunity to be a little creative with the things I know."

"As expected from somebody with your capabilities with magic."

Once they've arrived at their destination far from civilization, they haven't started packing yet. Instead, they started laying out the plans of building a wooden cabinet, that they are going to build.

This is something that Sildok mostly came up with as Yasmin is still only a young teenager, so she doesn't have the skills to draw up plans for a house yet. She will mostly be helping with labor. They first started off chopping down lots of trees, then they cut up the logs into appropriately sized wooden planks to use for the interior. A portion of the logs will be used for the walls of the house. Sildok then took tools out of the carriage, which they'll utilize to build.

"Let's get to build the house for real now."

After a few days of the long building process, they finally finished building their new house. They then started unloading all their luggage and furniture out of the carriage, then putting it all inside their house.

"You know, I got to say, we really out did ourselves with this house." Yasmin says, with a very proud look on her face.

It was already starting to get dark, so they prepared a simple dinner and then went to go to sleep.

The next day would start off as another fruitful day, but that prospect would quickly be shattered.

Yasmin wakes up earlier than usual, before even the sun has fully risen. She goes outside for a short walk in the forest before returning. After that, she doesn't go back inside, but she takes a look at the few remaining boxes still inside the carriage. She opens one up and sees only books. Normally she doesn't really like reading all that much, but this time she's curious and wants to know what kind of books Sildok hoards.

She goes through a few of them, which were about historical events. One of them was about the Gaeran war and its aftermath. Yasmin looks at the book and pauses for a second. She is aware of the events of her country, which doesn't exist anymore, and the atrocities the attacking humans have committed. However, this all happened when she was still a baby, so she doesn't really care about it.

She then puts the book away, but the next book she sees interests her more than anything else. It had the title 'Diary'. This was clearly her dad's diary. Yasmin was contemplating whether she should read it or not. After seconds of debating with inner self, she decided to open it.

The first few chapters were mostly about his early life, before she was even born, she assumes. She then skips a few pages until she notices entries talking about the Gaeran war. This means that these chapters take place almost around the time she was born. She continues reading, curious about what he has written about her.

She then turned to the next page and began reading. What she read there caused her to be struck with utter disbelief.

The chapter went as follows:

Today I was just minding my own business at home, reading the books that I recently found. However, I was suddenly disturbed by noises outside.

I went outside to hear what was going on. I was especially curious, since usually nobody goes to this part of the forest.

I peeked outside without being noticed and what I saw shocked me. I saw on the ground a Gaeran man wounded on the ground holding a basket. In front of him were a bunch of human soldiers. It was clear from their conversation that they wanted the basket.

They then said that the basket had a baby inside. Said baby being the daughter of the Taurcarans. The family who currently rules over the territory my home resides in.

The man holding the basket was being threatened to hand over the basket. I knew that a war was going on between the Gaerans and the humans, but if a child is on the line, then I can't just let them run amok. So, I went back in and grabbed my axes and killed all the soldiers.

I then helped treat the wounded Gaeran, but he sadly passed away. He left me with the basket with the baby inside. This baby is also a Gaeran, a special kind of Gaeran, that is rarely born. So, I really lucked out with finding her, so I decided to take proper care of her.

Of course, she needed a name, I named her Yasmin.

Yasmin couldn't believe what she read. She read it again, just to be sure she didn't misread it. After reading it over and over many times over, she dropped the book and fell on the floor of the carriage out of disbelief.

"Wait… so… he's not my dad?" Yasmin said with her eyes filled with tears.

"So, I've been lied to until now."

Inside the house Sildok just woke up and was making breakfast, he noticed Yasmin not being in her room, so he guessed she must have gone for a morning stroll in the forest.

She then entered the house again and when he greeted her, he was met with an unexpected sight. He saw a rather distraught looking Yasmin coming into the house. He was wondering what happened, worried about her.

So he asked her, "Yasmin, what happened? Why are you crying?"

He was about to hold her when she slapped away his hands from her.

"How many lies have you been telling me all this time?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Sildok asks.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Yasmin says, afterwards she holds up the book that is Sildok's diary. He then instantly knew what happened.

"Listen. Yasmin. I can explain!"

"Explain what? That you're not my real dad? That my real parents were the king and queen of the Gaerans? That they have been murdered by humans during the Gaeran war?!? "

"Yes, that." he says, looking to the ground with a regretful look.

"Why have you kept this a secret from me for such a long time? I'm already fourteen years old! You had all this time to tell me and explain to me, but you never did!"

"It just wasn't the right time!"

"THEN WHEN WOULD IT BE THE RIGHT TIME?!?" Yasmin yells out.

"…" Sildok didn't know how to answer that question.

"I don't know if I can trust you anymore after this. I've always considered you my father, but after this. I'm not so sure anymore." She then starts walking towards the door.

"Wait! Yasmin! Where are you going?"

"Somewhere that you don't need to know!" She says, then she runs outside and started flying away.

"Yasmin! Come back!!!" But she couldn't hear him, she was already too far away.

Sildok then sat on the small staircase in front of the door, thinking to himself, "I really messed up this time."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yasmin was flying high up in the sky at high velocity going towards the south. Her eyes were covered in tears. She wanted to get away. It didn't matter wherever she went now. Her entire life seemed like a lie to her up until this point.

She approached the ruins of the former palace of the Taurcaran royal family, where her real parents lived. She hesitated for a second before descending down and sitting on a rock in the middle of the ruins.

She looked around thinking about the past and how there may have been a short period in her life, when she lived happily with her real family here. But right now, all of it is gone, only ashes of that life are left.

After looking around, she then held her hands to her eyes and started crying again. She didn't know what to do going forwards anymore. She just sat there crying all alone, that's the way she feels right now. All alone, with nobody to go back to.

Meanwhile Sildok was still sitting on the stairs, thinking to himself.

But then he remembered again what he promised to the Gaeran that passed away in his house.

"... I must take great care of you then."

Over the past few decades, Sildok has always tried to become more human. The reason he wanted that, is because as a Terunian, he's feared by people. Him having a higher intellect than most Terunians allows him to experience higher forms of emotions, that others can not. One of those emotions that he's capable of experiencing is loneliness. His dream has always been to belong somewhere, having a place to call 'home'. He doesn't feel like he belongs with other Terunians as they are mostly feral beasts. Humans fear him, so he will have a hard time fitting in as well. He hoped if he became more human like, he would be able to fit in more. He did this by learning as much as he could about humans and their history. One thing he learned about human society is that they all have a family. When he met Yasmin for the first time, he didn't think of her more than a specimen of a rare species to study. He eventually started to consider her like his own daughter, his own family. It was then that he realized that he finally built up a life and place to call 'home'.

He wasn't about to let it all go. After all, he had finally achieved what he always wanted.

With that, he regained the determination again to chase after Yasmin and try and get her to go home again.

He began running at an incredible speed through the forest towards the south. He needed to get her back, no matter the cost.

After what seemed like an eternity of just sitting inside the ruins crying, Yasmin's tears dried up and she stood up again.

"I shouldn't be staying here, maybe I'll get over it if I just wander around the country, visiting places that will distract me from this."

She then walks towards the exit of the ruins but is then met by a few soldiers standing outside facing her.

"Huh? Who are you?" She says surprised.

"We are soldiers of the Saxonia National Guard. We are here for you." One of the soldiers proclaimed.

"What could you possibly want from me?" Yasmin asks them rudely. She forgot about it, because her head was still racing with emotions, but Saxonia, who had usurped the territory of the Gaerans, had started what is essentially an inquisition against the Gaerans.

"Don't act dumb like that. You know exactly why we are here for you. You are a Gaeran and do you want to know what we do to Gaerans in this country?"

The soldiers then all took out various weapons.

The soldier in front then grinned evilly.

"We slaughter them."