Starting at Square One

An isolated place, that's what people would call this village. Something small, not a lot of people present. At the edge of a forest, that's where you can find Woodland, a small village with great people.

In that very place, a boy who set his mind on getting stronger can be found, training evey day. He has no parents, only someone who took care of him as he grew up. As young as he is, the only thing on his mind is training.

Of course, he's not all alone.

"Hey, Kenjin!" yelled someone.

Kenjin stopped swinging his sword and turned around, his eyes meeting his friend's gaze.

"Oh, Elenoire, what a surprise." replied the boy.

He had always gotten along with Elenoire. She was the link that kept Yukori and Kenjin together, but sadly it wasn't enough. Both Kenjin and Elenoire have no clue as to what happened, they only know that Yukori now hates him.

Kenjin put his sword down, sweat pouring on his face.

The girl exhaled and stared at Kenjin. "Working hard as always, I see. Could you remind me why you started training like crazy out of nowhere?"

"It's simple" responded the youngling "You know how there's that weird voice that talks to me. It just told me to do it, and when you happened to arrive in town I knew it was right."

Elenoire smiled. It was a soft smile, one that always brightened up Kenjin's mood. "I clearly remember that day. I didn't know where I was heading, but I knew those guys would do me no good. Just because I'm an elf they were willing to chase me to the end of the world. Lucky for me, you were there and decided to help."

Both of them laid back on the grass. It was quite the sunny day with a perfect clear sky.

"So, why'd you come here? Didn't Yukori say she doesn't like you talking with me?"

"I just know that she does care about you, but she doesn't want to show it."

A sudden akward silence fell upon the both of them. They kept starring at the sky, not even moving.

"You know what?" Kenjin jumped up on his feet,"I'll take a stroll around town. Wanna come with me?". He offered Elenoire his hand, which she happily took.

They went around town, mostly reminiscing about the older days.

The village itself is pretty small compared to the others, but all of them are filled with the same poverty. Run down houses made out of stone. Every building was like that, and the people had nothing they could do about it.

The duo passed by the blacksmith, one of Kenjin's favourite places. He had gone there a few times, mostly to learn how to forge, him and the blacksmith being pretty good aquintaces.

"Hey, kiddo, didn't expect to see you pass by." It was the blacksmith, waving his hand at the boy to get his attention.

"Oh, old man Smith, how's it going? Got any new idea going?"

Smith sighed, "I'm not that old, I'm barely in my forties." he squinted a smile, "I'm still working on that sword design you came up with. I can't quite get the blade's curve right."

"I believe in you, old man, I know you can do it." Kenjin did his classic thumbs up and a wink." Well, time to go, nice seeing you." with that the children left, both waving at Smith.

They kept going, passing by the village chief's house, the stable, the herbalist's house. It was all the same old village they were used to.

"Well", yawned Kenjin," I guess it's all good. Time to go back to training."

Elenoire frowned. "Don't tell me you're going into the forest. You know it's dangerous, all sort of monsters hide there."

"That's what makes it a good training place. Just look at it."

Having said that, they turned around to face the forest. It was quite a rarefied place, good enough for bigger things to move around. Just as they were staring at it, a dark shadow flashed right in front of them.

"Elenoire..." his voice cracked," tell me you also saw that thing..."

The girl's face was frozen ."Yes, I did see it..."

It was the first time they were so close to something they didn't know nothing about. For their knowledge, it could have been anything. Only one thing was certain, that thing was up to no good.

After a few seconds, the fear wore off. Kenjin dared to speak.

"I guess we should tell the village chief about it..."

"Definitely. Maybe the guard will do thier job for once, not just collect taxes three times a month."

Elenoir could only look at how Kenjin's face turned solid red, from anger.

"One day I'll beat those bastards to a pulp. Don't even get them to interfere, it'll only give them a reason to take more money from us. I'll take care of it myself. Worst case scenario, Yukori can use her magic. It's not like we're deep into the forest, the monsters that get outside are the weaker ones."

His fist was clenched, shaking. He could only recall the day when he met Elenoir. She was chased by a few Overseers. Lucky for her, Kenjin managed to hide her somewhere, but he had to take a beating from them. It was that day that Kenjin knew the voice in his head was telling the truth, he had to get stronger.

"But Kenjin, how do we know it's not something worse?"

Her fear was easy to see. She truly cared for her friends, and the whole village at that.

"For now, let's tell the chief about what we saw. He'll know what to do, but if he wants the damned Overseers to intervene, I'll give him a piece of my mind" babbled out Kenjin.