Luck in childhood 4
Shane was born in a village well known throughout Lacris. Larger than a smaller city, inhabited by members of a blood, which, although it didn't possess any noble title, was almost equal in powers to the royal family. Every child born into it was raised from a young age to be proud of their roots...and Shane was no exception.
Usually no one of them knew who his real family was. Once a child was born, it became the child of the village. Every woman was his mother, every man was his father, every other child was his sibling. Only the commander knew what the true biological relationships were and only he could arrange marriages between individual members.
But Shane wasn't thinking that far into the future. As one of the commander's few sons, he knew who his father was, and thus felt the pride even stronger.
At the age of three, as soon as he could hold a sword, he was put into training, which became the most enjoyable part of his daily moments. Together with his half-brothers and sisters, he learned all kinds of fighting, interrogations, and tortures that he was to perform in the future on behalf of their family.
Shane was proud of where he was born, even before he had his first action.
Their blood was known for its inexhaustible, unique luck, and all of Lacris knew them as the king's right-hand man. But not even the king could fully control them. However, he used them throughout history for his own purposes, whether it was the extermination of a disobedient village, bands of bandits, wild animals, or espionage in other countries.
Shane was always excited to watch the members of the village go on missions, return with pride, and couldn't wait to join them.
"The king couldn't do without us," one of his commanders said after the training.
As a seven-year-old child, full of ambition and enthusiasm for the future, Shane just listened passionately along with the other children in his group.
"Many say that the king is the heart of Lacris...they are not wrong...but when the king is the heart, we are the blood, remember. The royal family employs us but that doesn't mean we are subservient to them...hearts are worthless without us, never bow your heads to anyone who wants to bind you...don't be tamed, you are not animals...you are those, who keeps Lacris proud."
Shane's eyes always lit up when he spoke and it only made him more excited to train...just like many other kids.
Although he liked everyone in the village, he still had a group of boys with whom he got along the most. Since no one in their clan was weak, it was difficult to find someone who stood out, but there were still a few individuals who were more talented than others. Shane was one of them and the three others were his best sparring partners.
"If you aim too low, you won't catch anything," one of his biological brothers gently raised his hands during the archery lesson, "if you aim too high...even worse...you'll scare them off...right in the middle...like this." he whispered in his ear and when it looked like Shane understood, he let go of his hands.
The bow shot, the arrow cut through the air and hit the target in its center. The man stroked Shane's black hair contentedly and smiled softly, "That's right...we'll take you with us next time," he promised.
And he kept his promise. It wasn't Shane's first time hunting, but it was his first time hunting people. In the end, however, it was nothing special. Humans were only bigger animals in their eyes, and since he was told from an early age that they were superior to others, he had no problem helping his older colleagues to kill them. It was a smaller noble family that had been causing problems recently and the king wanted to get rid of them. Within an hour, the whole family was gone, with the exception of two men, who were taken in for questioning.
Interrogation was one of Shane's specialties. He didn't enjoy them, but he felt a job well done after them. When they and their brothers cut off the captive's fingers, they compared how nicely the bones were cut. Fifteen-year-old boys, who already had some experience, always praised them nicely, and they were overjoyed.
The main rewards from achievements during missions were gifts, useful for improving other abilities. After his first real mission, Shane was given a horse that became his dear friend.
When the rest of the children in his group experienced the same luck, their commander held a ceremony where he inducted them all into the world of younger adults at the age of ten. In reality, this was only the first step towards becoming truly independent, but for Shane, every moment, every compliment was what filled him in life and gave meaning to his days.
Shane loved his lineage, he loved his family, he loved his life...and he thought he was invincible...like everyone around him...thinking that no one could beat them.
But he was wrong.
One evening, when his three brothers took him on a nightly hide and seek, he joined in as always. Basically, it was a kind of training where one of them would hide, two would search, and one would keep an eye on everyone's mistakes to tell them at the end. Today, it is up to him to track the rest. Sometimes he thought it was a useless task while the rest of the members practiced tracking and hiding, but as a ten year old he knew that situational awareness was crucial in missions.
Hiding on the roof, he watched as one of the boys hid among the horses while the other two split up and followed the tracks he left behind. When they found him, he moved across the roof to the trees and watched as their fight began.
However, his attention didn't stay on the game for long. From a high place something hit his eyes that he didn't want to see. In the distance, dim lights were approaching from the forest in their direction. Shane knew that they weren't expecting any group to arrive…he knew that if he noticed the suspicious group, the guards at the gates did too. Shane didn't even manage to shout to his brothers that something was weird when the shout of the commander and other guys echoed through the village, bringing everyone to their attention.
Confused, Shane jumped off the roof and joined the boys who didn't understand what was going on.
"Someone is approaching the village…a large group," Shane clarified.
"Who?" they didn't understand.
"I don't know...looks like an army," he added and went with them to the center of the village, where the commander summoned everyone.
"A group of soldiers is approaching the west gate...around two hundred," the commander shouted as one of the men ran up to him and added to the report, "More are coming to the east gate! Groups one to twenty will immediately move to patrol, a group of thirty to forty will move all the horses out of the village through the underground! A group of fifty will take the children under fifteen to the south gate...!" he shouted orders.
Within minutes, the crowd of people became an organized group of fighters who took their positions. Shane wasn't in a group that could contribute anything. While all the village children were led to the south gate, a fight broke out in the village.
Escorted by only one group of adults to a safe exit, however, something unexpected happened. The report failed and the gate, which wasn't supposed to have any enemies with it, crashed into the exact opposite with a bunch of soldiers. The fifteen-year-olds were no rookies, but they were no slouch against the force they faced that evening. A group of adults fell fighting an unknown army within hours, a number of children ended up in their captivity and before Shane knew it, he had no memory of the evening.
It was daytime when he woke up. He lay tied up in the middle of a village that no longer resembled his home. The ground soaked in blood, the air permeated with the smell of iron and the sight of the surroundings filled him with terror for the first time in his life.
He was clearly blinking as he couldn't move. He looked from the ground at the many bodies that the soldiers were throwing in piles, he looked at the familiar faces that welcomed him to dinner yesterday, he looked at their chopped necks, crushed limbs and the silent silence that reigned in the village.
"Is that everyone?" he heard one of the soldiers ask the guy who had dumped the last of the villagers' bodies on the pile.
"All of them...not a single one escaped, sir," he nodded.
"And the young ones?" he asked.
"We left the two commander's sons and several others as you said," he clarified.
"Take them to the camp," the guy nodded.
"Yes sir."
Shane just clucked exhaustedly from the ground and watched as a group of soldiers approached in his direction. He was unable to defend himself as they lifted him off the ground and threw him into the wagon next to the other boys, among whom he caught sight of two of his brothers with whom he had spent the night yesterday.
He was exhausted, everything hurt, somewhere in his soul he couldn't fully realize what was happening and he tried to recover from the bad dream he suddenly found himself in...but he couldn't do anything like that.
He watched the laughing soldiers close the doors of the wagon that led him to the worst moments of his life. And no matter what he tried to do, no matter what he tried to find out about people from that day, he remembered only one thing...every single one of the soldiers he met from that moment on had black eyes.