• “F-Faust?” the woman stammered, gently shaking her eight year old sleeping son by the shoulder. “A-are you alright? A-are you e-even breathing?”
    The boy slowly opened his dark blue eyes slowly and looked at his mother in a tired expression of question. “Is something wrong mother?” She frantically shook her head and took a step back. The boy sighed and sat on the bed, feeling rage build in the bottom of his heart. “Mother, why do you fear me? I have done nothing to make you be afraid of me…”
    The boy’s mother started trembling at her son’s cold stare. “I-I’m s-sorry.” She stuttered, bowing in apology. The boy scowled at her and growled at her. “I-I’m really sorry!” The boy clenched his hands into fists, and everything went black.
    When the boy reawakened, his black hair covered his face. He brushed his hair out of his face, seeing his hands were covered in blood. His eyes widened and he looked up, finding the corpse of his
    mother, who appeared to have had her heart ripped out. He staggered back toward the door and ran from his home. The people of Mura no Shi, the village where the boy lived, watched him as he ran toward the forest on the west side of village, where the forest was. He tripped over a tree root soon after and fell into the Genki Lake. He shuddered from the cold water, watching the blood run off his hands.
    When the last of the blood disappeared into the water, the boy named Faust stood up and slowly started walking back toward Mura no Shi. The question plaguing his mind was what he did when he blacked out. He stood near his home hearing the shrill scream of his seven year old little sister, Ritsuka. She came running out of the house with tears filling her eyes. She ran over to Faust and clung onto him. “Big brother, someone killed mommy!” She sobbed, burying her face in his chest. “Mommy’s dead! What are we going to now?”
    Faust bit his lip. “I guess we go… to Miss Okaasama…” Ritsuka nodded, still sobbing. The two of them walked to the home of their mother’s friend, Okaasama. She opened the door and looked at the two of them in shock. “Oh little Faust, your clothes are all wet! What happened?”
    “Mommy’s dead!” Ritsuka screamed, sobbing again. Okaasama gasped and brought them in her home.
    “So Shinpai was murdered… It’s so tragic; I don’t know would have wanted to take her life.” She looked over to them and handed Faust a blanket.
    “Maybe it was my father…” Faust said quietly. Ritsuka and Okaasama looked at him curiously. “Never mind, that was stupid of me to think…”
    Okaasama bit her lip and looked at Ritsuka. “You should go to bed Ritsuka.” Ritsuka nodded and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Okaasama walked over to Faust and sat down beside him. “Why do you think it was your father? You’ve never seen him.”
    “I said it was stupid for me to have said that,” Faust said coldly, curling up underneath the blanket. “My father is still alive somewhere. I already know that Ritsuka’s father was killed during a raid…”
    Okaasama sighed and stood up. “I’m going to sleep… You should do the same little Faust.” Faust nodded and she disappeared into her bedroom. Faust lay down on the floor, a sad look appearing on his face. “I… must have killed mother…” he said under his breath, and slowly fell into a sleep invaded by nightmares.

    The roaring sound of fire and an explosion woke Faust out of his nightmare. He jumped up and quickly ran toward the room Ritsuka was sleeping in.
    “Get down!” Okaasama cried, tackling Faust to the floor as an arrow came flying through the window.
    “What’s going on?” Ritsuka cried from underneath her bed. Okaasama pushed Faust under the bed with his sister.
    “It’s another bandit raid,” she said, staying low to the floor. She stared at the floor in concentration and sighed. “You two need to get away from here. I’ll try to hold them off so you can escape safely.”
    “But what about you Miss Okaasama, we can’t leave you here alone!” Ritsuka sobbed. “They’ll kill you!”
    “I’ll be fine,” she said, looking unsure. “I know that Shinpai would want you two to get out safely. I wouldn’t be a very good person if I let anything happen to you.” She crawled over to on old trunk and opened it, pulling out a bow and a quiver. “I’ll do what I can. When I say, start running south of the village. It may take awhile, but you’ll come across another village.” Faust and Ritsuka nodded and crawled out from under the bed. They slowly approached the south door of Okaasama’s house. “Now!” Okaasame cried, kicking the door open. Faust and Ritsuka started running through the burning village, arrows from Okaasama shooting down any bandits that came too close to them. The two of them finally disappeared into the winter fog that formed just outside of the burning village of Mura no Shi.
    “Big brother, I’m cold…” Ritsuka said quietly, following close behind Faust as they headed south.
    “I know I am too…” Faust muttered. “We just have to keep moving until we come across another village.” Ritsuka nodded and they started walking through the cold early morning.
    As the two of them traveled, Faust found a dagger and he began his training with weapons. He had to hunt for food to feed Ritsuka as well as himself, and protect himself just in case a bandit tried to attack them.
    “We should be close by now…” Ritsuka said happily while she placed flowers in her braids. “I can’t believe some of the wild flowers are still out. It’s so cold.”
    Faust said nothing and kept walking. He looked up and saw a figure wearing a black cloak up ahead. He darted behind a tree, slowly approaching the figure in hiding. Ritsuka just walked up to the figure with a friendly smile on her face. “Hi!” She called out.
    The figure looked over at Ritsuka and pulled its hood back. It was a young girl that was Ritsuka’s age, holding a basket of winter fruit. “Oh, hello there.” The girl said, looking surprised. “Why are you way out here?”
    Faust slowly came out from behind the trees. “Oh, our village got raided, so we had no where to go.” Ritsuka said quietly, looking at the ground. “Our mother’s friend told us to head this way.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” the girl said sympathetically, her light blue eyes focused on Faust when he appeared. “We should go to the village then. The people of Ryuusei are really nice.”