Before the Beginning (Prologue)
-She woke up to the sound of an explosion far off in the distance. She could hear screams outside from people running around her village. She rolled around in her bed, sure that she was still sleeping and determined to get away from this dream.

-Her mother opened the door. "Theo, get up! Hurry! Get up, get your things and wait downstairs while I get your brother ready! Hurry up!" Her mother ran down the hall in a frenzy, rushing into the nursery of 2-year-old Michael.

-Alert now, she rushed out of bed and gathered up what little possesions she had. In those days, night raids were not so uncommon, and one had to be prepared for them at all times. Even the young.

-Theo had just turned 9 years of age earlier that day and now she was thinking that this was the lousiest birthday ever. She grabbed her napsack from under her bed-her mother had told her to keep it handy earlier that week-and stuffed as many pieces of clothing it would hold and a few other baubles in there.

-The sounds of explosions were getting louder by the minute and the screams were becoming more panicked. Curious, Theo walked over to her window, but before she could get a good look, her mother came into the room and out her hand over Theo's eyes. "Now is not the time to look...it's better not to see," her mother said in that sad yet, soothing voice of her's. "We have to get out of here first, okay?" Theo nodded. "Good girl. Now, let's go."

-Theo grabbed her napsack while her mother carried the sleeping Michael in her right arm, and a rucksack in the left. her mother rushed Theo outside the door. There, standing outisde there door, they looked on stunned, hoping to the gods that it just a dream...a nightmare...

-Everywhere there was chaos. Houses were burning; the vile smell of smoke, blood and death suffocated all; and eveywhere people were screaming, despairing, and dying into the clutches of the night. In all her life prior, Theo had never seen such atrocity, and seeing it now almost made her break under the weight of seeing such sin. "My God...," Theo heard her mother say. She looked to her mother's face, and what she saw in those eyes, usually so strong and determined, worried Theo more than anything else in the gruesome picture.

-Fear.

-Her mother rushed them away. She was disoriented for a moment, caught up in the mess of it all, but soon had her wits about her. She rushed and stopped a man who was running past, carrying a bucket of water. "What's happening here? Who is doing this?," Theo heard her mother ask, in a voice she never wished to hear again.

-The man looked around, angry. "The Taorek have come. We heard that they entered East Lafenia not to long ago and began to bomb up the place! Then they made their way down here and started causing havoc!" The man looked about, seeming to calcuate the damage. "They way they go about...it seems they are searching for something, but what they plan to find in a village such as ours, I do not know. Many people have fleed to the neighboring villages. I suggest that you do the same. Take your little ones and go!"

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