...Dead. They were all dead. Besai could hold back the tears no longer. They traveled freely down his cheeks, carving trails through the grime and ash. His vision blurred as he stumbled through the thick undergrowth of the forest that tangled around his feet. Tree branches seemed to reach out from the shadows to swipe at his face, and his lungs burned as he struggled to breathe through the heavy smoke. Exhausted. Defeated by fear. He collapsed to the ground, bruising his knees on protruding roots, he let hoplessness sink its teeth deep into his heart. Here. He would die here. They had come with the first rays of dawn. The Chalukai Lords. Creatures of chaos. They rained fire and death from the skies. No reasons. No mercy. The screams of the dying rose on waves of fear and pain, sent up to them like some unholy offering. Their very breath ingnited the air as the shadow of their wings passed over lifeless eyes. Death had come, and it hungered for life. Besai had been just outside the city walls when they first struck. The heatwave from the blast had knocked him from his feet and sent burning cinders raining down around him. Laid out upon his back his eyes had risen from the horrific scene of destruction before him to the greater horror of its perpetrators. Their gleaming reptillian eyes seemed to see right through him as waves of panic rose up and seized him. Terror absolute gripped his heart and he ran. For his life. Crashing through the trees he fled the flames consuming his home, his people. He ran, but he could not escape the smell of burning flesh, nor the fear that squeezed down upon his palpitating heart. And now... now he could run no more. They would find him and they would kill him. The awful realization was too much to bear. His fear began to choke him, far worse than the smoke that hung in the air. He was too young to die. Wasn't he? He had too much life ahead of him, so many things undone, untried. Unexperienced. A twig snapped somewhere in the trees ahead of him, but all he could see was shadow. Then, something stirred in the depths of those same shadows and Besai jolted to alertness. As he watched, trembling, a heavily armoured man stepped forth, his hand outstretched...