The smoke was what awoke him. The smell of burnt thatch. He coughed and coughed, as he looked around. This was his bed. He got up , panicked. The room was on fire and he was afraid. So afraid. He almost froze. No he was frozen. Stuck in place. Then, a voice.
"Rima! Rima!"
His mother. His mother!
Rima ran out as the force keeping him stuck gave way.
"Ja!" He cried, calling out to his mother.
"Rima!" He heard behind him.
"Ja!?" He turned around to look at her.
She cupped his face in her hands.
"Rima! Thank the Skyfather! You're safe. Come! We need to leave."
She pulled him along.
"What's happening?" He asked, his gaze drifting about the burning village, strangely impassive.
He got no answer.
"Ja?" He said, looking back at her.
There was no one.
The ground shifted beneath his feet.
And there he stood. In blood red armour. The Hound of Lira. Staring right into his eyes. He raised his blade, a two handed bastard sword, and swung it down at the boy.
Yes! He remembered now. He was a boy! And the man! Memories flooded him, and the blade fell and fell and fell. His mother's bloodied head. The smell of guts and shit and smoke.
He felt ants crawl beneath his skin, in an itch he could never scratch. His breath choke in a gasp. He looked above and saw the man. Stuck. And he ran. And ran and ran. His body began to fall apart. Bit by bit. First his arms, then this shoulders. And he ran. A voice called out at him from behind.
"Stand and face your death like a man. How long are you going to run? Nan...Rima....Shinal!"
Finally his legs gave way and he fell and fell in an eternal pit. And the darkness took him.

"Hwaaah!"
Rima awoke with a start.
"Hush...Hush..... It's okay. I'm here. It's all okay... Just take a deep breath....." Farian consoled him.

Once Rima had calmed down. They began the long trek past the forest. They had seen smoke on the other side of the mountain, just past the jungle. Perhaps they would find him there. The Duke's nephew. The boy had sailed west in search of New land and adventure, little over an year ago, only to be lost at sea. Then two months ago. One of his crew mate's body washed ashore.
Now the Duke had asked him to find last remaining kin and bring him back.
It had taken them 4 months of arduous sailing through the Great Mae, but they had finally found it.
The New World. The land of promise and adventure.
They had just come ashore when it happened. An army of the foul savage creatures had fallen upon them. The crew were lost and the ship was seized. Now they had no choice but to find and recover it, if they had any prayer of getting back home. For all he knew, the nephew was already dead. He doubted the boy would have survived an year in such company.
"Fuck!" He cursed. He should have never taken this mission, no matter how great the pay was.

As they rounded the cliff faces of the mountain where the smoke had come from, a sprawling encampment entered their vision.
Tents, posts, watchtowers.
"War camp." Farian muttered under his breath, taking out his spyglass.
Climbing on an outcrop, for a better view, he looked around the encampment, searching, for a clue. Somewhere to hold prisoners. A hall, a tower, those were the luxuries of civilization. These savages probably have hole in the ground for them. And soon he did spot it. At the other edge of the clearing that hosted the encampment, the ground was dotted with pits covered with a wooden grate tied together using vine fibers.
"There it is." He said.
"Where?" Asked Rima.
"There, at the foot of the mountain, on the other side." He pointed.
"Oh, I see it." Said Rima, before continuing, "Now, how do we get to it. There must be what, a good three thousand of them down there?"
"We wait till nightfall, and then check the pits." Farian said, hiding behind the outcrop and sat down, his back against the cliff wall.
He looked at the sky just as the Halo became visible and the moon began to softly shine with a splendid radiance.
'Soon' he thought.