Two weeks passed by swiftly after Rowan's birth. Through that time, Rowan had been able to get accustomed to controlling his own body. His rate of learning was so quick, that he surprised his parents who had been meeting his every need.

"Mother." Rowan said as he stepped into the kitchen of his home. He held a wooden sword in his right hand, and his face was dirtied with dust. His clothes were in no condition to be called better, as they were caked with mud and sand.

"You messed yourself up again, Rowan." Lena sighed upon seeing her child.

"Yes, me and Eric were playing swordsman with some of the other kids. I just took a break." Rowan nodded his head as he answered his mother honestly. He had a pure mind, so trying to twist the truth never crossed his thoughts. Maybe after being exposed to the other children for some more time, he would be more natural like the other children.

Lena smiled when she heard Rowan refer to the training that the children were doing as 'playing swordsman'. In truth, the other kids were practicing the martial arts that they had probably been taught at school, or by their parents. Eric was the oldest amongst the,, at nineteen, and he had undergone special training by their father, who was an officer in the army.

"Come here, Rowan." Lena rinsed off her hands and sat down on the step that led out of the kitchen, and into the backyard. Rowan nodded and sat beside his mother.

"Let me tell you something," Lena pushed her dark hair over her shoulder, revealing her long, pointy ears. "We Drubads are a race of warriors. I am sure your teachers in school have told you that." She said as she looked up into the sky. A massive tree that was so large, that its canopy was high enough to evade the high rise buildings of the city where they lived in, towered in the distance. Their city was founded around this majestic tree.

Rowan nodded to show that what Lena had said was right.

"Your father is an Earl Class warrior. This grants him a lot of power. He expects his children to be warriors like him in the future too, you know." Lena kept on explaining, "What you were doing with your brother and his friends was not 'playing swordsman'. You were training the martial arts that they were taught. That is dangerous, and I expect you to be careful, okay?" Lena asked with a smile as she wiped Rowan's face with a wet towel.

"Mhm!" Rowan mumbled around the towel that was muffling him. He nodded his head rapidly after his face was clean. "I will be careful, but does that mean I have to stop?" He looked bothered by the possibility of being forced to stop hanging out with Eric and his friends.

"No, not at all. In fact, go on. All I ask is for you to be careful. Will you do that for your mommy?" Lena asked.

"I'll be very careful!" Rowan raised his wooden sword and yelled, drawing the attention of Eric and his friends, and making Lena to laugh out loud.

Eric, noticing his brother sitting with his mother at their backyard, walked over. They were all taking a break so it was no problem.

"Is our little warrior bothering you, mom?" Eric asked with a smile. He looked like a carbon copy of his father. They both had light brown hair and bright green eyes that shone through the darkness. The major differences between them was that Eric was younger than his father, and that he liked to smile and express his feelings a lot more too.

"Your brother needs a bath. You can help him while I round up lunch." Lena said before standing up, wiping down the dust on her dress, and returning to the kitchen. Eric and Rowan went into the house after Eric told his friends that he would be back after lunch.

.

.

In a place far away from the city where the family of four lived, an aircraft zoomed through the sky at an incredible pace. The wind was split as the aircraft flew over an endless forest expanse, and the birds that made the trees down below their homes were startled into hiding.

"Get ready for deployment, men." A man with light brown hair, green eyes, and a short brown beard announced to the soldiers that were getting ready to be deployed. The soldiers all stood at the ready in the hangar bay of the aircraft.

Roland eyed his soldiers with a critical gaze. Although all of the new additions to the mission had been thoroughly screened, he still held some reservations about them.

Before him, twenty Baron Class soldiers and five Viscount class soldiers stood at attention. While they might have been plenty powerful wherever they came from, they were now under his command, and as an Earl Class officer, he held much more authority and power over them.

The aircraft rumbled as it slowed down. There was a clearing in the middle of the forest where they were landing, and the aircraft intended to touch down there.

"Alright, this is it. Pick up your weapons and leave all advanced devices here. As you have probably been told before, technology does not work in the place we are heading to." Roland gave his men a last minute briefing. "This is your last chance to back out. When we step off this ship, all twenty five of you will answer to me."

None of the soldiers spoke.

"Good. Let's go." Roland nodded.

Just as he finished his speech, the bay began to open up, revealing the outside. A lot of equipment was arranged about in the clearing, and dozens of soldiers milled about. This was the final checkpoint before the Dead Lands.

Roland and his men stepped out of the aircraft, and watched it as it rose back into the air before leaving the way they had come. He led them to the barracks that had been built in the clearing so that they could check in before finally departing for their mission.

"Hopefully, this will not take as long as my last mission." Roland murmured under his breath as they made their way into the barracks.

There, he was greeted by a receptionist that led him and his men into a different, underground portion of the carracks. There, they met with an older man who sported a large scar running from the top of his right eyebrow to right underneath his left eye.