A fist goes flying into the face of Rubis, the sheer impact sending him flying back and crashing down hard on the sandy terrain. Several taller young volkin boys surround the battered youngster and cackle at his misfortune with jabbing jeers to add insult to injury. The one that landed the punch and grounded Rubis sneers in post victory and demands that the younger volkin stand up and face him and his crew. Daring his words, Rubis stood up on weary legs. He wipes away the blood from his lips on the back of his hand and resumes a fighting stance. With balled fists up and stark eyes squared on the bullies, Rubis readies himself. This only prompts the bullies to unleash an onslaught of punches and kicks on the smaller volkin, pummeling the boy into the ground once more. They laugh at their helpless victim, seemingly reveling in their mob mentality. The tallest boy, Liek, breaks through the crowd of bullies and pulls up the beaten boy by the scruff of his tethered shirt.

  “Had enough Jaggermouth boy? I told you I’d rip you to shreds when I caught you, didn’t I?”

  Barely able to open his bruised eyes, the younger boy grins, throwing the bullies off guard momentarily before they're taken in surprise as a sudden burst of flames flares around the younger boy's fist. The fiery fist connects into Liek’s face, forcing him to let him go and reel back in pain by the sheer potency of the blow and beholds a look of shock. The Liek take a step back till he's tripping over one of the other bullies sitting on the ground, floored by what he sees. One of the bulling boys, in a panic, points and loudly exclaims the use of magica which prompts the others to scurry off in fright, leaving the Rubis alone to assess what had happened. He looked to his hands as if they were not of his own and held them to his chest in trembling realization. Sensing the immediate urge to flee the scene, Rubis takes off.

  Back at the clan's territory, Numar is briefing a scouting mission with the five eldest of his sons and daughters. It is still in the daynar and the weather looks to be breezy with gusting gales brisking up the sands of the Caniopia desert they call home. As the father is in depth with his speech, another villager walks into the tent, claiming that the chief has requested his presence. With a questioning furrowed brow, the father looks to his children and assures them that he will return shortly. With urgency, Numar heads to the chief's tent as summoned and assumes a salute upon entering.

  “Numar Valentis, it’s been awhile since we’ve talked…” Chief Fheng turns away from his table of collected documents and parchments to face the lead hunter with a grim look. He addressed Numar like the old friend that he was and cuts straight to the chase about the matter upon which he was summoned.

  “Humar, your son, he… got into another fight with one of the local boys…”

  The father wiped at his mouth with a hand tucked under his arm and sighed. “I know, he told me that he gets bullied.”

  Chief Fheng shook his head. “This time it’s different, Humar.” Fheng goes on to tell the father that Rubis was involved in another fight with the local boys and that it resulted in a more violent outcome than usual. Perplexed, Numar asks the chief to specify further. Already prepared for this, Fheng calls in one of the boys that had allegedly been assaulted. Liek is badly burned in the face and rightfully disheveled. Numar looks stricken and even argues with the chief that his son could not have done such a thing. Chief Fheng explains that several of the other boys have witnessed his son using magica, something that was known to be disallowed by their kind.

  Unable to reason against this, Numar bows his head, “I will talk to my son.

  With a heavy tone, chief Fheng goes on to admit, “A more direct action will need to be executed for the dire situation, Humar.”

  Now dismayed, Numar asks what could be done. The chief frankly insists that he bring his son in for his crime. Numar widens his eyes before bowing his head again, concealing his outrage in clenched fists and flexing jaws.

  “I understand, I will do as you ask…” Numar deftly exits the tent in a storm towards home where he finds Hallah and his two daughters, Sinow and Sienna. They were fixing arrow heads to sticks. Seeing the look on her lover's face, Hallah stops what she’s doing and raises from the table of their livingroom.

  “What is it, Numar? What’s happened?”

  “Where’s Rubis?”

  Hallah looked to her two daughters in question then shook her head. “I don’t know!”

  Troubled, the father exits the hut, telling his mate to stay within. Sensing her father's angst, the eldest daughter, Sinow, follows close behind him, unbeknown to the father himself. The presumed path Rubis took takes his father outside the walls of their town and across the uncleared desert of whipping winds. He treks through the hot horizon till he reaches the site of a mountain face with a cave mouth mined into it. Numar glances around his surroundings to make sure he wasn't followed before lighting a torch and heading inside. The path inside was not straight nor narrow and the further he'd go the darker it became. The countless trips through the maze of the cave was mentally mapped as he'd often find his son hiding away inside whenever he was in trouble, which was quite often. Keeping on the path, Numar eventually finds his son. He was seen huddled beside a stream of glowing blue algae. Disheartened by the state of his son, but aware of the gravity of his crime, the father moves in to comfort him.

  “Hello, Rubis…” Numar began, standing directly behind the boy.

  Rubis has his back towards his father, knees hugged at his chest, aware of his father being there but unable to face him nor tear his eyes away from the painting scrawled on the wall before him. His father was patient with his son's refusal to open up to him and instead focused on what the boy was looking at.

  While gazing upon the red engraved insignia, the father goes on to say, “Though I have seen you staring at the same painting within this cave countless times before, I never understood the fascination over it or what the painting meant to be exact. To me it just looks like a simple mark.”

  The mentioned V symbol on the wall was scrawled in red painting with intricate white dots surrounding it, nothing the father hadn’t seen before.

  “To me it’s just a simple mark,” Numar repeated then looked to his son before asking him what he thinks of the painting. There was a moment of silence between father and son before Rubis replies

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  “Ive been trying to figure that out…” Unfurling his legs from his chest, the boy goes on. “Sometimes, if I stare at it hard enough I will start to see things.”

  “See things?”

  “Images. I… don’t know what they mean, but to me they feel important. But they also feel… bad… Like I’m not suppose to see them.”

  Numar walked closer to his boy and knelt down. He tood found himself enthralled by the scrawling. He furrowed his brows and tried to gain the visions of which his son proclaimed to see, but all he would see was the cave wall.

  The father shook is head, “I don’t understand, Rubis. Explain to me what you see.”

  Rubis screwed his oddly shaped mouth in a frown, his little dotted brows also furrowing with focus. “I see… a battle. I see our kind. They’re fighting against the elkai.”

  “What’s going on?” Questioned the father further.

  “The volkin, they… they’re losing, against the elkai.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They’re being killed,” Rubis simply said, his gaze plain by the horror he’s witnessed a dozen times. “The elkai are murdering them in battle. Sometimes, without even fighting.”

  Numar flexed his jaws in thought and watched as Rubis then stood to his feet to place his hand on the cave painting, explaining that he feels it might've been some sort of history speaking to him. Not wanting to make light of his son's imagination, Numar engages with him by taking some interest in the painting, giving it another try with a long look to see if he too could somehow manifest the same sort of imagery though he did not fully believe that such visions could be accurate even if he could feel a small hint of something there.

  Before he could ponder on the strange feeling any further, Numar returned his attention to his son. There was a question that was nagging at the back of the father's mind, a question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to.

  “Rubis, how did you get through the cave?”

  “What do you mean, dah?” Rubis finally turned to look at his father questionably.”

  “There’s no torch with you this time, son. How did you manage to get through the cave without one? I know that volkin senses are keen, but even I have difficulty getting through here without the aid of a torch.”

  Rubis shifts apprehensively under the questioning eyes of his father and casts his eyes to the side. Numar presses the answer out of the boy firmly by just saying his name and edges the suspicious feeling forward. Moving to eye level with the boy, Numar placed both hands on the boy's shoulders and looked into his eyes. At this point Rubis couldn't tell a lie, he confesses to his father that he used ashur magica to get through the dark, a flame of light to be precise. The color in Numar’s face looked to have been drained and his eyes stared into his son. Attempting to salvage himself from any trouble, Rubis hastily adds that he never told anyone of his ability, unaware that his father already knew what he had done to one of the village boys.

  Overwhelmed with emotion, Numar pulled in his son and hugged him tightly. From the safety of his son's shoulder, the father wept. It was silent at first, so small that not even Rubis noticed then it grew louder. The enthusiasm in the boy's face quickly vanished and was replaced with worry for his father. "Father, it's ok, right? Everything is going to be ok, right??" The returning worry in the boy rattled his body and shook his voice. He hated to see his father cry, more so when his father cried because of him. All Rubis could do was hold his dear dad in his small arms and silently console him. With fear masked in anger, Numar tried to shake some sense into the boy, derailing the plight to keep his son's secret by reminding him that magica was forbidden for their kind. Rubis bit his bottom lip and lost eye contact with his father out of shame and fear. For all of his life he had been told that magica was not prohibited, that they, along with many others, could not practice the art.

  Sensing great trouble within his father, Rubis questioned his father's reluctance to tell him what was on his mind to which the father shakes his head and affirms his hold of his son's shoulders.

  “It’s bad, son…” He is honest with his son telling him that the chief of the village is involved and wants to punish him. The fear on the boy's face deepens and he frantically shakes his head, claiming his innocence, that it was just an accident and how he'd promise never to do it again. Numar could only hold his sobbing son into his shoulder, holding back the torrent of emotions dammed by the sheer will to protect his son, somehow.

  Before she could be seen, Sinow hurriedly scurries away from the mouth of the cave and watched from a nearby sand bush of their arrival into the light. She covered her mouth and gasped, sensing the turmoil the two shared and wondered just what happened in that cave.

  Numar escorts his son back to the village. Upon arriving, they’re met with a horrible scene. Before them blocked two elkai officials. They were standing in the way of the entrance into town, never noticing the father and son. Faced with the grim outlook, Numar insisted that Rubis hang back and hide. He approached the two officials and asked to state their business.

  “We don’t answer to you, volkin. If you need passage through, be on your way!”

  Knowing not to press the matter further, Numar called over Rubis and they both warily walked into the village. There were elkai officials stationed everywhere. There were two each at the two entrances into the village and dozens more scattered about. Numar had no idea what was going on. Did the chief do this? Before the unthinkable could settle in his mind, he came across the chief standing outside of house, speaking with an elkai officia. The official in question looked to be high ranking due to the large antlers adorn his head and general attire. He immediately turned his attention to Numar as he and Rubis passed by, the volkin and elkai sharing a moment of knowing before he would return his steely green gaze to the chief before him.

  “I don’t care what you perceive to be unjustified, volkin chief. We are here on Elkai Dominion officia business and you -will- obey. You know the rules if you reject the inspection.

  “Yes, I am aware,” the quivering voice of the angered chief answered, his eyes firm on the elkai general.

  “Then stay out of our way or face the consequences!”

  “I can not idly stand by while you and your kind do this!”

  “Do what, exactly?” spat another high ranking officer of the force. He turned his nose up at the chief and sniffed. “Don’t start.”

  “I can not,” explained Chief Fheng, his head bowed, but not out of respect for the elkai officials, but to keep himself from tilting over the edge. His fists shook, displaying his displacement of the elkai being there. “You haven’t given us a clear reason for this…. Inspection you’re doing!”

  “I’ve told you before, volkin, we simply don’t have to. You and your kind are aberrant to inspection, however we are to perform it whenever we see fit. It is written in the laws you so carelessly disrespect.” The general answered coolly.

  Chief Fheng bore into the general with laden eyes. “I haven’t forgotten…”

  “Then you are outright admitting to your refusal to cooperate?”

  “No… I refuse… to be… treated this way by your kind, general Aldarius.”

  “You have no choice,” stated General Aldarius coldy.