It is said among the Southern Badland Tribes, that true warriors are born in the cruelest of flames, that the best rise only from the ashes of a life torn away from them. Tradegies that end the weak, leave the strong... stronger.<br/><br/>A young man has been set on this path tonight. All he has known has been stripped from him, everything he has come to love and recognize. With his life now ended, all that rests before him is his Rebirth, and The Path of the Warrior.<br/><br/><br/><br/>The small island was wreathed in flames, a burning mote of light on the horizon of the ocean, casting thick black smoke into the night sky. It was not so far away, yet the devestation was not easily seen. The screams had given way to the slow crackling of the flames, as if the fire had claimed them all and quelled their suffering.<br/><br/>The men that had done this had already left, their boats disappearing into the distance as quickly as they had came. A night of celebration and joy had been twisted so... the scorched drift wood littering the beaches, and the blackened remains of the island would long stand a painful reminder of the great tradegy that befell this night.<br/><br/>A small, limp figure lay face down on the sand, the waves gently tugging at his body. Barely alive, the young man was the soul survivor of the massacre. The sea had almost claimed his life when the hired men had failed to, but it seemed fate had seen fit to spare him.<br/><br/>Barely visible in the darkness, a tall figure approached him, slow and diliberate, as if the horrific scene couldn't phase her mask of serenity. A stray breeze, smelling of wood smoke and sea salt, swept her dress and long curtains of hair, yet she did not seem to notice.<br/><br/>Kneeling down beside him, she reached her smooth hand to gingerly stroke his sandy hair from his face, the very touch of her skin seeming to bring warmth to his freezing body and a slight comfort to his troubled mind. She could feel his turmoil, his fractured memories of the attack on his wedding, his desperate escape and near fatal jump to the rocks. She knew everything... and yet, she was certain that he would never be able to remember tonights events in their entirety. It would remain a vivid, yet fractured nightmare, and he would relive it his entire life.<br/><br/>"So this is what the Others have led me to..." she mused, a whisper barely audible. She knew now why she had awoken at this hour and came to this place without reason. The otherworldly voices that had aided her in her unaturally long life had seen fit to guide her here to this broken figure, where he would have died had she not found him. Now she understood.<br/><br/>Silently, almost solemnly, she dragged his limp form into her arms, lifting his soaked, heavy body with no noticeable effort. Lowering her head, the silhoette of the woman and the boy she carried wavered and snapped into nothingness, a slight crackling in the air and a swirling of the sand all that remained of them. He would be away from here... far away. He would not smell the smoke or the fire, nor would he be able to see the flaming island on the horizon if he had had the strength to open his eyes.<br/><br/>This would be the beginning of his story, the flames that would claim his old life, and prepare him for the ordeals that would either break him, or craft a Warrior. The steel had been tempered, and the path had been set. Now all that was left, was for him to find his footing...<br/><br/><br/>Six Days Later.<br/><br/>The boy would lay under crisp, clean white blankets, in a room he would not recognize. The design was not something he would be familiar with, polished wood and cream coloured roofing, hard floors and lacy curtains, drawn to keep the sun out. He couldn't recognize the style, because he was very far away from his home, in an entirely different continent.<br/><br/>A small bell rested on his bed side table, among a jug of water, and what appeared to be bandages. Someone had been tending him, and even feeding him. Though he was delirious, he would realize that under these blankets, aside from the bandaging, he was completely naked.