All was still in the valley as the mist drifted in from the sea nearby clinging to the mountains. Birds twittered in the foggy damp as clouds hid the sun.  A rat came down the slope, falling head over heals as it slipped on the moss covered rocks.  Righting itself, it made for the clump of crooked cedar trees at the base of the mountain.<br/><br/>Kinngar Garlerran had been working the fields all day and thankful for the clouds covering the sun while he toiled.  He had finished laying the seeds on the back parcel and was finally glad that he would have more time to practice the blacksmithing that his uncle taught him over this past winter.<br/>He was 17 now, almost a man at 18 and would be venturing out on his own, away from this god forsaken valley.  Nothing ever happened here and he always wondered why his uncle would choose such a place so far from civilization.  They hardly ever had visitors and when they did they were usually to old soldier friends of his uncle, never anything more exciting than a bowl of cold soup.  But his uncle and aunt preferred it that way, this life of boring seclusion and he had no choice but to accept.<br/><br/>His family had been killed in a freak accident in Auchland when he was 11 and he had been sent here to live with his only known living relative. He thought about his Father, mother and older brother as he took the plow horse to the barn and washed her down.  It had been 6 yeas now that he lived here and every day he grew more restless.  Thinking of the stories his father would tell of his time in the wars and the glorious battles that he and his uncle fought in.  His uncle never liked to talk about those days and would quickly shut Kinngar up whenever he would mention them.  He would tell him that only fools fought in the wars and that they were the cause of these dark times now befallen on the lands.<br/><br/>He finished with the animals and headed in just in time for a bowl of peasant soup his aunt had been making all day while he had been in the field.  They were a poor family who harvested just enough to make it through the winter and a little extra for his uncle to sell in the markets in Auchland.  But his uncle would never even let him travel there with him, said it was too dangerous for him there ever since his family was killed.  That argument held no logic for Kinngar though, his family was killed in and accident, so why would it be too dangerous for him to travel there now.  But it was no use arguing any more, his uncle would never budge.<br/><br/>After they finished dinner he set up his studies in the corner like he did every night.  His uncle and aunt insisted that he be schooled in the ways of science and math even though he knew he would never have a need for them. As soon as he was 18 he was going to leave and go out into the world to find adventure and make a name for himself.  He remembered some of the lessons his father taught him about fighting with a sword and he would practice whenever he had a chance with some wooden ones he had hidden behind the barn.  His uncle caught him one time when he was careless and severely beat him for it.  So he was much more cautious about his practice now and made sure his uncle had left the farm before he would do it.<br/><br/>His studies complete for the night he crawled up into his cramped room in the rafters of the house and readied himself for bed, but something tugged at him this night and he couldn't get to sleep.  There was something in the mist tonight and it gave him chills.  A dark and onerous feeling that he couldn't shake, like something was about to happen but he couldn't figure out what.  He looked down and his uncle and aunt were fast asleep, yet he wasn't tired and so he just lay there looking at the ceiling.  Then out of the dark he heard something outside in the barn.  Something had the animals stirred up and he knew the wolves had come back.  He climbed down and went to wake his uncle but instead thought that if he took care of them on his own, then he could prove to his uncle that he was a man now and he would allow him to practice. So he slipped out the door with his uncle's sword and headed for the barn.<br/><br/>As he approached the barn, it was eerily quiet, not even the insects making their nighttime symphony.  The mist was thick tonight as he approached the door and he was afraid he was too late.  But the wolves would still be there, why was there no noise.  Quietly he drew the sword and made his way into the barn.  What came into sight was more than he could ever imagine, all of the animals had been slaughtered, but not by wolves, by men. They were either shot by arrows or their throats cut.  He panicked, not knowing what to do and tripped over a bucket landing face first in the dirt trying to get out of there.  He ran back to the house as fast as he could making his way across the farmyard as fast as the falcons flew in the sky and as he approached the house he began yelling for his uncle.<br/><br/>Darting in thought the open door he found a sight worse than the barn.  His aunt lay across the bed, 5 arrows sticking out of her bosom, the blood soaking the hay mattress as it poured out of her wounds.  His uncle lay on the floor face up in a pool of his blood still spurting from the open wound to his neck.<br/><br/>Kinngar's heart seemed to stop and he couldn't find his breathe.  It was as if a 500 pound boulder was sitting on his chest as he stood there for he doesn't recall how long staring at the lifeless bodies.  When finally he found his breathe and was about to approach the bodies he felt something behind him and chills ran down his spine like bolts of lightening piercing a stormy sky.  Still holding the sword in his hand, he turned and there standing in the doorway was a figure silhouetted against the dark mist outside. Holding a sword and staring back at him.  He froze and stood looking at the figure not knowing what to do next.<br/><br/>.