Through the white surface of the snow-covered trees that stretched endlessly, was a figure, Richard leaping from one treetop to another.

His figure was a blur not even disturbing the snow on the treetops and the wind did nothing to faze him at the speed he was travelling.

All of a sudden, he abruptly slowed down rapidly, missing a tree branch he toppled down to the ground. His body landing on the cold snow covered ground with a slight thud.

A small amount of blood trickled down from his mouth. “Ah, old wounds are acting up once again from just this?” Richard mocked himself, as he slightly turned to face the sky.

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Wildfire was burning the forest down to the floor, leaving nothing but destruction and ashes, yet in the midst of all this, there was a group of cloaked men armed with weapons staring down at an emaciated youth covered in blood.

“Leave him, he’ll die even if we leave him, he’s lost the desire to live,” A tall black cloaked man stared down at the youth, his jet black eyes was empty with no emotions, indifferent with no desire to kill anymore.

“Sir, we can’t do that, how are we going to explain this to the emperor?” One of the cloaked men behind the leading man walked forward in protest.

“Tell, him he’s dead and I personally killed the boy!” He said monotonously: “Any objections?”

The man immediately retreated, having no wish to earn their leaders wrath.

The leader turned to look at the youth on the ground who stared back at him, the silver in his eyes dulled to a vacant grey.

The leader suddenly took down the hood of his cloak revealing his features, although the man was average in appearance with jet black hair and eyes, his aura was aloof, causing the air around him to be his domain preventing anyone from coming near him.

“It must be confusing, someone that massacred your entire clan to reveal himself? It’s so you can remember me and come after me if you have any desire left in you, after all, you have nothing left to lose anymore.” The monotonous voice uttered coolly.

The man looked at the youth for a moment longer before turning to his men: “Let’s go.”

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He slowly crawled into a seated position and leaned against the tree. He sighed, rubbing his temples to relax his mind: “This isn’t the time to be reflecting on old memories.”

“That day was also a full moon,” Richard murmured, the light of the moon and the stars reflected off his empty gaze.

Time passed slowly as Richard contemplated over the moon.

“Roar!” Out of the blue, a cold roar echoed out from just a few metres away from Richard.

However, Richard behaved as if he didn’t hear anything. A jet-black feline walked out of the shrubbery, yet Richard was still vacantly observing the moon.

The feline inched closer to him before it switched into a straight dash, as it drew closer its features were undiscernible besides its green eyes and its deadly vertical pupils that focussed on nothing but its target.

“Noisy,” out of nowhere three large spikes materialised, instantly stabbing through the abdomen, head and legs straight to the ground.

Before the beast could even realise what had happened it died. Yet Richard acted as if nothing happened and sat there observing the sky.

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The fire was still up when Richard returned to the cave, but he was startled when he saw Ryan drawing closer to the coverings of the large clothed object.

“Ryan!”

Startled by the voice, Ryan jumped back, then rapidly turned towards the direction of the voice: “Richard?” Ryan soundlessly whispered back questioningly, he could not see his face properly because Richard was still outside the cave, but he could sense the unease in his voice.

There was nothing but silence for a short time until Richard sighed, “Just don’t touch it,” he could tell that he had frightened the youngster unintentionally.

He walked towards Ryan and then sat on the dirt covered ground next to him: “Go on you can ask me about it, it would have been better if I had told you earlier, but I didn’t believe you were interested.” His tone warm, his gaze on Ryan.

Ryan looked at Richard and nodded soundlessly, although he was given the go-ahead he slightly hesitated before asking: “What’s in there that is so important to you?”

Richard expected this from his curious disciple, he turned to the large object: “I can’t tell you exactly what’s inside, not now at least, but it’s a sort of reminder for myself.”

“Reminder?”

“Yes, a reminder, a reminder of a promise I made many years back.”

The boy stayed quiet and sat there, deep in his own thoughts, feeling that his question wasn’t really answered and just made him more curious, still, he did not go on further, he felt that this was a touchy subject for the old man.

Richard smiled gently: “Don’t think too much, it’s not something for you to bother with, however, training is something that you should get ready for.”

“You didn’t really answer anything,” Ryan mumbled only to be replied with a chesty laugh.