Yuga was done with training for the day and made his way up the hill back to the house. As he got closer to the house a feeling of worry began building itself in his heart. He broke into a sprint and got to the house quickly, hoping to calm his fears. He wasn’t able to sense Luke.

“Luke!” Yuga called out, but there was no response. He went outside the house to the tree stump Luke normally cut logs but he wasn’t there. It was certain now. Luke was gone.

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Luke woke up groggily, his head still hurt from the blow he’d received and his vision was blurry. But that didn’t matter much because the place he was in was very dark and he could barely see in front of him. He was placed in a sitting position with his back against what felt like cold rock. He looked left and right but he couldn’t tell where he was. Fear filled his heart and he began breathing faster.

“Ah, you’re awake. It’s always best for them to be awake for this part.” came a voice from the darkness. The voice of a man.

“Who are you, sir? Did you bring me here?” asked Luke breathing even harder now. He had begun to panic.

“Yes, I did bring you here.” replied the voice.

He could here footsteps echo as the man approached. When he got to where Luke was he crouched down and Luke could now tell who it was. It was the man he’d seen at the house, the one who had knocked him out.

“Why did you bring me here?” asked Luke, his voice filled with panic.

The man held Luke by the elbow of his right arm with his left hand and Luke’s forearm with his right.

“You’re a very good resource, that’s why.” the man answered. And then he twisted Luke’s arm. The bones in his elbow joint popped and crunched and the flesh around it tore as his forearm was ripped off from his upper arm. And Luke screamed.

“Aaaahh. Aaaahh. Aaaaaggghh. My aaaarrrm. Why- why did you do that?! ” Luke asked, with tears in his eyes, his body filled with pain so excruciating he’d have preferred to die than go through it. “My- My arm. Why, why?!”

“Shhh, don’t worry, I’ll fix that soon.” Marrow said. And he stretched out his hand, and emitted Aias energy into the bloody stump. First the blood stopped flowing, then bone grew out of the stump, forming the skeleton of a forearm and hand. Next came flesh and then skin covered it all. And in a few seconds Luke’s arm was restored completely.

Luke grabbed his newly made hand with his left, cradling it. He was sweating and panting hard from the intense pain he’d just gone through. He couldn’t believe his arm was back. Before he was done recovering from the pain, Marrow spoke again

“I think I’ll have a leg next.” Marrow says while admiring the arm he was holding.

“Leg?!” Luke asked in alarm.

Mama, Papa, Luke, someone please help me! pleaded Luke in his heart as he burst into tears.

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Luke was missing. Yuga had concluded he was missing rather than left to somewhere else after looking at the tree stump near the house. Luke’s axe lay on the ground and in a corner were logs waiting to be cut. He would have kept it back before leaving. Unless he had left in a hurry, but to where and why? He scans the ground for a trail of footprints but Luke’s footprints didn’t lead out of the area. But there was a set of them that did, ones much larger than Luke’s feet would have made. Luke was taken.

He immediately jumps high into air and scours the area with his eyes. He lands then jumps again, each time looking in a different direction. No Luke, no one as far as he could see. He landed for the last time, looked at the footprints once more and began to follow the trail.

The trail led down the other side of the hill where the back of the house faced. He followed it for about thirty minutes. It led to an obscure cave entrance on the side of a mountain. Night was approaching and the moon was slowly making its daily appearance in the sky. He approached it slowly, his senses sharp as knives.

!

It was certain now. Luke was in this cave. He walked through the cave entrance slowly and with caution. It was dark but he could still see, better than a normal human would have. There was a light at the and of the path and as he got closer the light got brighter and brighter till it was enough for him to make out what was on the other side.

On the floor with his back against the cave wall was Luke. Physically he looked fine, in the sense that he had no injuries at all. But he wasn’t entirely fine, his clothes were ripped at the knees and elbows and the skin on his arms and legs were oddly lighter than the rest of his body. What was most jarring was his expression. He sat wide eyed and unblinking with a crazed look on his face. They eyes were bloodshot and his body was shivering ceaselessly.

After observing the state Luke was in, he rushed into the cave to get to him. But as he ran, just before he could get to Luke, he sensed something coming in his direction.

From the left. He could see it, a mace was flying in his direction. He tried to push forward and avoid it but his body was too slow to avoid it, shooting star had failed. The mace collided with him and sent him flying into the wall on his right. The force of his body hitting the wall, cracked it and the entire cave vibrated.

“It’s rude to interrupt a person’s meal. And even more rude to try and take it.” said Marrow from the other end of the cave. He leisurely walked down to where Yuga was picked up his mace, and walked back to where he’d been sitting.

Yuga was still lying on the ground. He tried to get up but his body wouldn’t respond. He was paralyzed.

Was it the mace?

“You won’t be able to move for a good while. That mace was made from a beast that paralysed its prey.”

“Why did you take Luke?” Yuga asked calmly.

“Why? Well he’s a very precious resource. Of food.” replied Marrow.

Food?

Then he finally saw it. He looked across to the other end of the cave where Marrow sat and everything finally made sense. Across the room was a wooden table and lying on top of it was a large knife and several limbs. The limbs of a young boy.

“Luke, Luke!” Yuga called out, but Luke didn’t respond and stayed shivering. He was traumatized and couldn’t take note of anything happening around him.

“War is a pain in the ass but it does have its benefits. If everything was working right, it’d be harder to carry this out.” said Marrow in relief “But when there’s war there’s disorder and nobody keeps the laws. We are free to be ourselves. Do all the nasty things we like.”

Yuga had gone completely quiet. Seething silently. Waiting. His mind had gone completely empty, save for one singular thought. And as his anger rose something odd happened. His normally colourful hair started to fade, losing its colour till it became black.

“Do you think what I do is disgusting? Repulsive?” Marrow asked “Well it’s not my fault, I’m just listening to my instincts, you know.”

Luke had gone through so much. Surviving through the blizzard, losing everything he lived for, nights of so much pain. But he decided to keep living, to keep pushing through, and he was. He was trying his best but then because of him…. Yuga thought as he lay boiling silently.

“I don’t care about morals or judging what you do. But the things you like hurt people, and that included someone important to me. You’re going to pay for that” said Yuga with no emotion in his voice.

“And who’s going to make me pay?” asked Marrow, his voice filled with amusement “There’s no guards, no voyagers, no one around, no one to hold the law, no one to care what I do. I can enjoy myself with no interruptions.”

“Then I just have to rise to the occasion.” replied Yuga.

“How, you can’t even mo-”

Before he could complete his sentence he was sent flying through the cave wall by a flying kick from Yuga. The side of the mountain exploded with a loud boom, scattering large debris all around. Marrow flew for hundreds of meters, skipping on the snow before coming to a stop.

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It’s begun thought Kirveas who was watching the scene from a vantage point. He’d been following what was happening for a good while. What had happened to the boy was unfortunate but that wasn’t his concern, he had no responsibility towards him. Yuga was finally fighting another voyager, how would he perform?