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SilverTorch

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He stopped to catch his breath, standing to the right of the forest path. He was bent over with his hands on his knees as the other students ran past him. If he kept stopping like this he was going to be last again. Sweat dripped off his face and fell to the leaves blanketing the ground.

 "Hurry up Akiri, don't want to have to carry you back to the village like last time."

One of the teachers was calling to him. Akiri looked up and saw him standing up ahead with a smile on his face. He was probably just joking around, but Akiri's cheeks turned slightly red. A few days ago he had tripped on a root sticking out of the ground and twisted his ankle. Hakaru, the teacher, had to carry him back to the village. The girls giggled at him and the boys looked at him with a hint of disgust in their faces. 

Akiri straightened up and nodded his head at Hakaru.

"I'm coming."

At that Hakaru turned and started running again.

To hell with this, Akiri knew he wasn't going to start running again. If he did his lungs were liable to burst. He decided to just walk back. By the time he got back, school would be over and he could just go straight home. The scenery on the path to his home village was somewhat pretty. Lush green trees were on either side of the path and their branches and leaves covered the sky above the path. The occasional lizard or squirrel would dart across the path ahead of him but other than that there wasn't much wildlife to see. 

20 minutes later Akiri emerged from the forest with the village directly in front of him. He looked at the school and saw its lights were off. Good timing. Now he could just head directly home and go to sleep. But Hakaru had different plans for him. As soon as he passed the school Hakaru jumped down from the roof of a building landing in front of Akiri. The suprise from this sent Akiri flying backwards to the ground.

"Shit!"

"Oh come on Akiri, if you cant even stand on your feet for longer than five minutes how do you expect us to send you out on missions?"

Akiri just stared at his smiling face until he continued.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that you have to meet the rest of the kids at the village entrance tomorow morning at 9."

"Why?"

"If you didn't skip the end of school you would know."

"I didn't skip, I just didn't get back...in......time..."

Before he even finished his sentence Hakaru left. It wasn't uncommon, he had a soft voice. But it still ticked him off. He sighed and started walking toward home again.

His rest was not peacful. Nightmares plagued his dreams and tonight was no exception. This particular one had of a pair of people running along side a lake. They looked familiar but when they looked over their shoulders he saw they had no faces, he couldn't tell who they were...but they looked so familiar. Like he had met them before, been close with them. They were in most his nightmares, each time they had no face.

Despite having no faces Akiri could hear them screaming. One was a women and one was a man. Behind them was a black mass chasing after them. With each passing second the horrible beast closed in on the familiar people. 

The lake that was previously to the right of the people was now starting to wrap around the fleeing people and the beast. Within seconds the lake had completely wrapped around them creating a small island. The man and women stopped dead in their tracks, not daring to touch the water. They turned around and faced the dark beast. It moved foward slowly and the faceless people stepped back. In a blink of an eye the beast lunged foward unexpectedly and at an impossible speed.

Before anything else could happen Akiri jerked up in his bed breathing heavily and sweating. He looked around his room to make sure he really was back in the real world. He was, and it was morning. Time to go to the village entrance. He stood up and dressed into his loose black shirt and pants. They were made of thin material so they were airy and kept him cooled when he was training. Of course the pants had an extra layer of thicker material from the waist to the middle of the thighs on the inside, just so that area wouldn't tear. 

Outside at the gates of the village a crowd of students was beggining to form. Akiri was just joining them. He stood back from the students and looked at the ground in front of him. They were talking amoungst themselves, but he just stood kicking at the ground in front of him. After awhile all the students had gathered and the three teachers were in front of the group.

"All right students, as most of you know," Hakaru looked at Akiri, then back at everyone else," You are all being sent on a single mission together. Since this is your first, we are only sending you on a simple one. Your mission is to go to the town of Sindur and track down a small ring of petty theives. There are 8 in all. You are not allowed to kill them, and you should only fight them if they attack first. You are going to go to the town and search for them independent from each other. You may help your fellow students if you see them in a fight, but thats the only time you may help them. Now Aimi here will take you to the town. Good luck on the mission kids."

Just as Hakaru stepped back and walked away with the other teacher Aimi stepped foward.

"All right, follow me students and we should make it to Sindur by tomorow."

Akiri was feeling really excited. He didn't expect that they would be doing a real mission today. Tomorow when they get to Sindur, Akiri was going to show everyone how talented he really was. He smiled and started following the group.