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As he, in his fear, turned to see who screamed Craig took the opportunity to stab Alfred through his heart but didn't took in the possibility that Alfred might have moved more than just turning so instead of stabbing through the fatal point he stabbed through the right shoulder. First Alfred just briefly felt something really heavy hit through, confusing him in a split second. Then he saw the sword coming out of his body, stared at it where he finally realized what happened and went into a huge shock. Craig drew the sword back and that's when the unbearable pain took place. Thousand small knives made hits in the wound, immobilized him but he still screamed out of both terror and pain. He fell down upon his knees, kept one paw on the ground and the other pressed the wound. His vision began to blur and saw in double, tried to focus but the wound and the pain slowly took the energy and strength he had left. He moaned and groaned after some time screaming, breathed fast. The shock and the pain altered the sounds around, made them unclear and even more confusing and couldn't decide if the sounds came from the enemy or Arthur. Alfred coughed and a taste of metal emerged from deep inside his throat. He heard a laugh and a "No!" which triggered a flashback:

The sun shared with its soft and warm light, gleamed through the midsummer and made an enjoyable, brighten day even though there were some grey clouds from afar. He remembered that they were on a trip, visiting the western province of Melren to make a deal with some tribes about enlarge their own society. He didn't mind the long trip, as long he could adventure other places. They were wearing the standard clothes since it was heated, tried as often go through shadows of the trees to ease the body warmth which was warmed up by carrying the heavy bags. He and his sister, Varva, played where whenever they saw a lumfly (an insect that shines in summer) they have to push the other fastest as possible before the other did the same, winning the little contest. Their parents were ahead, discussing the relevant matter of succeeding the purpose of the trip. They also had some followers with them, some of them were just going the same way and some went along with the same purpose as them. This was the first trip his sister ever had and the family wanted to make it experience for her to remember so she were given the privileges not to wear the luggage if she wanted and even get carried if her feet began to get sore. Sometimes Alfred carried her, sometimes her dad, Allan. She laughed sometimes at the jokes her big brother and her parents gave.

As the day went on the weather slowly change to something more sinister and gloomy since the clouds from afar were blew to their destination. It began to drop some few droplets, made the ground slightly wet, eventually a bit muddy. They reached the rope bridge they had to cross to progress the trip. It was solid made, broad enough to have two people beside each other with space to spare which was one of the best rope bridges on this province, surpassed by the rope bridge called "Dender". This rope bridge was called "Strength of Varva". Alfred made Varva believe that the bridge was called after her and was created for her honor. Their parents heard that and smiled, looking at each other as if they were exchanging thoughts to each other. "We'll go first to check if it got damaged by thugs" growled Allan, secured his back for possible loose ends and went forward to take a look on the rope ends which held the bridge up. His wife, Feline, did the same.

The sky began to rumble. They all looked up, got a bit concerned but focused to ready themselves to cross the rope bridge. Lately, the thugs and bandits damaged the bridges in hope that the bridges would collapse while crossing it, resulting the victims to fall down upon the river beneath, possible resulting death, where the thugs and bandits could recover the body, taking the belongings and other valuable things.

After they reported that the bridge was safe by judging the ropes at the one end they decided for security measures that the grown up should cross it first in case that it would give after even the check. Even if it was solid it was not sure to cross rope bridges in these times. The parents decided to go first. They grabbed each other's hand, hoped for the best while the others, especially Alfred and Varva, prayed to Helva for safety. They crossed it. So did the others with no worries. Now it was Alfred's and Varva's turn. "Hold my hand, Alfred" said Varva nervously, shivering a bit. "It'll be okay, Varva" replied Alfred, took his hand in hers and squished it slightly as a secure sign "The others have already crossed it and nothing happened" "I know, but you never know" She was clever compared to her age. "You're right, we should go with care" "It might sound depressing but if this was to go wrong and we'll both die, these are my last words: I love you" She said that while she had her ears lowered. The rain changed from droplets to drops. He couldn't help but smile when he heard these words, said in return: "I love you too" he took a deep breath and continued "We better go, it has begun to rain" They began to cross the bridge. It went fine, maybe a bit slippery because of the rain. They nearly got to the other end of the bridge when they heard some ropes giving after. Suddenly they hang onto the boards with their life. Apparently the start end of the rope bridge gave after, resulted that the whole bridge fell to the other side where the lowest were clashed to pieces when it hit the rock wall. All the people who crossed it were in shock and leaned over the edge, trying to do something useful but most of them where in the way. Among the ones who reached out for Alfred and Varva were Allan and Feline who both lost control of themselves. The problem was that Alfred couldn't reach out for the hands since he hang on the one hand and held Varva's hands in the other. His heart raised as if it was being followed by the devil, tried to heave his sister to the hands but his arm was not strong enough.

The people yelled with advices for how he could bring his sister to safety but they brought more chaos than anything else. His hand was getting tired and worn out of holding both him and his sister on the board. He didn't see it but his sister began to show tears. "I'll try... to heave you up to one of the boards!" yelled Alfred nearly out of breath. "How!?"She was in sheer fear and panic; her tears slipped down her cheeks and fell down to the seemly endless fall. He tried again but didn't succeed. At this rate they would both die and Varva realized that, began to think over her life. "I'm glad that I'm your sister, Alfred" she said, calmed compared to before. "What are you talking about!" he moaned, felt the pain through his arms and shoulders. "We're not going to make it..." she looked directly at his brother's eyes. He couldn't believe his ears, got more desperate. "Not both of us" she finished. "Don't you even think of that, we'll make it!" he himself began to show tears. "Hold onto Alfred, Varva!" they both heard; it was Feline. "I'll climb down to get you!" exclaimed Allan but as soon he laid a foot on the remains it cracked which stopped Allan's action. Alfred felt that Varva loosen her grip on Alfred's hand. The remains cracked more. "Don't... do it" cried Alfred, began to shed tears. "I'm sorry. I love all of you" Their grip has nearly ceased. "Please... NO!!" She fell. Fell and fell. He felt despair slowly descend to his broken heart and he skipped a heartbeat when he heard and saw that Varva hit the river. He melancholy looked for her, thought that it might help to recover her, save her, get her back. The rope cracked again which heaved him up from drowning in sadness.

Alfred shed a tear, went numb after he struggled to stay awake, and remembered his sister's death. He heard some noises which he couldn't decide where it came from or who said it before he felt to unconsciousness.

"We need some herbs to ease the pain further when he awakes and some ointment to the newly closed wounds" heard Alfred when he blinked few times with his eyes, looked up on a solid roof of marble and heard some sort of music. It was relaxing. "Alfred!" yelled someone. He groaned, tried to lie up but a great pain stung through his upper body which immediately stopped his doing. He reached out for the wound on the shoulder with his healthy arm and as he reached the wound he felt some bandages were wrapped around his entire damaged shoulder. "Are you alright!?" yelled someone again. Alfred turned his head and saw a worried-to-death polar fox that had a face that gleamed with expectation and sympathy. "Arthur" moaned Alfred "where... are we? What happened?" "You're at our Monastery of Her Goddess Helva" answered an unknown person. Alfred leaned his head forward to have better look at the surroundings but to his demise he had difficulties doing that too. He felt sore... everywhere. "You must take it easy and rest as much as you can, child, you have just woken from a painful operation" The nun came closer to the bed; he knew about how the nuns were dressed, he remembered he visited the monastery and church at his home sometimes, but he never actually saw them at close range: Their overall color was blue but on the outer parts of the clothes the color was nearly white. The head clothing was dark blue where the small end line was light blue. The upper core body shared the same color as the head clothing but as it went to the arms and hands it got brighter where the very end of the arm where white. From the darker to brighter color there were three layers from core to outer parts which the lower body also followed. Like the music it looked calming and soothing. Apparently this nun was special for she had a staff covered in crystals so it had an aura of some sort of magic and the top was formed as the blue rose (a special kind of rose; it had a form of a rose with spike petals with different color variations of blue. It was called Helva's Gift). Furthermore she wore a flower themed medallion which was completely white so it was in contrast with the dark blue color. "Who are you?" moaned Alfred, tried to suppress the pain which is expressed as a troubled face. It was there he saw that the nun was an otter. "I am Miana, the Headmaster of the Monastery. Please when you speak to me call me either "Headmaster" or "Miss Miana". Now lie down and rest for soon we'll remove the bandages and give the wounds some ointment to fasten the recovery progress. After that you'll receive some eatable herbs that will ease the pain further. If you need anything you can at any time speak with my assistant Anva" She made an arm gesture and stepped aside to introduce Anva. Anva took a step forward and bowed slightly and welcomed both of them. By judging her appearance she was probably the same age as them and was canine but both couldn't see what kind of canine she was at that moment. They were both about to exit the room when Miss Miana halted and said following: "One last thing: The music you're hearing is to help you recover but it has to be at your liking so the question is: Do you enjoy it or can it be better?" Alfred forgot about the music and therefore looked around in the room to find the source but there was no one who played the music and there was no sign of an instrument, at least not in the room. "About the music, Miss Miana, where does it come from" asked Arthur out of nowhere. "I guess I forgot to explain it but here you go: The music that flows in this room comes from my magic and I..." "What?! That's awesome!" exclaimed Arthur, shortly got carried away. "Please, don't interrupt Miss Miana when she explains something to you" said Anva calmly and turned toward both of them. "As I was about to say; I can change the music at my will and the question remains" she stood, waited for the answer. "It's really relaxing so... um... it's more than enough, I guess" answered Alfred unsure. "Good. Now I must depart to take care of other matters. Do feel at home and remember you can ask Anva for assistance. May Helva guide and help you, children" When she walked it looked like she glided over the floor. "I wonder what kind of story she has" Arthur was in his own thoughts but as Anva went to Alfred he returned to the worry state "Sorry that I didn't pay attention to you, I just got mystified by that... awesome otter..." "Miss Miana, Mister Arthur! She asked you nicely to call her that or Headmaster so please honor her criteria" "My apology... I just... yeah, I never seen a sorceress or magician. I've only heard about them" Arthur sat down and stroked his neck "Can you manage, Alfred?" "Yeah, but I'm sore overall my body" he tried to lie comfortable but no matter how he tossed and turned he still felt the sore pain from the stabbed shoulder. "Oh I forgot! This is important or I think it is..." Arthur suddenly got fired up but his worried face didn't get better but actually worse. "What is it, Arthur?" Alfred got curious. What could possibly be more interesting than they met a sorceress? "It's about Craig..." it seemed that Arthur didn't dare looking at Alfred but he still had his head directed at him. "I heard it from him while you were unconscious and yes... this may come to you as a shock, Mister Alfred" Anva looked down of the floor, her face expressed empathy. Alfred couldn't control his curiosity and therefore tried to lie up. "No, just lie down, Alfred, and I'll tell it" said Arthur with soft voice. Alfred felt the pain ease some sort, got all warm.

"I just defeated Craig's last member and after you got stabbed through the shoulder I furiously charged at him but he was formidable dualist so we fought for some time. I don't know how we came to talk to each other but he said that he finally could have some of his revenge if he were to beat me: "My family were slayed in front of me under the civil wars in the western province of Melren" They fought as he talked and Arthur listened closely, tried to stay focused. "And guess who the leader of the opposing side was! That goddamn polar wolf leader of the Moon Paw society! I ran, ran to the outer lands, and swore to take my revenge one way or another! Then the opportunity to payback came. It was when I matured that I heard the Moon Paw society was on a trip to negotiate with some tribe or clans. They had to cross the rope bridge and that's where I acted. Unfortunately, it was only one victim but it was still satisfying!" Apparently someone had seen what happened and alarmed the guards of Calvin but I didn't manage to seize him even though we both got exhausted. He escaped from the guards"

They both waited for Alfred's reaction but it seemed that he was petrified. Alfred felt a rage build up inside his heart, a fury that he never felt before and out of sudden he didn't felt so much sore anymore and the pain was laid aside. For the first time in years he felt that his anger reached higher levels than the last one. But the petrification was caused by the shock he also got from this story he was told. He had faced an enemy who killed his sister and nearly him and worse was that the enemy had the entire travelers as its target. The enemy was the reason that Alfred's parents went into a lesser depression and Alfred himself felt some sort of guilt which was never been solved or treated. "Alfred?" asked Arthur really nervously, looked all frighten of the possible reaction Alfred might take. "Mister Alfred?" Anva had her both hands intertwined and held them both in front of her chest as she was praying. "I'll... KILL THAT MONSTER!" shouted Alfred with furious force, forgot his sore body and the pain from the shoulder. "Alfred, take it eas..." Arthur tried to calm Alfred and Anva said something too with same reason. "I'LL FIND HIM AND DESTROY HIM! HE CAUSED MY FAMILY SO MUCH SUFFERING!" After some shouting he was out of air and breathed quickly, sweated a bit. "I know it's difficult, Alfred..." even Arthur's soft voice couldn't calm him down. "You don't have any siblings... right?!" he stared directly at Arthur's eye as he was challenging him "You don't know how it is, you do not understand the loss I had...!" "DON'T YOU DARE TO TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!" screamed Arthur out and surprised both of them. A moment of silence. "Sorry, Alfred, but I also had my losses! Perhaps not siblings but I never told you that I've moved a lot and therefore I've visited many places" Arthur took a pause, closed his eyes. Alfred felt the guilt move again, caused him to have stomach ache. Arthur continued: "I've lost many important friends, some of them are still alive and some of them... died under the civil wars. At least you know that you can't return to some of them but for the rest; you know they are there somewhere but you can't find them because they've fled to other places. There's a small chance that you can reunite with them but the real pain is the not knowing it! Not being sure!" Alfred was muted and had his mouth slightly open of shock. He never really asked about Arthur's past and every time when someone did he avoided the question. "I'm sorry, Alfred, but I think we need some space after this" finished Arthur and went out of the room, left them both behind. "He'll ease down, Mister Alfred. Now take some rest and feel free to ring the bell to call me" Alfred nodded and lied down, felt the pain returned once more. He made a grimace. "I'll try to set things right; for me, for Varva and last but not least Arthur" thought Alfred.

After some time he fell asleep.