Chapter 1

[~Hidan~]

Nobody is sure what happened ten years ago. Maquin was a peaceful country; while not perfect it was a country even its enemies had respect for. The Quin-Jin were a powerful race, respected by the moogles for their adaptability. Their life’s within this nation was built around discipline of mind and body. Eleven years ago the Kruasarians showed up on the south boarders of Maquin. Nobody knows where they came from, they had never been seen before, not even in legends. They seemed to be lead without a true leader, organized in a way that resembled a hive-mind. Even the summons were killed with ease by these new foe. For the hundreds of thousands of warriors the Maquin had to protect their country, only five Kruasarians died in the entire invasion.

Present day:

The capitol city of Maquin, Rutilus Urbs, was now the largest slave driven city in the world. Nari watched as many of her people, younger then her, worded as slaved for the Kruasarians. She shook her head in disbelief. “These poor souls are stuck forever.” She whispered to herself, remembering that in the end, even if freed these people have no self will left in them. The Kruasarians had “treated” them, infusing their blood with the Quin-Jin.

Nari leapt onto the next building roof, she was looking for food, the bandits she had joined had sent her, the fastest and most gifted thief of the group to find medicine for some of the recently wounded members. Elixers were hard to come by these days.

As the last soldier passed Nari jumped down into an abandoned Herbalists hut and dug through stack after stack of empty bottles. She pulled her sack off her back and started putting in the potions, phoenix feathers, and Elixers. Nari’s ears perked as she heard the chink of armor outside of the store. The heavy breathing of a Damascus Wolf made the hair on the back of Nari’s neck spike in fear.

The door started to open as the Wolf poked its head in, Nari quickly jumped out a window close to her and scrambled up the back of the building and started hightailing it or the wall. Nari was a good thief but she had no desire to fight off a Damascus Wolf.

The Wolf burst through the back wall and came quickly after Nari’s scent. Nari was pleased to see that the fire her comrads had started on the other side of town kept the Kruasatians busy, she didn’t have much to worry about them at least. She turned to face her quickly gaining opponent. Her daggers drawn Nari took a bounding stance. The wolf jumped high, exposing a gap in its armor. A quick strike and a roll to the side Nari watched as her single precise attack took down the three hundred pound wolf.

Nari rolled out her thief tools and started dismantling as much of the metal as she could, getting only a few plates off the wolf before deciding its was time to get moving before more of them came, she was lucky, had it not jumped at her she would probably still be fighting, or worse dead. Only a few hundred feet till city wall, a quick leap and she was out.

A few hours later she was back at the underground thief camp thirty miles east of town.

“Ah, Nari! Yu made it back.”

“Yes Ashar, I got what you guys sent me there for too, enough to last a while.” Nari opened her sack to reveal a trove of medicine.

“You did good kid. Glad you joined our camp, though something tells me you were just fine living in the city.” Ashar joked

“Nari, did you see anything?”

“No Sam, only a set of soldiers, and a Damascus. I killed the Damascus and managed to get three plates off it, but other then that the usual, slaves and soldiers.”

Nari pulled the three pieces of high grade metal from her belt and handed them to Sam. “Give these to the blacksmith, he should be able to make a good sword for someone, I need some rest, its been a long day.”

Nari climbed up into a ledge in the cave and unrolled her bed. “Night all.”

“Night Nari, you’re a lifesaver.” Ashar smiled.