"Uhm, captain." Arion opened slightly his eyes, what was so urgent? He just closed his eyes for a brief second, after guarding Kiara for the majority of the night.

"What," his voice probably sounded a bit annoyed. The man that woke him up was no one other than the doctor, who didn't look at him. Instead, he looked at the cage.

"Where is my patient?" the doctor asked, this pulled Arion's full attention towards the now empty cage. The door was slightly ajar.

"Ohh, for the love of the Gods!" he screamed, while jumping up. He rushed out of the hospital ward, which was nothing more than a large tent. The woman couldn't have gone far, she only had her underwear. This made him curse even more, before his attention was drawn towards the cliff. She was standing there, seagulls were swarming around her, screaming. The sea roared and crashed against the solid stone wall. The salty air was softly playing with her now loos strawberry blond hair. She was facing the sea, in her underdress. We rushed over towards her. "You aren't going to jump, I hope?" She slowly turned her head.

"Not if you are going to tell me what happened to my clothes." She replied.

"They have being washed and are hanging in the room next to your ward to dry." He said. "There was a lot of blood and other types of dirt on it. So Tom, one of my men, thought it's best to wash then while you were being treated." Which was the truth. She nodded and looked back, the fast and open sea in front of her. "Your sword is inside my tent." She nodded again.

"I am not going to jump. I am here to watch the sunrise." She said in a somewhat dreamy voice. Arion looked at the horizon and there was indeed a small ray of sunlight peaking over the edge. He never did that, but he wondered what it was like to sit and watch. "No worries, I will go back into my cage after that."

"Well, I think we can skip that. Since it was so easy for you to escape it the first time." He said with a slight chuckle in his voice, although there was nothing to laugh at. She simply shrugged.

"I learned how to pick locks, from a very early age." she said, if it was the most normal thing in the world. And maybe for her, it was. And in his mind it was a useful skill to have, but why did she need to learn that from a very young age? This woman was shrouded in mystery, and on one hand he liked it. It was something that was keeping him on his toes, but on the other hand, he hated it at the same time. There were enough questions, and riddles he needed to answer already. He needed to know who attacked those villages, then there was that secret organization. The sun rose up, and the golden rays touched both their faces. His gaze went towards her, she had escaped her cage for this, and he wanted to see why. Then there was also the fact that he wasn't able to keep his eyes from her. And then he saw it, her skin started to glow slightly. It wouldn't be something he would have seen if he didn't pay close attention to her. But her limestone skin glowed, making her more beautiful than before. The glow faded, and she opened her eyes to look at him. "Isn't it beautiful?" he was lost for words, there was something indeed beautiful here, and it was not the sunrise. "Something so simple, and yet so powerful. With every sunrise there is the start of another day, another hope for a slightly better day." It was a nice concept, that was something he was willing to agree on. But he knew, that it wasn't the only reason why she was out here. "I will go back and get dressed." she walked past him, and he just watched her go. Not sure what to do or say.

"Did my eyes deceive me, or did her skin glow." Tom appeared next to him, so he had seen it as well.

"Her skin glowed." Arion replied. "And she has learned how to pick locks from an early age." He looked at Tom. "Her name is Kiara Håber, she is a member of a secret organization called The Core of Protection, who have being fighting against something called Riftwalkers."

"And she probably has hit her head when she was being attacked by something." Tom snorted. Arion shook slowly his head.

"Do not get me wrong, I pushed the notion of monsters aside for as long as I can remember." Arion said. "But in these five years I have seen things that I can't explain. Markings on walls, burning cuts in people's flesh. Now this woman, and her ability to not only heal very quickly. But her skin glowed just a few minutes ago." 

"Just a trick of the light, Captain." Tom said, he was not convinced of this all. And this made Arion doubt, as well.  "But the fact that is moving after those wounds, well, that is indeed strange."  Arion sighed deeply.

"Come on, it is time for breakfast." he said, Tom nodded and rushed away. Minutes later, the sound of the trumpet woke up the entire camp, letting all the members of this army know that it was time to wake up. Have some breakfast and then there was sword fight training. Something Arion was looking forward to, something to get his mind off all the mysteries.

*******

The men were paired up, going to the simplest of drills. Arion was paired up with Tom, blocking and attacking. Simple, no mysteries, no wondering what would happen next. Just keeping their minds at the match. Some of the men fall upon the ground, they were being defeated by their partners. But they got up, took their stance and tried it once again. Arion made contact with Tom's hand, which resulted him to let his sword drop.

"Good one, Captain." he said, he bowed down to pick up his sword. But he stayed on the ground, his gaze was locked onto something. Arion followed his gaze and saw Kiara on the sight of the training field. Attacking a dummy with a sword, not her own sword, probably one she borrowed from one of the soldiers. Some of the other men stopped with their training as well. Looking at the woman, whose stance and attacks were flawless. She was a trained warrior, that much was clear to him. "I wonder what she is like fighting a real opponent?" Tom muttered under his breath. Arion nodded, in agreement. He was wondering that as well.

"Kiara!" he screamed over the training field. The girl stopped and looked at him. He motioned to her to come to him. She did just that. "Do I want to know how you got that sword?" He asked. The girl shrugged.

"It was standing in one of the stands, by one of the tents with a movable smithy in it. You have my sword in your tent, and I do not know which one is yours. So I borrowed this one." She said.

"Borrowed, without asking. In my book, that is called stealing." Tom said. "But we have your sword, so fair is fair." Kiara looked at him and Arion smiled. 

"This is Tom, the man that washed your clothes." Arion said.

"Nice one, Captain." Tom said. "Just when I was beginning to believe that we could be friends." Arion shrugged and raised his hands in surrender. "But your clothes would have being in the doctor's way to treat your wounds, and they were dirty." As if that makes it alright, again it was a thin line, and he was not going to touch it. Arion reminded himself, this was for Kiara to decide if this was agreeable or not. Kiara didn't say anything, she just looked at Tom with a glare that could have killed him. So that made things pretty clear.

"Your fighting skills were flawless," Arion said, to break the tension. "At least on the dummy. We were wondering if this is also the case on something that fights back. And I think that Tom is the perfect volunteer." Tom glared at him. Yes, he did it again. Throwing him in front of the wolves, only this was just one wolf. But Kiara nodded.

"Fine," she replied. Tom growled at Arion who stepped out of the way. And the rest of the army, who in the main time had stopped, started to circle around them. The fight didn't take long, which surprised Arion. Kiara had unarmed Tom with so much ease, that it was almost comical. Only it was nothing to laugh at, there was nothing wrong with Tom's technic. He was a skilled with the sword, Arion could attest to that. And it wasn't the matter of Tom holding back, either. Kiara was simply that good. Arion looked around and all of him looked at Kiara with their mouths slightly ajar.

"Again," Tom said, while picking up his sword. Kiara obliged, but the result was the same over and over again. Was this magic? Arion had heard that some people inside the Sharax Empire and in the Sodora Kingdom have magical abilities. The nephew of the current Empress and Emperor was a so called seeer, and was able to see someone's past, present and future. But those people all had the same features, night sky blue hair and red eyes. Children of Segeus that is how they were called, but Kiara didn't have red eyes or night sky blue hair. Arion shook his head when Tom was unarmed for the tenth time.

"Give it up, Tom. You are not going to win from her." He said, Tom looked at him.

"I had the same thought, five tries back. But I am not one who easily gives up." Tom said. "You are something else, miss Kiara." Arion agreed with that, so did the rest of his men, audibly. "But I wonder," Arion lowered his head knowing where this was going, he had thrown Tom for the wolves, and now it was Tom's turn to do the same. "I want to see how our Captain hold his own against you. If you do not mind, miss Kiara." His statement was met with screams of enjoyment from the older soldiers. They wanted to see his ass royally kicked, and this might be so. But he was able to study her moves, while she was kicking Tom's behind. Kiara looked around the crowed, a sly smile appeared on her face.

"Why not," Kiara replied, all his men started to shout loudly. Gladly awaiting for a good show. He stepped on the field, his sword already in hand. Tom gave him a nice pat on the shoulder. He nodded, took his stance and waited for her to come to him. She was smaller then him, and much quicker to. Tom in his fights attacked her first, and that led to his ten defeats. He was going to see what she would do, if she needed to start this confrontation. And she didn't let him wait for long, her sword fowling her, it was probably a bit more on the heavy side. But it didn't stop her, he blocked her first attack, and her second. He kept on blocking her. He knew that she was quick, but this was crazy. There was no sign of one single mistake, there was no opening for him to place a counter attack. So all he could do was blocking her attacks, and his men were not helping either. Their were cheering Kiara on, glad to see him struggling. And he couldn't blame them for that, his family and he put them through the ringer. And this in their eyes was the perfect revenge. He took a small step back, and strangely enough she followed him, giving him the perfect opening to strick back. And he did, and because of this he was able to get a couple more blows in. But she didn't let that stop here, they were now intertwined in some kind of dance. The magical dance of sword fighting, were none of them wanted to come out as the loser. Which in his mind, both of them wouldn't face ridicule after this. Both of them were fighting for their lives, without the fear of losing it. Kiara's forehead was cover in pearls of sweat, so was his. They were getting tired, and it showed. Not that his men noticed it, they were cheering even louder now that he was fighting back. 

"We for sure giving them a very good show." he said, his voice came out a bit forced. He was clearly out of breath, but there was no change of him slowing down. Apparently neither did she, she took another swing to him. But she left herself slightly open, he duck out of her swords way. He charged forward and pushed her towards the ground.