I remember very fondly... the day I met him. I had been playing in the rubble of an old house when he snuck up on me. I was finding the best pieces of wood for a fort I was planning to build. When the world was at war and everything was destroyed my fort would stand tall. But I'm going off topic. The kid had snuck up on my scavenger hunt. And tapped my shoulder. One look at him and I had stepped back in defense. My dad had told me to stay away from strangers. But I was naïve. When I saw it was a boy around my age I calmed down and smiled at him. He had messy brown hair, and a pointed chin. He had dark blue eyes as well. He was dressed in a raggy brown shirt, and dirty, but in okay shape jeans. But the most curious was his pointed ears. "Hello there.' the boy said surprisingly cheery. It was refreshing. I hadn't seen a kid in months! And all the adults I hanged out with were always grumpy. He smiled at me innocently. Fear draining away I greeted him. 'Uh... hi there." I muttered. "What cha doing?" The boy asked me. I looked back down to my hands to see I had dropped any piece of ruins I had been picking up beforehand. "I'm... I'm finding stuff to build a cool fort with. I said, suddenly filled with pride. The boy got very excited. "Oh cool! I've never had a fort before!" The kid yelled excitedly. I immediately shushed him. There were soldiers nearby and I didn't want to get caught. "Quiet! We don't want to get caught!" I shushed. He looked scared for a second but quickly regained his happiness. "Oops sorry your right? Hey! I've got an idea!" The boy explained slightly quieter. My interest was piqued. "What?" I asked quietly. "Let’s be friends!" the boy asked. This idea of his at the time I thought was ingenious, not so much anymore if I would have known what this friendship would because I would have never accepted. But I was only ten. "Okay! But what's your name?" I replied happiness filling to the brim within me. "My names Terrence!" The boy replied. Terrence... I name I thought I'd never forget. I remember looking back at Terrence with hope, all my old friends were gone, but now I would have a friend again. I looked back at him and said. 'Nice to meet you... my name's Morte" Terrence looked back at me with a big smile. 'Wow that's a cool name!" Terrence replied. We both laughed. However around then our laughing was interrupted by gunfire close by. We both stopped in dead silence suddenly afraid for our lives. From the shadows two soldiers emerged. Heavy armor, fully loaded gun, and huge swords. The biggest one walked up to us. Even if I could see his face through his armour it wouldn't have mattered, He had to be smiling. "Well! What do we have here?" He said coldly. I was speechless I thought I was dead on the spot. Death had always scared me... there was just no way of beating it. It would eventually come and get me. But then something unexpected had happened. Terrence walked in front of me and stood his ground. “Go away knight we are just playing!" Terrence yelled. I was surprized he had delivered his message strong but yet he didn't sound mad but for lack of better words, humble. The Soldier didn't move for what seemed like forever. Until he looked back at his comrades and looked down at Terrence. Slowly He withdrew his blade. "I don't like it when children talk back to Me." he firmly replied as he held up his sword. I stood there in fear for my friend I've known for ten minutes. But Terrence held his ground. Even back then he never backed down. After an eternity of waiting his blade came swinging down but it stopped right above him. It was frozen there. Terrence's eyes had blacked out, except for the White dots where his pupils would be. He looked up at the solider. "Don't touch me." he said firmly. I was extremely confused. Oh if I only knew what this kid was back then. Terrence raised his hand and smiled. The two guards stood back in fear as my new friend lifted their leader off the ground. Everyone was feeling a combo of Fear and wonder. After what seemed like forever Terrence spoke up. "Goodbye." He said silently and then without warning the solider levitating above the ground was flung across the ground into the remainder of a wall of the crumbled building from behind. The impact was so strong that the poor excuse for a building came crashing down... The two soldiers that had been watching the whole time swiftly retreated to their leader. Checking him for wounds. Slowly the leader stood up. Terrence had seemed to have return to his former state. The leader slowly backed up. "You.....You'll pay for this! Whatever you are, No one gets away with this!" Terrence stood there with a little smile. I stood beside him unsure of what to think of the situation. Soon the three troublesome men walked away. After a minute of silence I turned to Terrence. "That....That.... WAS AWESOME!" I yelled excitedly.

I swarmed him with questions about what he did. But all he did was look at me and said. "I'll show you how I did it friend.... After we finish the best Treehouse ever." He said filled with glee. To see how constantly happy this kid was. He laughed out loud and I stuck my handout. "Deal." I said. He smiled back and shook my hand. Shortly after chatting for a bit, we both heard a voice. "Morte! Where are you!?!?!" I froze. Terrence must have noticed my terror. "What's wrong? Terrence asked genuinely concerned. "You need to go or else he'll be mad!" I whispered. We both heard footsteps coming from the distance. Terrence sighed then nodded in agreement. "Okay.... but you have to promise we'll see each other again." Terrence quickly and quietly asked. Barley thinking I nodded my head. He smiled and ran away. From behind the remains of the desolate pile of "house came my Dad. He was a rough strong fellow around 35. He like all of our family had greyish hair and dark red eyes. "Morte! What are you doing out here! It’s dangerous some soldiers could have found you!" He yelled clearly frustrated with me. I shrugged and started heading back to the camp my father and his friends had set up. He Yelled, kicked a rock into the distance, sighed heavily and followed me in a hurry steaming. After a fifteen minute walk we made it back to our camp, mostly of soldiers. My dad was one of the top in charge too. He was extremely overprotective though. He almost never let me out of his sight. Though he was rough and tough deep down I knew he loved me. Though sometimes it was hard to tell if that was true.

"Morte what were you doing out there!?" He yelled at me. I lowered my head feeling sorry for what I had done. "Please stay in the camp from now on." He said mad. I looked up at him and nodded. He then disappeared through a big dusty tent where multiple people were talking. Not wanting to stray away again I followed him in. He stood within a group of important looking people. They were all looking at a table placed in the center of the tent. On the table was a map. I decided to watch what these men were doing. A bearded man in raggy clothing spoke up. "We should march through here the enemy will never spot us." He suggested. My dad turned to him. "But if we do get spotted we would be completely surrounded. How about we camp out by the mansion out east?" Dad replied. Mansion! I had never seen one before it sounded cool! "That's absurd! How do we know that the mansion folk won't be working for the enemy?" The bearded man said. My dad glared at him. Guess I wasn't the only one afraid of dad. "F-fine... then Zachary But if we all die I'll kill you." Dad lost his anger, and gave a small smirk. I sighed out load, this was BOREING. I sat down completely bored. At random a solider burst into the tent knocking over a lantern situated on the floor. "Commander Z! Attackers!" The man yelled. Dad gave a worried look back at the solider, followed by a determined look. "POSTIONS EVERYONE!" he yelled all the men ran left and right. I stood my ground in the chaos though. My dad came to me with the bearded man. "Morte listen I have some business to attend too, Gregory here will protect you okay?" Dad informed me. Knowing very well this exact scenario I agreed. He hugged me and ran out of the tent. I looked up at Gregory, He had pulled out a sword. He looked down at me at first his face looked stressed, but then he forced a smile at me. "Don't worry I'll protect you." I smiled back. Dad would kill the mean people and return to me. I was wrong. It all went downhill when the solider burst through our tent. I gasped it was the same solider that Terrence and I had encountered earlier. "You!" He screamed. He rushed over to me sword drawn. Luckily Gregory struck him down. With one violent, and well placed slash that man was on the ground injured beyond repair. Gregory breathed a sigh of relief. Instead of moans of pain and gurgles from the dying solider there was laughing. "Oh poor innocent youth, if you weren't around, we wouldn't have been able to track you..... To your camp... >Cough< You are the reason so many will die little boy.....Does it......make you.....feel....bad...?" He coughed on, as he said his last words.