“A strange artifact, eh?” Alphonso said as Judine handed him a bowl of stew.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Joseph added.

“And no one could lift it?” Uri asked, eyes wide and curious.

“No,” Judine answered. “As far as they knew, the thing was so heavy that no one could lift it.”

“So,” Philos said. “What happened to Dalt’s family since they couldn’t pay the taxes?”

Judine sighed. “Well...”

 

Everything changed that day. And that was the day that Dalt’s innocence died. Those who could not pay taxes were left in the dungeon or sometimes fed to the dogs. It was gruesome, really. And, on that day, Dalt saw the horrors of the world...

Midday was upon the town, bringing with it the sun’s warmth. Jeram and Cindy sat at the dinner table when a knock came at the door. It wasn’t the friendly sort of knock of one requesting entry. No. This knock was forceful, invasive, a commanding knock of “let me in or else.”

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Dalt rushed in.

“Dad!” he said.

“Dalt?!” his mother exclaimed. “Dalt, where have you been—”

“So where is it?” a voice called out from the doorway.

Jeram and Cindy looked up to see a man—but not just any man.

Captain Wolfe.

“Where is what?” Jeram said, his voice shaking.

“The magical sword your boy was raving about!”

“Dalt!” Jeram’s eyes opened wide in horror. “You told him—?“

“—But, dad!” Dalt cried. “You can sell it! We can get the money and pay the taxes!”

"I’ll be the judge of that!” Wolfe laughed as he pushed his way into the house. “Boy, show me the sword!”

“But sir!” Jeram pleaded. “The sword is magical! You won’t be able to lift it—!”

Suddenly, the back of Captain Wolfe’s fist crossed Jeram’s jaw, knocking him to the ground, dizzied. Cindy shrieked as she watched her husband hit the wooden floor.

“What are you doing?!” Dalt exclaimed. “You said that if I brought you the sword, you’d help my family!”

The captain grabbed Dalt by his shirt and lifted him off the ground.

“Then show me,” Wolfe snarled, “where the sword is!”

Dalt stumbled as the captain threw him to the floor.

“Go!” Wolfe commanded.

The little boy whimpered as he crawled to the back door. “I-it’s this way,” he said.

Wolfe grabbed him once more as he burst through the back door and out into the field. “Where?!”

Dalt pointed to the depression in the field. “There!”

“Don’t hurt him, please!” Jeram and Cindy cried as they stepped outside, following behind in fear for their son.

Wolfe came to the pit and stopped. Below, in the little sunlight that entered through the noontime sun, the gold of the hilt sparkled in glorious luster.

“Well, well,” Wolfe laughed as he stepped down into the pit. “This just might pay off those taxes, I could sell this for a bit—“

He stopped as he tried to lift the blade from the ground.

“It won’t budge!” he fumed.

“I told you,” Jeram said. “It’s magic that keeps it in place.”

Wolfe clenched his fists as he rose from the ditch.

“I think not,” he said as he drew his saber. “I think that this might all be a cruel joke, and I think that you might be mocking me!”

“N-no!” Jeram cried, holding up his hands. “I was going to keep it a secret! None of us can lift it either—“

“A secret?!” Wolfe raged. “So you are mocking me, after all!”

“No! I—”

Jeram was mid-sentence as a silver flash Wolfe’s blade arced, severing his head.

“JERAM!” Cindy gasped, her knees buckling as she fell to the ground. “WHY?!”

“DAD!”

“Tell me, little boy,” Wolfe said as he raised his blade again. “You think you’d like to be an orphan?”

“You sick bastard!” Cindy said, her voice hoarse and her eyes weeping.

“Shut up!” Wolfe exclaimed as he plunged the tip of his blood-soaked saber into Cindy’s chest. “No one, and I mean no one mocks Captain Wolfe!”

Dalt fell to his knees as he watched his mother die.

 

“Poor kid...” Alphonso said, wiping a tear from his eye with a thick finger.

“He lost everything that day,” Judine said and sighed, pushing her wispy brown hair from her face.

“He lost everything...” Philos said as if lost in thought, holding his hand to his chest. “I see...”

“Someone’s coming,” Joseph said, his cat ears twitching.

Suddenly, the door burst open and Kerri stormed in.

“Kerri?!” Judine cried, “Where’s—“

“They took Dalt!” Kerri screamed, her eyes filled with tears. “They took him and I don’t know what they’re going to do to him!”

“Who?!” Judine’s face when white. “Who took—“

“Wolfe and his men! They took Dalt! I don’t want them to hurt him, but I think they will!”

“What?!”

Suddenly Philos let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “Well,” he said, standing. “If the kid couldn’t hold his own...”

“Guess we gotta bail him out!” Joseph smiled, pushing his white hair from his face.

“Ha!” Alphonso said as he ran his hands through his brown hair to fix it. “Sounds like a plan!”

Judine and Kerri paused. “You can’t do that! Wolfe’s a captain!”

“Don’t worry Miss Judine!” Uri said as he wiped his glasses before putting them back on. “It’ll be alright! I’ll stay here with you!”

“Tell me, Judine,” Philos said. smirking, his reddish eyes almost black in the low light. “Where does this captain sleep?”

Judine’s jaw dropped from sheer surprise. “Are you serious?!” her voice was more a shriek of disbelief.

“Yup!” Philos smiled, scratching the back of his head. “Being a prisoner really sucks, so I guess we gotta go bust him out!”

“Don’t worry, Judy,” Joseph said, placing his hand on her shoulder.

The old woman looked into the cat-boy’s yellow eyes as he tried to comfort her.

“But that’s insane!” she argued. “They’re officers of the law! They’ll kill you for sure!”

“Ah!” Alphonso said, combing his big hands through his dark brown hair. “We already pissed off the law back in Apocrypha! This is nothing!”

“Yeah, Miss Judine!” little Uri said, fixing his glasses and pushing his bluish hair from his eyes. “They’re used to this!”

“I know that this is dire, but,” the old woman said, her voice cracking, “you don’t want to make enemies with the whole government!”

Joseph removed his hand from her shoulder and walked past her. Judine felt her legs weaken as Alphonso passed her as well. She turned her eyes to Philos before her. He was so odd—he seemed so happy-go-lucky. But it was different now... those reddish eyes that seemed so kind once were different. She no longer saw their naivety.

No. These eyes were full of rage.

“An enemy of the government, eh?” Philos smiled. “I rather like that idea!”

 

The night carried ever on, the moon rising to the apex of the sky. Below, Philos, with Joseph and Alphonso at his sides, slowly approached the Emerald Gate.

Above, the Starbreather levitated high in the sky, his blood-red eyes watching the boys intently.

So you’re really going to do it, then, aren’t you?

A wry smile curled his lips, revealing a mouth full of jagged teeth. The Starbreather held his finger to his chin, the galaxies upon his skin colliding together.

The boy waits for you to save him. Tell me, Child of Vespira, can you do it? Can you save this one? Or will you fail him like you did the others?

The god smiled.

Yes, yes... what will you do?

The giant green doors of the gate ascended high into the sky, so high that even the song birds dared not tempt to pass over its summit. To the side of the doorway, a towering spire stretched upward, its steeple reaching only the halfway mark of the gate’s length.

Joseph pointed forward. “Here we are,” the cat-boy said.

“Let’s tear ‘em up!” Alphonso said, running his large hands through his styled brown hair.

“Why don’t we let them know they have guests?” Philos smirked, stepping forward. He took a deep breath.

 

“Let me go!” Dalt said, squirming to release himself as Wolfe held him in the air by his hair.

Wolfe looked down upon the boy with his piercing reddish eyes.

“Small and fragile,” Wolfe laughed as he threw him onto the floor. “Just like your father and mother!”

“Shut up!” Dalt exclaimed, tears beginning to well in his blue eyes. “They were great people! You’re”—he choked—“you’re the coward!”

“Ha! You hear that, Cap’n!” Fox laughed from across the room, sitting in a large wooden chair. “He called you a coward!”

“That’s rich!” Hyena cackled as well her face still hidden behind her blank, ivory mask.

Dalt tried to stand when Wolfe’s leather boot caught him in the mouth.

“You wanna know something, kid?” the captain said, pushing his long black hair from his face. “You’re gonna die here! And there’s no one coming to save you—”

HEY! KID! a voice resounded through the night.

“That voice...” Dalt said softly. He knew that voice...

“We’re hereeee!” the voice bellowed again.

“That’s...” Dalt began.

“Ha!” Fox laughed. “Looks like they took the bait!”

“Oh yeah?” Wolfe said, turning his eyes to Dalt once more. “Don’t get your hopes up, kid. They’ll never beat us! Not while we hold the Emerald Gate!”

“...Philos?...”