Soldier's Heart ~ Book One

I walk with Aaron along the pavement. Kendric and Rayne are getting horses together, Saura going with them. I asked Kendric why he didn't travel here on horse, he said 'Thieves have to hide and make as little sound as possible and that'd be hard with a horse because they're very big' I guess he has a point.
"Aaron?" I say looking up at him
"Mm?" He doesn't look at me and keeps his head straight
"Where are we going?"
"Well" He stops for a moment then keeps walking "The Identifier" He says "The one we saw a couple days ago, he couldn't identify the magic in your weapons"
"And?" I pressed on
"I know someone else that might be of help" He almost whispers "They stay in secret because it's not an official business and the guards here in Llevigar don't approve of that kind of stuff"
"Oh? So, where are we going to meet this person?" I lean in close to Aaron as I say it so I don't have to lower my voice as much because if I did I doubt he'd hear me.

"Follow me" Before I can react he grabs my wrist and pulls me into a tight alleyway but it's a dead end and I stare at him blankly trying to guess what he does next. Aaron pulls a small red glowing gem out of his pocket and at the end of the alley a staircase appears going down, with a door at the end of it. Aaron, still holding my wrist but not as tight as before, knocks on the door once, twice then four times and it opens, leading to and abandoned underground city that looks like a maze. Aaron leads me past buildings, through many alleys, down roads and even into buildings just to come out the other side. He's clearly been here more than a couple times to know his way around like he does.

We come to a small concrete building, cracks up all of the walls, and the roof looks like it could collapse at any moment but Aaron doesn't have any hesitation and walks straight in pulling me with him. The room is well-lit with lanterns of fireflies hanging from the ceiling and candles on walls and shelves. A girl at the back of the room sat behind a slab of concrete stares at Aaron in disbelief "A-Aaron?" She mumbles as she gets up from her seat. Aaron gives her a small smile without meaning and she grins "I didn't think I'd be seeing you here again and you still haven't taken off that hood.." She says, tucking loose strands of hair behind her ear. I look around the room some more and it's just like the magic shop and potion shop combined. There's shelves full of potions and magic items like powders and accessories.
"Yeah yeah, look we don't have time for this, Sandra so are you going to help us or not?" Aaron's voice snaps me out of my daze
"Oh yes sorry it's just I got excited because I have seen you in a while and-" Aaron holds my weapons out to her and she nods "Right sorry" She takes the weapons and disappears into another room. I notice Aaron is still holding onto my wrist "You can let go now" I mumble
"What?- Oh, right, sorry" Aaron lets go of my hand, all the warmth, the feeling of safety in this unknown place goes with it too and it leaves me with the feeling of regret- regret for that I never said anything at all so he'd still be holding onto my wrist.

"So" Aaron and I walk along the ruins of the underground concrete city "What're we going to do next?"
Aaron is hesitant to reply, which is unusual because that's not like him at all "We, uhh" He looks down at his feet "Well, if Sandra is able to identify the magics then... Then" He stops just for a second then continues walking
"We'll go defeat the darkness" I giggle "That sounds impossible"
"Yeah" He agrees "Darkness won't ever be defeated but nor will light" The corner of his mouth twitches almost into a smile but vanishes as if it's not meant to be there or he remembers something, I frown a little.
                      *       *       *
Back in the little room Sandra is sitting at her concrete slab desk, with my weapons wrapped in a brown cloth on top of it and she's reading something, loose strands of her brown hair fall out of place and frame her face but she quickly tucks them back behind her ear. Sandra closes the book and walks around her 'desk', picks up the weapons and hands them to me
"Well, they were defiantly hard to identify but I think I got it" She says
"You think you got it?" Aaron says leaning against the door frame and I think for sure it's bound to crumble with his- or anyone's weight but it doesn't shift at all
Sandra sighs "Let me talk, okay Aaron?" Aaron grunts and Sandra continues "So, what I got from it is, only the owner of the sword can determine who's allowed to wield the sword by trust, the sword doesn't get damaged very easily and for the bow well, the arrows were made especially for the bow, don't forget that. Magic will travel from your body, to the bow, to the arrow and some kind of magic attack will form at the arrowhead, for example if you were a fire mage a fire attack would form at the end of the arrowhead before you shoot, understood?" She says and I nod once "Oh and also, one last thing; Sometimes identifying can have an effect on the weapon" She says
"What?" I raise one eyebrow as I unwrap the cloth and the sword's blade isn't blue anymore, it's silver and on the opals there's runic symbols I don't understand written on them that glow a blue colour, the handle has diamonds curling around the centre of it and at the top it's capped off with a blue material
"It-it's still Malithyrite but it's changed colour. See, Malithyrite, if it hasn't been identified is usually a blue colour but once it is it will change its colour to a silver and with Malithyrite that don't possess magic, they will be blue" Sandra explains
"Thanks for the lecture" Aaron jokingly says and Sandra rolls her eyes but she's wearing a smile "C'mon Amora" Aaron says, throwing something to Sandra and grabbing my wrist, I mouth the words 'Thank you' to Sandra and she smiles, her smile is soft and warm, it's comforting.
                      *       *       *
Aaron pushes the door open, letting the sunlight flood in and I have to shield my eyes. We've been in the dim light of the underground city for so long my eyes take a while to adjust to the sudden change. Aaron lets go of my wrist
"Let's go meet up with the others" Aaron says startling me a little
"Lead the way" I say, letting my hand drop back to my side.After walking around for a while I asked Aaron why we can't just use the communication orb to ask Saura and Rayne where they are and he explained to me how they work; You have to be in a certain range for them to work and the ones we have contain only little power which means we can't use them for little things like this.

I sigh as we're walking back to the inn, it's getting
"What's up?" Aaron asks
"I'm tired.." It's becoming hard for me to blink as my eyelids are refusing to stay open "Hey Aaron?" I almost mumble
"Mm?"
"How aren't you always tired? Do-" A yawn interrupts my sentence but I continue "Do you even sleep?" I ask rubbing my left eye, trying to stay awake but while doing so I stumble into Aaron's right arm and he steadies me with his other. I lean against his shoulder as he doesn't seem to mind but when I feel like I am truly going to fall asleep then and there Aaron picks me up bridal-style
"Heh I think the real question is, do you get any sleep?" He says
"Clearly not enough." I mumble, burying my face into his chest and clenching a fistful of his red shirt. I think I've figured Aaron out, he's silly at times but usually calm and quiet and can also be serious when needed. While I'm thinking about it I doze off for a few seconds, open my eyes again but close them to be consumed by sleep.
     * * *
The dancing fires' roar fills my ears as I run through alleyways to stay hidden. I hear a scream but it's abruptly cut off and turned into a gurgling sound. My cheeks are streaked with tears and ash from the fires covers my clothes, my skin, it's in my hair too, all over Luna's fur coat. I double over and take in a deep breath of the warm, disgusting air, exhausted.
'Go find Gale or Garret'
My mothers words ring through my head like a plucked string, echoing in my foggy mind.

Luna barks, bringing me back to my senses. I stand up straight and run, my little legs taking me to where I need to go as fast as I can manage. I come to a stop at a burning house and call his name; "Gale?" I scream "Gale!" I scream again, louder until I have to leave the area before anyone finds me from my screaming. The tears that have been nestling in my eyes for some time are now taking their journey down my already tear-streaked cheeks, they drop onto the soil and it absorbs my tears as if we were in a drought.

I continue running and I stop at a building- I think it's a garrison. I scream; "Garret! Garret! Garret where are you?!" And then I mumble to myself "Please, Garret.. Please" And as I feel as if it's no use, and I've given up, a young man and a boy appear in front of me, like they came from no where
"Amora!" The young man yells as he runs to me, his voice deep a smooth, he crouches down onto one knee and embraces me. His hair is a dark shade of brown but he surprisingly has the greenest eyes I've ever seen, then something comes back to me- he's my brother.. But we look nothing alike?

"Amora! Amora!" Boy's face has a wide smile spread across it- a smile of relief
"Gale? Gale! I thought you were-"
"No Amora I'm fine don't worry, Garret found me" The boy- Gale, looks to be about a year older than I am, maybe two?
"Okay good because I was searching for you, Luna and I..." I trail off and stare into my brother's green eyes "Gale and I aren't going to be able to stay here are we?" I say and he shakes his head as if I read his thoughts. He grabs my wrist, kind of like how Aaron does, he starts walking so j grab Gale's wrist, afraid I might lose him in this chaos at any second.

"Here" Garret says, lifting me up onto a brown horse, "You can take Bucky.." He stops a beat and continues "Go to Adoreli" He stops again to lift Gale up "And.." He searches for words "Tell them Luminarious (Pronounced Loomin-ari-ous) has-" He gulps and I wait for him to say the words I know he's going to say "Has been lost.. Also tell them Garret sent you, understand?" He says and I nod "Okay good, I'll meet you in Adoreli as soon as possible.... And Gale" he says startling Gale a little bit "Look after my sister and yourself please, I think of you as my little brother" Garret grins
"I will"
"Don't go kissing her either" He chuckles
"H-hey!" Gale's face goes a red colour and I giggle.
Garret kisses my forehead "I'll miss you" He says when he pulls away and looks into my eyes
"Yeah you too" I say with a sweet smile, I'm unsure how I'm able to smile here and now but I do
"And don't forget, no matter where you go, who you're with, whatever time it is, you'll always be my little sister" He smiles sweetly back and pats Luna as he mumbles to her "Cya Luna" He says something to the horse..? And then we're gone, from the fire, from the chaos, on a road, that'll lead us to a safer place.