"You're a criminal!"

[Will Little]

The sun in Cove was rising, and the sky was a greyish-blue. Sitting at the steps of the Barracks, Will was chewing a bullet of tobacco, his mind harmlessly wandering on the thoughts of what the newly wedded Mela might look like naked. He laughed to himself.

Suddenly the sun seemed to dim, although it did not change. The sky turned from it's original happiness to a somehow darker, more surreal setting - yet it's colour stayed intact. The clouds stood still to watch.

"Will Little?" A frail, young voice uttered.

Startled, Will jumped. Turning he met the eyes of a teenager, maybe sixteen years of age. He had a dark complexion but a pleasant enough look about him.

"Do I know yer?" Will had never met the boy before, he was sure. I suppose there was that night in the Swaggers a few weeks back? No. Couldn't be.

"No... and I do not know you. My name is..." The boy fell to the floor, his knee's hitting the floor. He moaned in agony.

"What the feck!" Will jumped up to help the boy, stopping still. Staring.
The boy rose without effort, from his knee's to his feet. And floated above himself - his eye's had turned a deep black, his bone structure had strengthened and he looked more confident, as if he knew.

"You have a secret, William Little." His voice was like scratching coal across glass, it was undecipherable but totally clear in Will's head. He did not know what to do. The voice became louder, "You... are from a family of secret's. You, your brother... your father."

Will did nothing but cross himself with his gloved hand and start blessing the avatar, trying to close his eyes.

The voice searched over him again. "You are a criminal. You attacked a Cove Guardsman with your brother, Boo. You used the guise of a Black Wizard to attack more. You will be useful to me."

Will's eye's sunk into his head, he looked around to make sure nobody heard. This 'thing' knew what he had done, if they knew, Cove, his home... would be lost. He was a criminal, but he was trying now. He did the only thing he had been taught to do.

He kept his eyes away from the neverending void in the boy's eye's. Grabbing his axe from it's place on his side he held it firmly in two hand's and swung at the boy, harder than he had swung in a long time.

Like dust, the axe merely moved his body aside for a second, his body becoming like sand then body an instant later. Swallowing, Will ran. And ran. A name resounding in his head as if it bounced back and forth inside.

"Grim."