This story the story you are about to read took pce a long time ago, so that many have pletely fotten it but for the two it will never be fotten for it was etched into their existence by their forebears. For some this story is one of hope, to others it is a sign edy but for the two it was simply just-

  2nd Cycle of history, the 112th year of athbhreith beithíoch dar.

  Φ Pulled forward by horses, tless roofless carriages thread down a singur path. The carriages are rickety, old and have sharp pieces of wood stig out of them. They are all something that even a man with nothing would still not use.

  In those carriages are tless people shoved together to fit between the four sort and brittle walls of the carriage, and every single one of them has their hands a bound with rope except one.

  Sitting ih carriage is a boy whose hands a are bound with s, whose displeasure increases with every sed.

  The men beside me struggling for space try to crush me to find space, but I hold my ground and put up with their pestering. The stant pushing and shoving by the men to my side urk’s me to no end, but still, at least those men have spirit, uhe one directly in front of me.

  He shakes non-stop while mustering prayers. “God please, your faithful servant has never sinned against you, he has been as pure as the day he has e into this world so even if only me, please e and save me, messiah. Please five me lord even if I had sinned.”

  Annoyed by his words, I lean forward and say, “Hey, hey you.”

  The man with his hand still interlocked looks up towards me, so I say, “No imaginary god is going to save you. If he existed, you wouldn’t be in this situation, would you? So man up and stop fug shaking.”

  He says, “You speak of my imaginary faith, yet your faith in your own self seems just as imaginary to me.”

  Raising my voice, a little, I say, “Wha-.”

  “BE QUIET!” A voice shouts from the head of our carriage.

  Calming down, I lean back, and simply go back tling for space. Instead of staring forward, I look around at my surroundings. To my right is the annoyi who keeps shoving at me for space, despite the stant annoyance, I at least appuded this guy’s effort.

  To my front and back are trees so tall that the sunlight struggles to hit any of us, due to this and how long we have been travelling through this forest my sense of time has faded pletely.

  To my left is something that I only take a few g, or my life will be forfeit. There is a near-endless line of carriages, but riding on the front of the carriage is a man with two ears remi of a tiger, and a tail as well; a beastkin.

  Being at the edge of the carriage I feel his gaze lo to me from time to time, and without a doubt, the gaze of such a hideous creature drives me to insanity.

  But then in the bay mind, the words of my father py. “My son, py along and do what they say, do not fret we will e and save you!”

  Sighing and out I look up at the thing to distract me from my disfort, the trees.

  What were those words that mother once said, “If heaveed it would be the northern ti of Victoria, a pce where nature is the happiest.”

  But despite how amazing Victoria is, it doesn’t really live up to how heavenly it is supposed to be. But my mom did exaggerate from time to time, so I guess there is no point dwelling on it.

  Yawning, I say, “I must be tired, guess I might as well sleep.”

  And thus, he id in the same spot for hours on end, and during same time, the carriages had arrived at their destination.

  -Break-

  ti: Victoria

  Hearing a loud bell ring I open my eyes ahat people around me are being kicked off the cart, so I jump up and hop off the cart.

  It is dark, so dark that I barely see anything, but through that darkness I see fmes start to appear, and looking at them I see people holding torches in the air and waving them to attract attention.

  Then I hear someone shout, “All of you hurry up over here one by one, and if any of you do something like try to run away, you will be swiftly executed.”

  Following the man’s instrus all of us start to slowly form ourselves into a lines; eae in front of their own torch. We go up one by one, and each time I hear the person up there let out a gut-wreng scream. As the terror from the sounds I hear fills me to the brim, I reach the front of the line.

  In front of me lies two beastkin, and one wonderbeast. One of them has goat horns, and a simir tail other than that he looks like a human. The oo the right is pletely different, he looks like a bat in humanoid form, and to the right is a wolf wonderbeast with a third eye. Taking a quick look at the lines beside me I see they have the same split of personnel.

  The one goat beastkin says, “From today on your property of the Tuatha De Danann, wish yourself lucky that you have been given such a ce.”

  The bat says, “ shackles? You must be a special one.”

  The goat says, “He is one of the citizens from our expansion into the underworld. What did they call that southern ti again?”

  “Terrafide is what you're thinking of, and he must be from the most ret war. I heard the we were fighting this time put up some challenge.”

  “Of course, we did, my people specialise in hunting idiotic, savage beasts.”

  Looking at me straight in the eye, the goat says, “Funny you said because I am the same, hunting you humans is what I am best at, and I heard my brothers did a rather good job hunting you beasts.”

  As I feel anger well up in me, I am about to move but the bat beastkin grabs me and holds me steady, then says, “Omega wolf record his face.”

  The wolf wonderbeasts third eye glows and moments ter it stops. While still fused over this, the goat takes what seems to be a steaming circler objed presses it against my arm.

  The initial shock makes me scream a little, but I quickly quiet down, holding in my voice with all my might.

  But doing this seems to have ahe goat, so he presses it even harder against my skin. Still, I hold back my void stare him straight in the eyes.

  When he fihe bat wonderbeast tosses me behind him and says, “Follow him.”

  Looking at where he points, I see a beastkin with a group of people who have just beely branded. When I reach the group, he says, “That’s enough people, let’s go to the camp.”

  The man wakes with a torch walks with us through to front gates, and says, “Umm, in order I would like the person to go where I point to.”

  We walk through what seems to be a campsite, and we do as he said, but due to being in the back of the line I happen to get a good look around.

  All the people around live in thatch huts, with some of them nearly falling apart. The people are all packed into each hut with barely any space around. Including the people, the only thing that looks like it has any value is the rge wooden walls that surround the campsite.

  In front of me, I hear the man say, “a’t a bad guy, I know it might look like that but he is actually rather nice even to me.”

  Is he trying to talk to me? “I doubt such a thing.”

  “I know it must be hard to believe, but I just wao say please don’t hold it against him. Since he is someone who bothers to say hello to me.”

  I thought so, but this one in front of me, the rat beastkin, is rather pathetic. It seems I have found a ot within this pce.

  Pointing to one of the most broken huts, he says, “Go there.”

  Walking over to the hut, I notiething strange; no one seems to be in there.

  Entering, I say, “Hello ahere.”

  Getting no response I sigh, and walk forward and when I do, I notice that I stepped on something. Pulling my foot back, I say, “A person!”

  I didn’t notice because it was so dark but on the floor in front of me was a little blue-haired boy, from the looks of it only a few years youhan me.

  The boy sits up and says, “You're new.”

  His eyes are pitchbad ck life. His skin is bruised and cut, and his body is extraordinarily skinny. Looking at him I wonder if what I am looking at is actually a human or simply a walking corpse.

  posing myself, I say, “I am new, just brought in.”

  “I see,” The boy says with a tohat I only call fvourless as if he said them for information, not unication.

  Getting up the boy walks to the side as what seems to be a thatch bed.

  But holding up my hand, I say, “Don’t bother, my people are nomadic, so I find more fort sleeping this way.”

  Laying down on the floor, I mutter, “I don’t pn to stay here for a long time anyway, I am going to live a long and free life.”

  Closing my eyes, I heard the sound of the boy going to bed behind me, and soon I fell into a deep slumber.

  -Break-

  A bell goes out throughout the campsite which causes one boy to jolt up, and immediately he goes to walk the boy sleeping on the floor with no c.

  He pushes him again and again whilst saying, “Wake up,” In the same fvourless tone he used the day before. But it was to no avail, so he decided to use another method.

  Jumping up he sms his entire body weight into the asleep boy's stomach which causes the boy to wake up and scream, “MOTHERFUCKER!”

  Looking at the boy beside me, I scream, “What the fuck are you doing!?”

  But he doesn’t respond and just grabs my arm and ru of the hut. When we exit, I see that everyone in the campsite is now in front of a rge statue in the northwest.

  Stopping us in front of the statue, the boy lets go of me, so I ask, “What the hell have you been doing.”

  “It is m prayer time, if we were te we would have been punished. Non and follow along.”

  As everyone blows down, a man es out and says, “Now repent.”

  Most of the people in the area, holding their hands together say, “Five us oh great goddess Danu, we are sinners whose bloodlines have stood against your children. Are sins will never be fiven, but I ask you to accept our apology and the apology of our foolish forebears. By the power we have, we disregard all of our predcesso-.”

  Beside the boy with blue hair, he sees his new roommate has stopped praying and has a face filled with fury.

  What kind of nonsense prayer is this? Do they really think I will just insult my bloodline? Feeling fury well up inside me I am about to stand up and say something, but then the young boy beside me grabs my head with one hand and pushes me down into the ground.

  Quietly, I mutter, “The fuck are you doing,” While trying to push against. But in the midst of that, I notice that no matter how hard I try I ’t push back against his hand.

  Suddenly, I hair someone else stand up and say, “I refuse to pray to any od than my own.”

  It was the man who was sitting across from me.

  “This is an utter far-.”

  Instantly, I hear a sound I am all too familiar with; the one of heads being crushed. Feeling blood pour over my body, I realize the man had just died.

  Calming down I get into position and tio mumble the prayer but with furry filling my soul.

  When the prayer finishes, one of the beastkin screams, “Now go to work!”

  Walking with everyo, I get a good look at where we are.

  Serene green grass, t flowers, trees which reflect the sunlight, and a ke which is a clear blue than the sky, everything before me is in harmony. Before I couldn’t notice it due to the darkness but now, I do, this is what Mom meant when she said Victoria is heaven.