AKHAN CHRONICLE
Chapter 1- The Scourge of the Poisoned Sword
The red sunrise had an almost romantic appeal as it lit the clear sky and the shores of the lake with bright pastel reds.  The serenity of the moment revealed itself with the rising sun, its warm rays painting the flat desert a rosy orange over the miles and miles of sand dunes.  The edge of the lake glittered as the fiery orb of the sun began to hoist itself over the horizon and the only sound to be heard was the chirp of lakeside birds and the gentle whistling of wind over the sandy landscape. Solitude bathed the scene save for a shimmering city of glass and stone on the southern shore of the lake.  Tservi was a true city of wonder, set in a scene of beauty atop the high desert steppes of Ketchi on the shores of Lake Manoa.  The Tservi spire rose from the middle, an elegant building of Marble and glass that held one of the most advanced academies in all of Akhan. It towered over 400 meters over the desert below, a pinnacle of knowledge and excellence that very few rivaled. 
	Overlooking this scene was a hooded figure that was standing over a sand dune. He had a pouch with some belongings slung over his right shoulder and a sheathed Katana in a scabbard on his back at closer inspection. He was a Felian, very well built and clad in medium armor plating over his striped fur. A wry smile crossed his face as he almost chuckled to himself as to how he’d gotten here with little or no trouble.  The matter of money was easy; tip off the authorities about his cousin dealing illegal medicine, look mature enough to invest in weaponry and armor, and then hike to Tservi to reach his destination.  He then looked nervously at the sun on the horizon, “three counts until sunup,” he said to himself “I’d better hurry myself.” With that, he turned from his admiration of the landscape, adjusted his baggage and slipped between the shadows of the sand dunes towards the lake and the city, passing silently over the cool morning sands.  A low rumble came in the distance and a plume of dust and sand erupted in the distance as the morning rail came to unload, dropping off supplies, machinery, acid of sulfur and passengers as its twin jet engines simmered to a stop. 
The city had suburbs extending slightly southwards and eastwards along the fringe of the lakeshore, which the incognito Felian avoided deliberately, venturing over the rolling sand dunes to the small farms and rice paddies ;irrigated by the lake along the city’s west side. The Felian continued his course, running across the thin gravel tracks that connected each plot to the main city.  He rounded a bend that brought the path to the top of a hill, simply dubbed “outlook hill” by the locals. The immense view of the valley made him stop and stare again at the immense sandy landscape with only the distant mountains, the glittering towers and buildings and the aquamarine lake interrupting it.   Looking over the vast landscape and the city that he’d only ventured into twice from his hometown of Cornu, the adolescent Felian suddenly felt very small and almost naked in this unknown land and thinking of the far cast place he sought out. 
A stab of lament and sorrow hit his body and he knelt over and tried to collect himself as a single hot tear ran down his cheek. He remembered why he had come here, he saw the sad slain form of his mother, slashed and cut by an evil blade as it had happened over ten years before. He remembered his face, his eyes round with sorrow and horror as his innocence and his kin was robbed of him. He remembered the madness, the lunacy behind the glittering eyes of his mother’s murderer. The evil personage towered over him and his mother’s body, a trail of smoke escaped the nostrils of the lunatic and the pungent smell of opium filled the room. The vile man who had done this picked up the poor whimpering cub and grinned stiffly, the crazed light of the setting sun glinted from his stained and chipped teeth. “now, now,  I’d hate to touch a little thing like you,” said the man, forcing the cub to sit still as he stroked the little one’s soft innocent head, “I just needed to demonstrate what happens when the boss doesn’t get what he wants.” The man drew a jagged edged knife and ran it close to the cub’s neck causing him to squirm and whimper in terror. The man chuckled, “so cute, I’m going to regret doing this to you.” The cub wailed in pain as the man brazenly took his blade and scraped a deep scar into the cub’s right side and across his shoulder. Crimson blood welled up along with hot tears as the little one gasped and begged for mercy. The man then put the knife down onto a table and roughly dropped the cub into a pile of dirty clothes.  “your mother was a fool to deny me the vows of your sister, it hurt me,” he rasped, looking almost sympathetically at the shocked cub. “just you remember little cub” said the man, “interrupt the business or the love of the poisoned swords, and you will end up much like your mother.” The cub just lay there in the laundry heap, crying and cradling himself as the evil man left and the blood began to dry from his wounds. As one last great effort to hold on, the cub then turned to his slain mother and took the medallion of his family crest from his mother’s neck, then he curled up once more and waited for whatever fate that would befall him. 
 The Felian teen grasped his side, a fleshy pink gash now in place of the cuts that formed an oblong pentagram shape, forever branding him a victim of that night and of the Poisoned Sword gang.  Aroused from his recollection, he stood up and growled angrily, venomously cursing those who had stolen his mother and forever ended his days of cubhood when he was just five years old. He deliberately slammed his footpaw to the ground and gave a low growl and, his strength renewed in a frenzy as he strode down the hill, his woes shaken as he entered the beginnings of the city. The vengeful youth calmed himself then took in the lovely design of the city’s limestone buildings, smiling as he saw children and cubs playing in the streets and smelled wonderful scents from the local bakeries and restaurants. A wave of envy and sadness hit him at seeing this but he ran on, past the busy finance district and through the trading square towards the main rail station, boldly anticipating his voyage to find justice for the wrongdoings to his family at last.