Chapter One

“There he is, shoot him!” Commander Zhain ordered his men who were running along with him in pursuit of Alves, a 19-year old boy who sneaked into the soldier's camp to steal bread for himself and his little sister. 

“Shoot that little thwart! What are you waiting for?” Commander Zhain screamed and his soldiers launched a rain of arrows at the hungry teenager who couldn't think of any other way to feed but only to manoeuvre his way into a den of soldiers, the Doshikan camp. A group of soldiers who submitted their loyalties to the most evil man in the world, Lord Arman Butshaf. 

“Oh spirits, please protect me. Let life not slip from my hands today. I beg of you.” Alves prayed as he ran faster, jumping over fallen trees and thumbs in the forest that everyone in the village never dared to enter.

“You all can't get your aiming right. You can't even shoot a little boy. You're letting him fade away.” Zhain uttered angrily at his soldiers who's arrows couldn't get to Alves as intended. “Give me that, give it to me now I say.” He snatched a bow from one of his men, “Arrow, now!” The anger in his voice was permanent as he reached for an arrow, aimed at the young man running so fast for his life with bread in a dirty torn sack, held firmly with his left hand. Zhain released an arrow and it went straight to Alves’s arm! “Uh… Ah… Oh spirits, do not leave me. I don't want to die please.” The poor young man rolled on the grass in pain. “Aha! Now that's how you shoot an arrow. Go get him, we will show him what we do to thieves around here.” The words sounded with pride. 

Zhain’s three accomplists rushed to where Alves had fallen, all ready to give him a beating of his life before finally taking him to set an example for everyone in the village. “How dare him steal from the Doshikans?” one of the men said drawing out a sharp sword which reflected the images of trees around. “I'll first of all cut off those little fingers that make it possible for him to steal, then force it to his throat.” one said getting closer. 

They could see the sack on the ground, opened and the bread was all over. “He's spread the bread all over. But where is the boy!” They couldn't see Alves. 

“What? This can't be possible, he was shot and I saw him falling right here.” 

“Commander Zhain, the boy is not here. He's escaped!”

“We can't let him go. Search the village, go into every house, he must go back to his family and that's where we would find him. Any young man wounded with an arrow is a prime suspect!”

*****

Alves staggered into the wooden house with his right palm tightly placed on the arrow wound on his left arm. He already lost a lot of blood on his way back and only managed to bring back one loaf of bread. 

“Oh Alves what happened to you? You're hurt.” his little sister Khira rushed to aid him down to the mat on the floor. “What happened?” She asked again. 

“Don't worry it's nothing.”

“It's nothing and you're bleeding?”

“Here, I brought bread for you.” He stretched it forward to his beautiful sister whose eyes were filled with love and compassion. She took the bread, placed it on a plate on the table and turned back. “Gratitudes Alves, but you can't keep doing this. You promised you will stop risking your life everyday to feed me.” She hoped she didn't sound ungrateful. She quickly put a neat fabric in the bowl of water beside her and began cleaning the wound. Her eyes were watery and Alves could see how wrong her world could go if she looses him. 

“Look at me Khira. The world is turning upside down, Lord Arman Butshaf is bent on ruling the entire world, he sends his troops to villages to make us all suffer until we agree to swear our allegiance to him. Can't you see our food is now theirs? We work hard and our crops keep dying, they tax us and we have no money to feed. There's no food Khira, and I see no where else to get food but right there, in the Doshikan camp where they take all our money, our food and they store.”

“Alves, if mom and dad were still alive, they wouldn't be happy to see you risk your life everyday for loaves of bread.”

“But they aren't here, it's just me and you in this world, little sister. And I will keep risking my life for you until one day, a hero can stand to fight for us, someone who can defeat the Doshikans and their evil master Arman Butshaf. But for now, I'll do what is necessary because I love you so much.”

“I love you too brother.” 

Boom! The door opened and a Doshikan soldier stormed in. “We're here for inspection!” He said with a deep voice, his eyes quickly darting around the rat infested room. 

“Inspection for what? What is it this time? We have paid taxes with everything we have left, we can't even afford to feed. What do you want from us?” Khira cried. 

“We're looking for a bread thief. And it appears this is the brat we're looking for.” The soldier said walking straight to Alves. “Get up boy!” He grabbed him by the collar of his weak-fabric shirt and led him outside as Khira begged for his brother to be treated more humanly. “Please you're hurting him, he's wounded and bleeding. Please.”

“Keep your distance away from me little girl, before I take you along.”

*****

A forceful clang echoed through the wall as the Doshikan prison door was forcefully sealed with Alves thrown inside. “You'll rot in here, little pig!” The soldier cursed, spit, and walked back to his position. 

Alves had been stealing frequently from them to feed the only family he had left, he always knew a day to be caught would come but he didn't know it would be that quick. “What would my sister eat now? What would she offer these tyrant serving soldiers if they go asking for taxes again? She's only sixteen and these monsters won't mind taking advantage of her body as payment. They always sleep with innocent girls who can't afford to pay in cash.” Alves could only think about the safety of her beloved sister despite being the one in danger. He was a caring person and the villagers loved him. They were all touched by the the news of his arrest and knew it would be a big loss if he never returned to them.

“First time in prison huh?” Alves heard a voice behind him. It was another prisoner, an old man who looked to have been there for a very long time. 

“Yes sir.” He answered after the shock. 

“What did a young man like you do?”

“Stole bread.”

“You know what the Doshikans do with thieves around here?”

“They forgive them?” 

The old man cracked a quick smile then scratched his head a little “They kill thieves painfully! Every day, a finger is cut from your hand and forced down your throat. When you can no longer eat it, they keep cutting it to feed it to their commander's dog, Zhain is their ruthless Commander.”

The old man could feel the fear in Alves through his shivers. His eyes were watery as he wet his lips and swallowed a huge amount of saliva. 

“That's a nice necklace you got there.” Alves said pointing at the strangers neck. 

“Oh this, it's a medallion, passed down to different generations in my family, it's supposed to be magical and glow when it contact with someone from my bloodline but it does nothing for me. It never works, I guess I'm not the son of my mother or something.”

“Or maybe it's just any other medallion?”

“Maybe. But my mother was a witch, she was the most powerful in her time and was among the witches that used their powers to make the Bushika.”

“Bushika? What's that?”

“The Bushika is a hero that was created to help fight evil, with this medallion around the Bushika’s neck, he becomes immortal to any weapon ever forged by man.”

“So are you the Bushika? Why not go and fight Arman Butshaf? He is the evil that's corrupting the entire world. He wants to rule and his soldiers are killing people who refuse to worship and fall under their leadership.” Alves said with energy mixed with concern. 

“Sorry boy. This medallion doesn't work on me, because I might not be a real son of my mother.”

“That's sad. Can I take a closer look?” Alves moved closer. 

“Oh sure.”

The young man moved with curiosity, it was the most beautiful medallion he had ever seen. “Wow!” as his hand got closer to the object, it started glowing. The closer his hand got to it, the brighter the blue light got around the old man's neck. “Wow that's beautiful, it's glowing!” He remarked smiling brightly. 

“Oh spirits!” The stranger became shocked! He had that around his neck for over 17 years and it was the first time he saw it glowing. “You? The medallion glows for you little boy. That means it has a connection with you.”

“What?” Alves was stunned, his forehead squeezing a little.

“The medallion only glows in the hands of the one true Bushika. And it glowed when your hand reached for it.”

“Are you serious right now?”

“Listen to me boy, you are destined for greater things than stealing bread from Doshikan camps.”

“What are you saying sir?”

“You are the true Bushika!”