Prologue...

1981

The night is dark and cold, with chilling winds brushing up against the sky. There is a blanket of stars shinning their hardest to light up below. A bright full moon carries most of the light as it accompanies the stars, she truly is a beauty, show-boating her greatness and dominating the skies. But even the extraordinary and unique beauty of the sky tonight cannot light up the horror that waits below. Down upon the earth’s surface a small town sleeps soundly under its warm covers, none the wiser of the danger that awaits their town.

This town is barely visible on a map, not many would be sane to move here and those who are born here spend most of their lives trying to escape. It’s the sort of town where everyone knows everyone and it never seems to stop raining. Connected to the town there stands a deep forest, trees stretching for miles, which wrap around most of the town. Within those trees many unknown secrets lay.

Although the town may slumber and people in it dream away, the forest does wake and with it brings trouble. There are many creatures in which live within the woods and their sounds can be heard calling in the night, but tonight there is another sound echoing through the trees, a sound that doesn’t belong. The sounds are of continuous rustling, heavy beating upon the solid ground. There is deep breathing bouncing off the trees throughout the darkness. These noises were coming from a strange human shadow. The shadow hurried quickly pass tree trunk after tree trunk, weaving in and out, running as fast as his legs allowed him. The shadowy figure was a middle aged man, he was tall, medium built and he carried something with him.

In his grip, which he held tightly to his chest was a child, a young baby boy who looked no older than a few months. The man didn’t look lost as he made his way through the dark forest, breathing very heavy from all the running. He looked more like he was trying to run away from something, or someone. The wind blew back his longish black hair and his hazelnut eyes tried their hardest to see through the night. The baby stayed peaceful throughout the journey, being too young to understand what was happening around him.

And then the man slowed down eventually coming to a complete stop. He looked around out of breath, worried; he didn’t know where he was going or what to do next. He kept looking in every direction, panicking now. Whatever this man was running from got him looking scared, he knew it was unsafe to stop moving for too long.

What to do, what to do?

He seemed very frantic about something, terrified even. He looked down to the child he held, his eyes taking in this innocent fragile boy. The little baby boy was asleep and the man stared at him for a great period of time, almost with care showing in his eyes. He had thoughts rushing around in his head, he needed to get this child somewhere safe; it was too dangerous being anywhere near him. He found the nearest and biggest tree with thick roots weaving in and out of each other. He softly kissed the child upon his forehead. He did not really want to do what he was about to do. Still wrapped up in warm blankets he safely laid the baby within the roots of the tree as if it were a cradle.

‘I’ll be back for you, my son.’ He spoke quietly and surely, before reluctantly taking off once more.

The man begins racing between the trees again; he moved like a rat scurrying away from his pray, a fearful rat. He had been running only a minute but his legs told him he was running for much longer. He tired easily and needed to stop to take another breath. At that moment in time a twig snapped from somewhere around him, soon more rustling sounds were heard. He looked and suddenly realised that he was now surrounded by four men, all of average height, average build, and they all looked like they belonged to a Native American tribe.

The four men had dark tanned skin, black hair and were all wearing their tribal clothing. The fourth man took two steps closer, this man had longer and darker hair than the others, he also was a slightly bigger built too.

‘We’re here to take you back Knoshi.’ The fourth native directed to the baby’s father, which they still surrounded.

‘You would like that wouldn’t you Kumai...’ Knoshi spat at him. ‘The mighty Kumai here to bring justice, when he was the one who betrayed a friend, who lied to me.’

‘You were the one who betrayed the tribe Knoshi. You should come back with us and accept your punishment with honour.’ Kumai looked confident, as if he was the leader of the three men who hadn’t moved an inch.

‘And who would have the honour of doing it? You Kumai, would you be the one to give me my punishment? I think you know I’m not going back with you, not without a little push anyway.’ You could tell Knoshi meant what he said, he wasn’t about to give up that easy. He moved his feet to get a better stand and clenched up both of his fists.

‘We don’t have to do this.’ Kumai told Knoshi. He wanted to do everything he could to get Knoshi to come back with him quietly, only he was never good at persuasion. Kumai wasn’t exactly a people person.

‘I think we do.’ Knoshi replied. All of a sudden one of Kumai’s men jumped at Knoshi from behind.

‘No, wait!’ Kumai shouted out loud but far too late. Knoshi didn’t even see the attack coming. The native man ran at Knoshi leaping high into the air, much higher than any ordinary man should be able to jump, and landed upon Knoshi’s back. He pushed him to the rocky ground; as he came down on top of Knoshi he dropped and rolled. Still holding onto him tight he then tossed him through the air. Knoshi went soaring through the forest and collided with a solid tree trunk.

It was evident that a fierce battle was about to erupt...