1 Introduction

There once was time, where an endless war between two prosperous kingdoms still burned intensely. The reasons for why the war originally lit up were long left in the ashes after the boiling hatred between the kingdoms burned down all rationality, and it seemed this fire was eternal, for the war made far too many scars to be extinguished at all...

Both kingdoms burned resources to fuel their enormous armies, both armies forced themselves into the houses of their enemy's citizens, as well as their own citizens without distinction. Ransacked towns were left without a dime, all food and valuables were instinctively taken, women were used in barbaric ways, people were massacred, and families torn apart. When only ashes told the eye of what happened, the hidden scars drove any survivors into despair...and broke them. Parentless children were as common as the war, and because of that very reason they were used for the war itself. The weakest died in brutal fighting, survivors were brought back to fight again and again, useless children were killed. But the ones that had it the worst were the ones that couldn't fight yet could still do labor. Used like slaves, locked like animals. Children were fed a loaf of bread every day, which were broken into tiny pieces that barely sustained their strength.

In the cages, ferocious children fought each other for the little food they had, and after a while they would realize just how pointless that was. Over time, the strongest grew older into adolescence, and guided the rest...Begging for freedom meant to get mocked by some guards or to be severely punished by them, because of this hope just was not something they could hang onto. In one of these cages, a relatively balanced group was formed. The kids in there haven't fought each other for a long time, and so, this meant that the group already had a leader.

The leader of this group had no name, but was called "Rōjū" by the guards, this name meant "aged beast" and was given to him for being the oldest and most dangerous kid in the cave jail. The group had many members that trusted each other, but no one was closest to Rōjū than the little kid named Kohana. For they came into the cage together and never separated since. Needless to say, they were like brothers.

Another morning came to the lifeless group of children, woken up by the loud knocking on the bars. "Hey kids, here's the food for today" Said an unusually kind voice "Please don't fight for this one, or next time I'll have to bring less" the tone of the voice got fragile at the end, almost as if it was going to break. Rōjū stared at the figure producing such gentle noise and cautiously approached it. "Hey little one, want some leftover bread I got today?" He whispered not letting the other kids hear. Rōjū quickly perked up and noticed a familiar face, he'd seen this guard before, always staring at the cage with a south-curved mouth. It seemed the guard deciphered the meaning of the reaction and gave a gentle smile extending his arm to give a piece of steak. "Here you go, this might be the only chance you get to eat something like this" the guard said before standing up and leaving to get the food for the rest. Rōjū sat there staring down at the steak, before breaking it to share with Kohana. After this he hesitantly started eating the small piece he had and stared off into the direction the guard went.

Rōjū never dreamed of the outside, since he was too busy being cautious on the inside. The other kids were friendly, but as friendly as a wolf being forced to live with humans with spears. Because of this he always had to know what the others were planning to do. Besides that, he had to do something to wait for the raw food that came every night, so he spent time observing every inch of the cage. The floor was made out of sand of different colors, showing how many times holes were dug up to escape. Small dunes of grains randomly distributed in the middle while the corners contained flat rocks the kids used as a bed. The walls were rocky and hard, balancing the softness of the floor. Although many rocks formed ledges on the walls climbing would lead nowhere since the roof not only was completely closed, but also had a great number of somewhat unstable spikes, ready to stab whoever tried to climb them. The bamboo bars were deceivingly strong and deeply rooted inside the walls and floor, and the kids were not fed enough to be able to break them alone.

One day Rōjū and Kohana were playing a bit with each other. Obviously there was nothing other than rocks and some sticks in the cage, so they had to get a bit creative by making up a game they called "Stick pose". This game consists of, once per day, searching for sticks that look like something they know about, after this they bring it to someone and they have to guess what it is, it was pretty simple. This day Kohana found a stick and brought it to Rōjū, at first Rōjū could not figure out what it looked like and after staring at it with a puzzled face for some time Kohana said "Stick, it looks like a stick". With that Rōjū sighed in defeat, he could never guess what Kohana would think the stick looked like and because of that Kohana had maintained a perfect streak of victories.

They had other games as well, like drawing and treasure hunting; one would bury a rock or stick in the sand leaving clues around the cage, and the other had to find it and dig it up. Usually they played alone but sometimes other kids joined. When there were enough kids for a big game they would play more complex games. With this type of ambience in the group it wouldn't take long for Rōjū to befriend them. After some time the entire group would even learn together, each kid offering something to teach the others. This made it so as a group they got stronger, which would be ideal if it wasn't for the guards being wary about this exact thing happening. Still, they wouldn't cage up kids if that was a problem, would they? Either way, the guards that kept an eye on the kids informed the head guard.