At this time, the beginning of history, there was one who came upon this world. Although he did not create it nor the living things within it, he took humankind under his care and raised them as a species, educating them in many things. They prospered under his care and he taught them to look after and protect the world they were in. With the help of his elite army, he also taught them how to protect themselves from the wild bears and lions who often invaded their villages. But with this knowledge, humankind discovered that they relished war.

As humankind rose up against each other, he feared that they would try to gain his favour to use his elite army against their enemies. He tried to put a stop to the conflict but it grew and flourished. After much debate with himself, he cast a deep sleep over his warriors and locked them away, hiding them from the world. He shut the door and secured it, determined that no one will exploit his army and use it to destroy all of humankind.

The appointed time was nearing for him to leave and return to his home. He gave the Key to the vault of his hidden warriors - which glowed with an inner light - to a group of twelve friends, Guardians, entrusting them with the task of protecting it and his warriors from the chaotic world. He taught them many things in the remaining time he had and then he left, never to return. The friends banded together, making an oath to protect the Key with their lives and souls.

For many years, the friends succeeded in hiding the Key and the very existence of the elite army from the world. But this was not meant to always be the case. One grew angry with the divided nature of humankind and wanted to use the army to reunite the world. The others disagreed, promising that the forceful take-over he was suggesting would only further the war. Arguments broke out among the friends, growing more and more heated as time passed. Finally, they saw that he would not change his course, instead being fixated on the idea of 'reuniting' but they feared he meant to rule. They became desperate and so broke the Key.

By fate or chance, the Key broke into twelve pieces. A great groaning filled the air and the Pieces flickered, their inner glow fading. Eleven of the friends grabbed a piece each and said their final goodbyes, scattering far away from each other. They each found an empty land and raised an army around them, tasked to protect the Piece and keep it a secret from the world and, most importantly, to not let it fall into the hands of the twelfth, the betrayer.

The twelfth took his own piece and made his own army. With his army, he scoured the land, searching for the Pieces to reunite them and gain access to the vault of elite warriors. For years he searched and was unsuccessful. As the generation died out, the Pieces were passed on to the next and as each leader of the armies rose, they all took the same oath as the first, to protect the Key and the Pieces with their lives and souls, keeping them safe from the world and from the betrayer. And the leader of the betrayer's army vowed to retrieve the Pieces at any cost and to reunite the world as one.

One of the original twelve tasked his army with another pledge: to make sure that the betrayer never gained enough power to take over by their own might. This army risked their lives time and time again and their Piece to remain close to the betrayer's army. War ignited almost instantly and for years, perhaps centuries, battles raged between the two armies. Both became strong and while they were both caught in the war, the other armies scattered, fading into history and society until they were almost completely hidden from the betrayer's army.

Yet some were still found and were crushed under the betrayer's army, some being destroyed until not a soul remained, others staying together but losing the knowledge of their oaths and so the Piece over the years. But now the vast space between the Guardians worked against them as the others had no knowledge that the betrayer's army was slowly gaining more and more Pieces.

"Okay, so let me make sure I've got this straight," Mitch says. Seto leans against the wall next to the window, his arms crossed lightly over his chest and giving Mitch an amused smile. "A bajillion years ago, a group of friends had a key to a highly-skilled army. When one of them wanted to use the army to take over the world, the friends broke apart the key and then ran to hide it from the one who wanted to rule."

"Yup," Seto says, nodding his head.

"And one army - which I am going to assume was the Sky Army - also occupied the Squids - the betrayer's army, whatever - so that they couldn't try to find the pieces of the key. Aaaand that's now my job."

Seto nods again. Mitch gives a deep sigh and rubs his temple with a hand. "Why didn't they just bury the Pieces? It would have made them heaps harder to find."

"What happened if there was heavy rain and the soil as well as the Piece was washed into the ocean?" Seto asks. "What if some child digging around in the dirt found it and then their whole family was targeted? What if we needed the army at some point to fight back? There're too many unknowns, the best option was to keep it close at all times."

"Alright..." Mitch says slowly. "But can I even become one of these Guardian guys? I mean, isn't the position passed down to the descendants of the original Guardians or something?"

"No!" Seto says, looking shocked. "Why would we do that? What if the only kid of a Guardian is completely useless? The Squids would have us wiped out in an instant! No, it's based on skill, the same way that you were chosen to be the General of the Benjas."

"Oh boy, that was fun," Mitch says with a grin, remembering the rigorous training, duels, obstacle courses and desert runs. He shakes his head, breaking out of the past. "So I keep the Amulet with me at all times, go back to Nad'ij and make sure the Squids stay out of my territory?"

Seto had started to shake his head before Mitch had finished. "You can't go back to Nad'ij Mitch. If this place is left unprotected for even a short amount of time, the Squids could come back and then all our hard work would have been for nothing."

"You want me to abandon Nad'ij?!" Mitch explodes, rapidly standing from his chair. "Do you know how long the Benjas have been working on that? Decades, Seto! I can't just leave it-"

"You have to," Seto said firmly, but not unkindly. "You're a Guardian now. You've got a bigger job to do."

Mitch runs a hand through his hair and Seto adds, "Besides, it's not that bad. The Capital's pretty well set up, it won't take much to alter it slightly into an army base. And I doubt any of the civilians are coming back to live here, so you can have it all to yourself."

"You're not making this any better Seto," Mitch says quietly. Seto shrugs a little, an apologetic smile coming onto his face.

Mitch looks out the window next to the General. The sea glitters in the distance, looking like someone had rolled a large expanse of deep blue cloth sewn with diamonds over the earth. From this height, he can just see over the wall and to the long low mound of the buried.

"Alright," he says finally. "But I'm not just leaving Nad'ij empty, I'll ask Preston if he can look after it for me."

"Ian might be able to relocate to Preston's land as well," Seto says. "It'll be a good shake-up. I can ask Preston for you, he's kind of on the way home."

"I can't tell the Pack about this whole Guardian thing, can I?"

The Sorcerer General shakes his head. "But you probably won't need to. They'll follow you no matter what."

"What about my warriors?" Mitch asks. "Should they know?"

"Depends." Seto flicks his hair back slightly to get it out of his face. "The Sky Army recruits obviously knew what they were protecting, and I'm pretty sure that the Dead Army knows as well. But for me, only my Senior Commanders know about the Piece. We have a lot of inventors come and go for information or knowledge, so we keep the Pieces a secret. It just depends on your situation."

Mitch nods a little. He puts his hands in his pockets, already missing Nad'ij with the mountain range rising in the background. "I'll have to give my warriors an opportunity to go back in groups and get their belongings, as well as let the guard join when Preston gets there."

"Are you gonna go back to grab your stuff?" Seto asks.

Mitch gives a small chuckle. "If I went back, I don't think I'd ever leave."

Seto makes a grin that quickly fades. "Oh, one more thing: the Pieces can't be in close proximity to each other for long periods of time, otherwise they'll start to want to join together again."

"What will happen if they want to join together again?" Mitch asks warily.

Seto shrugs. "No idea, it was just something I was warned by the Guardian before me. But as well as that, they start to glow when they hang around each other for long amounts of time, and that alerts the Squids that we've gathered. You can see the Amulet glowing already."

Mitch glances down at the Amulet sitting outside his shirt. True enough, the purple gem was giving out a soft glow, almost as if it was very happy with itself. "Brilliant, so I can't go back to Nad'ij and you and I can't hang out for long periods of time otherwise the Pieces get trigger-happy."

Seto laughs a little. "You make them sound like they're misbehaving children," he says then gestures for Mitch to follow him out the door. "Come on, let's say goodbye to the others before they leave. I'll get going as well to tell Preston the deal."

Mitch nods and follows him out, mentally saying goodbye to Nad'ij, closing the door behind him. It shuts with a tiny snap.

Welcome to the end of the explaination chapter everyone!

I hope that little story at the top cleared everything up for you, if you do still have questions, just ask me either here or via PM and I will provide you with an answer.

Bai!

(Did anyone catch that sneaky reference I put in to another book I have written about Generals?)