"Anyways, my grandpa died and I was forced to go to the orphanage. The people there were terrible, teasing me about my height!"

"What about your height?"

"For the sake of Arax's horns, i'm 14!"

-Shane-

-3 Years Ago-

"Why are we doing this again?" A young girl asked her older brother, Shane.

They were in the palace, sneaking through the hallways in the middle of the midnight.

"We just are," Shane snapped, without intending to, "So please just stop asking, Drina."

A look of hurt flashed into Drina's eyes and he immediately felt guilty.

Shane sighed, "Look, the man mentioned something about people summoning dangerous beasts-"

"You already said that part," Drina interrupted.

"-That might affect all of Erdas," Shane went on as if she had never interrupted, "And I think that this book might be able to help Reynald."

"What makes you think that?" Drina asked.

Shane sighed in exasperation, "It might explain why Reynald had a huge headache before he summoned his Spirit Animal. And..." he hesitated.

"And?" She prompted.

"When he summoned...him," Shane went on, still hesitant, "It felt, I don't' know, rare? When he summoned his Spirit Animal, Reynald seemed a bit more...different than usual. And his Spirit Animal..."

"Can you just explain more properly?" Drina snapped.

"I'll explain later," Shane said, "We need to hurry and make sure to be quiet."

"How do you hurry and stay quiet at the same time?" Drina muttered but kept on following him anyways.

They made it to the start of the stairways and the two started walking down the stairs. Shane was quite sure that everyone would be sleeping at this time. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Shane started creeping through the hallways, passing the room where his father held meetings.

He heard Drina sigh behind him, "Honestly, no one's going to jump out from the corner. They're all in their beds sleeping."

"Shut it," Shane hissed, "I'm not taking any risks."

They turned another corner and finally reached the room.

"Oh wow," Drina's voice dripped with sarcasm, "I've always wanted to see the library."

He rolled his eyes, "The book's in there. Come on."

Shane slowly opened the door, peeking inside. When he saw that no one was there, he sneaked inside with Drina following closely behind. Much to his relief, he saw the book on one of the desks, just where his father left it.

As Shane started to open the book, Drina raised an eyebrow, "So apparently, this old-looking 'ancient' book is supposed to answer the questions to Reynald's mysterious headache that happened one time before his Spirit Animal summoning. You never considered the fact that it may have been just a normal headache."

"Well, I would know that since I always get a headache from this certain annoying little sister who can't shut up," Shane retorted.

Shane then read the title, "The Great Beasts."

"An old-looking 'ancient' book called 'The Great Beasts'," Drina said.

Shane ignored her as he began reading through the book. He then caught a glimpse of something about the Devourer War.

"Drina, it mentions the Devourer War," Shane spoke.

"So?"

"It says here the King Feliandor-"

"The guy who started the Devourer War and made Stetriol look bad," Drina nodded.

"-Had been tricked by a serpent called Gerathon," Shane finished.

"Wow, King Feliandor must've been extremely stupid to have listened to a snake," Drina commented, "A snake that must've been very 'manipulative' to have convinced him to start a war against the whole of Erdas. What did the snake say to convince him? Sssssssssssssssssssss?"

As she kept babbling on about nonsense, Shane kept on reading. His gaze then landed on a chapter called, 'The Fifteen Great Beasts.' As his eyes glanced down at the list, his gaze stopped at one in particular.

Reynald had summoned the exact same thing.

-Rollan-

His vision kept on swimming in and out of consciousness. His mind was filled with nightmares of, seeing huge sharp fangs and black liquid which he knew as the Bile. At times, he would see his- what should he call them? Friends? Team? Group?- fighting of a huge wave of Conquerors who would soon be  overwhelmed. At other times, he would see huge wings that almost covered the sky and fire would surround him after that. Another time, he would see a walrus and that was enough to make it a nightmare itself.

Rollan didn't know how long he had been unconscious but when he finally woke up, he was being dragged by two strong pairs of hands. They dragged him in a very uncomfortable way. He barely had the strength to move his legs, much less stay conscious. He managed to lift his head, as the two people, which he guessed were guards, stopped abruptly as someone else opened what looked like a cell.

'Ah, great,' he thought just as the guards threw him into his new cell.

"The thief wakes," a familiar voice spoke, "Had a nice sleep?"

Rollan managed to lift his head up weakly to see that Shaun had stepped into the cell, looking down at him. He tried to glare at him but it seemed to have taken some of his strength away. Outside the sell was Linus, the hunter.

"You've been unconscious for two whole days," Shaun went on then he grinned at him in a not-so-nice-way, "Well, have fun with your roommate. The Prime Minister will be ecstatic to have you executed."

"Executed," Rollan repeated in a hoarse voice, slowly finding his strength. He never even killed anyone and he's being executed.

If possible, his grin widened, "Yes. Your execution would take place in two days in Concorba. What news that would bring to the whole of Erdas. The infamous Roll is finally executed in his own city!"

On that happy note, Shaun turned and walked out the prison cell.

"So it's true," Rollan heard a voice from behind him and he turned to see a kid that seemed younger than him, "You're Roll."

"You heard right," he nodded, "And you are?"

"Grif Burnam," the kid replied, "How'd you get caught?"

"Why should I tell you?" Rollan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Grif shrugged, "You'll die in the next two days. I'll be sent to serve as someone's master in the next two days but i'm probably going to die as well. No way am I serving some bloody master."

"Good point," Rollan said, "but i'm not going to die in the next two days."

Grif snorted, "I know that you're a really sneaky thief that you're able to escape everything and all but how do you plan to escape the most well guarded prison in all of Amaya? This place is crawling with the militia!"

Rollan thought of his former companions. Would they be looking for me? Rollan suddenly thought of Meilin, and shook his head. Of course they wouldn't be looking for me. I'm a thief! I worked for the Conquerors. They'd hate me! All he could do was rely on Essix, his Spirit Animal, who he wished had escaped and is calling for help.

"I just would," Rollan finally replied, not meeting his gaze, "but for the next two days, might as well do something before I die from boredom. What are you in here for?"

"Why should I tell you when you won't tell me?" He shot back his reply from earlier.

"Another good point," he replied, "Might as well tell you. Nothing spectacular really happened. I had been with a friend in the woods-"

"You have a friend," Grif repeated.

"What? You think because i'm a thief, I can't have any friends?" Rollan snapped, "but, well, she wasn't really my friend-"

"Girlfriend?" Grif suggested then quickly added when he sent him a glare, "You said 'she'."

"I'm really flattered that you'd think i'm a guy who could have girlfriends," Rollan told him sarcastically, "but no, she hates me."

"Then why did you call her a friend?"

Now that he mentioned it, why did I call Meilin my friend? Rollan wondered, confused. The only friend that he had ever had was Essix and possibly his mother.

"It just...slipped," Rollan answered, "but anyways, we were walking around the woods when that militia guy, Shaun, suddenly came out of nowhere. Apparently, some tribe person had told him of our location since we had visited their tribe the day before. Then I let her escape while I let them catch me."

"Why would you, a thief, let the militia catch you instead of running away like you usually did?" Grif asked him as if he had done something stupid.

"Just because i'm a thief, it doesn't mean i'm heartless," Rollan retorted.

"Well, you did just say that this girl wasn't you friend," Grif pointed out.

Again, why had he let the militia catch him instead of just running away? Rollan was getting frustrated and more confused. He had let Meilin escape a few times now. He couldn't steal the talisman from her, he couldn't simply kill her back in Trunswick, and he even let the militia chase him, giving Meilin the chance to escape.

But of course, why would the daughter of General Teng do the same for him. After all, she's just the snotty general's daughter. Did he believe that? Not really.

"Look, i'm tired," Rollan announced, "I'm going to sleep."

"Well, if you don't mind," Grif said and suddenly, there was a bright flash of light.

It took a while for Rollan to realize that there was a ram in the room. Grif apparently had a Spirit Animal.

That's when Rollan realized something, "W-Wait-"

"Yeah, yeah, I have a Spirit Animal," Grif said.

"No, not that," Rollan shook his head, "You said something about serving a master. W-What's his name?"

"That guy, Shaun. He mentioned a Zerif."

Rollan froze as he glanced at the ram, "And what is your ram's name?"

"Arax," Grif grinned, "Arax the Ram."

- - -

Grif and Arax have appeared. Grif Burnam of course, not, you know.

I had been planning to stop it at the part where that Shaun guy told Rollan that he was going to die in the next two days but why not just throw in Mr. Burnam in here.

Also, I know that Drina is actually older than Shane in the actual books but in this one, Shane's the eldest.