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SUMMARY: Okay, this is where the fun starts. If you have gotten this far, thanks you. The trip will be all worth it now.

Voices awoke Volar the next morning. He half opened his eyes and could see his mother and father talking softly at the table and holding hands. He was still for a while, listening. He could never make out more than a few words of their conversation. Happiness filled him, making him a bit giddy. He studied his dad. Rou was not a physically impressive man. He had large shoulders, but was not very tall. He was shirtless at the table and Volar saw the many scars that marred his skin, but not the lines of the tattoo that marked him as a Demonhunter. When they trained, Rou told him the story of many of the scars that marked him. The large one across his back came from fighting Rhorlo, a half demon lunatic from the Darklands near Ghena. The tattoo was large and curvy. It really did not have a definite shape, but was abstract. Rou told him it was different with every Demonhunter. Rou's ran across his left shoulder and down the left side of his back like a tail, but it crossed a band that went from his back, curling around the front into what looked vaguely like a wavy tail. A long scar ran up his left arm all the way up to his shoulder that he earned fighting a firebeast. Still, the lines did not break, though the scar ran right through it. Rou had just as many stories as he had scars. It was easy to look up to his father.

The sky outside was brightening when Volar rose and went to the table to give his parents a hug. They both cheerfully greeted him and continued their conversation as Volar took a chair in between them. They did not speak in hushed tones anymore.

"So as it turns out," said Rou, "the hunt led me to a demon. Bastard set a trap for me. He told me his name was Beburos. I never heard of him before, but he was a crafty one. Before I knew it I was surrounded. As you can see, I barely escaped with my life. I managed to kill him, though."

"You should know better, Rou." his mother chided. "You remaining alive is far more important than any amount of dead demons."

Rou nodded. "I certainly will not put myself in that position again."

"How did they hurt you?" Volar asked.

"I don't specifically remember," Rou said. "I just know that it was Beburos and his long talon. I took his head, but he got me good in the chest. I used some of the tricks your mother taught you to slow the bleeding and numb the pain. I was not close to home though, and I had already lost much blood from the wound on my chest. I managed to get close to the house, but that was it."

"Luckily," Maura added, "your father and I have an unbreakable link. He would have bled to death out there were it not for that."

"Volar, you should go get some wood for the fire. Your mother and I are going to start breakfast."

Volar went to his bed and put on his boots and a warm shirt. There was a stack of wood at the pond and using it would keep his work to a minimum. He ran outside, grabbing the axe on the way out and running the whole way there.

When he arrived, he began to split wood and stack it methodically.