Lee Donghae lived an ordinary life for the past twenty years. He learned how to hunt at a young age from his father who was a hunter and a trapper. The Lee's were renowned for their skills in archery and the use of short knives. The vast forest of the Ferrest region provided them with everything they needed in their simple lives. Donghae knew every part of the forest, every nook and cranny. He knew every type of animals and birds and how to hunt them. He could even name eighty percent of the plants and trees and how to use their special qualities and traits. Only those found in the deepest part of the forest remained a mystery to Donghae. Because to go there, one needed to be a member of a hunter's guild.

As he grew older, he became one of the best trackers in the region. He could track down any animal and he had even helped in pursuing and capturing escaped lawbreakers. When visitors in Ferrest got lost, he was often approached to locate these people and he always succeeded in finding these lost travelers.

But the skills needed to survive and face the dangers of the innermost part of the vast forest of Ferrest could only be learned under the training of senior hunters in a hunter's guild. Guild membership also offered hunters many privileges.

One such guild was the Arrow Society. It was considered as the best guild in Ferrest. As a member of Arrow Society, all the game a hunter had acquired during his hunt could be sent and sold all over Haldor more quickly and with less permits needed. This was due to the guild having its own merchants who roamed the land all year through. The guild also had a special carriage in the Gorge's train as well as an air balloon terminal in Solaris.

Next year, Donghae would finally become a full-pledged member of the Arrow Society. He had already passed all the tests and requirements of the guild. The only thing preventing him from getting Arrow Society's hunter belt was his age. At twenty years, he was deemed too young to become a guild member. Only men and women who had reached the age of twenty-one were allowed to become full-pledged members of the guild.

The hunter belt was the symbol of being an official guild member and anyone who wore it received special privileges and discounts not only from business establishments in Ferrest but all over Haldor. But to Donghae, the hunter belt's most important significance was that it would instantly announce to everyone that the wearer had left his childhood and was now a full grown man. A man who now had the right and means to get a wife and start a family of his own.

Getting a good woman that would support and care for a man and give him children was always part of every warm-blooded male’s goal in Ferrest. Donghae always had simple dreams and desires. He never lusted for power or fame. All he wished for was an ordinary life like what his father had and his ancestors before him. Donghae's simple dream was to have a good wife and children that would carry his name even after his death. And the hunter belt would ensure that he would find that good woman he sought to share his life.

But the dreams that began to haunt Donghae’s sleeping moments since he and his father Lee Jong Hyuk came to the City of Solaris two days ago was not simple or clear. Those dreams brought him fear and confusion.

They came to Solaris to seek counsel from the Oracle. His sister, Min-Jung, had fallen ill, and healers could not cure nor say what ailed her. Their village chief suggested they go to the Oracle's temple and ask for help or some kind of advice from the Oracle. It was well known that during the Harragan plague, it was the Oracle who sent the healer Magan to the desert of Fuscia in Risine, where the plant Habalon was found. The juice from this plant cured all those afflicted with the plague.

Donghae and his father were hoping that the Oracle would point them to the direction where the cure or healer for his sister's malady could be found.

People from all over Haldor came to seek the Oracle's advice, wisdom and visions. But only a few were given permission to enter the hallowed grounds each day. Each visitor was given a number and a date as to when he could get inside the temple and have an audience with the Oracle.

Donghae and his father had to wait three more days before they could enter the temple grounds. They used their time to trade their furs and herbs and buy important things needed in their household in the famed marketplace of Solaris.

Although Donghae had yet to visit the other regions of Haldor, and most of his information was from stories told by travelers he had met in Ferrest, he quickly realized that all the stories he heard about the City of Solaris were true. The city was indeed the largest and most progressive place in all of Haldor! The famous saying that, 'everything you could ever want is in Solaris' was proven true as Donghae spent his days wandering the streets and seeing the magnificent sights offered by the city. He found himself enjoying everything the city had to offer to a young man his age.

But his nights were different. It became filled with dreams that brought fear in his heart.

 It always began with a voice. A beautiful and sweet voice that could only belong to a woman.

"You must find me, Donghae. You must take me. You are the chosen one, the one that will save this world from darkness!" pleaded the woman's voice.

As the voice continued to call for him, a glistening silver bladed sword resting at the bottom of a spring would appear. And then the dream would end.

When the time for them to enter the Oracle's temple came, only his father was allowed to go inside the temple. He, like all the others who accompanied their family and friends was only allowed in the inner courtyard.

This was his first time to be inside the temple grounds. And he was amazed by the beauty of the gardens that included trees and plants that came from all five regions. Most of the people in the courtyard had gathered around a small spring near the lily garden.

These people had started filling up their gourds and waterskins with the spring water. Donghae remembered the stories about the Eternal Spring under the protection of the Oracle. It was said that its waters could bring relief to tired and sick bodies. It could not cure the sick, but it could somehow lessen the pain and brought down fever.

He quickly poured out the water from his waterskin and began dipping it into the spring's water. As he gazed down on the spring's crystal water, he saw something glowing at its sandy bottom. His eyes widened when he realized that the glow was coming from a golden hilted silver sword! It was the sword in his dreams!

"You must take me now, Donghae! You are the chosen one!" urged the woman’s voice that had been haunting his dreams these past nights. But this time, the voice was coming directly from the sword!

He jumped back and left his waterskin floating on the spring's waters. His mind was confused and frightened. That voice and that sword should not exist in the real world. But was this the real world? Or was he still dreaming? He looked around him and realized that no one seemed to have heard the voice. A woman took his waterskin and handed it to him with a smile.

"Don't forget this," she said. He thanked the woman and took the waterskin. The voice of his father, Lee Jong Hyuk, made him turn away from the spring and the sword.

"Donghae!"

He quickly ran to meet his father. He tried to ignore the pleading voice of the sword that continued to call out for him.

"I’m here, Father!" The expression on his father’s face was hard to read. He seemed perplexed. This was the first time he had seen his father like this.

"What did the Oracle say about Min-Jung?"

"The Oracle assured me that Min-Jung will regain her strength and will be the one to welcome us back to Ferrest."

He felt relieved. The voice of the sword had also grown quiet.

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