I woke up with the morning sun shining directly on my face. The rays warmed me as I lay, curled up in my sleeping bag. The grass around me was long and lush, with a fine spray of morning dew sparkling like jewels in the sunlight. Despite all the beauty that surrounded me, I couldn't appreciate it. I'd had nightmares again. They always came after I completed a mission, and often when I slept alone. The French man had not yielded as easily as I though he would, so I had been forced to use increasingly brutal methods... The more gruesome the assignment, the worse my nightmares became. I couldn't even take sleeping pills unless I was attacked during the night. I couldn't risk a deep sleep, so the images just kept on coming. Last night I dreamed about fire, about smoke so black and dense you couldn't see beyond an outstretched hand... I heard screams, terrified, animal-like screeches as children and adults alike burned alive... I heard their voices as well, always yelling my name, telling me to run...

I shook myself and took some deep breaths until a semblance of calm washed over me. Opening my eyes I sat up and took in the grove around me, drinking in the scents of damp earth and new leaves. My hands patted the pistol and pack of hunting knives tucked into the waistband of my trousers. This was more out of habit rather than caution, as I am no less deadly bare-handed than if I am armed. Once I had fought and disarmed five grown men, alone, unarmed and all before my eighth birthday. I remembered my only disappointment that day was the frustration at my childish body, because I was too weak then to break any adult bones.

Suddenly two tiny silver blurs whipped through the air from a canopy of leaves on my right. However I tracked their movement calmly and brought my hand up to catch the knives between my fingers before they penetrated my throat. With exaggerated ease I planted my feet on the ground and stood up slowly, focusing on the rustling canopy.

"Are you going to reveal yourselves or not then? Or do I have to come up there and get you myself?"

In answer the canopy shook violently as I heard a rumble of laughter. Two figures dropped from the branches, dressed similarly to me in full length black. Masks obscured half of their faces, showing only their eyes and hair. Both of them had broad shoulders and towering heights, easily over six foot each. The men watched me cautiously as I stared back at them unflinchingly, yet if they were afraid they hid it well. The one on the left had moss green eyes that matched the forest around us, and the one on the right had eyes of a sunlit-sea. It was a long time after they'd stopped that anyone broke the silence.

"Ashen." The man with the blue eyes had been the one who spoke, yet it seemed like he was phrasing a question.

Although my face was concealed I couldn't hide the surprise that rose up inside of me at how familiar the voice sounded. Suddenly I realised why those eyes seemed so close to me, and I recognised the fluttering in my stomach, something I hadn't felt for a long time. Yearning.

"Altaïr. Ezio." I whispered, pulling down my mask. My confusion must have shown on my face, because the blue-eyed man tugged down his mask to reveal a warm smile.
"Yes, little one. It really is us." The smile grew even wider, encouraging me to respond with a small curve of my own lips. "We found you, finally."

My response was cut short by a pair of huge arms engulfing me, and suddenly I was being swung wildly around in the air.
"And how come you're looking at us like a dumb animal? You should be happy to see your big brother Ezio!"
A pair of vivid green eyes stared into mine, twinkling with such familiar mischief that my heart lurched with joy, although I noticed the tinge of sadness that lurked in his expression. I ignored it and decided to relax, letting my smile widen with genuine happiness. Stepping back from Ezio's bear-hold I allowed the two men a moment to contemplate the situation, as I also wondered at how we had come together like this, after so long.

"It has been a while, Ashen." Altaïr's lilting voice was soft as he spoke. "We were beginning to think that you had not survived... Your skills have greatly improved, it seems, and I am proud of you for concealing yourself for so long."

I nodded silently, my good mood swiftly vanishing. It was seven months ago since that disastrous day forced us all to flee to the furthest corners of the world. We were scattered like a handful of seeds, and I had never been more afraid to venture out into the world alone. I'd mastered those fears not long afterwards, and used my training to survive. Yet somewhere deep in my mind those fears still remained, and they surfaced at night in horrifying dreams that exhausted me beyond physical fatigue. My life before everything shattered had been happy, if not like a normal child's. Altaïr and Ezio brought back many of my childhood memories, they were present in my life from the day I was born. I do not share blood with them, but they were as close to me as a real family were. Altaïr once told me that his ancestors had settled in Syria, but he was unsure about his parents' origins. Altaïr's calm intelligence always comforted me and I developed his passion for languages as he mentored me for academics. His lanky frame appeared deceptively clumsy, but he was the best I knew for stealth missions. I guessed by Ezio's name that he had Italian blood, and judging by his love of the Mediterranean I guessed that I was right. A loud mouth and savage humour suited his role as a fitness coach. I often spent long hours working out until I dropped under his harsh drills, but he also used to let me hang like a monkey from his muscular arms. Ezio's intimidating stature had reduced armed men to whimpering cowards on multiple occasions during a mission. Once again I smiled as I realised how much I'd missed Altaïr and Ezio; I had gotten so used to to them being present in my life that they really did seem like brothers to me.

"So tell me, Ashen. Why did you not investigate if you knew there was someone in the trees?" asked Ezio with a playfully stern expression.
I shrugged and replied casually, "No one attacked me. I decided to wait and see what they wanted. And as soon as I recognised these -" I held up the knives, still clutched between my fingers, "I knew that it was someone from the - academy."
Altaïr nodded once, watching me carefully. Ezio's face still had a smile on it, but by his clenched fists I knew he was thinking the same thing as well.

The pain from memories of our lost home was still fresh, and I knew that my hesitancy wasn't missed by either of the men.

To distract myself I inspected the throwing knives and their unique design. The hilt consisted of a steel and aluminium alloy, encased in a plain black leather grip that was now showing signs of age. Underneath the leather were intricate etchings, lines coalescing and weaving all over, until finally meeting at the pommel. The pommel itself was made of the same metal as the hilt was, and couldn't have been much wider than a couple of inches. The blade was crafted differently from the rest of its body, with a lighter, stronger aluminium alloy. The steel strengthened the metal, and the blade also contained nanoparticles of silver to give it a small degree of flexibility. The blade was fairly long compared to the hilt; it consisted of about two-thirds of the whole knife. That being said, the knife's whole length didn't exceed my hand, so its lightness and size meant it could be thrown with relative ease, yet the length of the blade allowed you to use it as a regular knife in close-combat. My favourite feature had to be the academy's logo on the flat side of the blade, just under the pommel. The logo itself was invisible until viewed under an ultraviolet light, so as to prevent discovery if one of the knives were lost or stolen. The logo was made up of two Greek alpha letters overlapping each other, on top of another Greek letter, phi. The letters were encircled by two eagles facing inwards and with wings spread so that they met below and above the letters. Just under the point where the eagle wings touched, a bow and arrow crossed diagonally, with a knife going straight down at into the centre where they crossed. The resulting image always reminded me of a six-pointed star, something beautiful and totally unreachable like all the expectations that I always struggled to meet as a child.

I mentally shook off the increasingly morbid thoughts, feeling their gazes on me.
"What were you doing all this time then?" asked Ezio.
I thought quietly for a moment, and wondered at how to answer. What I've been doing all my life, I thought but instead I told them something else.

"Surviving."

In the blanketing silence that followed, I dared to ask the question that had been bothering me ever since I laid eyes on them.

"Have you two... found anyone else?" I struggled to keep the hope out of my voice, and kept my face as blank as possible. A storm of emotions rose up in me, hope, apprehension, and fear, but I clamped down on them as quickly as they had surfaced, forcing them to the back of my mind.

An almost imperceptible glance passed between them, a flicker of eyes and a tightening of mouths, disappearing instantly, but I had caught it.

Altaïr began to speak, in a voice that was agonisingly slow.
"No... we did not find anyone else." His mouth twisted, and he looked at Ezio again; this time the worry showed clearly on their faces. The breath had caught in my throat, as if the tension in the air had somehow forced itself into my chest and was gradually choking me.

Altaïr turned to me once more, with a strange sort of determination filling the hard lines of his expression.
"We could not find anyone else... but someone found us."
His icy blue eyes softened to a warm cobalt as he smiled, yet the sorrow that penetrated his face reflected in the frown lines on Ezio's forehead.

"And he is waiting for you, Ashen."