A large eagle swooped mightily in the air, circled a dense forest a few times before diving into a spot of trees and disappearing from view. A young man emerged from almost the very spot of the forest where the bird had moments ago flew into. Kwok Polo mopped his sweaty forehead with his sleeve. The sun shone bright and stark. Not a scrap of cloud was seen in the sky. Summer had barely begun but the heat was already unbearable, especially to the young man who had just crossed the deep humid forest and emerged back on the edge of the plains. He turned his head towards the East and squinted. His naked eyes could just make out the semblance of camps and makeshift settlements about half a mile ahead.

    The Mongolian army camp.

    The Mongolian troops had been immobilised with frequent offensives on the city of Seung Yeung for three months or so already. Each time, they were driven back by the defensive forces, yet again they came. Unrelentlessly chipping away at the city's defences, frighteningly patient. Kwok Jing and wife had been preoccupied with plotting the city's defences and strategic offences towards the enemy all this while. Yet at the back of their minds, both were worried about the fate of their second daughter. Where could she have gone? Has she been caught by the Mongolians? Why then have we not gotten news of her capture by now? She is afterall valuable hostage. These and more of the same thoughts were floating around their minds for the past exhaustive months. But neither could afford the distraction of leaving the attacked city to search for their missing child. The fate of their city, no, their entire country, lay in their hands. Polo could only comfort his parents that 'no news is good news'.

    "Second sister had probably visited the Mongolian camp and left after finding that Brother Yeung was indeed not here", he had said. "I bet she's just gone adventuring, that is all. You know how playful she can get. I am sure she's fine...she's smart and quick-witted and she's..." Those were the words each comforted the other with, but none of them could hide the worry in their eyes, the agony of not knowing for sure whether she had indeed met with harm in the Mongolian camp. Even if their Seung-yi was dead, they had to know.

    And so here I am. Looking for my sister. I am glad mother managed to convince father that I was right. I had hardly left the city before, not many people even remembered the great Kwok Jing had a son. No one would recognise me, no Mongolian army would ever think to use me as hostage to threaten my parents even if I was caught.

    He had left the city in secret, circled around the plains and finally crossed the forest to approach the Mongolian camp from the opposite direction. The detour had taken him two long weeks for breaking through the dense forest was hard and the summer heat had not helped his efforts at all. His appearance now looked absolutely ragged and he mused that he'd never looked the part of a peasant more. Looking back at the dominating forest that had appeared so daunting to him just a few weeks ago, he suddenly flashed a grin. Well, that sure wasn't as hard as I had thought. Confidence confidence confidence.... With that mental chant firmly in his head, he strode determinedly towards the direction of the camp.

    "Walk faster!"

    "Hurry up, you lazy slave, faster!"

    Sounds of leather whips lashing down on bare skin could be heard all over the camp. The settlement was huge, housing thousands of soldiers. Tents and more tents dotted the campsite which was roughly half a mile in perimeter. The camp was broken down into different sections, each belonging to a separate regiment of soldiers. Amidst the trained army, slave workers could be found everywhere. These slaves were mainly peasants 'scouted' by the soldiers. Many were refugees who were headed towards Seung Yeung city, others were just unfortunate people living around the area. Yet others were prisoners of war captured during the attacks launched periodically at Seung Yeung. All in all, these slaves totaled a few hundred and served as labourers, servants and whores to the soldiers.

    Polo lifted the last heavy bag of grain and tossed it into the grain store. He stood up and stretched his aching back, savouring the slight easing of his muscles.

    "You've been at this job for one month already and you're still groaning and moaning about the weight of the grains. Tsk tsk...I doubt you'd ever grow up to be an all-mighty hero!"

    The light lilting voice that accompanied those words came from a small upturned mouth, which in turn belonged to a young teenage girl. She was dirty, untidy and totally unappetising to the soldiers, more a waif than a desirable woman they wanted. In fact, she stank so much that most of them avoided her rather than approached her.

    Polo glared down at the cheeky face looking up at him. Her face reminds me of a baby monkey! He glared fiercer. And then he gave up and sighed. Nothing scared this inquisitive brat. "In fact, I don't even think she knows the meaning of fear!", he mumbled sullenly to himself. "It is just my luck to be chained up together with this...this creature!"

    He looked down at his left wrist and tugged impatiently at it for the umpteenth time. Attached to his left wrist was a strong metal cuff and a short heavy metal chain linked it to another matching cuff. Attached to this other cuff was...another wrist. This wrist was much smaller than his and ended in a grubby right hand, nails crammed full of dirt. At this moment, the small hand was busy scratching a mosquito bite on her other arm and Polo's left arm was dragged along with it.

    "Stop moving around so much will you! My arm hurts from all the work today."

    "Oh and *my* arm doesnt hurt, moving along yours all day? Don't forget I am shorter than you and my arm has to reach higher than yours. Look at the marks on my wrists! Hmm although the red marks do make a rather cute pattern...almost like a tattoo...how fascinating!"

    "Oh and it is my fault that we're chained together? All the prisoners are chained in two's but only those who could perform the same kind of work are put together! If it was not you who snucked around meddling with the grain, would you be punished by being chained to a labourer like this? I did nothing to deserve this...deserve you!"

    Having said all that, Polo promptly looked away, in what he hoped was a dignified posture, and waited for an appropriate apologetic response from his 'partner'. He was mighty pleased with his sudden burst of righteous eloquence, happy that his mouth did not abandon him this time.

    Silence.

    He finally gave up and looked down at her. And sighed again. His little monkey was busy examining her wonderful patterns of red marks on her wrist, all acquired from today's work. She can find *anything* interesting! With another sigh, he walked towards the huge tent that housed the slaves, tugging, this time gently, at the other hand.

    Bane looked up, grinned and hurried after him in a half-run, in an attempt to match Polo's long strides back towards their tent.

    "So why are you called Bane?"

    "Because I'm the bane of your life that's why!"

    Secretly agreeing with her, Polo nevertheless asked again. "Seriously. Did your parents really name you Bane or..."

    "My name is Bane and Bane is my name. Does everything need to have a reason to be? Must anything?" She continued chewing contentedly at the sole piece of stale meat that was part of their dinner of boiled rice mixed with wheat, closing her eyes momentarily, as though she was savouring something wonderful for the very first time.

    "Well....yes, some things do need reasons to be....and sometimes some things need reasons to NOT be, if you know what I mean," he said.

    Polo finished eating his share of rice and reached over for Bane's portion. She was a small eater and it had become a daily ritual for him to finish the rest of her food every night. At first he had protested, and then when he finally relented, he had felt no small amount of guilt over it. Their rations were not exactly scarce but was nevertheless not enough for a growing young man performing hard labour everyday. His own share of meal still left him hungry for more everyday. But Bane was obviously telling the truth when she said she was a small eater. She had not insisted he took her food (which he had hoped she did!) but simply shrugged and let what was left of her food lying around everyday. Other slaves took the opportunity to rush over and grab her meal. She always grinned widely at them, showing her brown dirty teeth, and never once protested. Finally, Polo had given in and from then on, he had twice his share of his daily rations and he was almost contented.

    "Err no I don't know what you mean. How can anything not BE when it is obviously in existence? Anything cannot be *anything* if it was not something in the first place! Nothing can not NOT be simply because nothing in itself is something," she replied.

    "Huh?"

    "Huh huh huh. See! You can't out-argue me so you might as well not even try the next time," Bane declared in a triumphant voice and promptly settled down on the ground, and slept, back facing Polo.

    Polo stared at her back for a few seconds in slight confusion. "She makes my head ache," he mused privately to himself with a slight smile. Then he too settled back and closed his eyes. But he did not sleep. Instead, he spent this precious time of solitude thinking.

    War need not be war because life is the reason. Is that really so hard to understand? Sigh. I wonder how father and mother are coping back in the city. I have been away for nearly two months now. Seung-yi has not been found even though I have secretly been looking out for her all over the camp all these weeks. I guess she truly had left the Mongolian camp safely. I wonder if father and mother knew I had been caught instead. But being 'caught' is not as bad as I had expected. I am still alive and well. Now if only I could think of a way to escape...

    "Brother Polo! Wake up!"

    Polo felt someone whispering in his ear and tugging urgently at his arm and opened a sleepy eye. The insides of their huge tent was dark. None of the other slaves were stirring. It was not yet dawn. Bane was bending over him, alternately tugging at his hair and shoving at his shoulder now. He sat up and stared blankly at her for a moment.

    "What's wrong?" he whispered sleepily.
 
    "Do you hear that?"
 
    "Hear what?"
 
    "The noise outside!"

    Polo cocked his head slightly to one side and concentrated.

    "Um no I don't hear anything."

    "Ahhhh you! Come on, let's go outside to investigate!"

    Bane could not quite contain her excitement. Her inate curiosity, once piqued, could not be overcome by even the most dangerous of situations. Fear did not seem to be part of her psyche apparently.

    "I wonder if a pack of wolves raised this fearless creature," Polo thought with a shake of his head as he trudged out after her reluctantly, having no other choice as they were both handcuffed together as one.
 
    The two of them crept outside quietly and dodged the guards on duty expertly. They have afterall been around the camp for months and had more or less gotten used to the routines and workings of the place. Some of the slaves had attempted to use this knowledge to their advantage and had tried to escape. But inadvertently, their attempts were never successful simply because two frightened prisoners, chained together, trying to run from a campsite full of trained soldiers, could never run fast enough, nor far enough before being recaptured. The unlucky ones who were discovered almost immediately received arrows in their backs for their effort. The two curious young persons had no intention of wandering too far away that would lead to their discovery. Instead they crept silently along the sides of the tents and finally reached a small clearing which was brightly lit. Both knelt behind a stack of dry hay and peered out into the clearing curiously.

    "See! I told you something exciting's happening here!" Bane whispered in a mixture of delight and curiosity.

    "It seems that they have caught two prisoners. Looks like important prisoners otherwise they wouldn't be treated so special," Polo whispered back.

    The two prisoners were tied and were kneeling before a group of soldiers. The general of the army was also there! Polo and Bane could not make out the faces of the prisoners as they had their heads down. But they could see that one was a male and the other a female. The soldiers were questioning each of them in turn. Neither of the two captured prisoners said a word. Whips lashed down onto their backs repeatedly but only soft moans were heard. The general of the army grew angrier as the hour passed. Dawn was almost breaking. Polo and Bane had to go back to their tent before they were discovered missing. Just as they were about to leave, they heard the general shout angrily.

    "You can both keep your strategic secrets! We Mongolian do not need them to win the war. Seung Yeung is almost in our hands. Having Kwok Jing's family as hostages would not have gained us much advantage anyway, knowing the stubborness that runs in your family. Fine, you two shall be permitted to die as heroes. Kill them!"

    A sharp silver blade held by a soldier caught the rays of the emerging sun and flashed right into Polo's eyes.

    No.
 
    He looked straight into his eldest sister's eyes as the blade came down and slashed her throat. Before he could react, his brother-in-law was dead beside her too.

    God, no.