Scooter: Ok, a friend of mine read When He Wakes Up and liked it so she wondered if I would do another. I told her I didn't have an idea but I looked at my game (I was playing Path of Radiance already), and I got an idea: Why not do PoR through Soren's eyes? I know it's probably been done before, but hey. ((smiles)) I don't care. I just want to put my writing up here. Anyway, I know this is a long note, but I want to say a few important things:

1: Please don't give me any spoilers for Radiant Dawn because I don't have it yet!

2: I may mess up a bit on Soren's past. If you catch anything like that, please let me know and I'll try and fix it. ((smiles))

3: (last one hopefully!) You know the map scenes right? I might skip that so please bear with that. Hehe. I hurried at the end of this chapter because I wanted to post it quickly.

Scooter: Anyway, I hope you can enjoy this rushed piece of work. AND I'd like to give a shout-out to my beta, KaitouAngel! You. Are. AWESOME!! ((grins)) Enjoy!

Chapter 1

I ran through the woods, my breath coming harsh to my ears as my heart thudded inside my chest. I couldn’t believe what I had seen down the way and I had to report back to the keep. I wasn’t supposed to be back for a few more years, but after my traveling team (so to speak) had been killed and I had to leave in order to prevent myself from falling to the same fate. I had narrowly escaped thanks to my superior Wind magic. Thank heavens that I happened to have a tome with me at that time. I heard the yells of the Daein soldiers as they chased after me. I wasn’t athletic, but I was able to run quickly. I lost them rather quickly within the dense trees and I gave myself a brief pat on the back.

Congrats, I thought, a very good reason to be wearing robes and not that heavy armor that those soldiers wear. I should be able to outrun them. My eyes narrowed as I recalled a fact: Greil’s mercenaries should be around here. My heart began to speed up and my legs moved faster, quickly losing the sounds of the others behind me.

I continued to run, ignoring the branches as they cut my cheeks, spilling small drops of crimson blood and held my Wind tome with me. I tripped over a root and cursed loudly, dropping one of my tomes. I would have picked it up but I heard shouts and I groaned in frustration, standing and continuing to run, leaving my Fire tome behind on the ground.

The branches finally cleared when I saw the keep and I smiled, only to have it vanish as I began to run up the dirt path.

I finally reached the keep and met Mist.

“Soren!” she cried in joy and she tried to hug me, seemingly forgetting that, contrary to the (not so) popular belief: I do not like to be touched.

“Mist,” I said through panting breaths. “Go get Greil.”

The young girl nodded and scurried off and I had to resist putting my hands on my knees to regain my breath. That damn redhead was here and I didn’t want to seem weak in front of him. Although I could tell he was trying to bore a hole into the back of my skull with his glare. I turned, my black robes swishing gently behind me.

“Shinon, if you have got something better to do than to stare at me and wish a very painful death upon me, then do it,” I snapped, my voice cold and hard, as it always was when I was with Shinon. I really did not like the Sniper. He was stuck-up and had no sense of humor. He thought he was better than everyone was and he was ONE reason that I had left for a year to train. I hope that he’s at least changed a bit.

I saw Mist come back out and I glared once more at Shinon before I followed the young girl into the mess hall.

I spoke briefly with the commander of the Greil mercenaries and I discussed a part of the situation. Mist had vanished and I leaned against a wall, my right leg crossed over my left and both arms over across my chest. I heard a familiar voice and a ghost of a smile touched my lips, only to vanish instantly when I opened my eyes and saw the blue-haired boy who was, indeed, my very first friend.

“Hello, Ike,” I said as I walked up to him.

He jumped slightly and I chuckled, He’s barely changed at all I thought shaking my head and watching as the blue-haired boy turned to me and smiled.

“Soren!”

“Yes, it’s me.”

He looked confused. “But what the hell is going on here?” he demanded, his blue eyes narrowing.

“Something’s happening and we need a plan. Something bad is going on around the lands.

“Soren!” Ike said again and I sighed.

“Yes, Ike, yes. Long time no see,” I raised an eyebrow, and looked behind me when I heard Ike’s ever strict father yell at us what the hold-up was. As we moved over to a great, round, wooden table, Ike leaned in and muttered into my ear.

“I thought that you were going to be away with that other group a little while longer to complete your studying?”

My hesitation was short and went unnoticed. “Complications arose.” I said, and left it at that.

I took my place next to Commander Greil; my head held high as it normally was, letting my eyes scan over the ‘crowd’ that had been summoned. Greil opened his speech with what I had been doing the past year or so.

“A few years ago, we all know that Soren left our group to go with another mercenary group. He left to train . . . but returned not with knowledge of his magic-“ I couldn’t help but give a small a small snort of disagreement. “-but knowledge of unbelievable proportions.”

I stepped in so that the commander couldn’t take all of the glory. “Daein and Crimea have gone to war, it seems.”

Mist came up behind her brother and her teal-colored eyes widened in shock and horror and she clutched a hand to her chest. It’s not all that surprising, Mist I thought, resisting the urge to shake my head.

“W-War?! How? It cannot be! What can we hope to do?”

Greil seemed to be just as impatient as I and he frowned. “Why do you think I’ve called everyone here? Soren’s going to tell us just what we can do. Go ahead.”

My eyes wanted to roll in their sockets but I forced them to remain emotionless and cold as I spoke. I brought out an old map from within my black robes and unfolded it, the paper bringing the pleasant sound to my ears. I know, I’m weird like that.

I pointed to Crimea and rolled my eyes (my head was down over the map so no one could see me) at the commander’s obvious statement of: “Oh! That’s quite the detailed map of Crimea.”

We discussed the whole arrangement and in my mind, I knew that I was about to be pulled into a lot of death, tears, pain, and bloodshed. It was almost like a blast from the past, but I sucked it up and looked at them. My friends.

Scooter: Well, there's the first rushed chapter. I hope to have some feedback. This isn't as good as When He Wakes Up. Yes, I said it. ((chuckles)) When He Wakes Up is one that I'm proud of and this isn't as good but it might be ok. Well, I'll seeya next time!

--Scooter--