After knocking on the door a couple of times on the solid wood door. I waited for someone to come and let me in the house. As I was waiting I looked at the door as there was not much else to see around me. It was well made and looked hand crafted, I couldn"t tell what kind of wood it was though. There were also some faint blue lines running across the door in odd shapes. I thought it was some kind art that was on the door. Above the door there was just the house number on the wall. It was made of metal, probably bronze going by the colour of the metal.

Then as I was gazing around at the street watching people go by, some looking busy and some looking relaxed. I heard a soft click behind me and light flooded where I was standing outside of the door. I turned around quickly.

I saw a woman standing there. She was wearing a long white dress with some black clothing covering her chest area. I also noticed that her hair was black as it dangled down almost all the way to her waist. Seeing me looking at her so intensely she blushed slightly. Then in a squeaky high pitched voice, "Ahem, may I help you sir."

My ears slightly hurt from how high her voice was, "Yes I am Aerounant Adoh, I was told to come here by my father to see his friend."

Her face froze for a second then formed a gentle smile. "So you are Adoh, the master will be happy that you are here at last, he was starting to worry where you were, he wouldn"t want his nephew to disappear before being able to meet him after all." She then ushered me into the house and closed the door behind me once I was inside.

At that moment I realised she said something odd. She called me a nephew of my dad"s friend. "Umm Miss, did you just say nephew."

She gave me a quick glance before saying, "Of course I did, it"s not like your dad wouldn"t mention he has a brother. Now take off your shoes and hand me your bag. If you follow the hallway down you will reach a room, the master is in there." After taking my shoes off and leaving them where she indicated and then handed her my bag. She walked off down one of the other hallways.

I then looked in the direction she pointed to. It had a rather eccentric look as well as a exotic look. The floor was made out of a dark wood but when I stepped on it, it was like walking on hay or something really soft. On the walls where lots of different ornate pots with them being a mult.i.tude of different designs and colours. Some looked like bird designs, one even looked like it was a ma.s.sive mountain with a red liquid coming out of the top. I remembered my dad showed me a picture of this once he said it was called a volcano by some and a fire mountain by others. At that time I asked why things have so many different names. All he said was that different people don"t like to call the same thing the same as they all live differently. He said this was people having different cultures.

Just about as I was going to enter the room that I had been told to I saw a picture. It was t.i.tled rise of the Imperium. On it were people riding dragons, the dragon lords. There were five of them in total each one representing a great clan. In the centre of the picture there were five weapons; the fire spear, a black bow, a white knife, a wooden wand and a red sword. In the caption under the t.i.tle it said.

"When the clans unite, lay down their weapons, an empire is born."

As I was looking at the picture a voice much like my dad sounded behind me. "It"s a great picture isn"t it? It shows the five great clans uniting and deciding on the first emperor of the imperium as well as the founding of the Imperium itself. The site where they did this would later become the capital of the Imperium."

I turned around as he was speaking. The man looked so much like my dad it was uncanny. There were a few slight differences though. He had a scar just below his left eye, he was also more skinny than my father and also less tanned but this was probably because my dad worked in the fields nearly every day. "So you must be Adoh, then I am Paul, your father"s younger brother."

I shifted my weight from side to side, "I am sorry to say Mr.Paul my father never told me he had a brother. He just said that you were his friend."

Smiling to himself as if he already knew this was the case paul continued, "I guessed this was the case, there is a long story behind this. Why don"t I tell you the story over some dinner."

He then led the way down a few different hallways until we arrived in what looked like a dinning room. After we both sat down some more women came out with some food similar to what the girl who greeted me wore. The only difference was that they had green on their chests instead of black. After putting down the food on the table in front of us both they left. Picking up some long sticks which were called stabbing sticks I began to eat the food in front of me. After trying a bit of the meat in front of me I worked out that it was lamb. It fell apart in my mouth, I couldn"t help myself but grab another bit of the meat and eat it as quickly as possible. "This is delicious," I yelled out.

"I"m glad you like it," Paul said with a hearty laugh. "Now I will tell you the story about why your father won"t speak about me. It all started when he came home with your mother in tow. At the time our family still were n.o.bles and our parents because of this strongly disapproved. He fought with them for a long time regarding this matter. Eventually he decided to leave and went to live in a village. With him going our parents disowned him and cut him off from all forms of inheritance. Obviously there is much more to the story especially when it concerns your mother but that is up to them to tell you not me."

At that moment a maid walked in, with a curtsy "Master, the baron of Stonehelm is here to see you." His face changed into one of anger very quickly. Though just as quickly it calmed down, "I am so sorry Adoh, this shouldn"t have been happening. I will let a maid guide you to your room. Then tomorrow I will take you to the army administration building."

As soon as he had finished he rushed off to deal with the baron. The maid who let me into the house suddenly appeared. "If you would follow me Mr.Adoh." Getting up I quickly followed her to my room. She opened my door to let me in. "I hope everything is to your satisfaction Mr."

Replying without looking at her. "It most definitely is." I then heard the door close. Thinking I was finally alone, I turned around only to see the maid starting to take her clothes off.

Reacting so quickly I thought that I would burn a whole in my floor, so I stopped her. Looking at me with teary eyes. "Am I-I not... b-beautiful enough?" She hiccupped.

"Of course you are, it"s just that I ummm am not ready for something like this yet."

Smiling at what I had said, she made sure her clothes were back on properly before leaving the room. Once she had left I turned around and crashed straight into the bed falling asleep.