They raised her, foxes and cats, other animals too. Sly animals...snakes, stuff like that. After her parents were killed and their killers found she was not the one they had been looking for they abandoned her for dead in the woods. As I said though, they helped her. They raised her, trained her, and destroyed her hate. Along with Nanin, but he came much later.
Then she raised me. She taught me their ways, all of them. But after she told me the story of how my grandparents died it was harder for me to get rid of my hate. I had a lot of it for them. The ones who killed them, because it was me they were after. Only they were a generation too early so they didn’t care. Once I was able to get rid of my hate she taught me the animal ways again. The ways of the snake were hardest for me to comprehend though. Sneaky, stealthy like the cat...but different. More than I was ready to master.
I remember we would lay around together playing. Mother and son. But I was so stubborn, if only I had listened. They knew that it was the generation. Although the ways of the snake were hard for me to master I was able to master them easily than most. I was the most powerful child in existence, except for one of theirs. I don’t know who or what she was...but I know she was powerful.
Mom tried to prepare me. Every night we would practice I remember. First she would take me into the woods, have me meditate. Listen to the sounds of the woods and my heart. I would have to find out what part of the wood she was in, track her, and catch her. Some nights it took forever but I was growing stronger in every sense of the word. She was preparing me because the stronger and more powerful I grew the more they would want me.
Dad was always gone; he couldn’t be near us for long because he was so easily traceable. But when he was with us he taught me the secret way, the way of the sword. Mom didn’t like it one bit, she thought it was barbaric but she realized that when dealing with evil barbaric ways were sometimes needed.

But unfortunately...the good times were not to last. It was the middle of November I was training with Mom. I don’t know what was going on. We were practicing meditation and I sensed something just before I was grabbed from behind. Mom told it to get away from me. She wrestled it to the ground and got it away from me. But they stabbed her from behind. She tried to heal herself, I tried too, but the knife...it hit vital organs. No healing that either of us knew could help her.

I tried to get to Dad but they killed him too, so I had to watch my mother die...right in front of me. And now...you know what? I was mad, mad as hell. They weren’t going to get away with it; I would get them.

I knew that I was powerful beyond my wildest dreams but who to get them was the true question. I had to find a way to kill her. The one that killed Mom, I remember her. Red eyes, brown hair, thin black clothes...I think that she was the one. The one like me, but honestly I didn’t care. I just wanted to kill her. To avenge Mom.

But I had to train. They were both gone and there was nothing I could do to further myself on my own. There was one thing that I remembered from Mom and Dad’s teachings. That if anything ever happened I was to go to the Nanin. The Nanin means teacher and the Nanin certainly was a teacher. The Nanin has no gender or nationality but is...merely a teacher. The Nanin was the one who trained my parents. Almost all of my ancestors, and is older anyone in existence.

I didn’t know where the Nanin lived but with the way of the snake I could find it. Mom had taught me how. The snake is almost blind yet it is stealthy and quick, it easily finds its prey. Now my prey was the Nanin and I had to find him. It was hard, it took weeks and they were tracking me the whole time, but I found the Nanin.

“Who are you son?” the Nanin asked.
“I present myself as Kinin,” I answered, that means the student. Nanin took me in...and I followed the teachings.
“You must rid yourself of hate Kinin,” Nanin told me daily.

“Nanin, my hate is what drives me. Hate is what keeps me a dedicated Kinin.”Nanin shook its head and we continued the training. Mom and Dad were great but Nanin taught me things I had never even thought about. The ways of the animals were fun to learn but Nanin had me learn them from the animals themselves. I could howl like a wolf, fight like a bear, jump like a cat, track like a snake, and have stealth like a tiger.
One day Nanin came to see me. I was done with my training. I knew it but I didn’t want to leave, I had finally found someone who could almost fill the void. “You may leave tomorrow, Kanin,” Nanin said to me, calling me the teacher of the student yet the student to the teacher. Very confusing, basically I had finished my training and now, like Mom and Dad did, I could train others.
The next morning I awoke and went to say goodbye to Nanin. But they got him. They had killed him. My Nanin, the oldest and most powerful person in existence, and they killed him. “Hate is what will avenge you Nanin,” I whispered to the body of my teacher.
I cried for a little while. Days actually, but hate overcame sorrow and I was ready once more. Nanin taught me how to track without even having to meditate. I could track with the senses in my brain. Just close my eyes and envision what I wanted. Unfortunately I was nowhere near experienced enough to just close my eyes and see whoever I was tracking where they were without meditating for several weeks. Yet I could see clues to where they were.
It took me a little over three days to find out what the clues I saw meant but then I realized where she was. Mocking me, defiling my parents graves, where the half of their ashes that hadn’t been thrown to the wind lay. I was able to get there in a few hours. There she was laughing. “Took you long enough!” she giggled still digging her knife into their headstones.
“STOP IT!!” I screamed.
“Why?”
“Those are my parents...you know? The ones you killed.” She shrugged then tossed me the knife.
“They weren’t really great at fighting. At least not your Mom. You know that whole ‘animal way’ thing really didn’t help. Your Dad was pretty good for about two minutes, then I got bored so I just stabbed him to death.” I screamed then lunged at her. I knew she would easily dodge me, and she did.
“This is the ‘great power’ my father told me about? Such a letdown!”
“You know I really I really hate air quotes,” I said looking at the other knife in her hand.
“Ah! Now that’s just offensive! Well I guess you have been practicing that banter, huh?”
“Oh you’re right, and I so want to kick your ass now so let’s go!” We circled each other, me looking at her knife and her looking at my fist and the knife tucked safely in my pocket.
“You know you’re a bully if you hit a girl.”
“And you’re a bully if you kill my parents.”There was no more banter. I lunged and she dodged again. She pinned me down and held the knife to my throat. I bent it back and put the end to neck. We rolled and both lost the knife. I jumped up but she kicked me in the head.
I fell back and did a somersault backwards. She followed ready to strike me again but I did a handstand and returned the kicking favor. Obviously her training had done her well as she kicked me sharply in my knee and I fell back once more. I did a back flip over two graves trying to get as far away as I could.
“Here kitty...kitty!” she squealed. Hid behind a large headstone hoping she wouldn’t find me. I thought I was prepared but I wasn’t. She was older than me, did more training, I was nowhere near her expertise. “Aww! Are you just going to give up now!?”
She infuriated me, something snapped and I remembered the anger and sadness I felt when my parents and Nanin died. “Shut up! God...no wonder you’re always alone. Even the people on your side don’t want to hear your annoying voice!” She growled then realized where I was.
I made the first move though and kicked the headstone right into her shin. She fell back and picked up the headstone throwing it back at me. I threw the knife that we had both forgotten and jumped over the headstone just as it was about to hit my feet.
The knife hit her squarely in the stomach and she pulled it out. “That’s the best you can do? I’m not like your Mom...Kanin!”I watched the blood pump from her wound and knew that if I could get in a few more like that she’d be done for. I was caught off guard and didn’t realize that she had the knife in my own stomach.
“That hurt hun?”
“Not even a little.”
“Let’s make it hurt then,” she hissed forcing the knife in deeper and twisting it. I screamed in pain but bent back pulling her down with me.
“Darling I think you’ve lost your touch!” I exclaimed pulling the knife out trying not to scream again. She tried to jump up but I held her down and lifted the knife to stab her. Then she looked at me, with sadness. She wanted mercy, and she didn’t deserve it. She should die for what she did but...Nanin, Mom, Dad, they all taught me that the way of evil, of killing, and everything like that was bad and I shouldn’t do it. Avenging them was for me, living to their word was for both of us.
“Get up, and get out. I don’t want to ever see you again,” I whispered darkly, letting her get up.
She looked at me then laughed, she laughed for what seemed like an eternity before she said, “That’s why you’re weak. That’s why your parents were weak! You are too gullible. You believe everything that’s forced down your neck. And you believe that you’ll be able to turn the world good. Guess what? You’re evil just like me. You wanted to kill me. You were going to kill me!”
“And that’s the problem with you; you think that the whole world is evil. And you’re wrong it’s not.”
“Oh so are you going to kill me?”
I shook my head and said, “No...I’m not a murderer.” I struck my index finger into her forehead and started draining her power. “But you don’t deserve to live with this kind of power.” I could feel her energy flowing through my veins but I tried not to use any of it otherwise my act wouldn’t be one of good.
She didn’t die but with the little power she had she ran off before I could catch her. I released her power and let it flow freely and then assumed the rank of Nanin, the teacher. So I can teach how to release hate, and cherish and remember those you loved.