Dante stood high up above the mining camp, on a precipice of the foothills that lined the mountain range - the border of the human empire and the land his people once called home.  He wasn't even supposed to be here and he knew it, having received a strict punishment a previous time when he was caught.  Now, he just [i]didn't[/i] get caught.  This was the furthest he'd ever been away from the mining camp on his own two legs.  Ironic that his homeland felt so close... yet so very far away.

As dawn's first rays of light crept over the eastern horizon, Dante's eyes squinted slightly.  A long shadow grew behind him, hitting the tall, tall mountains at his back.  In his peripheral vision, below him, the mining camp was starting to bustle.  To his right, in the distance, he could see the town of Palen.  Not that any of it mattered.  He was staring sightlessly.  Angrily.

[b][i]"Well done, Dante, keep going now, and don't stop," Hagrid encouraged as Dante fired a mean combo of kicks and punches at the open air.[/i][/b]

The early hours of the morning, in the darkness, Uncle Hagrid had been training him, as usual.  It was the only regular free time that both of them shared, so it became their schedule most days.  Every now and then it would end in an argument between teacher and student.  Today was one of the those days.  But this time it was different.

[b][i]Dante ran, jumped, blasting the ground with air magic to launch high into the air... "Uuurrraaghh!" ...and landed with a furious power fist punch downward, his knuckles but an inch from the ground.[/i][/b]

[b][i]"That's enough," Hagrid signalled.  "You trained hard today.  Your style is so instinctively different from the family's 'Diablos Fist,' once you get going in shadow sparring.  But you look so much like your mother, that all I can see is a proud Valeron."[/i][/b]

[b][i]"And what about my father?" Dante asked.  Hagrid hated when this topic came up.  "Don't I look at all like him? Or maybe I fight like him?"[/i][/b]

[b][i]"Dante, not this again..."[/i][/b]

The older Dante got, the more frequently they would argue about the subject of his father.  Everytime, Dante saw the pain and anger in his Great Uncle's eyes.  Everytime, Hagrid refused to speak on the demon, only blaming him for getting Dante's mother, Lucille, killed.  This morning though, things had changed.  Hagrid finally spoke more on the subject and told Dante all he knew, all he'd managed to spy from the Overseers.

[i][b]"...and so, with dreams of freedom, you a babe, Lucille and your father fled into our homeland.  And within two nights, they were caught by the border patrol and slaughtered on the spot for their crimes and left for the crows to feast on.  You were brought back here."  The story was shocking to say the least, Dante could only fight back his tears as he listened.  "But a few days later, I overheard two overseers talking.  They said the patrol had doubled back over the ground where they killed your parents.  And when they did, they only found your mother's body in a shallow grave.  Your father was missing, replaced by a trail of purple blood that led to a river, where the trail went cold."[/b][/i]

So many emotions to sort through. To deal with.  But he'd ran out of time - The shouts for roll call could be heard below him.  He closed his eyes and mentally steeled himself, before starting the easy but treacherous descent back to camp...............

..........He caught his friend, Fenn Talismon, by surprise and could feel him bristle with a start as Dante grabbed his shoulder from behind.  "Morning buddy," he whispered with a grin.

"For fucking Lilith's sake, Dante, you scared the pants off me, you did," Fenn exclaimed, somehow keeping his voice in a loud whisper, and escaping trouble.

"Just in time, I see."  Dante took a place at Fenn's side and nodded a hello to Virgil as the captain's eyes passed over him.  "Lilith, I'm starving."

"That'll happen when you miss breakfast," Fenn shot back, eyes faced forward.  "Where'd you get off to?"

"To see the morning properly."

Fenn knew what that meant.  "You could've come n got me, sheesh, I had to listen to Arndolf talk about his bloody back pain all breakfast.  Lilith, I was about about to shank him in it."

Dante snorted a chuckle.

“Good.  No news today!” the overseer shouted over the crowd.  “Daily quota is still one cart per head!  One hundred eighty-two total.  Dismissed.”

"Another day, another ingot," was Dante's final comment as the miners started filing into the tunnels.