“Why does the darkness bother me so?” Joshua puzzled as he collected water from the nearby well. His thoughts kept returning to past events and times he’d been forced to flee for his life and beatings he’d received on other such dark nights as this from his old Master Cekil.

Barely into his seventeenth year, Joshua had seen and experienced more than his share of hardships and hurts. Though his life had taken a turn for the better, past experiences were hard to forget and the fear of being pulled back into the painful blackness was an ever present hound. But Joshua knew it wasn’t the darkness that had him worried, but the gripping fear of losing the freedom to define his own future and control his own destiny.