《Project Dream》 Prologue - birth Project Dream World is full of mysteries and magic, for humans to find and conquer. In the far north, where snow and ice never melts¡­. Wait. Not that north. At the border of Great Glacier of Kingdom of Rubec. In small valley safe from the glacier winds, lies a small village of the human tribe. Around 600 people live in this village. They live from the river that starts below the glacier and ends to the vast Great Snake Ocean at the southwest and from the deer and game that live in the area. Some of the families do have small fields that supply grains for bread and alike. In this evergreen valley at the hearth of winter storm. In a house not too big or too small. Can be heard a cries of an ordinary woman. Woman shouted help for her labour pains, reaching for his husband hands only to find that he has fainted and was lieing at the floor. ¡°Curse you stupid fool¡± ¨C woman Older woman noticed the Fool and yelled at his husband that was waiting behind doors. ¡°Drag your son outside¡± ¨C grandma ¡°What?, ooh, okey¡± ¨Cgrandpa Pains of first labour written in face of the woman, half an hour later baby was born and as the first cries of new life filled the house, with tiers of happiness grandmother washed the baby fast before putting it inside a blanked, and giving the baby to the mother of the child whilst saying it¡¯s a boy. ¡°My baby boy¡± -Tired but extremely happy woman. POV- mother It was warm summer breeze, in the following year I was making deer stew for my Fool and my rising star, who was crawling all around the house finding new things to explore and see. Almost every night he would cry and laugh silently in his sleep, this worried me so I asked mother in law about this, but she said it was normal for him to go thru daily things in his sleep. My sons mind is true wonder. While humming one our folk songs I heard a crash from living room. I run to see what happened to find Rain my son fallen on his face while holding pained expression small tiers in his eyes, while waiting to hear him to start crying, he held tiers in and turned to sit again. He reached his small arms to table leg while taking support from it, slowly rising on his feet and standing. He seemed extremely happy for his achievement and then he noticed me, and turned to face me and took few wobbling steps. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.¡°Maam¡± ¨C Rain It was shock it has only been 7 months and he said his first word while taking his first steps. Elated by this soon to find him again face planting the floor this time he started crying. I reached my arms to him lifting him up against my chest and started humming soothing song, to ease the pain. While thinking of telling my Fool about this later when he gets home. 4 years later at autumn Young boy, short deep dark brown hair, curious black eyes, was putting his packed lunch that mother Airi gave, to his small satchel. It was his first time to go with his father Fool. To hunt food for upcoming winter. Yes his name is Fool. He took his satchel and run to his father that was waiting outside with Blackie, fathers most trusted companion Warwolf, 3 meters length and 1,7 meters height. As the name suggest entirely black wolf exept few white spots on its back and forehead. Rain gave his satchel to his father, who attached it to blackes back along with few supplies needed on this hunt. While blackie was licking Rains face as greeting, while rain giggled. His father had 2 bows straped on his back one small, and one bigger, former was normal hunting bow and later was warbow from his time in the military. Mother-Airi with round belly stood at the door while looking bit worried ¡°Remember its only one night trip¡± ¡°yes, yes¡± -father while holding smug smile and shaking his head. Father is quite fit man, broad shoulders with black fluffy full beard with white stripes and bald, not by choice. Biceps thick as mans thigh. He was strong hunter that earned his 200-man command in army with gorilla style warfare in conflict between Kingdom of Rubec and its rival kingdom of Loth. His mother was a petit woman with light brown hair that flowed little past her shoulders, she was originally from Loth and was caught in the war but was saved by The Fool while her whole family perished in the war. ¡°Lets go, lets go dad¡± ¨C Rain ¡°yeah lets, before mother decides to stop us¡±- Dad While waving, to his mother and dragging his father to move, excitement plastered to his face. Boys journey to whatever future was about to start. North Chapter 1 North The Great Glacier of Kingdom of Rubec stretch from the Snake Ocean to north-west until Ice Forest to north-east Almost all the northen border of Rubec around 2000 km of length Kingdom of Rubec was fairly new Kingdom that rose from the ashes of old Loth empire that was torn apart in a civil war close to 1000 years ago. Thou the Loth family still lives and rules the loth kingdom. Its power has sins the empire droped a lot. Its still more powerfull kingdom that the surrounding kingdoms. Reasons why Loth Kingdom was unable to win in war against Rubec and was forced to stop it 6 years ago for time being, was natural borders of between kingdoms. In the border was Ice forest with its magic beasts to north, Sky Peek Mountain in middle and Iron lake and Iron river that flow to the Snake Ocean. War would have taken to much resources and manpower. Rain was going with his father to east. sometimes Rain stoped to ask about plants, insects or animals. Father knew some, some he forgot and told Rain to collect and ask grandma about them when they got home. ¡°whats that?¡± while Rain was pointing at sky ¡°Ohh, hmm,¡± Father recognized the bird ¡°Its White head hawk¡± ¡°Okey, what is this then?¡± pointing at blue flower ¡°It should be 5 star ice flower, hmm that¡¯s uncommon flower, mother could use it. Put it inside there.¡± While picking the flower Rain felt that the flower was cold like ice. ¡°dad why is the flower cold? And, and, and what does uncommon mean?¡± while holding the flower in his hand and stars in his eyes. ¡°Son, its cold because it has magic inside, and do you see other flowers like it around?¡± ¨C father Rain looked around, but didn¡¯t see more blue flowers ¡°No¡± ¡°uncommon means that there is not many of them and if you want to find another like it you have to search really hard to find another¡± They did not find another uncommon flower on the way to hunters cabin in the Deer valley and while almost 5 year old has lot of energy to spend he had to ride blackie while napping few times to regain his energy. When they got to the cabin, Rain took his satchel and the bag where the blue flower was and sat down next to the table he took his backed lunch took few slices of bread while observing the flower. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.¡°dad, what is magic?¡±. ¡°it is like water, everybody had little magic inside of them.¡± ¡°even me?¡± ¨C rain ¡°yes and sometimes there is more magic inside like the blue flower¡± ¨C dad (jii-ii) rain stared the flower ¡°what does magic do?¡± ¡°magic does many things, for your father magic made him bigger and stronger than uncle Tool, as for what does magic inside that flower do, you have to ask grandma about that.¡± ¨C father ¡°does magic inside of me make me strong and big too?¡± ¨Crain ¡°maybe, it can make you big and strong or it can make you wise and powerfull. But not everybody have to have that much magic inside. Hmm, hmmm.¡± Father explained while taking things from blackies back and mumbling to his beard. Deer valley was bigger and more open than the evergreen valley where rains home village was, mostly in the deer valley there was normal deer and rabbits and foxes, occasionally few magic beasts roamed around so villages still had to carefully hunt normal beasts for food. Night fell and rains father decided that they should go hunting deer early tomorrow, Valley was filled with noise from all kinds of animals and even some howls could be heard in the distance, blackie was guarding the cabin outside he ignored all noises untill one massive howl sounded, and all the night nose where no more, blackie felt the magic in the air to vibrate from the howl and started murmuring, alerting Fool he went to look outside. While Rain was already fast a sleep. ¡°What is it black?¡± he heard nothing, no other night sounds, this alerted Fool but he paid no mind sins he had black rank 2 warwolf with him and he was 3rd rank hunter, and biggest magic beast seen in the valley has been 2nd rank brown bear. ¡°(Tomorrow I will teach Rain about fine art of hunting beasts.)¡± hopping that his son will be a fine hunter one day. Holding same smug smile that was on his face while departing from home. 40 kilometers away from the cabin next to the glacier wall great gray wolf lazily lay next to her home cave. Few days old wound could be seen starting from pelvis to left hind leg. Chapter 2 - Pine hunt Chapter 2 Pine hunt Early morning sun rays hit the cabin walls. Fool was already up and making some warm tea for himself and Rain. ¡°wake up Rain, soon its time to go hunting¡± ¨C Fool Rain was already barely awake rolling in the bed ¡°mhmhm, not yet¡± Fool looked the boy, smirk could be show on his face. He walked to the door opened in and whispered to Blackie who was guarding outside ¡°Black, wake my boy.¡±. As Blackies ears went up, Fool walked back inside, left the door open and continued to ready some dried meat slices and tea. Blackie stood up stretched his whole body, looked inside the cabin. To find small blanket mountain on bed, went there dragged the blanket elsewhere, and took hold of Rains shirt behind his neck lifted the boy up and stepped outside. As the chilly autumn air hit the boy ¡°I¡¯m up, I¡¯m up¡­ please let me down black¡­ I¡¯ll, I¡¯ll give you my flower if you let me down¡± (snort) could be heard from black as he let the boy down, rain run back inside, his dad gave him the mug full of tea and meat slices. They readied themselves for the hunt. Fool had planned that they would cross the river that flowed across to the east side of valley, sins there is usually more deer east side. River was still few kilometers out so he let Rain run free untill they passed the river. Valley was filled with dense forest but not too dense for sunlight to hit the forest bed. Scots pine where up to 70 meters high and 2 meters trunk diameter. valley was not flat, several hills and old river beds ruled the outlay of the deer valley. At the river, there was few river boats that hunters used to get across to the other side, Rains dad saw that there was one already on the other side so it meant that one hunting party was east side at this moment. They took one boat and went across. ¡°Rain hear me out, now that we are on the east side we have to be silent and carefull not to scare deer away, also there are magic beasts on this side, even if your dad and black can deal with them it¡äs better to not face them.¡± ¨C Fool ¡°ohh, okey dad¡± ¨C Rain ¡°Good, Black you know what to do.¡± As he looked black ¡°(snort)¡± as black decided to head north-east casually jogging and soon disappeared from Rains and Fools sight. Rain and Fool started make their way to same direction. Few hills and countless trees later black came back and gestured that he found deer. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.and moved back in front the way he came from but this time didn¡¯t leave the sight of Fool. ¡°Where did Black go this time?¡± ¨CRain ¡°He is right there, rain. Do you remember what dad told you about magic yesterday?¡± ¡°Yes, magic makes me strong¡± as Rain flexed his underdeveloped biceps¡± ¡°Hehe, it can also make eyes see farer than others see, like your dad can.¡±-Fool ¡°Cool¡± As they silently approached the location where black was waiting, Fool saw a pack of deer 6 of them, he also put on a note that 2 of them where bigger and had huge antlers. ¡°Can you see them Rain? Do you see the 2 bigger deer right there, they are rank 1 magic beasts. Usually pack is always protected by one or more stronger ones¡±. Rain nod and silently observed the pack, and Fool with smile approved this. Pack of deer seemed agitated and soon they sprinted to west as if scared of something. Fool was already ready with his hunting bow and even with distance of over 200 meters, he took aim for one of the normal deer behind the pack and let the arrow fly. As if it was not too difficult to hit the moving target arrow hit the deer to hind leg and fell over, rest of the pack didn¡¯t notice this and continued on. At the same time when Fool let the arrow lose, black who had crawled closer, sprinted to the targeted deer and in few seconds was holding the deer in choke with his jaws and felt the life leave the deer. As if excitement overwhelmed Rain he shouted ¡°That was so cool.¡± And then realized he should be quiet, and put both his hands to hold his mouth shut. ¡°hehe it¡¯s fine Rain, lets go see what we got¡± ¨C Fool They approached the deer and Fool was about to start preparing to carry the deer so they can continue to hunt. Black growled and was looking at north-east. ¡°What is it black?¡±- as Fool noticed blacks agitation. ¡°(is it rank 2 beast?)¡± he thought ¡°(we can handle it with black and it might be good idea to show Rain how dangerous magic beasts truly are.)¡± ¡°Rain lets go, there is might be magic beast that scared the pack to run away.¡± ¡°Go on Black, show us where it is.¡± ¨C Fool Slowly moving towards North-east, sent of blood rose to Fools nose and behind the hill in a small clearing he could finally see what it is. ¡°Not good.¡± Chapter 3 Title at the end of the chapter Fool scanned the area, didn¡¯t see any threats but his experience told him to say vigilant. ¡°Rain stay here and don¡¯t follow¡± ¨CFool ¡°What is it dad?¡± ¨CRain ¡°Black go around and see if you find any beasts close by. And Rain say here, ill came soon back.¡± ¨CFool Fool approached the clearing while scanning his surroundings. He Could not sense any movement, only black that was moving in circular path around him not too far away. As he got closer the stench of blood and gore that he got used to in military got stronger. When he got closer he could identify 2 man hunter team dead. Well actually 1st body that had right arm missing with while left one was still holding broken bow. He saw another body, or rather lower torso. 20 or so meters away from the first one. Fool felt that the body was still rather warm, so it has only been few hours. ¡°Dad isn¡¯t that uncle beck?¡± ¨CRain (uncle used as not relative but respectable older man.) Fool turned around and saw Rain looking at the dead bodies. ¡°I Told you to say there,¡± ¡°(why isn¡¯t this kid crying scare or feeling unwell, Just¡­. Indifferent.)¡± ¡°Ahh just stay close to me then.¡± Fool angrily grunted, and started to scan surrounding again to find clue to see what kind of beast could have caused this. He saw huge claw marks on nearby trees and 2 heavy paw marks near the lower torso of the second man. ¡°(bear, rank 2 at least)¡± (Normal villagers are rank 1 and should be able to deal with rank 1 magic beasts when the band together in 2 to 3 people hunting teams,) ¡°Up there¡± ¨C Rain Fool looked up and saw the missing upper torso hanging from branch. ¡°bear, definitely¡± While Fool was contemplating if he should take the deer they killed and get Rain back to village before informing village chief and gathering team to kill the beast or hunting the beast now to get revenge for dead villagers before it leaves to different location. Growls and roars could be heard from north not too far away. When the noises didn¡¯t die after waiting for 5 minutes. Fool decided that the same bear was fighting another beast of same strength. He could avenge the deaths and get some magic beast meat from 2 beasts for Becks and Toms families. ¡°Rain, follow me closely, it might get dangerous now that we are going to hunt magic beast of rank 2.¡± ¨C Fool Rain nod, as he seemed bit scared, but also interested to see what made those noises. Fool whistle to get blacks attention, and indicated with hand signs to start moving toward the noises of 2 fighting beasts. Rain could see there was a trail that something big left behind leading to the sounds as he followed his father. Soon he saw black stopping behind a bush and he and his father made their way to black. What he saw made him really scared and exited at the same time. One huge jet black bear that stood on its back legs and reached 6 meters high. Bear was skinnier and had slightly longer front and back legs than normal bear, it had 2 devil horns and had spikes all over its back. It was roaring to his pray. That was a wolf with same characteristics as Black, but with silver-gray fur and 2 times bigger size. The ground was trampled some trees were uprooted and fallen, and one could see 3 dead wolf puppies laying in the ground near a cave that seemed to be Wolfs resting place up to this point. ¡°Ooh shit¡­ That¡¯s Nightmare bear, this is out of my league. We have to get out from here.¡± -Fool As fool was lifting Rain up and starting to make run for it. ¡°wait dad there¡äs something in that cave.¡± Fool looked to the cave that seemed to be the places where beasts started their fight, and could see one pure white furball but he cared not. ¡°I can hear her whimpering, we must save her.¡± ¨C Rain ¡°Arg, fine but you have to ride black right now strait to the river boat.¡± ¨C Fool Then he set Rain on Black. Rain took hold of Blacks fur. In his mind he was only wishing that his father manages to save that little white wolf puppy. Then they darted away. Then Fool turned his attention to the beasts and to the cave, waited a while until he was sure that both the wolfs and Nightmare bears attention was not on his or caves direction. He sprinted to the cave grabed the furball gently sins it seemed to be injured and rushed out and to the same direction as Black. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. This did not go unnoticed from wolf that tried to protects its last living offspring and the wolf jumped to his direction with speed that Fool could not match even with mother wolf injured. At that moment nightmare bear, who¡äs original goal was to hunt, kill and consume mother wolf for own benefit and growth. Saw this movement as an opportunity and landed heavy blow with his front paw while standing to the mother wolfs pelvis, such an blow was final for already weak mother wolf, pregnancy and running away she had to do while pregnant had been draining her last strength. She did not die instantly but there was no amount of effort that could save her as Nightmare bear started to consume his price, and did not pay any extra attention to the surrounding and Fool got away, as his skills as a hunter did help him to erase his presence to the point bear didn¡¯t notice. After running some time he checked if the bear was following, with sigh of a relief he decided to get the deer they killed before this ordeal and make a way to meet his son at the river boat. Never had Rain moved so fast in his life on blacks back but for some reason he felt that the feeling of moving fast was familiar. He and black got to the river boat and hid near the boat to the bushes. It didn¡¯t take long for Fool to arrive there also. Rain ran to meet his father. ¡°Did you save her dad?¡± as Rain did not see the white fur ball. ¡°Yes, here she is¡± as Fool took the puppy out from his jacket. ¡°Thanks dad¡± Rain hugged his father, and a sniffling could be heard as the fear Rain had build up inside, was released. ¡°We have to hurry back to village and inform chief. Here, put the puppy inside your shirt.¡± Rain loosened his hug, took the puppy from his father and put her inside his shirt. They crossed the river, moved back to the hunting cabin. Took what they needed + the deer. And started to make their way back to the village, top speed, Rain was riding Black the whole way. At the edge of the village, they split up. While Rain and black made their way strait to home, Fool made his way to the village chiefs house. Mother-Airi was resting her back, and reading book of local herbs that Rains Grandmother had given her. Thinking this and that. Then she heard and ¡°growl¡± from outside and rouse up ¡°(who is it)¡± she though and went to look. She saw Rain and Black outside and went to the door ¡°What are you doing home already? Where is dad?¡±. Rain ran to his mother and gave an hug. Before saying ¡°Dad went to chief house.¡± ¡°ouh.¡± Airi felt something move that was not the baby or Rain. ¡°wha, what do you have inside your shirt?¡± Rain also felt it and took a step back. Whining could be heard as Rain took the puppy out to show his mother. ¡°Puppy, I think she is hungry.¡± ¡°Let mother have a look while you take the stuff from Blacks back.¡± ¡°okay¡± Rain went to unload the bags. Airi lifted furball to her eye level. ¡°(winter wolf perhaps, a girl, but the fur feels silky and though the same time. Odd. ) Rain did you see puppy¡äs mother? What kind of was she?¡±. ¡°yes, I think so mom, she was bigger than black and had silver-gray fur.¡± ¡°(A magic beast lineage and Variant at that.) Do you plan to keep her?¡± ¨C Airi ¡°Can I really keep her? Ah maybe its better to give it to my baby brother. When will my brother come from tummy?¡± ¨CRain ¡°(How thoughtful. Whaa..) What do you mean when you say the baby will be a boy?¡± ¡°Ahh, hmm, I had a dream where I had a brother.¡± ¡°(A dream huh.). But the baby could be a girl too and then she would be you little sister.¡± Rain continued to unpack hunting tools, Airi walked in and was thinking what to feed to their new family member sins they didn¡¯t have anyone that could produce milk. Something happened. She herself started to lactate. That¡¯s odd, guess gods themselves wanted to give a chance to this puppy. Title Puppy rescue. (AN don¡¯t blame me I had to do it this way, its weird and funny.)