《The Kingdom's Decree》 Prologue: The End is Always the Beginning As I gaze over the plain what I see absolutely repulses me. Spread over the ground not a blade of grass that was visible was the color green. What I can only assume was once the Kingdom of the Golden Lion as well as the Lott Kingdoms armies of hundreds of thousands laid spread before me. The Golden/Purple armor of the Golden Lion army and the pure White armor with Ultramarine accented throughout ripped to shreds. Flames periodically spaced though the gently destroying the remnants of the war that had caused close to total annihilation of both forces, and causing both kingdoms to call a temporary truce. The reason for the mayhem that was would later be known as the battle of the lost was due to the sound of the clashing armies awakening a hidden nest in the surrounding mountains. The nest held the one creature that could cause such a tragedy, an elder white dragon the same dragon that once destroyed the previous Kingdom that stood a thousand years prior to where the two fighting Kingdoms now hold power. The only thing known about the dragon was that it was large and white. Anyone who was ever close enough to know the details beyond size and color have never survived the encounter. It wasn¡¯t known if the dragon had returned to sleep or if it was waiting but my job as well as many others from both kingdoms had just begun. Multitudes of breezes covered the land desperately hoping to find survivors of this untimely nightmare. After hours of searching a ray of hope appeared as we approached the very center of the battlefield. Standing in the middle of the now presumed wasteland¡­ No not standing, the right words would be ¡°propped up¡± by a multitude of spears was a man holding the flag of the Lott Kingdom. The flag was tattered but it still showed a ultramarine horizon with a white sun starting to set behind it. As we approached the young man that could have not been over the age of twenty he wore white armor that was now dyed completely crimson with his own blood as well as those that surround him. Leaning against his left shoulder was the before mentioned flag. His right hand held a completely unadorned silver long sword with blood still dripping off its tip. In his left hand whose arm is still wrapped around the flags pole lays a bent open locket with its chain still dangling from his neck. The locket had a single picture which depicted a stunning young woman with forest green eyes and dark brunette hair. The words written on the picture stated as follows ¡°I will always love you Leon. Always yours, Jess¡±. As the men who conducted the search circled around the last survivor of the war we heard a barely audible whisper from the young man as he drew his last breath, ¡°My only wish is to see you once more my love¡±. As his tensed body relaxed his arms fell to his side. The sword that once was held in his hand now stood upright by his legs as if refusing to lie on its side before him. The locket now freely hung by its chain still wrapped around his neck refusing to leave the space by his heart. The young man¡¯s head now hung parallel to the ground because of the spears refusing to let the boy leave his feet and prostrate himself before death. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Those that surrounded the young man bowed their heads in prayer asking the Goddess who ruled over love and death if she would grant the last wish the young man whose future was cut short. After a moment of silence the men slowly dispersed as I took the flag that was still leaning against his shoulder in memory of the man who survived the longest period of time after a dragon¡¯s direct attack in recorded history. At twelve corners surrounding the battlefield the men in charge of the search set up a sealing formation in order to contain the flames of the white dragon which were known to burn without end if left alone. After the formation was completed the men watched silently as the bodies on the plain slowly disappeared. At the center the young man was gradually turning to ash but the spears made sure to make it so even as the flames turned to his body to ash he would never fall. The battlefield was now completely scorched black with only a single small flame burning at the center. The flame burned the only thing that was left on the battlefield, a small locket. The last part to burn before the flame left existence was the words on the picture ¡°Always yours, Jess¡±.
Six years in the future a new kingdom started to prosper after the previous two that both had a thousand year history were destroyed by the white dragon. The Capital of the New Kingdom stood where the Battle of the Lost took place. In the center of the capital stood a magnificent Castle which stood ten stories over the next tallest building and just the ground floor of the castle was said to be around a hundred thousand square feet. On the ground floor was a room that alone had a ceiling that was at least eight stories high and a floor plan of ten thousand square feet. The room was made to look like it was shaped out of the purest white marble from the floor to the support columns to the ceiling. Hanging from the support columns were ultramarine banners that signified the royal family. In the center of the room on a raised stone platform was an unadorned silver chair. Sitting on the chair was a woman about twenty four years of age with two young twin boys about the age of six at her side. Hanging above the woman and the young children was an old tattered flag adorned with a white sun descending behind an ultramarine horizon. As the woman sat on her throne she heard, ¡°ALL HAIL QUEEN MATNEY! ALL HAIL PRINCE LANE! ALL HAIL PRINCE LEON! LONG LIVE THE ROYAL FAMILY!¡± Chapter 1 So I decided to try writing this chapter from the main characters point of view but I''m not sure how I like writing from that perspective so this chapter may or may not change depending on how I feel. --------------------- In the Lott Kingdoms Capital of Alabaster there lies an arena thousands of feet diameters that is currently holding the kingdoms annual knight recruitment. When listening to what is currently going on you can hear from the center of the arena. ¡°LINE UP ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER ASSIGNED TO YOU AT THE REGISTRATION TABLE!!¡± screamed a short and stout man who was nearing the latter half of his life. I looked down at the badge that I held in my right hand to double check the number I was assigned as I ran up to the twenty first place in line. As I approached I heard my worst nightmare come true from behind me. ¡°Yo Leon I didn¡¯t know you signed up for the knights exam as well.¡± As I turned to confirm my fear I felt a sharp pain in the middle of my back that pushed me off balance as I stumbled forward. As I regained my balance I finally was able to turn to glare at the piece of crap that decided to hit me in the middle of the back. ¡°Whoa Leon you don¡¯t have to let out that amount of blood lust just because you¡¯re happy to see me. Hahaha.¡± He continued to talk without letting me respond. ¡°My number is twenty what about you? Ah twenty one were line partners WOOHOO!¡± ¡°Why would I ever be happy to see you? Better yet you should just disappear and never comeback.¡± I snapped back in a low voice to make sure he knew how pissed I was to see him. ¡°Oh stop pretending I know you¡­¡± ¡°Stop talking recruits let me introduce you to your trainer and/or evaluator if you fail to meet the Kingdoms requirements¡± yelled the stout man from before instantly stopping all conversations in the arena. As the stout man announced that a man who stood at least sis foot six and weighed at least two hundred and sixty pounds stepped forward. The man wore a set of heavy armor that looked like it weighed a minimum of two hundred pounds and was as white as snow. On his hip hung a black sheathe for a long sword with a silver pummel and a white and blue cloth wrapped around the handle. The man had black hair and brown eyes and on his round and slightly chubby face was a multitude of scars that didn¡¯t appear to be from any battle. After the man took a step forward he brought his feet together and stood as straight as a spear and said in a deep booming voice, ¡°I am going to be your evaluator and for those who are fortunate enough to make it past evaluations I shall also be your trainer. My name is Eric Hicks¡­¡± As he announced his name the idiot next to me started to laugh ¡°Did you hear that his name is Hicks. I hope he isn¡¯t an uneducated country hick.¡± ¡°Shut up you idiot¡± I whispered as I started to sweat because I noticed he had paused and glanced in our direction before giving a sadistic grin. After the Instructors pause he continued ¡°I hold the rank of army commander after evaluations if you are accepted you will be placed under my command so let¡¯s get along well men. ¡°As he said the last line he turned toward the idiot and I to give a smile that made a chill run damn my spine. I could only think ¡°Well I¡¯m done for I hope I survive.¡± After the instructors speech he stepped back and the stout man who was next to him yelled ¡°Starting at the beginning tell us your number, your name, and the district that you reside in.¡± After he announced that at my far right a man who stood about six foot stepped forward and began ¡°Number one Don Hawkings, District Six¡±. As it began I started to think ¡°How the hell does that guy not look hot it¡¯s at least a hundred degrees Fahrenheit out right now. What I would do to be lying in bed eating banana pudding right now¡±. As I imagined the banana pudding I heard the Idiot next to me say. ¡°Number twenty Chris Peterson, District eleven.¡± I turned to look at the instructor but to my amazement the only thing that drew my attention was a sadistic grin that looked like the grim reaper had come to take your number. I took a breath stepped forward to announced, ¡°Number twenty one Leon Matney. District fifty two, please take care of me.¡± To my surprise he responded with something that made me feel like jumping off a cliff. ¡°Don¡¯t worry young man I intend to¡±. As my mind began to shut down I hear others start to whisper ¡°Why is a rat applying to be a knight doesn¡¯t he know his place?¡± This made my thought turn in a completely different direction ¡°Even here I¡¯m only known as a rat just because I happen to live in a lower district.¡± As I though how unfair life is for those who lack money my thought wonder to the arrangement of the population of the city. ¡°Residential district one where the royal family resides. Districts two through five are Noble districts. Six though fifteen are high class citizens. Sixteen though thirty are middle class and thirty one to fifty are low class citizens. Fifty one and fifty two are the rats that scrape by between the slum districts and the lower class districts.¡± As they said I happen to be a rat my family¡¯s income is so low that we aren¡¯t considered low class but we make enough to not be kicked out of our house to live in the slum. The arrangement of houses is based solely on the weekly income of a family. Those in the slums make anywhere from nothing to five copper a month. Low class is considered from ten copper to one hundred copper which also equals one silver. Middle class is anywhere from one silver up to one gold or one hundred silver. High class makes more than one gold a month. Everything in this city is based on income such as if you are a low income family if you make ten copper per week you live in district fifty and as your income increases the closer you live to district thirty one. This fact hold true for every class of family low or high income. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. As my mind starts fading from its tangent I hear the instructor now assigning the random groups of five that we are going to take the different exams in. ¡°Group eleven as I call your numbers head to the physical examination portion of the exam. Number One, Twenty, Twenty One¡­¡± I whispered to myself ¡°Crap what else can go wrong¡±. The instructor finished his sentence with ¡°Group eleven make sure you put on the supplied weighted vest that that exam¡¯s evaluator has with him.¡± ¡°Of course I had to open my mouth.¡± I was about to turn to run when I feel someone grab my arm and start to drag me with them. As I look up I almost start to cry as I see the idiot Chris pulling me along with him saying ¡°This exam is going to be a piece of cake Leon. Now Hurry up we don¡¯t want to be the last ones over there¡±. As tears run down my face we reach the testing site and the evaluator starts off with a statement that makes me want to cry even harder and collapse to my knees. ¡°Wow I don¡¯t know what you five did but this was supposed to be a six mile run. So after you put on the weights get going and follow the markers. Oh by the way each weight is approximately a hundred pounds.¡± ¡°Whelp its official the Instructor has it out for me¡±. As I was thinking how my life was going to end in the outhouse my ¡°bestest buddy¡± Chris starts to introduce himself to the group as we start to follow the six mile course around the arena. I know I come off as someone who absolutely despises Chris but if it wasn¡¯t for his family I would have never had the chance to participate in the knight exam. Three years ago my father did everything he could in order to give me a chance at learning swordsmanship. At that period in time I had just turned twelve and that¡¯s when children state the profession they are going to attempt to try to be hired for. My father did everything in his power to make it so I would have a better life for myself even if that was sending me to swordsmanship school against my will. Swordsmanship training only lets those that have a certain amount of money into the program such as higher low class families can only afford one child in the program. Middle class families can afford one to two children to attend and high class can afford two or more. My father couldn¡¯t afford to send me to swordsmanship training and I wouldn¡¯t find out until two years later when I overheard a conversation that my father was having. Last year I finally found out that Chris¡¯s family which happens to be a merchant family had been paying my tuition for me to be able to go to training. Chris¡¯s family had accepted my father¡¯s begging with the condition that when I finished training I would be a guard for their caravan until my debt was paid off. After that I guess that the idiot had found out and imposed another condition but this time on his family. That condition was that if I succeeded in passing the knight exams the debt I carried with their family would be expunged. Now no matter what I do he always makes sure to tell everyone near us that we¡¯re best friends. ¡°Leon because you refuse to answer me and am in your own world I¡¯ll introduce you.¡±Chris said as he snaps me out of my thought process. ¡°Leon is six foot one two hundred pound even a slightly chubby face with high cheek bones. He also brown hair and Hazel eyes that if one looks closely around his iris you¡¯ll see a blue ring around one and a yellow ring around the other¡­.¡± As he continued I cut him off. ¡°You idiot why are you just describe my appearance, they can see it themselves.¡± ¡°No they can¡¯t your wearing your hooded jacket again¡­ And you call me an idiot.¡± He retorts As I am struggling to refrain to choke Chris to death two of the other members of our group start to introduce themselves. The first was about five foot seven and skinny as a rail with blonde hair, green eyes and a narrow face. ¡°Hi Leon and Chris. My name is Cecil Reid I¡¯m from district twenty nine.¡± The next person was a tall red head with blue eyes that stood about six foot four and weighed about a hundred and seventy pounds. He said ¡°Collin Briggs district sixteen pleased to meet you guys.¡± The third person who stayed quiet only responded after Chris kept hound him to introduce himself. He turned his head to the four who were running by each other and only said his first name ¡°Don¡±. Chris started to hound Don again but his continued talking went past the limit I could handle so as we passed a narrow doorway I pushed him so he would run strait into the wall. The plan didn¡¯t really go as planned as he ended up running straight through the wall and into the pond directly on the other side. But it still ended up satisfying enough that I broke out into a laughing fit as I kept running. After he crashed Cecil and Collin stopped in their tracks as their eyes darted back and forth between Chris and I shocked until they turned around to go help Chris up. As Don and I kept running forward he turned his head towards me smiling and said ¡°Thank the Gods you did something because if you didn¡¯t I would have.¡± As it ended up Don and I were the first to finish the run and had to wait for the others to finish so we could move onto the next part of the exam.