《If only...》 Prologue 1: If only the world was created differently. ¡°A long time ago, in the age which no man can remember, our world was inhabited by divine beings. It would be easier to call them gods, so we will do so, but please remember that these weren¡¯t real gods. They were beings who came first out of the chaos after the creation of the universe. It was a time of complete freedom and enormous might. Powers of Creation and Destruction clashing in their endless battle, careful not to tip the weights, too much, for that would mean obliteration of both. The Great Balance was kept, but the turmoil caused by the battles of contradictory forces shook the new world to the very roots. Energies surging like huge rivers in the atmosphere, colliding with each other, splitting up or skimming each other¡¯s surfaces creating sparks. The world was changing, slowly gaining the characteristics that we know today. The biggest change that occurred was the creation of Space-time, but please don¡¯t think that this happened suddenly. The creation was long in the making, as this was the finishing touch required for the completion of the world and at the same time the start point of the Era of the Gods. Ahhhhh, the beautiful young dimension! The world was filled with different kinds of animals and plants, but the only beings with intellect were gods. Many think that they were omnipotent, but sadly, they weren¡¯t. The felt emotions, made mistakes, had fights and skirmishes with each other. Each god was unique and although they could shapeshift, a god could never take on the true form of another holy being. In theory gods could live forever, but often in reality most died in their first 100 years of existence in countless brawls due to their high self-esteem and inexperience. So the number of these powerful beings never reached 4-digit numbers. Although the world was young and most of the inhabitants did what they wanted when they wanted, but even they obeyed when one of the Great Ones uttered an order. The 3 Great Ones were of the same race as all the other populace of world, but came out of the chaos first and so not only did they possess greater power than the others, but their wisdoms was unparalleled as well. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Predicting that they would one day argue if they stayed in the same place, they split the world into three. ¡°I will take the sky!¡±- proclaimed Varnak the Great Hawk. ¡°None can match me in flight, so I shall make the azure blue my domain.¡± He said as he transformed into his true form and took to the sky. ¡°Then I will take the uncontrollable ocean and make it my domain, considering that none can match me there!¡± roared the voice of Kernuff the Giant Serpent, as he plunged into the salty sea water. ¡°Oh, well, brothers. Then I will take everything else and make it my domain!¡± chuckled Tvoznan the Mighty Wolf. He just stood there looking as both of his companions raced away into their own domains and wondered: ¡°Why are they in such a hurry? We have an eternity in front of us.¡± Time passed and everything was lay unchanged. The three Great Ones ruled in the sky, ocean and earth respectfully. Minor deity¡¯s also made their own smaller domains becoming guardian spirits of forests, seas, desserts and mountains. Some traveled from one place to another, not having their own domain, leading a nomad way of life. At this time, no new beings came out of the Chaos and the sempiternal battles that covered the world were no more. It was a time of peace and tranquility that lasted eons. But like they say ¡°There is always a calm before a storm¡±, the storm was yet to come¡­ Prologue 2: If only I hadnt met her Like any other story worth being told, it all began, because of a girl. Or a goddess, in this case. Varnak, Kernuff and Tvoznan still ruled in the sky, ocean and earth respectively. The world was the same, except for the rare instances when a minor god tried to undermine one the three Great Ones and after failing was punished severely. Varnak and Kernuff, in their true forms, patrolled their domains day and night, looking for appearances and artifacts that they hadn¡¯t seen before. Eternity was great and all, but it was boring. Varnak and Kernuff had long ago skimmed through their domains finding everything peaking their interest, researching it and moving on. They found powerful orbs, places where destruction or darkness, how it came to be called later, were dense and huge storages of built up of Litra, or otherwise known as life energy. They absorbed them to no end gaining power and searching for more. With each Litra they absorbed the hunger subsided for a few moments, but came back as even a stronger desire to have more. Thus you could say that Litra was the first drug and the gods were the first drug addicts. The Great Hawk and the Giant Serpent searched and searched trying to find every last bit of Litra left in their domains. Slowly, but surely as they drank Litra, their powers increased exponentially, but the price was too high. They didn¡¯t even notice that their whole being, their inhibition and wisdom was deteriorating. They were becoming hungry sharks looking for Litra and overwhelmed by their own greed. After extinguishing the Litra supply in their own domains, they looked at the domain of Tvaznan, noticing that it still held the virgin supplies of the precious substance. They bared their teeth, but didn¡¯t attack. Some of their conscience remained, and the fragments of their old selves held them back. In the meantime, Tvaznan was traveling the world in his god form, it looked a lot like a human that we have today, just a bit taller with pale skin and eyes as dark as the night. He was also an addict, an addict to beauty. He searched for it in all its forms and variations: the ice topped mountains, a field of roses before the sunset and even the change of a forest through the 4 seasons. He sat staring for ages at each of these happenings, his logical mind trying to understand ¡°Why it captivated him so much?¡±, but like always unable to find the answer. So he sat staring and after giving up on trying to find the answer he searched for more and more sights, which caused him to feel this sacred emotion. He saw many wonders and indescribable scenes, but he was lonely. As I probably told before, at that time there weren¡¯t any other beings with intellect other than the gods. Humans, Dwarves, Elves and etc. didn¡¯t exist. He stared at animals defending their new born offspring from predators, bringing them food and teaching them the ways of the world. This shocked him, beyond imagination. The sheer beauty of short-spanned life was ineffable. Of course he met other minor gods, never revealing his real form and befriending them on the way. Some were more vicious than others, but all of them understood kindness, friendship and loyalty. This was how his eternity passed. The world was prosperous and peaceful for eons! That sentence may seem as a great accomplishment, but it certainly was not. The weights had been tipping to one side, almost falling over. The losing powers exclaimed their disapproval and were being annihilated slowly by the other side. The Great Balance was disturbed and to right the wrong, or in this case to wrong the right, the Chaos began stirring again. Ripples were sent through the world and the sentient beings gathered. ¡°What is happening?¡± ran through 436 heads at the same time. Only Tvoznan was enjoying the flux of colors as the energy gathered in one place, dissolved and amassed in the very same moment in the second one. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The fabric of Space-Time ripped opening a hole into the Chaos. The gods couldn¡¯t clench their curiosity wondering what would come out of the Abyss this time. ¡°Would it be a powerful god, an indestructible armor or a weapon of great power?¡± they wondered. The fabric exploded, a huge flash of light blinded the unprepared gods and small figure came out from the nothingness as the gate causing the disturbance closed forever. In its place stood a small girl completely naked with red eyes and hair as green as the forest when the sun is at its zenith. Before them stood the first goddess ever created. This girl radiated such little Life Force that most of the gods laughed out loud. Kernuff, who laughing the most, cracked a joke: ¡°I guess Father Chaos didn¡¯t try so hard at the end as he did in the beginning¡± (lol to those who understood this joke). After hours of endless laugh the crown decapitated. The only once left were Varnak, Tvoznan and some other minor gods, who were curious about the first goddess. Out of those who were left, Tvoznan alone was hiding his prescence. He was curious at what kind of being she would be. Was she unique? Could she show him things that he never saw before? Varnak didn¡¯t really care whether it was the first goddess or not. To him she was one of the gods that came later than him and naturally was beneath him. His only goal was to gauge her might and find out if she was a threat or not. He sent a lightning bolt flying at the little goddess to cause minimal damage. To gods who could move at speeds faster than light, lightning was like a spear thrown to kill a cheetah. But the goddess stood there unmoving. Afraid to get caught up in another mess, the minor gods who still were present quickly fled to their own domain. While Tvoznan moved to a more concealed position and continued to watch. He witnessed as Varnak through one lightining bolt after another, as the young goddess refused to move. She fainted after about 6 hits and what could be heard was the voice of Varnak as he nodded his head in apology and said: ¡°Im very sorry, but that was necessary to ensure that you are not a threat to our world. Please forgive me.¡± He turned back into his true form, a hawk so big that it could wrap its wings around a mountain, and flew away to his territory. Tvoznan was also about to leave, disappointed that his curiosity wasn¡¯t answered and that they goddess fainted without even trying to dodge and fight back. He was about to walk away, but decided to look at the goddess one last time. What he saw shocked him, the goddess was barely breathing, bleeding from every possible place in the body and crying before a flower with a broken stem. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t protect you. Why am I so weak? I couldn¡¯t even protect a flower so small!¡± she uttered with her tiny gentle voice as her tears fell like rain onto the ground. She fell again onto the ground and fainted, tears still slowly dripping from her cheeks. Her battered body lay there after being electrocuted countless times containing a pure soul of a new born divine being. Tvoznan stood there unmoving. He though if he made a step towards her she might disappear forever. His mind was racing. He saw a lot of things, but never something so breathtaking. Someone prepared to die to protect a life that she met for the first time. He looked at her, her slender legs, pale white skin and tiny hands. Staring at her as she breathed slowly in and out, taking one breath at a time to survive. He uttered one word: ¡°Beautiful¡­.¡± He looked at the flower and with the wave of his hands the flower slowly healed, blooming into a beautiful white rose. ¡°Hahahaha¡± he laughed ¡°A white rose, huh?¡± he sighed. ¡°I guess I will call you Rose then.¡± Prologue 3: If only I hadnt fallen for her The sun shined high in the sky, its rays falling down giving off sparkles as they met the pale skin of the calmly sleeping goddess. She was small and fragile. It looked like she could break from a single touch. No one could have even imagined that this girl had survived 6 lightning bolts hitting her body. He green hair blended perfectly with the soft grass she was sleeping on, while her long dark eyelashes slowly moved as he eyes opened. Bright red eyes. That is what caught the eye the most. She slowly lifted her head up and sat up right. The wild grass grew almost 50 cm in height completely covering her body, with just her shoulders and head sticking out. Her mind was still in a daze. She looked around, not understanding where she was or how she go here. Surrounded by the forest, the girl saw a young man sitting in front of a small burning fire. He was cooking something which looked oddly like a fish, but also had a human like mouth. The look the man had on his face was funny, because his tongue was sticking out, smacking his lips and impatiently rubbing his hands against his thighs. Today was a day of many firsts for the youth, sitting in front of the fire. He normally just ate meat raw, sinking his teeth into raw juicy flesh, but looking at his companion he realized that she didn¡¯t have a true form. All the gods came out of the chaos in their true forms and then transformed into a human like silhouette. But she was different! Not only did she not show any signs of big magical power, she also didn¡¯t have a true form. Looking at the cooking humanlike fish, he was getting more and more frustrated. ¡°When will it be done?¡± he kept asking himself, answering himself with the most logical answer he could come up with: ¡°The more I cook it, the more cooked it will be, right?¡± Satisfied with his ingenuity, he sat staring at the fish as the fish slowly turned red, then golden, then brown with dark dots here and there, and finally completely black as little pieces of black substance started falling from the sides. He hadn¡¯t noticed that his little partner had already woken up and that she was sitting there staring at his struggles as the first cooking failure in the history of the world was being established. She giggled. Hearing her tiny voice Tvoznan turned around and his warm brown eyes looked all over the rolling on the ground from laughing girl. Seeing her life strangely made him happy and he had this sudden desire to make her laugh more and more. Unfortunately for him the first ever joke cracked in the world wasn¡¯t so funny: ¡°If you keep laughing¡­.. ummmmm¡­.ummm¡­.. You¡¯re going to explode!¡± He smiled, proud of himself. The girl looked at him for a few seconds as if taking his ¡°hilarious¡± joke seriously, then her laugher grew louder as she saw the last piece of their ¡°meal¡± fall to the ground as black charcoal. The Mighty Wolf praised himself in his head: ¡°It turns out I¡¯m pretty good at making her laugh, let me say something else funny.¡± He thought for a few moments. After coming up with nothing, he decided to just offer her some food. He scooped up the remains of the ¡°cooked¡± fish with his hands and slowly carried it to her. It was too hot for her to touch so he slowly broke a piece off from the hardened charcoal and tried to place it in her mouth saying: ¡°Say ahhhhh¡­¡± The girl stared at him for a few moments trying to hold back her laugher. Not succeeding in her attempt she burst out laughing. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± asked the god feeling that he had done something wrong. ¡°Nothing in particular¡± she answered as she smiled, revealing 2 rows of pearl white teeth. ¡°Remind me to teach you how to cook later¡± she said and giggled. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Normally this would have made Tvoznan angry, but coming from her and looking at her open manner, he just nodded. The girl took a little piece of the ¡°food¡± and put it in her mouth. Sounds of crunching were heard as she chewed the rock hard fish. Looking at her eat the god cursed in his head: ¡°Thanks a lot, dad! You gave all the useless knowledge about this world and 100 million different ways to use my powers, but you forget to teach me how to COOK? Really, Chaos, really?¡± She stood up after eating her meal. When she was sitting in the untrimmed grass, she was at least half covered by it, but now that she stood up, the virgin god saw her in all her nudity. Feeling blood rush to his head and almost getting the first ever nosebleed, he quickly spun 180 degrees and turned tomato red. Waving his hands, he called in a gust of wind. Sparks flew from his fingertips and collided creating a shining white light. Something that looked like a pure white tunic. Trying not to turn his head around he gave her the clothing and said in a voice just loud enough to be heard: ¡°Put it on¡­ please¡­¡± he begged. ¡°I feel freer this way¡± she exclaimed, not accepting the gift and putting on a shocked expression. ¡°This adamant being! Why isn¡¯t she putting it on? Cant she see that this is more for my sake than hers?¡± though Tvoznan. ¡°This is my gift for you. Please put it on. I made this for you, Rose¡± he nagged. He ears moved like a little rabbits as she stared at him with a weird expression. ¡°What did you just say?¡± ¡°This is m-¡°started Tvoznan. ¡°No, after that¡± interrupted the goddess. ¡°I ma-¡° ¡°No, the last word you said!¡± squealed the girl. ¡°Rose? That¡¯s your name. Dou you like it¡± he asked her, afraid that she would get mad. He kept looking at her awestruck expression. ¡°Rose? Roooooooose? Roz?¡± she said pronouncing it differently each time she said it. Not finding words to explain why ¡°Rose¡±, I carefully pointed at the white rose, that she tried to save so hard. He gaze followed the direction of my finger and finally saw it. Tears came to her eyes as she wailed like a baby. ¡°Thank god, you¡¯re ok! Thank God!¡± After a few minutes of crying and even longer of her calming down, she turned to him and asked: ¡°Did you save it?¡± He nodded. She slowly took the tunic that he was still holding in his hands, put it on quickly and said gratefully, while looking at the ground: ¡°Thank you¡­¡± She didn¡¯t meet my eyes as she stood up, sprinted to a nearby tree and turned around. Finnaly looking at me she said with her little high voice: ¡°Let¡¯s go¡­ uhhhh¡­. Could you please tell me your name?¡± Looking embarrassed she directed her gaze at the ground again. ¡°Tvoznan¡± he said, his heart skipping a beat. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Tvoznan.¡± She said as she turned completely red. ¡°Where?¡± asked the wolf, curious to hear where she wanted to go so bad. She looked up, smiled her perfect smile and said the words that made Tvoznan fall for her completely: ¡°Somewhere beautiful.¡± Prologue 4: If only i hadnt written on the snow And so they went all around both the known and unknown world, Tvoznan as the guide, showing Rose all the things he himself had seen and experienced. He didn¡¯t know why, but with Rose the transparent lakes seemed even clearer, the horrid dessert seemed like a pretty white beach, while the cold and harsh mountains seemed even more majestic. He had already seen all these wonders and remembered every detail, because like all great gods he had acuity, but with Rose, he was rediscovering the parts one couldn¡¯t see with the eyes. To feel them he had to completely close his eyes, hearing the loud birds in the distance, smell the frozen winter air and taste the falling snowflakes, as they fell on his tongue and melted. Tvoznan stood there, unable to figure out the secret behind snowflakes, or as he called them, ¡°the falling disappearing pieces of cold white substance¡±. He looked like a kid, running around the snow with his tongue sticking out. ¡°Tvoznan, dinner¡¯s ready¡± came a gentle voice from behind. He turned around and saw Rose walking towards him. A few months had passed since their first meeting and she was no longer the quite shy goddess that he met not so long ago. She was still small, fragile and looked completely innocent, but Tvoznan knew better than anyone else that looks are deceiving. He remembered the painful instances of her beating up the great god and all those kicks and punches he took from her tiny limbs. He was attracted to the quite girl he had met a few months ago, but strangely speaking after he saw her real personality he fell in love with her completely, trying to make her laugh as much as possible for when she laughed, he wanted to laugh with her and scream to the world in happiness, sharing it with the world. Tvoznan decided to finally tell her how he felt. ¡°I am a god, right? So what if I get rejected¡± he though. Actually this was his 12[th attempt and every time he tried confessing he had thought the same thing, but failed miserably in the end. They walked together to the fire without uttering a single word and sat by the fire. Rose tried to start up a conversation, but see how she got no answer and stubbornly turned away eating her bowl of stew while facing Tvoznan with her back. Tvonznan was too deep in thought to notice, as he argued with himself and kept on replaying many scenarios that could happen. He finally decided to confess on top of the mountain they were camped near. He turned to her and said catching her off guard: ¡°Let¡¯s climb that mountain today!¡± She stared at him as if saying: ¡°Where did that come from?¡± ¡°I know this is out of nowhere, but we really need to climb that mountain today, and when we reach the top I have something to tell you¡± he said in one short breath. ¡°Actually I have something I had to tell you for quite some time as well, I¡¯ll tell you when we reach the apex of the mountain, ok?¡± she asked not really looking for confirmation. After finishing their meals, they each hurried to start their hike up the mountain. It was bitter cold and the wind cut the skin like a million sharp blades, but neither noticed neither the wind, nor the cold. They just climbed higher and higher, until they reach the peak. Tvoznan reached it first and looked down and saw the breath taking sight. He could see the little rivers frozen from the cold, the snow covered valley was covered in animals footprints and trees stood there completely bare, as of saying ¡°Please dress us up, we are so cold!¡± After a few minutes, Rose joined him, and there was 2 faces with the exact same expression staring from the top of the mountain. Finally Tvoznan turned toward her and asked: ¡°What was it, that you wanted to tell me?¡± he asked. Rose blushed and answered: ¡°You go first. You wanted to tell me something as well.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Tvoznan was beginning to have second thoughts about this whole confessing thing. He put a stony expression on his face and said that it wasn¡¯t important. Rose, now curious to find out what it was, that he didn¡¯t want to tell kept nagging him repeating the words: ¡°Tell me.¡± And ¡°please¡±. ¡°Ok, I¡¯ll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh and take me seriously!¡± he warned, deciding that delaying it would only cause her to misunderstand later. ¡°I lo-¡­ I lo-¡­, lo-¡­¡± He couldn¡¯t say it. Confused Rose looked at him and then a great idea hit her. ¡°Let¡¯s do it this way. We each write that we want to tell each other on the snow, switch places and read what the other has written. That way we don¡¯t have to say it directly to the face of the person and don¡¯t have to feel so embarrassed¡± she proclaimed. It was a great idea and Tvoznan quickly agreed. They each took a wooden twig, which was just long enough to trace with on the snow and started. They finished at about the same time and looked at each other, quietly walked over to the other side, both of them were completely red at this point, maybe from the cold, read what the other had written and looked at each other for a long time. They each smiled. What was written on the snow was: I love you, Rose. I love you, Tvoznan. After a few awkward moments, as they looked at each other without saying a word, Tvoznan looked at her and asked in a stubborn voice: ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just tell me sooner! Do you know how long I suffered, from the first time we met and to this point, this is my 12th time trying to confess.¡± He looked at her, as he started laughing hysterically. ¡°Hahaha, I fell in love with you the moment that you gave me that tunic and for your information, this is my 24th time trying to confess.¡± She kept on laughing, as Tvoznan joined in, sharing the joy with her. Nobody can explain why, but the moment someone finds out that their one-sided love is answered, the world looks so much more peaceful and fulfilling. Tvoznan took her hand, gripped it tightly in his and said in the cheesiest gentlemanly manner that he could muster: ¡°My Lady, allow me to escort for the rest of your life, be the one always by your side and supporting you in times of trouble.¡± Rose laughed at his joke and noted to herself that his sense of humor had improved. Seeing her laugh Tvoznan burst out laughing as well, his loud voice covering the whole mountain with its sheer vastness. Thankfully, looking around her just in time and kneeing him in between the legs, the avalanche was avoided! They journeyed far and wide together, seeing the world, meeting other gods and making lifelong friendships with anyone they met. Soon they were welcome almost anywhere, as their friends were great in number, leading to an accretion in Tvoznan¡¯s powers and jealousy from Varnak and Kernuff, who had already lost most of their sane conscience. After a few weeks from their adventure at the mountain, where requited love was born for the first time in the world, something happened that changed the world completely, something that was deemed to be impossible. After waking up one morning in the arms of her man, Rose stood up and something foul tasting came to her mouth. She panicked and woke up the sleeping man next to her. His eyes opened wide and he worriedly exclaimed: ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you in pain? Tell me!¡± She burped, holding onto to her mouth with her hands and then slowly saying: ¡°I think I have morning sickness¡­¡± Prologue 5: If only she was fine Somewhere at the edge of the world, where the water falls over the edge of the world down into nothingness and the azure sky meets the vast ocean, stood two pillars, charged with compelling power, holding up the sky. The sky was shaped like a dome, while our world was like a platter being covered by it, and the short distance being right at the edge where the only thing separating them were two think roman-style columns that were about 50 m in height. Here took place a meeting of 2 creatures that were as different as the sky and sea, but at the same having the same thoughts and expressions as if being connected by some type of bond. ¡°So you came Varnak!¡± roared Kernuff, his slithery body completely submerged under water, except for his head, which stuck out like a nail ready to be hammered. ¡°Something odd is underway in the ocean. Many deities are leaving their reefs and seas unprotected, setting foot on land. I am omnipotent, but even I cannot handle to look after the whole ocean alone! I have heard from Lerdient, my right hand man and deputy that Tvoznan is calling them all to his side, telling them of places he has been to, and luring them to visit his domain! This has to stop!¡± ¡°The strange anomaly has been happening in my domain as well, brother. All the winged deities have descended onto to the ground, becoming denizens of high mountains and sometimes completely folding their wings by stepping on the ground. This is blasphemous! Tvoznan is preparing something against, I¡¯m sure of it! We have to call him here this very second him and ask him this question, because I will not stand for this!¡± screeched the flying enormous hawk, fully unfolding its wings that glistened with colors of the rainbow, indicating that all the Litra he had consumed were still in his body. The same glistening also came from under the water, as Kernuff¡¯s scales changed color like a chameleon. Kernuff smacked his lips and focused his eyes. ¡°Why should we apprise a fool about his mistake?¡± he asked ¡°He will not understand anyway, thinking that he has done the right thing. Think about it, brother, he hasn¡¯t even touched the sources of Litra in his own domain, so he is by far weaker than any one of us. We have to show him our might or he will continue disrespecting us, Varnak!¡± Kernuff¡¯s sudden speech took not only Varnak by surprise, but Lerdient, Kernuff¡¯s right hand, and Mamai, Varnak¡¯s prot¨¦g¨¦e, as well. After a few seconds he recovered, raised his head, his beak pointing to the nearest land nearby ¡°Otos Continent¡± and smiled, however I don¡¯t know if you can call it a smile or not. It was a barely noticeable malicious movement of the beak, but what followed after gave off a far greater animus. ¡°Brother, Prepare! We are Going to WAR!¡± ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Varnak and Mamai ascended higher and higher above the clouds, Mamai looked at his master carefully and kept getting lost in his thoughts: Why is Master Varnak acting like this? He wasn¡¯t like this in the beginning, was he? Or is my memory failing me? No, I remember that he was wise and I was drawn to that acumen as well, pledging my eternal loyalty to him, but in the last few centuries he has become short tempered and anxious, as if he is afraid of something! Is this really he aftereffects of all that Litra he absorbed? Is there a way to save my master? I¡¯m sure Lerdient has noticed the change in Kernuff as well, but he is too loyal to ever disobey his master, even if it is for his own good. Our masters are making excuses to attack Tvoznan, as to gain his virgin origins of Litra energy, but this war cannot happen, not now, not ever! I heard Tvoznan never took any more Litra energy in, than that, which he was born with, so he must have not lost his initial shrewd judgment and infinite wisdom. This war has to be stopped at any cost and my only hope is that Tvoznan will find a way to help my master. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ¡°Morning sickness?... You¡¯re kidding? Right? Please tell me that I¡¯m right?¡± begged Tvoznan as he looked at his lover. Millions of thoughts were going through his head, but the most frequent one was probably ¡°WTF?¡± ¡°But that¡¯s supposed to be impossible¡± he said defensively, as he fell onto the ground losing his balance from the suddenness of the new and landing squarely on his bottom. Rose finally came back to her old self and snapped at him: ¡°What? You don¡¯t want to be a papa?¡± she asked looking at him sternly while crossing her arms around her. ¡°It¡¯s not that¡± he started slowly getting up from the ground, and then continued ¡°It just that¡­ I¡¯m not mentally ready!¡± ¡°Mentally ready? Tvoznan, you¡¯re joking right? Do you really want me to tell little Daconius that his father was lost at sea, or even better that he is watching him up from the clouds?¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Well, that would actually be impossible theoretically speaking and I¡¯m n-¡° ¡°Tvoznan!¡± interrupted the little fragile girl and stared him down, as he shuddered. To anyone looking from the outside it would have been pretty funny to see a huge burly man cowering in fright from a pale little girl, but for Tvoznan there was no time to think about what passerby¡¯s would say, he had to get out of this situation, fast, before she exploded. Thinking fast he came up with the only way to appease her and said in a totally nonchalant manner: ¡°I¡¯ll do the cooking¡± giving her the sweetest smile he could muster. She exploded¡­ ¡­ (I¡¯m not going explain in detail what she did, since I am afraid that I have some children reading this book. I¡¯m gonna leave this completely to your imagination, giving you only one hint: it wasn¡¯t pretty :) ¡­ Time passed, the child grew exponentially in size, as one week passed, then 2, then 3 and so on. During this time, Tvoznan attended to all he needs, at least tried to. It was easy to bring her water or cook her food, since he had already perfected his art of cooking after several beating from burning the ingredients, but sometimes she wanted him to rub her all over her body since it was aching. He thought: ¡°Ok, why not?¡±, but soon the minutes turned to hours, than to days. His hands were sore from all that rubbing as he continued to do it thinking: ¡°Father Chaos, please rid me of this misery.¡± The torture continued for 5 weeks and 5 days until finally came the long awaited moment. Rose tugged, but she was too small and fragile to handle Tvoznan¡¯s seed. Tvoznan became stern as he looked at his struggling wife, he did the only thing he could think of, he divided the young god into 7 different pieces, as each one came out one by one. In total there were 4 boys and 3 girls, boys coming out first. First came out a little wolf, a miniature replica of his father, but many times smaller, then the first elf, the first dwarf, the first human. The girls came out after the first human and one was an elf, another a dwarf and the third was human. The world experienced the first child birth, as the little new-borns lay on the ground crying, all of them except the little wolf. The 3 pairs would later establish the races of elves, dwarves and humans we know today, while the little wolf would later find a mate in the forest creating the beast race. Please don¡¯t confuse them with animals, for they are not animals. But all that wasn¡¯t important right now. Rose after suffering painful child birth was drained of her energy, holding on with the last strand of strength she could muster. Tvoznan quickly put his hand on her heart and began pouring in his energy, trying to heal the weak mother, he calculated in his head that he would need to stop her heart to connect with her base of power, from which she took her life energy, because pouring in life energy while her heart was beating would cause her heart to explode from a sudden surge of energy. ¡°It¡¯s easy¡± he said out loud laughing ¡°I just have to sit here for 3 days without taking my hands and then Rose can see our cute little mongrels ravaging this world for new things!¡± The little wolf, or Daconius as rose called him, quickly straightened the other 6 out, as he was the leader of the ¡°pack¡±. They 6 stopped crying and sat there looking as their father tried to save their mother. Understanding that this was the time to be quite and watch, the gazed for hours as he poured in his own energy into the lifeless body with one hand, while holding her head with the other, as to stop her spirit from escaping. Night fell, as the little group of naked munchkins fell asleep one by one, with only Daconius left, staring at his parents with his golden eyes. The dead silence was broken by a sound flapping wings as a figure landed on to a big boulder that was standing not far away. Daconius ran at the stranger and growled as loud as he could. The figure stopped and looked at the wolf astounded, but after deciding that what he had to do was more important than this anomaly, he got control of himself and in a few moments rushed over to where Tvoznan was sitting. He bowed and said with a voice full of sadness and regret: ¡°Lord Tvoznan. I¡¯m Mamai, the deputy of Varnak, the lord of the sky. My lord, as well as Kernuff have gone completely blind from greed and are heading into your domain. Please help my lord gain his sanity back, I will repay you with anything you want, my life will be completely yours¡± he finished. ¡°What did you just say?¡± asked Tvoznan not believing his ears, thinking that he heard it wrong. ¡°My Lord Varnak and the Sea Lord Kernuff have declared war on you!¡± he said hurriedly. ¡°When will they be here?¡± he asked, full out panic in his voice. He looked down at his weak wife, than at his new born kids and finally the pained look fell on Mamai. As they say hope is last to disappear. The Great God longed to hear a positive reply, but it never came. What came was: ¡°They will be here in approximately 12 hours!¡± Prologue 6: If only he wasnt followed The world is a pretty solemn place, huh? Full of irony and so many different things contradicting each other, but existing concomitantly. Funny, isn¡¯t it? That the most joyous moment in one¡¯s life can easily transform into a memory filled with despair. Mamai looked at Tvoznan, seeing the hope leaving the warm brown eyes, slowly as they fell into despair, and suddenly the brown were no more, being replaced by bright yellow eyes of an apex predator. The pupils were no longer human, nor godlike for that matter, many times longer than they were wide, reminding somewhat the eyes of a shark, which had caught a whiff of blood. Bloodlust emanated from his body as he looked at Mamai, but his hands were still holding the limp body on the ground, as if his eyes and hands belonged to 2 different creatures. Mamai looking at his eyes and felt weakness in his legs, as he fell on his knees he tried releasing his own Litra, but it was completely pushed back, crumpled and stuffed back into his body. ¡°Stop!... I¡¯m on your¡­side,¡± barely managed to whisper Mamai as he fell and laid on the ground on his stomach, with his head pushed into the ground, his mouth tasting the moist dirt and his body shattering under the pressure of million times our gravity. Finnaly realizing what he was doing, Tvoznan stopped as his eyes slowly returned to a warm brown color. ¡°Mamai, I can¡¯t move from this position for 2 and a half days. Go around my domain and tell anyone you meet what happened,¡± said Tvoznan, giving him a doleful glance. ¡°But the question stands: Will they really come?¡± ¡°They will! I trust them with my life!¡± roared Tvoznan ¡°I will try increasing the amount of energy and the speed of the transfer of my energy into Rose and that way I think I can shorten the time by roughly a day, so if they can hold them back for 1,5 days, I have a chance of saving Rose. Tell them exactly what I said, word for word.¡± ¡°I will, Earth Lord¡± Mamai yelled as he unfolded his wings and flew away above the trees. Tvoznan looked at the broken branches and shook his head. ¡®He needs to make it. No, he will make it! He has to!¡¯ He stood there watching and when his winged envoy disappeared behind the horizon he looked at his eldest child and the only one that had his beast form. ¡°Daconius, come he please. Daddy has to meet with some people, so take your little siblings and hide in the woods.¡± Daconius was also the only one born with god like intellect and had actually understood the whole conversation between him and Mamai. He looked at his father and knew he couldn¡¯t do anything even if he remained. He nodded and took his siblings, marched into the woods, holding back his tears, but one did slip through and fell slowly on the soft rock, splashing into thousand different directions. ¡®I am proud of you son¡¯ thought the Great Wolf as he felt the tear fall. ============================================================================ Mamai flew higher and higher, overlooking the world from a fearsome height. ¡®The gift of flight is really the best gift ever given¡¯ he thought as he enjoyed the view. The land was lush green, covered by rivers which reminded of the many veins, arteries and capillaries. The high peaks with their snow covered rocks and clouds resting on them as if to take a break. It was indescribably and even in this time when the world was about to shatter Mamai laughed full heartedly. He zapped through the air at a huge speed, but something was wrong. Mamai felt it with his whole being, and finally his adumbrated prediction came true as a spear made of water pierced his wing, taking Mamai by surprise. He tried to hold his altitude, but with a hole in his wing that was impossible. He fell, crashing into a tree that stood 9 meters from the ground. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He jumped and landed on his feet on top of a medium sized rock and saw his attacker. Lerdient stood there with his usual solemn expression, but for some reason he had a hint of guilt on his face. ¡°I knew you were up to something when I saw you flying towards the earth. I¡¯m glad that I followed you, traitor!¡± said the deputy lord of the ocean. ¡°Can¡¯t you see Lerdient, what our lords are doing is wrong, they aren¡¯t even sane anymore? We have to stop them, Lord Tvoznan can cure them, but we can¡¯t let the war happen!¡± begged Mamai, hoping his friend would understand him. ¡°We are friends Mamai, but I will have to fight you and even kill you if you don¡¯t stop this treason!¡± roared Lerdient making another water spear, by gathering the humidity in the air. Mamai looked at him and tried in one last hopeless attempt: ¡°This is for their own sakes, Lerdient! We must betray them to save them!¡± ¡°Mamai, I am soldier. To a real soldier gold, fame and land don¡¯t mater. Those things can be lost and taken anew, because there always will be plenty of them in the world. BUT! A loyalty can only be given to ONE person. Do you understand now, Mamai! I see that you will not step back by will, so I will have to do it by force. On guard!¡± Both beings ran at each other, changing into their true forms on the way and soon there were a massive crow and even bigger walrus running at each other. The walrus was far slower, but its long fangs made up for the lack in speed, by increasing the range exponentially. Gusts of wind collided with droplets of water flying like bullets around the area. It was truly a battle to behold. Lerdient thrashed again and again missing every time, but Mamai could do nothing but dodge as well. They both realized it was a battle of stamina as each pushed themselves to their utmost limits. Mamai flew in circles, trying to find an opening, doing flying maneuvers as he went, trying to confuse his opponent. Sadly, it wasn¡¯t working, since Lerdient stood there unshaken by the speed attacks. ¡°This will end now!¡± screamed Mamai as sparks started appearing at the edges of his wings, slowly coving his wings and moving on to cover his body. The speed at which he was traveling was just a little bit less than the speed of light, as the sparks transformed into full blown lighting. The creature would late be known as ¡°Thunderbird¡±. Seeing this change in Mamai¡¯s appearance, Lerdient tensed up, due to the fact that he was surrounded by air, not water and because of that couldn¡¯t take his higher true form. He prepared himself for the attack that was coming. Mamai attacked, Lerdient took it head on and was blown away. He stood up and charged at Mamai again and was just like the first time blown back. Each time he was hit, Lerdient took a huge amount of damage, but stood up and charged again. Once, twice, thrice¡­ Lerdient looked like a courpse, but stood up on sheer will and feeling a familiar energy getting closer he let out a pure soldier''s laugh ¡°Hahahahaha! What joy it is to die in battle, my old friend. They have arrived, now I may die in piece!¡± Lerdient finally welcomed death with a smile on his face. He decapitated into thin air leaving a bluish smoke behind. Mamai sat on his knees and gave him the repects the warrior deserved. He had failed and as he felt Varnak and Kernuff walking the last 200 meters to where Tvoznan was, he looked at the sky with pain in his eyes: ¡®War is coming! Prologue 7: Would things have been different? This chapter ends the prologue and the next one will be the beginning of the main story. I introduced the MC in this chapter so enjoy :) Any suggestions go in the comments. Thanks for reading!!! ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Moments passed, melting into each other, transforming into seconds, minutes and then hours. The forest, as if feeling the situation, was still as if time itself had been frozen. A silent, unmoving atmosphere stood there, as Tvonznan sat on the ground looking at his beautiful wife. ¡®Everything will be ok. Everything will be ok¡­¡¯ he kept repeating in his head. The last bit of hope still clinging onto the thought that maybe it was still possible for them both to survive. His heart skipped a beat, as he sensed a powerful force coming from behind him. It was dark, no dark wasn¡¯t the right word. It was as if it was tainted, like after throwing paint into a cup filled with clean water. It was getting closer, fast and he already knew that the reinforcement wouldn¡¯t make it in time. The hope vanished as he let out a long sigh and saw what was inevitably coming. Varnak and Kernuff finally appeared before him. ¡°Brothers, this is blasphemous! You are about to cause a great war by invading my lands!¡± said Tvoznan ¡°Stop, before it is too late¡± ¡°Hahaha, stop? War? Invading your lands? My brother you have quite a good network of spies¡± laughed Kernuff showing of his awry teeth. ¡°But it¡¯s too late, Tvoznan, your days of plotting to overthrow us are over. You will get the justice that you deserve!¡± Varnak stood there quietly, not uttering a word. His head was hurting and every time he tried to analyze the situation he was in, the pain grew as if trying to obscure his mind even more. Kernuff summoned a huge sphere of energy in his mouth and it stood there, getting bigger each second. ¡°This is the end!¡± he uttered looking at the defenseless Tvoznan. Tvoznan saw the growing ball of Litra and took one last look at Rose. ¡®Don¡¯t worry, I will never abandon you. You were the one who taught me the difference between living and simply existing. I never felt unhappy when I was with you, nor do I have regret of meeting you, because these last few months with you were far more interesting than all those eons that I spent alone. Well, Haha, you can call me greedy, but I still do have one regret though, unfortunately it couldn¡¯t have lasted longer¡­¡± The ball flew from the serpent¡¯s mouth, hitting Tvoznan and exploding on impact. Bright light as the bodies of 2 gods disintegrated leaving pure white smoke. It started raining, as if the earth itself was sad at their passing. What happened after that? It wasn¡¯t really important, but I¡¯ll tell you. Tvoznan¡¯s friends rushed to his help, but all they found were traces of battle and the 2 Greater Gods looking happily at each other. Angry at the death of their friend, they attacked them and without mercy slew them in cold blood. This was known as the Great War Of the Gods which lasted exactly 500 years. In the end, of the 400 gods that took part, only 23 were left. They spread out all over the world creating their own little domains and kingdoms. And that is how our world came to be!¡± finished the old man sitting in front of the fire. He was surrounded by a group of children of various age groups, that sat there open-mouther listening to his story. It was winter outside, so all the kids in the village would sit by the fire and listen to Old man Seff¡¯s stories. There gleaming eyes stared at the old man, while their minds absorbed each of his words like sponges. Their parents were at home preparing dinner, cleaning the house or in some instances even making them little brothers and sisters. The old man gazed at the room and waited for his favorite listener to ask him something. ¡°Then what happened to their kids and did Mamai die in battle as well, old man?¡± asked a youth sitting at the very corner of the room. He was only 6 years old, but looked to be about 15 due to his unusual size and muscular build. He always sat alone in the corner and never talked to any of the other village boys, and in turn was shunned by them as well. His eyes sparkled and his curiosity soared as he asked the question. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Again with the dumb questions! Can you get anymore stupid?¡± yelled the old man. All the other children laughed. Although he sound harsh and it looked like the old man hated the little boy, it wasn¡¯t so. He always looked forward to the little boy¡¯s questions, always mocking him in return and seeing how he would withstand it. ¡®This one is different from the bunch of cattle, brainwashed by society¡¯ thought the old man when he first saw him. ¡°Didn¡¯t I perfectly state that he mated with a fox and that¡¯s how the beast race was created! What more do you want?¡± ¡°But old man, although the beast race is long extinct, weren¡¯t there bear people, cat people and even horse people, which were also known as centaurs. They are still beasts, but are human as well. If Daconius mated with a fox, and his human form was already being dominated by his true form even before, then wouldn¡¯t the second generation which would be only a quarter human be almost animal?¡± The old man looked long and hard at the little boy. In truth Seff was greatly respected by the people of the Halatuan village, even if he wasn¡¯t born there. He was an adventurer in his younger days and had traveled the whole human continent of OTOS and seen the vast desserts, high mountains and the flowing rivers. Met many people, both old and young, strong and weak, nobility and commoner alike, but he had never met a person quite like this little boy before. The boy had a special feel to him, you could even say a unique aura that could only be felt by people who had seen many lands and traveled to many places. Unfortunately the people around him felt something as well, they felt that he was different and as we all very well know what happens to ¡°different¡± people in our society. For the past 6 years Seff saw the little boy grow up, get mocked, ignored and sometimes get beaten up and left for dead. The boy just stood up and kept walking, the light still shining in his eyes. ¡°Jaquez is just stupid, Mister Seff, you can ignore him and keep on going!¡± said a plump boy sitting by the fire. His name was Nador and was the son of the village chief. He was the leader of the boys and the one who started the whole shunning masquerade. The others just caught on later and took it as a norm, following Nador¡¯s example. They all nodded at Nador¡¯s comment. Jaquez was silent, not even looking at Nador¡¯s direction. That got Nador even madder, but he couldn¡¯t go at Jaquez alone out of fear, while going against him in a group would make him look bad in front of the old man. So he made a mental note to ambush him later and just said the usual: ¡°What would a farmer¡¯s boy, who has hay for brains, know about history?¡± Jaquez turned red out of anger. ¡®I can¡¯t explode. I have to control it, keep it within me!¡¯ In fact, he had already beaten the crap out of Nador and his lackeys several times, each time resulting his father getting punished by the village chief for not disciplining his child correctly. Each time his father would come and hug him, whisper into his ear: ¡°I know it wasn¡¯t your fault. My little boy would never do that.¡± Tears would fill Jaquez¡¯s as he would wail like a baby in the arms of his father, while the latter would pat him on the back, comforting him. Jaquez clenched his fists and without hearing the answer to his question, sprinted out of the hut, knowing that there would be a chase after him. If he reached his house, he knew they would not dare to attack him there, so he ran, ran without stopping or slowing down until he saw the warm lights a few meters away from the muddy road. The house was located on the very edge of Halatuan, a small village with about 200 denizens. He opened the door and ran in, saw his father stirring something in front of the fire. Jaquez climbed into the attic which was also his room and stared out of the window at the group of boys outside his house. ¡°We will get the Jack-ass next time!¡± he heard Nador say as the crowd slowly decapitated. ¡®Jack-ass? Really? That¡¯s the best they can come up with?¡¯ ¡°Jaquez, dinner¡¯s ready¡± called his dad from the kitchen. The aroma of stew filled the house, as the boy jumped from his tiny room, landing right next to the dinner table. His father set down the pot and brought some bowls and spoons from the kitchen. The both sat down, passing him the hard brown bread his father asked: ¡°So how was your day?¡± Chapter 1: Introduction Wasup, guys. The ride is finally starting. I planned out about 10 chapters in detail. So they only thing i have left to do is to actually type them up and post here. I will be doing 2 chapters every week and maybe if i have free time i will increase it to 3 or 4 a week. Anyways, comments below and enjoy :) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Far West edge of the world, where the known world ends, lies a continent completely inhabited by humans- Otos. To the east lie the continents of Adel inhabited by dwarven clans and Jangna, a continent united by a single ruler ¨C The Elven emperor. You may ask, why are the 3 different races separated from each other? A simple answer to this question would be habitual characteristics. The Adel continent, or the dwelling of the dwarves is fit for the dwarves and dwarves alone, because of its mountainous terrain. Many silly humans and elves tried adapting to its unique landscape, but to no avail and sadly most of them lost their lives in their fruitless attempt. Dwarves on the other hand with their muscular physique and powerful lungs find the height and lack of oxygen as an insignificant compensation for the amount of ore that can be found in the mountains. Elves, considering their secluded nature, live on Jangna, a continent completely covered by forest, with trees so thick that if a hundred people stood holding hands around it, they still wouldn¡¯t be able to cover even half of the trees circumference. Thus cutting a single tree would take months, maybe even years making the continent unsuitable for cultivation. The lack of farm space and birthplaces of ore scare away the potential denizens of the human and dwarven races. The human continent Otos has only one mountain range splitting the continent in 2, but sadly, being poor in precious ore, it fails to attract dwarves. The elves that crave obscurity, are abstruse and secretive by nature, so the open fields and valleys of the Otos continent don¡¯t suit their tastes. Quite frankly these are the reasons why each race sticks mostly to their own continent, but of course every rule, algorithm and theorem has exceptions. One of these might be adventurers who don¡¯t differentiate by race and go wherever they please looking for quests and hidden treasures, another might be the merchants, who travel from one continent to another selling their products and even forming the biggest intercontinental organization ¨C the Merchant¡¯s guide. A third might be political refugees and so on and so forth. There could be millions of reasons why different races leave there continents, but we should remember that their number is so small that they don¡¯t even make up 5% of the continents population. A careful reader might have noticed that each race had their own government system, the dwarves representing the rule of the aristocrats or nobles, the elves ¨C a democratic system, while the humans were ruled by a monarch ¨C a king. The dwarves had 12 noble clans, each with its own insignia, territory and mines. The 12 clans ruled in balance meeting only in times of turmoil or crises in a meeting called ¡°The Calling of the 12¡±. Each noble clan would send their representative and they would discuss all the problems, finding long term solutions for problems or stabilizing the situation in case of conflict. There are thousands of smaller clans, each with their mines as well, but they have almost no political power other than supporting one of the 12 main ones. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The Elven system is more complicated. Every 8 years, all the different villages and groups come together in the middle of the continent for a gathering where they choose by vote the representative of the continent: The Elven Emperor. The time of the gathering and choosing is called ¡°The Festival of Red Flowers¡± representing all the fires gathered in place as the elven race camps out outdoors. The Elven Emperor has no power inside the country since the elves are free folk and don¡¯t bow their heads before anyone, but outside the empire, he is considered the leader of the elven race and speaks out the thoughts of the elves as a whole. The human system is by far the easiest, with one ruler in each of the 7 kingdoms. There are counts, viscounts, marquises, barons and dukes, but they all play an insignificant role in ruling the kingdom, when compared to the prowess of the King. Although out of the 3 races, every single one can use magic the way they looked at it is completely different. All elves are born with some magical abilities. They may not be big or powerful, but they are there. Magic for the elves is a way of life and most of them spend their lives exploring it, finding new spells and different uses for already existing ones. The dwarves are also all born with magic, 90% of them having an affinity to fire. They consider sorcery a tool for the week and prefer using their fists and hard cold steel instead of ancient runes and glyphs. Of course there are exceptions like always, but the general thinking of the dwarves remains unshaken to this very day. The humans are the only race not gifted completely with magic. In fact only 20% have ability in magic, out of them only 5% have an affinity to a particular element. Magic is mostly seen as a tool in the human kingdoms and 98% percent of magicians are nobles. Otos is the only race that has a Magic Academy, which takes in all those, capable of using it. Each year people are sent throughout the continent looking for talented individuals that have even a meager threshold of magic. Education starts at the age of 13 and lasts till 17 and is completely free, but since most students are nobles many non-nobles quit in their first year due to bullying and unstopping raids in the dormitories of the non-nobles. On the Far West shore of the human continent- Otos, lies the Durchy of De Calomb, a rather small, but particularly rich durchy surrounded on one side with salty ocean water and on the other side with a thick forest. Its rulers, Duke and Duchess of De Calomb are kind people, treating its citizens fairly and thus in return receiving their taxes on time, along with undying respect. On the shore of the durchy, the most west point of the Otos continent you can find a small village of about 200 people ¨C Halatuan. There isn¡¯t anything special or unique about this village, other than its poorness. The people here mostly fish, while others farm from dawn to dusk, and in this little village on one summer day, awoke a little boy, 6 years of age and at the same moment began a legend that would be passed from mouth to mouth and written in every worthy fairy tale book till the ends of time. Chapter 2: My name is Jacquez Hi, guys. I finnaly finished the map of the world and just a comment, if you look at the scale you can probably notice that the world is huge. The human continent of Otos is as big as the amount of land on Earth, and Adel and Jangna are even bigger than that, so there are a lot of places to explore and even when those end, there are the unexplored lands to explore for later in the story. Here is another chapter and i finally started building up the plot, so keep on reading and enjoy. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The cold filled the air, as the darkness began to slowly change, becoming less dense and obscure. The sun was still below the horizon, but its rays illuminated the sky in various shades of orange and yellow. The waves washed the shore, as if knocking on it and trying to wake it up. The cool sea breeze flew inward towards land, until it came across a little cabin, about 150m from the shore, as it passed through it, covering the shack in the morning freshness, that could only be felt by the ocean. The temperatures never dropped too low, or too high due to the ocean being nearby, so the villagers of Halatuan always wore the same old clothing all year long, sometimes changing the colors, by dying it with cloth paint they could get for a few coppers from Calomb Keep. In the shack closest to the sea woke up a boy, six years of age¡­ uhhhhm¡­ sorry got it wrong there¡­ seven years of age, since today was his birthday and like we all know birthdays are always important to youths who wait impatiently and see them as ladders to adulthood. But this little boy wasn¡¯t like the rest. He wasn¡¯t too happy or too sad, as he stood up from his little bed made of hay and wool to keep him warm. The cold air surrounded him as he shivered and looked through his attic window. The sun wasn¡¯t fully up yet and the village was drowned in silence. The boy always woke up at dawn, he never remembered when this started and why this always happened, but it was just so, as if an axiom that could not be broken. Mother had died last year of an epidemic, which had swept the whole village, and what was once a blooming fishing village with over 5000 inhabitants was left in ruins with about 200. Most citizens had lost their whole families to the disease, while others migrated east, as if to avoid the outbreak on the first week of the epidemic. Halatuan was located not too far from the main city of the Durchy- Calomb keep and the travel took about 2 days by walk or half a day by horse. The caravans with their slow-moving oxen that seldom passed through our village to trade before the epidemic took about 3 days. I remembered mother, a plump woman with dark brown hair, always nagging my father and letting me get away with almost everything I wanted. She didn¡¯t have a pretty face or an attractive figure, or some kind of unique trait that made her stand out. She was just mother, a face that always shined with kindness, sternly scolding me for my mistakes and excessively praising me for my achievements. Just a farmer¡¯s wife, a common person in the world, an insignificant existence to royalty and nobles, but to me, she was the best mother in the whole world and nothing would change that, even death. Tears streaked down my face as I remembered how she always stayed up all night on my birthday, so she could come, hug and kiss me as soon as the sun came out of the horizon and say: ¡°Happy Birthday, my little angel¡± handing me something sweet, usually a piece of chocolate that she had brought from her trip to the city a few day before. ¡®Mother, I know you are somewhere in heaven and every day I look at heaven, asking the gods Where you are? Are you looking at me? Did you see what happened to us after your death? Mom, we were destroyed completely and there is nothing in the world that I wouldn¡¯t give to get the life back of when we were all together. God, if you can bring her back, I swear I won¡¯t do anyone any harm for the rest of my life, I will even just stand there and let Nador and his goons beat me to death without retaliating. Mom, Dad couldn¡¯t stop crying for a month after you passed away, I even heard him in his sleep shouting: ¡°Take me with you, please, take me with you..!¡± Don¡¯t worry too much and wait for us mom, I will live a long and happy life, find a woman as kind and loving as you, build a family and when I am old, pass away from old age and we will be together again, you, dad and me. Please wait for me and I love you, Mommy.¡¯ I went outside, got a bucket full of cold water from the nearby well and washed my face. To tell the truth most villagers couldn¡¯t understand my parents. They had taken me in when I was a baby and raised me as their own, because they couldn¡¯t have children. Of course they had never told me I was adopted, but come on I¡¯m not THAT stupid to not notice the queer looks the other villagers gave me or that I looked nothing like my parents. My dad just like my mom, had dark brown hair with little beady black eyes, while I stood out as an outsider in the village with my jet black hair and eyes blue as the clear sky in the middle of the day. I was way bigger than all the other village boys my age and it was fun to think that my biological parents could have been giants that were rumored to live in the Ralik Mountains that separated our continent in 2. It was still fun teasing my common farmer father, though and today was no exception. He was always forgetful and always forgot my birthday, but I always knew that he cared for me just as much as mom did, because every time he saw me eating the chocolate that mom had given me, he ran to the little market in the middle of the village, bought some paper and wrote with his fanciest handwriting ¡°Happy birthday, my son Jacquez!¡± What made it even more precious to me was that he had never learned to read and write, just as the rest of the village, including me, but he still traced carefully each letter from a book of letters he had received from a passing by merchant for 3 silvers. He still hadn¡¯t realized that I had found out a long time ago that I was adopted so I asked putting on the most innocent face I could muster up: ¡°Hey dad, was the weather just like today when I was born.¡± If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. My dad was preparing breakfast, some oatmeal and he dropped the whole packet of the dried fruits he was adding into the pot. Looking nervous he quickly tried to pick up the dried fruits from the burning hot oatmeal, burning his hands he jumped back landing on his bottom. I started laughing hysterically. He looked at me, his eyes still darting from side to side, and then slowly stopping as he had remembered that it was my birthday. ¡°Finish cooking the oatmeal and eat some, I¡¯ll be back in a little while¡± he said as he put on his jacket and ran out of the house. ¡®He still thinks I¡¯m a little kid¡± I chuckled as I finished cooking some oatmeal, ate some and covered the rest so it wouldn¡¯t lose warmth, so when dad came back he could still have a warm breakfast. I walked out to our little field where we grew various vegetables, depending on season and sold them in the city. I started my daily work of taking care of my area of the field and saw my dad running towards our house with a little piece of paper in his left hand. He was huffing and puffing as he made his way up the hill. He was just a poor farmer from a poor village. He couldn¡¯t write, nor could he read. He never had any power, nor did he ever want it. Just a simple man, with a simple job and a simple life of being the best father in the world. ¡®I love you, dad¡¯ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sun shone through the thick trees of the Calomb forest, illuminating the sleeping faces of 20 men. They were all carrying weapons, daggers, swords, axes, you name it. The stench of blood that covered their bodies was unbearable for a normal person and thus they were shunned and hated all around. They were bandits, they understood that and hated it as much as any person would. Killing, robbing and raiding the passing by caravans and escorts of the nobles, but they hadn¡¯t asked for this kind of life. All of them were victims of different unfortunate situations that forced them into this life, filled with sin. But they were also people, the wanted to survive, to live on and found the only way to do it was through these malicious acts, causing them to be looked at with feelings of animosity. A fire burned in the middle of the clearing and in front of it sat two mean deep in thought. By their clothes it was clear that they were the leader and his right hand man of this little group. ¡°Reca, we can do this, the info is genuine, I have an informant among the servants of the Duke and he said that the Duke¡¯s daughter is returning from the capital of the kingdom after visiting her relatives and that she will cross near the forest. There is only one path that goes near the forest and leads to Calomb Keep, so all we have to do it wait and then ambush the escort, kidnap her and then ask for a ransom. After receiving the ransom, we can disappear and start a new life somewhere far away in another kingdom perhaps¡± explained the man, jesting with his hands as if trying to accentuate the fool-proneness of the plan. The other man looked at the fire and without redirecting his point of view ¡°What happens if we can¡¯t overwhelm the escort? Even if we do, many of our brothers will be killed? Is it really worth the lives of the majority, so just a few can live in comfort for the rest of their lives?¡± he asked finally turning his head and looking at his companion in the eye. The man answered: ¡°I already talked to the men and they all agreed with my plan. Better to die trying to reach a brighter future than to rot away even further in this hell hole!¡± Reca sighed, he had this strange feeling he always got when something unexpected was going to occur, but he waved it off. The plan looked perfect with just a few mishaps here and there, but those wouldn¡¯t change the outcome by too much. ¡®If this plan works, the survivors can finally take control of their own fate!¡± ¡°Maet, wake up all those lazy asses and start preparing for our final raid!¡± Chapter 3: A normal day The sun had already reached its zenith, when Jacquez let out a sigh as he fell to the ground and sat in the shade of the nearest apple tree. He was almost done for the day. He had started picking up the bell peppers as they were ready, the ripest apples and plumpest blueberries were also packed into the neatly tied closed bags that lay in a single line on the ground leaning on one another. In about a week, when the summer harvesting would be all done, his father would join the rest of the farmers and head to the main city, where he would sell the fruits and vegetables and with his revenue buy all the necessities needed to sustain life in our little father-son family. I saw my father still working on his patch of basil, so went to the well and filled my canteen with my water, before heading in his direction. ¡°You must be thirsty, drink some,¡± I said handing over the opened canteen. He gladly took it without saying a word as usual. My father was a man of few words and spoke first only when it was necessary to do so, so when he started speaking to me, I alerted my ears to listen as carefully as I could, because I knew that what he was about to say was important: ¡°Jacquez, when we are done harvesting, I will go to the city so you will have to take care of yourself!¡± he said. I answered with the usual ¡°Yes,dad¡± as he nodded and continued: ¡°Son, lately there have me talks of bandits attacking and raiding the caravans and noble escorts in the Calomb forest, so me and the others are banding together this time, so even if we are attacked we can overwhelm them with number. I heard that there was some kind of foreign merchant caravan passing through our village, so we will try to join their group and travel together. That isn¡¯t too important and you shouldn¡¯t concern yourself with it, since you won¡¯t be coming with us, but I just wanted to let you know for your info. What I would like for you to do personally is to stay out of the forest for a while. I know that it¡¯s unlikely that they would be here, so close to the village, but just in case, for my sake, don¡¯t go into the forest.¡± Now this information was more interesting, as Jacquez analyzed what he had just heard. ¡®So bandits are attacking caravans. Stay out of the forest! Got it¡¯ I nodded. I often visited the forest in my free time. Due to me working since I was 3 I didn¡¯t have too many friends and most of the kids my age didn¡¯t like playing with me. The years of back-breaking work: plowing, planting, caring and harvesting, in addition to my diet consisting of only fruits and vegetables (meat was just too expensive) had ridden my body of any possible storages of fat and flab. So every time we would play all-in tag (same thing as normal tag, except that everyone who gets tagged also becomes ¡°it¡± until there are no more people left to tag), everybody would be It, chasing after me and after still not catching me giving up in disappointment. I remember feeling proud of myself, each time I would be left alone untagged and have them abortively chasing me around the whole village. Soon they gave up on me completely and simply ignored, making me feel kind of left out, but that wasn¡¯t the end of it. I was about 3, but before I started helping out my father I had lots of free time and so I found a place where I belonged- the forest. It was a totally different world for me, as if I was sucked into a portal and transported to another universe. If the village was small and cramped with my competitors being kids, who were 2 times smaller than me, the forest was huge, a unique undiscovered landscape, where I explored and satisfied my curiosity. At first that was all I did in there, but later it became the place where I could feel myself at ease and think in silence about things that concerned me at the moment. My beatific state could not be ruined as I was always alone I there with nature itself being my only companion. Seeing me do this, other children started shunning me even more, because none of them went into the forest and I was well ¡°different¡±. People might say ¡°every bodies different¡± and ¡°that makes you unique and special¡±, I can answer with sincerity ¡°please cut the crap¡±. Ok, maybe I was special, but the difference between a ¡°special¡± outcast and a normal one isn¡¯t a big one. After sitting another 15 minutes in silence, I returned to my side of the field and continued working as I hummed the melody that would cover the entire village in a few days at the Summer Harvest festival. It started to darken, as I skimmed the area for the figure of my dad. He was carrying the bags of veggies he had harvested into the shed outside the house. I also stopped my harvesting for the day and started doing the same as him to my bags filled with bell peppers and various fruits. After finishing dad went into the house. I assumed it was to cook dinner, and as I was prohibited from going into my sanctuary, I made my way into the village where as always at this time found all the kids that were free to old day under the excuse of being too ¡°young¡± to work. I wasn¡¯t jealous or anything, and personally I found helping my father enjoyable, I just couldn¡¯t stand their boastful nature. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. As usual the biggest braggart was in the middle of the group showing off the wooden longsword his father, the village chief, had bought him last time he had taken his son to the city. Nador showed it off by doing some slashes that would have looked funny to anyone who had seen real swordplay, but as none of the kids had, they all stood there in awe as Nador kept jumping around and cutting the air. He stopped swinging his sword and began to praise its quality showing the oak wood that was used and the great quality of workmanship. There was a sentence carved into the wood on the side and I heard one of the boys ask him what it said. All of them couldn¡¯t read, but Nador, being the son of the village chief, had learned all the letters and was being tutored privately by a teacher that came once a month and taught him how to read and write. He squinted his eyes and started reading: ¡°T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-o-to-to-to-m-m-y-y¡­ To my!¡± he exclaimed and after that without even looking at the sword he exclaimed confidently: ¡°To my son, Nador, from his loving father!¡± ¡°Ahhh¡­ so that¡¯s what it means!¡± ¡°You¡¯re so smart Nador¡± ¡°How can you already know how to read at such a young age?¡± ¡°Not only reading, he can also write!¡± ¡°His gonna become the scholar of the village and I have this feeling that tells me that my prediction will come true.¡± Those were just some of the comments that followed his grandiose statement. I let a quite laugh that wasn¡¯t heard by anyone else, but me and thought ¡®It says ¡°To my child, who will turn this wood into steel¡±, dimwit¡¯ I always wondered why others couldn¡¯t read or write. It was so easy! Just like them I was never tutored or went to school, but I could write and read as long as I could remember and how that came to be was one of the most popular topics in my inner debates with myself. I looked around and saw the sun setting. I didn¡¯t want for them to notice me, which would instantly transform this peaceful evening into a goose chase, with me being the goose, and the sounds of 20 voices filling the air with my undying nickname ¡°Jack-ass¡±. I left quickly, not letting them notice me and arrived at the house in about 20 minutes. Washed my hands and face near the well with cold water and went inside. Ok, I will tell you straight, I was jealous. I was covered with green envy when I saw the wooden sword Nador had, and heard that he had gone to the city so many times, while I was stuck here all the time and hadn¡¯t gone even 20 km farther than my home. I didn¡¯t need any souvenirs or presents and fully understood that we couldn¡¯t afford them, but just once I wanted to go to the city and see with my own eyes, instead of hearing it so many times from other people. As they say ¡°Better to see it just once, than to hear it about it a million times.¡± Dad was still cooking dinner, as I walked in and sat at the small wooden kitchen table. I looked at dad and asked: ¡°Hey, dad, I¡¯m already 7 years old and I help you out with the field, but I never get to see the other half of the process, when you go to the city. When I will already have my own field and my own family, wouldn¡¯t it be weird if I could only harvest and couldn¡¯t sell the things that I harvested?¡± My dad laughed ¡°Don¡¯t try to be clever Jacquez, you know as well as I do that it won¡¯t work.¡± ¡®Seen through¡¯ I thought in disappointment. Then I continued with another approach ¡°But dad, you¡¯re already getting old and your back isn¡¯t the same as it used to be. I sometimes see you holding your back as if you were in pain, so let me help you with those heavy sacks the next time you go.¡± My father looked at me sternly: ¡°Jacquez!¡± I turned away and my eyes fell to the floor. My dad must have seen my disappointment, because his face had softened. Now it looked kind of weird, as if he was fighting with himself in his mind. With the conflict resolved he said the words that I wanted to hear: ¡°Ok, you can come, BUT you have to do EVERYTHING I say. Do you hear me, Jacquez, EVERYTING!¡± I gave my usual ¡°Yes, dad,¡± as went and hugged him as tightly as I could. That moment, my heart was almost bursting and I probably never had felt so happy since the time when mom brought home cheese from her job as a maid in the city. ¡°Now let¡¯s eat,¡± he said putting down a bowl of mashed potatoes, rye bread and salad on the table. I started happily munching on the food with such noise from the wooden utensils hitting my teeth, that my dad finally snapped and came out of his usual calm demeanor: ¡°Eat slower, or you¡¯ll break the spoon!¡± Chapter 4: Coming of the Merchants The sun¡¯s bright rays made their way through a half opened attic window of a small house, which was located on the outskirts if a tiny village- Halatuan, falling on a figure of a boy deep in thought. Jacquez had a dilemma ¨C ¡°How to make time flow faster?¡± Since the night when his father had agreed to take Jacquez with him to the city and let his son help him in the final part of the farmer trade: the selling of the fruits and vegetables, which they had worked hard the whole season to produce. Jacquez had long ago noticed a weird thing in the structure of the world - when you are expecting something good to happen, time moves slowly as if it was caught in slow motion. On the contrary, an unpleasant event creeps up faster than you can count to ten. In this case too, Jazquez waited patiently for the Summer Festival to come, so he could finally start his little venture into the city, but it was as if time was stretched out like a rubber band, moving slowly, second by second. Even his everyday activities like harvesting, cleaning the house and helping his father do various little jobs, which would normally bring him joy and fill him with a sense of accomplishment, bought him nothing, but a feeling of apathy and boredom toward them. Thankfully the god of boredom wasn¡¯t all-powerful and not matter how much he tried to hold back time, the eager expectation of the boy were slowly growing as the long hours passed. Finally it came, the last day of harvest, the eve of the Summer Harvest Festival. It started out as usual, some breakfast with his dad and after that working on his almost finished part of the field. At noon, when the sun was at its highest, the little boy covered in sweat, took a break and as usual walked over to his father¡¯s side, after filling the canteen full with well water. The father-son couple sat next to each other, enjoying the cool sea breeze, as it blew on their faces that were parched from the hot august sun. After looking at Jacquez for a few moments the father spoke first: ¡°Jacquez today is the last of the harvest, ill finish up the fields on my own. Go and get some rest, maybe play with kids your age. You know sometimes I feel as if I¡¯m robbing you of your child hood by making you work on the fields with me.¡± He looked a little sad as he said those words, which couldn¡¯t have been more wrong. ¡°Dad, stop it. You know as well as I do, that I wouldn¡¯t do it if I didn¡¯t enjoy it. And think of it as if I started from an earlier age than the other farmer¡¯s sons, so in the future I will be more experienced than them and will bring in more gold, hehehehe.¡± I laughed by wicked laugh, which I always got when I was talking about money. ¡°That really means a lot to me son, but now I really want you to get some rest. Don¡¯t think that I¡¯m giving it to you for free, nothing is free in this world, remember that forever. Think of it as an investment, because I¡¯m gonna make you work till you drop in Calomb city!¡± I smiled and finding no reason to argue, just nodded in agreement. After half emptying my canteen, I filled it up at the well and slowly walked to the village. The atmosphere was buzzing, kids running around trying to take a look, while the women were staring out of their windows. The men of the village put on an apathetic fa?ade, but were secretly stealing looks from the main street of the village, that ran right through the middle of the village with houses on either side. The object of curiosity were a group of merchants, or ¡°a caravan¡± as it was referred to in common tongue were passing through our village. It wasn¡¯t too big, about 35 people, each with their own oxen carrying various goods on wagons. There was everything from pretty necklaces to deadly weapons, from magic stones to detailed maps of different duchies and kingdoms. But there was something off. All the others stood there watching the procession and nobody asked the question ¡°Why weren¡¯t they stopping to trade?¡± Those few that actually did could satisfy themselves with the answer that the merchants were rich and the amount of profit that they would make in Halatuan was so measly that it wasn¡¯t worth the time. One of those was our little protagonist. The caravan proceeded along the main rode, finally coming to a halt at the end of the village which was opposite from the one they had come from. They quickly unpacked their bags, put up tents and started a fire. The crown gathered around them watching in silence as they worked until finally the village chief stepped walked through the crown and walked to the merchant, who looked like the most important among them. ¡°Greetings, we welcome you to the village of Halatuan. What brings you here into our little home?¡± he said after shaking hands with the merchant. ¡°We as any other merchant, are in search for the truth behind the world ¨C profit. For it, we are prepared to sail across any sea and cross any dessert, because to us, there is no god, nor a holy being other than the sound of coins jingling in our pockets.¡± He said loftily, while the others behind him cheered him on. The village chief continued: ¡°Actually our own farmers are traveling to Calomb city, the day after tomorrow, so I would like to ask for permission if they could join your party. We have heard of bandits terrorizing the nearby roads and I think that you will agree if I say that the more people there are in a party, the bigger the chances of survival. So would you please take them with you?¡± Stolen novel; please report. The head merchant hesitated, but after recovering his composure he answered shortly: ¡°Then so be it.¡± The village chief bowed and slowly walked away. Most of the people followed and just a few were left that still stood there eying the foreigners. So even they left and everything returned to normal. Jacquez was the last to leave thinking ¡®Something smells fishy here¡­ Probably the breeze that¡¯s blowing from the sea.¡¯ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If he had stayed a little longer he would have probably heard laughing as all the merchants started doing it hysterically. ¡°They bought it, commander, but your acting was terrible. Thank god you¡¯re a soldier and not an actor, because of you were one then I would really feel bad for the theater in our duchy!¡± said one of the ¡°merchants¡± hitting the one, which introduced himself as the head merchant to the villagers. ¡°But why did you accept their proposal of them coming with us? They could find out our real goal.¡± ¡°Even if they find out, we only have 3 days to go to reach Calomb city and our objective of delivering the young Duchess to her parent will be complete. Go check up on her, she must be cramped and bored in there. Must have benne pretty boring stuck in 4 walls all those days and tell her that she has to endure it for only 3 more days.¡± Said the head merchant. ¡°Yes, sir!¡± saluted the soldier as he ran to the biggest wagon that stood in the middle of the little encampment. It was huge and it wasn¡¯t really a wonder that a person could travel comfortably in it for days, maybe even weeks. ¡°Dutchess, are you alright?¡± he asked. A tiny yes came back as soon as he asked. After returning and reporting to his commander, he sat by the fire watching some of his companions making lunch. His mouth started watering, as his stomach let out a loud grumbling sound. He looked around in embarrassment, as the commander shook his head in disapproval and said: ¡°Soldier Rogerchicken! Being a part of the army requires not only control of the sword, but also your own self, your emotions and of course ¨C hunger!¡± ¡°Sorry, commander, but since I have the word chicken in my name, I feel like I have a bond with the chickens that my brother-in arms are roasting on the fire and my reaction wasn¡¯t that of disgust, but of pity, commander!¡± the soldier smiled his sly smile and he congratulated himself, praising his own cleverness. Unfortunately like it always happens ¨C it backfired. ¡°Hahaha. Rogerchicken, I didn¡¯t know that you were such a smart aleck. Well if you feel that sorry for the chicken, I guess there isn¡¯t any other way around. Your brothers-in arms would gladly rid you of the unpleasant activity of eating an animal that you share such a strong bond with¡­¡± The poor soldier Rogerchicken looked crestfallen as the meaning of the words hit him: ¡°No lunch. :(¡° ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was still day, but the thick trunks if the trees in the Calomb forest made it look as if evening was already at hand. Maet, the deputy leader of the bandits sat in front of the fire sharpening his weapon. He looked around and saw all the other bandits doing the same. In 4 days they would attack the young duchess¡¯s escort, which was disguised as a merchant caravan. How did he know that secret information? Easy. The answer was simple, he wasn¡¯t really Maet, the deputy leader of these bandits. That was just an alias he had used for the past several weeks. His real name was Marquis Chesterville and he didn¡¯t really plan on returning the young Duchess for a ransom. Heck, he didn¡¯t even plan on kidnapping her. All he needed to do was to kill her in the middle of the commotion and make a quick getaway. After completing his mission he would receive a large financial compensation, while his father, as well as his entire bloodline, including himself, would finally be promoted to the status of Count. All those weeks of gathering these bunch of idiots, leading them from the shadows and even putting a righteous leader as the dominant figure was all planned out perfectly. A few more measly days and his plans would bear their fruits, and just as the people had asked of him, it will look natural, as if a bunch of savage bandits had killed her while on a raid. He felt kind of bad for the little girl, but ¡®Oh well¡¯ he thought ¡®Guess her parent made enemies, really powerful enemies!¡¯ He let out a loud laugh, which made all the heads in the surrounding area turn in his direction for a second. The marquis kept sharpening his sword in front of the fire, slowly muttering word after word: ¡°You are as good as dead, little duchess, as good as dead!¡±