—I told you to not go closer to the southern forest countless times. Why can't you just listen to me?—
—Ouww Mom it hurts—
—Oh! Don't be a baby Augustus, stand still—
—Dad, help me please—
—cut the boy some slack dear …uh No …listen to your mother August. …uh I should pack my belongings for the journey—
—No but this is a complete overkill—
—No it's not. Now stay inside your room for the rest of the day …no until you recover properly and that's an order—
—But mom—
—enough! Order is an order, understood young man? —
August sat atop his bed inside his room crossing his arms, pouting as he watched his mother leave the room, trying to act all pissed off. After a while he let himself loose and turned towards the mirror. In it he saw a young boy wrapped in bandages from head to toe.
After he returned home from the forest yesterday evening, August wasn't surprised to see his mother angry at him. He was in a condition in which no amount of context and excuses could've saved him. Thankfully he didn't have to elaborate everything to his parents because that airhead Shelly had already boasted before his mother that how bravely she fought that lesser beast and August just helped her a little and that's all.
August wasn't able to comprehend if it was Shelly's way of saving him or was she
just bragging all along. Even if she had noble intentions, her help worked negatively for August. Not only was he covered from head to toe with bandages, his mother has ordered him to not leave his room until he recovers properly. That too after she spent an entire night healing his shoulder wound with her elemental aspect.
Her core element ice also offered healing albeit up to a certain extent. Just like ice froze everything in its path it also healed what it took in its embrace. Making the frozen thing whatever it may be regain its lost part. No, the ice helped to reclaim its previous state more accurately. Well, the element of ice had all the other functions too like preservation and all…
Thump… August stood, pressing his hands against the wooden frame of the mirror and stared at the reflection of himself for a while.
"All I see is …imperfection" He muttered under his breath. After the trial class incident August never attempted to form a spell again. Yes , it seemed the right thing to do but he still felt a lingering sensation of unease, watching most of the kids his age do stuff which seems unreal to the mundane eye. But the lessons of consequences of his recklessness he learnt that day four years ago were enough to make him stay right where he stood. Then moved away from the mirror and turned again to look at himself, "A little handsome maybe".
Then he walked along the length of his bookshelf brushing his hand on the various books stacked in an orderly manner, "What should I read today?" Imagining the rush of a new story he took a deep breath, then with a curious expression looked at a seemingly new book, "What do we have here.."
"Ah! It's that one" As though recalling something important he pulled a book with matte violet cover, "boundaries and political conflicts huh? Interesting" looking at the book with curious expression and reading its title aloud, "Two crowns and a city —the people who suffered".
Although the book itself said it was based on real incidents, August couldn't help but cock a brow because from his experience of reading countless true incidents like these he became very good at differentiating truth from reality. Most of the authors couldn't write freely without offending the ones in power so they have to twist some events of the story a little bit. Well the reason was justified for August he could easily imagine their fear of nobility.
He stared at the plain, single coloured cover of the book and couldn't help but feel more excited. He sat on the brown wooden chair on the balcony of his room and opened the first page of it. August had a vague idea about the outline of that story as he thought a tale of a city oppressed by two powerful countries would start by criticizing the oppressors. To his surprise however, it started just the opposite….
"August!" his father's voice rang from outside of his room as he looked up at him standing at the door, "I am heading off then, stay safe. Also take care of your mother for me would you."
As he knew already his father was leaving for the capital which he did after every six months for gods know what. Well he did return with a fair amount of food and supplies for the whole village everytime. So whatever he did or whoever he met at the capital was very important for the town's survival.
All he knew was that his father had a friend at the capital. His name was Lord Victor. The scholar friend of his father's was a professor or something. Well, August did remember a meeting with him when he was of age?
'Can't remember properly now'
"Okay dad", he answered, realising being wandering in thoughts for a while now, he gave his father a toothy smile and said in a joyful tone, "have a safe trip."
"Alright son", His father turned away and started walking away from his door, then he said, his voice fading with distance, "and don't go around killing lesser beasts, your mother will surely kill me next time."
Not bothering to hear his answer, his father went away with a smile on his face.
Back in the room August sat holding the book in his hand and scratching the back of his head with a goofy, guilty smile.
'Okay then, no heading out for a while'
Coming back at the first page of the book, August was left a bit surprised when the story started like a fantasy tale.
— — —
About a millenia ago, two primal existences —older than gods, countless universes, space and time itself, were engaged in a deadly battle against each other. One of them was considered as pure as snow and the other— dark, vile horror.
The being of the blessings and creature of the curses.
The fight was unimaginable, the destruction caused by it, unfathomable. One was to protect and the other willed for destruction. It is said that the cursed one was killed by the epitome of purity in that fight which lasted for an eternity.
It is believed that they fought endlessly, passing through many of the countless universes and left behind only the destruction. The lands of our world became the witness of that unimaginable incident. No one saw and no one knows what happened afterwards. Only the truth remains, heard by countless ears and then passed on to generations, that the blood drops of pure one fell on the land below, giving birth to a chain of mountains containing priceless treasures within it.
Thus after the name of goddess of purity Elaria, the mountain range came to be known as Elaria's crown.
And the place where blood drops of the cursed one fell, became the lands of desolate planes, forests hiding vile and gut wrenching horrors within it. The never-ending place of true sorcery hence came to be known as The Ravenwood expanse.
The lands where fresh water flows freely. A cold, humid but fertile place, where the gentle winds caress every soul. The lands, called the home of the Goddess of purity herself. Deep within the mountains the valleys stretch afar. There stands a city, covered by the tall peaks of Elaria's crown mountain range.
The city of Frostvale.
The people of the beautiful city weren't strangers to the treasures of the Elaria mountain range. The elixirs it contained, the crystals of utmost purity. Some of the things were even they used to take from the ranges as a blessing of Goddess Elaria.
Everyday was peaceful for the beautiful city until the outside forces casted their greedy gazes on the treasures possessed by Elaria's crown. It didn't take Frostvale long to fall victim to the greedy politics between two of the superpowers of humanity.
The two kingdoms turned Frostvale city into their private battlefield not sparing any glances to the innocent lives which were lost without a cause. Paying for the sins of someone else. Fire roared and the snow melted, but humans never stopped. The greed of their sovereingns was too vast to be quenched by mutual sharing.
But not everyone wanted destruction. If only a few, but there were people opposed to the idea of letting greed consume them. Being one of the three human superpowers, even The Empire couldn't afford to stop the war. The emperor tried to mediate as best as he could but that wasn't enough.
Then from one of the fighting countries came a saviour. No, he couldn't be called a saviour to be exact because the loss of lives and the beautiful city of frostvale was too grand in comparison to the lives he saved.
Accompanied by a dragon, he was nearly invincible. Haters even say that he was able to make a difference only with the dragon's presence.
— — —
August came back to reality, realising that he became too immersed in the story up to the point he was about to finish the whole volume. His interest however, wavered the moment he read about a character larger than life itself.
That was because there was no one perfect or all glorious in real life, so in history too no one would be that saviour and messiah type person obviously. And this type of description made the book seem like fiction more than history to him.
He even has suspicions if gods were real or not.
'dragons? Are they even real? I haven't seen one in real life.'
But he knew demons were real. For him at least the beasts and other deadly creatures of the southern forest were real demons who threatened the lives of common people.
Realising he was going too much deep in philosophy, August held the book again and turned to the next page.
———
He opposed his kingdom, his own people who sought destruction of the enemy and whatever came in between. As a result, even after being a great warrior himself, he was criticised by both sides.
While he was too high status of a person to be killed anonymously, people began following him. The ones who were well aware of the cruelty of the battlefield. People of Frostvale put their hopes in him but they didn't trust him at that time.
It was too good to be true that a person like that was going against his own kingdom just for righteousness and out of goodness of his heart. People have their suspicions of this all being a ploy for a bigger picture. They feared that they would be used in front lines as meat shields.
The enemies didn't care for the people of Frostvale after all. But the man, he was consistent. His determination, solid, his will, never breaking. With the passage of time he gained more followers, more trust. More people began to see him as their leader and the less were dying day after day in the war.
This was a great victory for the people of Frostvale city. They even began to put him beside the great hero Cornelius. Worshipping their saviour as a God. Well, that was true even to a certain extent.
The days of peace remained until it became unbearable for the superpowers and after that the saviour disappeared.
No one knew where he went. No one till date.
Some say he was killed in the darkness of night, some say he fled out of fear. And what most of the people believe, he was cast aside by his own people, own kingdom, by his own parents.
Thus he became a legend, a true warrior, a hero.
The banished prince of the Kingdom.
Prince Laenor…
—————