Chapter I

The Struggle

His name was mostly kept to himself, so he had oftentimes been referred to as ‘red boy’ by strangers. The source of his nickname was obvious to everyone due to his hair. His chocolate brown eyes were often accented by the shade of his red hair. He was not the most handsome, as his nose looked somewhat feminine yet bigger than the norm. His slightly tanned skin suited him well, and his slightly broad shoulders had enough muscle for doing farm work.

He wore a white mid-sleeve shirt that was very dirty, along with dark brown shorts that looked a tad worn and was tinged a bit gray. At all times he carried a dagger that he fit into a dagger sheath he had stolen years ago.

This ‘red boy’ had spent the first ten years of his life as a servant in a wealthy man’s household on the countryside of one of the lesser kingdoms of the land called Ärdagoa. By the time he was eleven, he was abducted by a group of thieves after they had killed all the others in the manor, and learned the ways of their life. He stole from the rich so then he could survive.

Shortly after he had turned sixteen, the thieves whom he had then called his family, were taken to prison for theft. But his ‘family’ adored him to the extent of assisting him to get away. He never knew why they did that for him.

When he had gotten away from the capture, he had nowhere to go. He wandered aimlessly for days, as he had a terrible sense of direction.

Unlucky for him, he ended up at an ancient forest that flourished in a marsh that would be able to take in any form of life that were to move more swiftly than a tree. He betrayed his instinct to not go further, and entered the forest without even the slightest thought of turning back. Go figure, he got himself stuck in one of nature’s death traps—quicksand.

He thought quickly, and managed to grab hold of a strong, low-growing tree branch. What the biggest problem, was that he was unable to pull himself out. All he was able to do was stay put where he was, as he did not want to die. As the night went by, he figured out a way to not use up all of his energy; by sitting himself on an underground —or under-quicksand in this case— tree root, while still somewhat hanging on with his hands on the branch, he could make himself last a little longer. The next day, he was hungry, dehydrated, and quite tired; he was doubtful he would last long.

Oddly enough, he heard something coming towards him, and looked in the direction the sounds were coming from. It was another boy, who was about his own age. The boy helped him out of the deadly quicksand’s depths by using a long, thick rope, and casually introduced himself as Horkas. The red boy introduced himself, as Theoril. He studied the other very closely without him noticing.

Horkas had wavy, dirty-blond hair that slightly curled closer to the ends, which grew down to his slender shoulders. His skin was very pale, and his eyes were a light blue with a dark blue rim. He had dark and long eyelashes, which made his eyes stand out even more. His build was perfect for archery, and little with swordsmanship. Horkas also carried a bow, plus a collection of arrows, which were carried on his back with a bag made of cowhide.

He wore a blood-red leather vest that overlapped a dark brown shirt, and wore pants that were a lighter shade of brown. His shirt had had no sleeve for his left arm, but had a long sleeve on his right arm, of which his right hand was also completely covered with a black glove that fit the hand perfectly.

He told Theoril that he was half human, and so in return Theoril said that he was completely human from what he knew. Now why did he tell me that? he asked himself.

The two of them had begun traveling together with leaving the marsh right after introducing themselves. As they left the ancient forest, Horkas asked why Theoril was in the forest in the first place. Theoril said that he was wanting to find out what was on the other side of the forest, and so Horkas told him.

He said to him that all that remained on the other side was more quicksand, surrounded by mountains, that were impossible to climb over. Disappointed by Horkas’s spoil of the fun, Theoril stopped to stand just outside the forest to look at it one more time.

“I think we need to find something to eat,” Horkas told Theoril, as he began to walk towards a brown male horse that looked as though it belong to him, as there was no evidence of anyone else having been there.

“Then should we not go to the forest to get the food?” Theoril asked weakly—he was still worn down from not eating recently.

“No, most things in that forest would not do ourselves much good,” said Horkas as he mounted his horse, “there is another forest some ways away from here that definitely contains decent food—mainly deer.”

“Okay, then,” Theoril got some help from Horkas to get onto the horse, and sat behind the blond boy.

Horkas nudged the stallion’s sides with his feet, and they rode away from the forest quickly. As the horse galloped onwards, Theoril watched his surroundings speed past him. It was all flat grassland, with the odd hill here and there.

Theoril began to feel nauseous, and so he reminded himself that he had not ridden a horse in a while… plus the fact that he was painfully hungry. He closed his eyes so then he could concentrate on keeping his stomach from growling so much.

“Here it is,” Horkas called behind himself at Theoril as he jumped off his mount. He began to walk into the forest just as Theoril was struggling to get off of the other’s horse.

Just as Theoril entered the forest, Horkas told him that he would do the hunting himself, and told him to wait by the horse. Not wanting to sit around and do nothing, Theoril followed him deeper into the forest, and to help him follow the other boy, he grabbed a fallen branch from the ground to use as a walking stick. It seemed that Horkas never noticed him, and so the red boy kept following. Many minutes passed by, and still no luck in finding anything to eat.

A twig on the ground snapped nearby, so Horkas quickly took out his bow and an arrow, and rammed himself as quietly as possible into the side of a tree’s trunk. Theoril watched as a large male deer came into view, slowly walking towards a bush that had many leaves. He then looked at Horkas, who was ready to strike the deer down with the arrow.

The deer unknowingly moved closer towards Horkas, and so he shot at the deer. Theoril was watching Horkas as the arrow was shot, and noticed that the blond boy had winced after shooting the arrow. The shot Horkas made was an accurate hit, and the buck fell to the ground.

Horkas walked over to the body, and took his arrow back from the carcass. His right arm was hanging limp by his side; he used his left hand to take a dagger out to cut out some decent slices of meat. Sliding his bag off his shoulder, he shoved as much of the deer as possible into it, and slung it back onto his shoulder.

Remembering that he was supposed to be waiting by the horse, Theoril stealthily ran off as quickly as he could with the aid of his new walking stick. He got back out of the forest, threw the branch back into the forest, and decided to pet Horkas’s stallion. The horse nudged him, expecting a treat. He then stepped away from it since he did not want the equine to nip him, and heard Horkas walking out of the forest towards them.

“You wouldn’t believe the size of the deer I shot!” Horkas said excitedly, taking the bag back off his shoulder, and tying it onto the horse’s saddle.

“Let me guess… it was big?” Theoril asked the other, making it obvious that what Horkas said basically meant that the deer was most likely pretty large.

“Yup,” he said, then chuckled, “it was so big, that there was too much meat for me to carry back here.”

“Well, maybe if I were there, we would have had more meat…” Theoril informed him quietly.

“You don’t look fit enough at the moment, to do something like that. Another time?”

“Fine by me.”

The two got back onto the brown steed, and galloped away from the forest. Theoril was not sure where the other boy was planning to take him, and he felt that it would be best to not ask. They went onwards as the sun slowly fell behind the horizon, to the point where the clouds above them were shades of light orange and purple; the dark blue colour of night time crept above the colourful clouds, which made the brighter colours stand out, especially the orange.

Theoril felt his eyelids closing, and his eyes were aching. He had not slept well for so long, and all he wanted to do is just fall off the horse to land on the ground… and just sleep the tiredness away. Just as his eyes were closed and he was about to fall asleep, the horse began to slow down. He re-opened his eyes immediately and made himself sit up.

Looking around himself, he saw some lanterns hanging from tall and thick wooden poles. He then took a glance at the buildings that were now surrounding them, and saw that they were also made of wood; the parts of the exterior walls near to the ground were covered in lots of dark green moss.

He remained sitting on the mount while Horkas slid off, and lead the horse towards a narrow building. As they approached closer, the door swung open and a little blond boy ran out; he then hugged Horkas and grabbed the lead rope of the horse.

“Theoril, this is my younger cousin, Rasthürel,” Horkas told Theoril, as the other helped him off the brown stallion.

“Hi,” Rasthürel said to Theoril, walked away, and entered a nearby barn to put the horse in so then it could rest a bit.

Theoril waved at Rasthürel before the little boy had left for the barn. He then thought about the boy’s name.

“Wasn’t there a guy named Rasthür—a powerful magic user—?” he asked Horkas.

“Yep, that was my grandfather,” Horkas replied, holding the building’s front door open for Theoril to walk inside the house.

“You’ll have to clue me in on your family history,” he chuckled as he walked into the threshold, and Horkas followed him in.