THE BOOK

[ADMIN ACCOUNT ♥]

Opening

There was a time when my land used to be peaceful. The land was filled with life and plants harvested a great deal of food. This was the world my grandfather described to me. All of this had been fifty years ago. My world is nothing like this. Where plants used to grow, only weeds and shrubs of brown now grow.

[ADMIN ACCOUNT ♥]

Chapter One

"There is more to life than just doing what your told you know." my voice spoke obviously on deaf ears as most of my words were. It wasn't like they would believe me or listen to me anyway. I was close to becoming a man, only a year away from my right to speak out, at the age of twenty one. There where many things I had learned in my years and many more I wished to learn. "If you wish to become a man, you should learn to hold your tongue and do as you are told." my father spoke in his deepened voice. There had been a time when my father's voice had a sense of power to it. That power had long been put dormant since the rule of our king. Perhaps I should clarify, this king was more of a dictator than a person with high authority such as a king. My grandfather had told me the stories of how true kings upheld honor, truth, and justice in our land. He told me that our kingdom was first corrupted during the years my father was born.

I remember listening to it...

"A darkness had come over our land. Our beloved king was getting sick, everyone in the kingdom knew it was only so long before he would perish. The king had a brother however, who had a young child. Our king believed that the boy would make a rightful heir to our kingdom. Our king was wrong, as soon as the young child took over the thrown chaos took over our land. The child had not lived by the code and his greed was to great. The people revolted war stretched across our lands, our beautiful kingdom began to corrupt from within!"

I had memorized the story, since it was the one I asked for whenever I spent time with my grandfather. "I am a man. I'm one because I'm not afraid to speak for myself! " I shouted at my father. I knew none of this was his fault but it had always been hard to express my feelings. "Kyle! You have no business in this. Learn to be silent!" my father shouted back. "No! Just because you where broken by this place doesn't mean I am!" I spoke back against him. Before I knew it a hard slap came to my face and I stood there my body frozen. My mother had rushed in at the sound. "Talik, stop this." she had cried at him pushing him back away from me. My eyes shook and I glared at my father. "I hate you!" I cried before I grabbed my coat and ran from the room to the door leaving my crying mother and broken father behind.

[ADMIN ACCOUNT ♥]

Chapter Two

"They make me so angry. Its like they don't listen to me at all. " I ranted to the one person that would listen. My grandfather listened as I spoke his eyes filled with wisdom. When I finished he slowly rose from his chair pulling me into an embrace that I wish could have lasted longer. "Child, you are strong. Be warned however, do not waste such strength. Despite what you are feeling your father does have strength. Its for you and your mother that his strength is the strongest. Do not believe everything you hear and see. You must remember there is a second story to everything." he spoke to me moving a hand over my dark locks. Even though I didn't understand what he saw in my father I believed him. I always believed him, not once had he ever led me astray. There were some nights I wished he had been my father. "You must go home now child. Your parents will be worried about you." he said his eyes looking into my own. "I don't see why they would but I'll believe you." I spoke. I really didn't want to go back, I wanted to stay and beg my grandfather to keep me with him. I swallowed my pride however and I left as he told me pulling on my coat and giving one last look to his house before trudging off towards my own.

"Where on earth have you been!" my mother shouted the minute I walked in the door. My father wasn't home, having apparently went to search for me. I knew I would hear it from the man as soon as he came home. So instead of standing around and waiting for whatever punishment that would befall me for 'running away' I went up to my room. It wasn't to much, but I appreciated my room. It was on the second floor over our garage. Meaning, that I had a nice view from my window over the acre of land that my family owned. Despite what I had told my father, he did a lot to keep us living how we were. My father worked for the king himself, one of the higher nobles.

I couldn't really say what he did since I myself didn't know. I sat down next to the window in one of my favorite chairs. A elbow rested on the window seal as my chin fell into my palm. Hazel eyes looked out over the land. Some days I wished that things would be like my grandfather had told me. Though everything was mostly dead in our kingdom, a bit of life could be seen in the noble's lands such as my own. A bit of green for our lawn, and acre, but the grass wasn't a nice color green. I would almost call it, a mix between a brown and green. Definitely not a healthier color. Sometimes I wondered how bad the other people had it, if this was the good life. I took a deep breath as my ears caught onto the sound of the door slamming. Well, I guess I couldn't resist this for to long. I took a deep breath and looked out one last time before leaving the room to go face my father.

[NEME ♣]

Chapter Three

It wasn't as easy as I thought it was. My father was mad at me, extremely mad. What I hadn't expected was that my father actually had tears in his eyes. There where only a few times I had ever seen my father cry. Let alone for me. I felt frozen in front of him unable to speak. I just watched him as he spread his arms and pulled me into his chest. I had gotten yelled at but now I could almost feel what my grandfather was talking about. My father did care about me, enough that he was crying. "F-father, I'm sorry for what I said. I - I don't hate you." I told him. I knew now that my father wasn't just a broken man. "I know I'm sorry I hit you Kyle. I just don't want to see you hurt." Talik replied slowly letting go of his son. I looked up at them, my mother moving closer to us both. "I'm really happy to have you as my parents." I said. "Well that's good cause you're grounded. Right Joanna?" Talik spoke. My happy face dropped to a flat one. "grounded?" I said. My mother smiled. "You heard right, now go to your room." she said with a bright smile. I sometimes wondered how she could do that. Well I might as well get to sleep since I couldn't leave my room any way.

--

I dreamed that night. I dreamed I was fighting. There was smoke and clouds and my lungs burned. I couldn't remember what I was fighting or how any of it had started though. But the pain became more and more intense until...

I gasped myself awake to shouts and smoke coming through my window. I forgot I had left it open before I had fallen asleep. I started coughing as the smoke entered my lungs and made my eyes water. "What the the hell is going on?" I spoke my voice hoarse and cracking a bit. I moved to my window blinking as I tried to see where the smoke was coming from. Instantly I forgot the pain that I had felt before. There was a house on fire not far from our own. I could feel my heart jump into my throat. "Gra-Grandpa!" I yelled. I rushed out of my room making a lot of noise in my clumsy haste. "W-Wake up!" I shouted running by my parents room. I could hear them moving from my noise. I didn't have time to stop. I rushed out of the house running as fast as i could. My eyes burned bit, but not from the smoke, from the tears that fell down my face. I reached the house shouting his name to the air filled smoke. A shadow of a figure loomed in the distance. I couldn't make out who it was. I instead moved after the figure but my arm was caught by a soldier of the king's army. "Let go!" I screamed at the guard fighting his grip. "Stop struggling or I'll kill you." the man's voice spoke. I froze as my eyes turned to look at him. Fear raced up my body as I realized he wasn't in the least bit joking.