1 A New Journey

As I rode my horse for 2 weeks with little stop and barely enough rations for the next meal, my stomach began to ache. The rations of the village I last visited, that helped supply my journey, was supposed to last a few more weeks. But riding a horse with little stops and minimal survival skills, I ate more than I should. Now at the brink of starvation for something nutritious, my stomach aches.

Along the way I found and ate wild berries, but they caused me to imagine things and felt dizzy. I guess I should've learned how to hunt, and probably know what berries are edible or not. I guess I should've paid more attention at the academy of heroes. Where you can find whatever job you are destined to be.

Unfortunately I am unlucky. My name is John Falier, named from my family and descendants of the Falier's. Let's just say, we are bound by an ill fate or curse to be exact. The tales go like this. The Falier's ran many centuries of wood cutters, in the expedition of cutting trees in a place called Sharz forest. It was near the village, so it was a perfect job and it helped many people because of the harsh winters that happen in that area.

One winter, a blizzard struck the village; only men went to gather some wood. They adventure deep down the forest to only be lost. Many men died from falling behind the snow. A small house laid upon their wary way, where they stayed. Out of twenty men, only nine survived including a Falier. They met the owner of the little house, a man named Steadman. That same night Steadman killed his guest one by one, becoming like a beast. Falier was left alive and shocked by fear. His fear wearied out when he saw that Steadman fed his fellow companions' bodies to his offspring.

I was once an isolated kid. That is until a mentor found and raised me. She was an outstanding warrior in her league and an outgoing leader. Known for her brute force and her staggering size in people's eyes. Many people feared her or stayed far away from her. They were afraid but, we are human, and can't control how we look in some cases. She stood 7 half feet tall, 2 feet wide from, holding a two handed massive war hammer with bulky thick reinforced armor plates. She had muscles like iron, people had names for her like goliath, brute, giant, the iron maiden. I called her Master or Garu her name.

There was a time I was a weak warrior for my age. It was the day of Aot, a male god that descended from another world. We held a festival every year in worship of him. My father gave me his fathers golden bracelet that spelled AL, my name in short. At the time, mother hugged me as we all watched a small firework show. Sadly my tribe was raided by foes, and watched people get murdered. I was separated from my family and ran away from the crowd to the Lurk Ove Forest.

From there I found a tiny shack, where a couple adopted me. They lived poor and didn't have much to offer, but offered me some ragged clothes and a torn sheet of a cloth blanket. They cuddle next to me for warmth at night and in the day, they eat little so they can help a kid like me survive. In return I helped them with labor work.

As a month went by Winter had come, they worked less and earned so little, it was because of excessive taxation from the rich. They don't know how us lower people survive in harsh conditions. I continue to help them gather a small patch of cold carrots in their little property, knowing that we won't survive in the long run. My care takers began to become skinny like ghouls, bones appearing from their pale skin. Even if we only ate watered carrot stew with rarely boiled rabbit meat, I'd offer some of my food. In which they declined with a smile. They knew they wouldn't last long and be happy for the rest of their life, that is until I came along.

They never had a child but me, I knew they were going to die after a couple months of taking me in. Next week came a new day of hard labor. I woke up with them cuddling me with a smile on their faces. I tried to wake them both up, but they were not moving an inch. I realized that they had died peacefully that night while cuddling me one last time, I was now alone again and must survive somehow. I got up and walked to the table with my bare feet. I could feel the cold ground freezing my foot, I found a bowl of raspberries and a note from them. The note had three words, "Take care AL."

That's when she came, the giant lady, she knocked and opened the door and saw a crying kid with 2 dead people right behind him. She knelt one knee down and hugged me. "Everything is ok AL, alright" she said. She picked me up and took me as a next guardian. I remembered seeing the snow that had fallen softly, and the house burned to ash very slowly as we went away. We traveled to her homestead far away from my previous caretaker, where I learned and trained myself. She was friends with the previous caretaker that went towards a different journey in their life.

As I got into school, I was nervous and surprised about entering a civil society with lots of laws and such in a place called Whibley town. After growing and learning in this town, it was not always a happy day for me. A few months passed since I began my new life, I was bullied a lot because the villagers knew my secret. I was called an outcast by boys, a weed by girls, even the teachers mocked me, my 1st guardian parents, and my knowledge. I don't know how, but they knew somehow.

But they stopped as the Master came with me to school and my classmates apologized to me and the bullying stopped. Everyone kept their distance from me, always 10 feet away and unsocialized kid I was. It was not long until I was newly labeled as a "savage outsider" in this town. Master pity me, but we remained in this town until I graduated from warrior school.

Now feeling light headed, I realize the wild berries I had eaten long ago were the wrong ones. I'm stuck riding to another village with barley water to go on. The sun began to fall, and the blue sky slowly faded. The next village is far away from what the last town settler said to me. I began to faint and lay down on the horse's back and close my eyes as I drifted away. That is when I started to be awoken by a voice screaming "Hey there" in the distance. I shook my arm to get their attention and heard footsteps coming along the way.

"Hey mister, you don't look so well, you need help" a girl's voice sounded as she carried a lantern. I was too weak to do anything to talk, so I leaned towards her and fell to the ground hard. I woke up in a pile of hay, looking around to my left my horse looked at me in its stable, as I looked to my right a girl's face stared back at me.

I shuffled away and got scared by her presence, she responded. "Man, you're a heavy guy, I had to drag you to this barn and feed you some water with corn flakes."

I thank her for her help as she stands up patting the hay off from her clothes and runs to a nearby house screaming "Granny the big guy is awake." I waited for this Granny to appear, so I looked around the barn for a bit. There was another horse next to my own, it was a white stallion with yellow hair. If I remembered correctly the battle of Carlisle was intense and chaotic, we the allies had numbers yet were crushed by groups. We made a last stand of defense. The shield was mostly spread out in layers by beast and soldiers. They were covered by mostly Rock golems, water spirits and mythical beasts. The second layer was the Royalty honor guards from different factions of the allies with old siege machines, of ballista's and catapults.

The enemy had the upper hand of a more terrifying beast and magic that quickly eliminated anyone in their path. A Giant troll named Zog wiped most of our friendly beast, along with Zog was the undead army. That transformed into a Giant skeleton king 15 times the size of Zog. That was caused by the Litch, only dark gems from the Giant skeleton. Zog was just as tall as a bell tower around 20 meters in height. Its weapon was a massive rock sword that was a few meters taller than it. The sword was heated in yellow and oozing of gold that rained fresh gold coins filled with pure evil magic. All it took was a stab in the ground to decimate a chunk of biome in foul gold smoke with ruin tombstones flying around the impacted area. In which the Skeleton king shook the ground making an abyss. A ton of soliders fell into the dark pit, bodies never retrieved for proper burial.

Every single beast and soldiers were dead or had lived with a few serious concussions or decapitated limbs. You'd gone mad like a psycho killing your own from the gold smoke. If you were stationed with the Royalty guards and the allies, you'd be safe from the Great wizard magic shield. Afterwards the Great wizard cast a yellow beam towards the sky as the enemy and a few of our men charged at the last stand.

The next part was unclear as a guy in purple robe fell down from the sky and landed on top of the Skeleton king crushing it down to the ground. The gold smoke cleared, and a few other people rained down from the sky towards the guy in the purple robe. The weaker enemy falled back and the heavy enemy army came. The Troll Zog leaped to the air with a giant blade aiming at our ground units. Which Zog was whipped away in midair by a golden whip.

It was told in books that anyone reading it can visualize it and recreate the scene in their head. Just then, I heard a knock on the stable door and when I saw her, she was a friend I recognized. She was my Master now much older with gray hair and has a granddaughter. "Hey there kid, long time no see ay."