2 Chapter 1

It was a sunny day in the peaceful country of Artisma, it seemed like there was nothing wrong with the world, like you could do anything you wanted and get away scot free, like a redheaded teen sleeping in the branches of an apple tree, skipping his daily chores. The name of this lazy teen is me, Alexander Lirap, son of Klein, and twin of Gwen. We lived happily on a farm out in the country, away from the troubles of the city.

In the distance a red headed teen was running through the pastures, looking for me.

"Brother! Dad made dinner!" Gwen said as she ran up to me, waking me up in the process.

"Be right there!" I shouted as I jumped out of the tree I was taking a peaceful nap in. As I landed, we took off running through the pastures and fields towards the house, as if we were racing, and as we ran to the house, I looked over to my sister. "How was your day?" I asked her. "Stab any of those horny men?

"Good. Another batch of men asking for my hand, another fight over me, another day of the usual. And no, I did not stab anyone this time. I'm still in trouble from when I stabbed Sven in the crotch." Gwen said. "You?"

I just sighed. "Another day of nothing happening in the fields. Ever since I killed that fox den the predators stopped attacking the sheep."

"Want to trade places?" Gwen asked as she laughed.

"You know that would never happen." I said as we reached the house.

"We're back Dad!" I shouted as I walked in.

"Sit down at the table! I have to talk to you both." Dad said as he walked into the room.

Dad had short brown hair, a small potbelly, ghostly white skin, and walked with a limp.

"What happened dad?" Gwen asked.

"The royal guard is coming tomorrow, and I need you to know something." Dad said as he sat down.

"Gwen, Alexander, the chance of you being picked for the army is little to none, but I received a letter from an old friend today. She said if you wanted she would teach you how to fight and teach you how to be adventurers." Dad said.

"Being an adventurer sounds more fun than being in the army." I said as I looked at my twin.

"Yeah, it does." Gwen said as she picked up dinner, a nice pot of stew.

"But who would help you around the farm Dad? The three of us can barely do it, and with your limp, you can't do as much as you used to." I said as I helped set the table.

"I'll be fine. Just need to send a few letters and I will have enough help to last a few years, I am just following your mother's wishes." Dad said as he waved his hand. "She was an adventurer, and a strong one at that. Best of the best she was, and nobody dared to argue with her."

"She was?" Gwen asked as she put the steak on the table. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"She told me not to." Dad said as he stood up. "Start eating, I'll be right back." And with that Dad stood up and walked upstairs, leaving us in the kitchen.

"Wow, mum was an adventurer! Never would have guessed it!" I said as I served myself.

"Not the woman Dad married after we were born, she was a pig!" Gwen said as she took a bite of the steak. "I wonder what our real Mom was like?" She wondered out loud.

"A badass." Dad said as he came down the stairs. He was holding an object wrapped in a cloth and had a box in the crook of his arm. "And don't talk about Annabeth that way Gwen, you know manners."

"What are you carrying Dad? Need any help?" I asked as I stood up.

"No, no, sit down." Dad said as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "These belonged to your mother and told me to give them to you when the time was right. And I believe this is it." Dad then put the box and the wrapped object on the table. "These were her most valuable belongings, Her sword, and her necklace."

Dad opened the box and pulled out a sheathed sword. He then removed the cover of the sword, revealing a short sword about 16 inches long, and an unusual curved blade with a grip made out of a smooth bone-like material.

"This was her sword, she called it Bliamar, or Dragon-Blade, because it is, according to her family's lore, made from a dragon's body and soul."

"This was her necklace, she called it Ralavin, or True-Sight. I don't know why she wanted you to have it Gwen, but her will was very specific."

It was a golden necklace of a lotus blossom, and in the center was a shining white gemstone.

As I picked up Mom's sword, I felt like something called out to me, but I couldn't hear it, so I just shrugged it off. Me and Gwen looked at each other for a minute, before looking back at Dad.

"Can we have a minute to think about it dad?" Gwen asked.

"Sure. take as long as you need. I will send her a reply when you give me an answer" Dad said.

"There is no need for that Klein." A female voice said from the door. I looked up at the woman with greying hair reaching her shoulders in the door frame. "Hello, Larissa." Dad said as he pulled her into a hug.

"Are you two Alexander and Gwen?" Larissa asked. We nodded as the new lady stared at us. "Go talk, me and your dad need to catch up. It has been a while since we last spoke." As we left, we stopped just outside the door and listened in on their conversation.

"They are a lot like their mother, strong willed, smart, ambitious, friendly, always stick together." Dad said as he stood next to her. "Do you miss it?" He asked

"Of course I do. I miss the adventures we had together, the old grouch, pipsqueak, all of them." Larissa said as she sat down at the table. "When I'm done training those two, they'll be better than those four."

Dad just laughed. "Better than those four? That's a tall wall to climb."

Larissa smirked, and Dad remembered why she was the most respected party member of their old team. "That's why they're not going to climb. They, are going to soar." She said. "Right after they get better at stealth."

Me and Gwen just looked at each other before we took off running, laughing all the way. We had reached the outer edge of the farm, a hill that overlooked the nearby town, Kimbril. It was a small place, surrounded by walls incase of an attack by bandits or a monster. But that has never happened, not in years. The last time that an attack happened was about 30 years ago, when the town had just started. Apparently the construction had disturbed a nest of Clorime, a race of rat-like creatures that walk on two feet and are the size of a newborn child. They are relatively weak, but the nest had killed half of the guards the king had sent, and almost killed the townspeople, but a group of traveling Sharmils, humanoid snakes and the mortal enemy of Clorime, had arrived and killed the rest of the nest. After that, the town prospered for years, unnoticed by monsters and bandits alike.

"Why do you think Dad kept it from us?" My sister asked me. "I mean, whenever we asked about mom, he just dodged the question or gave us a lie."

She wasn't wrong. Dad did keep it from us. For years, never a hint about her, no pictures, no journals, nothing. I searched the entire house for anything about our mom, but never found anything, not even her name. Even when we asked the people in the town, they always said they never met her or even heard of her, like she was a ghost.

"I don't know Gwen, but you heard that woman, Dad was an adventurer too." I said, sitting down on the hill. "But what I can't figure out is, why now? After so long, not a single word. I thought Dad was always a farmer, and our mom died of a sickness, but that's just a lie now."

"I don't know Alex. I don't know." Gwen said.

We sat there for a while before I drew out Moms sword from the sheath I had put on my waist. I traced the blade with a finger, tracing the scratches in the blade, before I reached the handle. The bone like grip was smooth but didn't seem to slip out of my hand when I swung it. As I traced the handle, I felt a small notch in the bottom of the handle.

"Strange." I muttered as I traced the notch.

"What is?" Gwen asked. "Find something?"

"Yeah, I did." I said as I showed her the notch. It's in a really weird place too. I put my fingernail in the notch and tried pulling it. To my surprise, it opened with a pop, and a small roll of paper fell out. A scroll?

"What does it say?" Gwen asked, peaking over my shoulder.

"I don't know, it's written in a language I don't know.' I said.

"All I can understand is this word, Hamilta, I'm guessing that is mom's name." I said as I tried to understand what the letter said. "I wonder if Larissa knows what this says."

"Maybe, if Dad and Mom were adventurers together, then maybe their old party members would know what this says." Gwen said as she looked at mom's necklace. A strange language is on the back of her necklace too. I looked at the back of the necklace, and it had a different language on it.

"Mom sure is shrouded by mystery." I said as I put the strange paper back in the handle. "We better be heading back." I said as I started to walk back to the farm. As we walked back, we shared jokes, and talked about what we wanted to do.

"I want to go, but then Dad will be all alone, and he can barely maintain the farm with us around." Gwen said. "I also want to go out and explore the world."

"I do too, but remember, Dad said he can send a few letters and he can have enough help." I said. "And I want to go and find out who mom was and translate the letter."

"Yeah, you're right. Still I-" Gwen stopped talking and I turned to her.

"Gwen?" I asked as I walked back to where she was. "Are you alright?"

"Do you hear that?" She asked me.

I listened to the sounds around me. I looked at her like she was crazy, then I heard a scream.

"It's coming from the town!" Gwen cried out as we ran back the way we had come. When we had crested the hill, we saw a sight that we will never forget.

The town was on fire, and Bandits were coming out of the woods. We watched as they pulled children from the grips of their mothers and stabbed their fathers.

"We have to go help!" I shouted and jumped down the hill. "Go home and get dad and Larissa! Hurry!"

Gwen nodded and ran off in the other direction. I charged down to the town, jumping over fallen trees and rocks. I ran and ran, hoping to get to the town before it was too late, but I was so focused on running, I tripped over a root. I sprained my ankle and boy did it hurt. I cried out in pain as I stood up and pushed through the pain to get to the town. I shuffled to the edge of the tree line surrounding the town.

I cried as I watched the town burning down. I turned my head as I heard shouting. A bandit was charging at me, wielding a greatsword and wearing patchwork armor that barely covered him. I panicked as I raised my sword to block the bandits reckless swing. When the bandits sword hit mine, I was forced down to one knee, and the foot I had sprained was screaming in pain.

"Die you peasant!" The bandit shouted at me, kicking my chest. I was sent back a few feet, nearly blacking out from the pain. I opened my eyes to see the bandit swinging his sword down, ready to cut off my head, but I rolled out of the way, and the sword cut into the ground.

I stood up and swung my sword as the bandit and to my surprise, the sword went clean through his elbow, cutting off his arm making him drop his sword. The bandit screamed and he held his stump with the other arm. Without hesitating, I stabbed him in the heart and ran to the town. All the while, the sword in my hand dripping with the blood of the first person I had killed.

"Alexander!" Someone called out, and I saw one of my friends, Jack, slumped against a wall, an arrow in his gut.

"Jack!" I called out as I ran to him.

"IT'S A TRAP!" He shouted as I got closer. I stopped, and four bandits came out of the shadows. Each one wearing shabby armor and wielding a poorly managed weapon.

"Tch." One said, obviously the leader of this little group. "The little shit gave us away." He said. "No matter, this will be easy. Get him."

With that, the three bandits charged at me, swinging their weapons. I quickly tried to block a mace to the face, but a Warhammer hit me in the side, breaking a few ribs. I cried out as I hit the building next to me. I blindly swung my sword, forcing the bandits to back up. I took this opportunity to pick up the shield of a fallen guard and rush forward, stabbing a bandit in the stomach.

The other two quickly recovered and swung their weapons, aiming to kill me this time. The bandit with a mace tried to hit me in the head, but missed as I ducked under the swing, and bashed him with the shield, staggering him. I failed to cut him as the bandit with twin daggers jumped at me, cutting my cheek and my left arm. I quickly brought the shield up to block the twin knives as the bandit rushed at me, stabbing and slicing at me.

I tried to bash the bandit again, but she jumped back dodging my attack. As she jumped back, her partner rushed at me and hit the shield out of my hands before punching me in the face, breaking my nose. As I was holding my nose, I felt something hit me in the leg. I cried in pain as I looked at the arrow that pierced my leg. I looked up to see the leader staring at me, a bow in hand, arrow notched and ready to fire. I winced as I raised myself once more.

"You have guts kid; I'll give you that." He said. He shook his head as he looked at the bandit I killed. "If I could, I would take you back to the bosses, but you killed one of us, and this is where you live, so I can't."

"I would never join you in the first place." I said as I raided my sword and pointed it at him. "You and your friends are killing mine, and I will never forgive that!" I shouted. "I will never rest, not until each and every single one of you is dead. But right now, I just want to know one thing."

The bandits looked at each other before the leader spoke. "What is it kid?"

"Who hired you to do this?" I asked, stalling for time for Gwen to get Dad and Larissa. "I mean, this is too laid out for simple bandits."

The bandits laughed. "A feared gang called the Maruthi hired us to do it. Paid a lot too, enough to get proper gear and much more." The dagger bandit said. "They said that we were to find two children here, twins named Alexander and Gwendolyn. Said they were wanted by a king. Well, the king wants the son, the prince wants the girl. Wants to make the girl his wife I think."

That was the last straw. Nobody will force my twin to do anything. This gang thinks they can hire a bunch of bandits to take us away to a stuck-up king and his snobby son.

"I see. Who is this king?" I asked, my rage growing.

"King Seth and Prince Valin." The leader said. "Why?"

"Because I want to know who wants to take my sister away from me." I said, deathly quiet.

"What was that?" One of the bandits asked. Instead of answering, I rushed forward, ignoring the pain of the arrow and stabbed the leader in the gut.

"I said, I want to know who wants to know who will take my sister away from me!" I shouted as I ripped my sword out and slashed through the neck of the dagger bandit. The mace bandit barely had time to react before my sword went through his head, splitting him in half. "Huh, sharp." I muttered before I fell to the ground.