Cold Eyes

Waking up, Zac would see the sunshine blinding him for a faint second, barely eyes open; it only looked like a white light.

He believed he had died from the fire and would glimmer with an unnoticed hope that he could see his mother again.

But as soon as he had fully awakened his eyes, he saw his best friend, Jayton.

After that, all hope just disappeared as if it didn't exist.

Zac would then start crying while screaming for his mother until his voice began to hurt.

Jayton would try calming Zac down, and as it seemed impossible to do so, Zac would feel a throbbing pain near his left eye.

The physical pain was overrun by his emotional pain, calming Zac down slightly with a curiosity about why his eye was hurting.

"What happened? What happened to my eye?" Then, he would cover his left eye in a panic, trying to relieve the pain somehow.

"After I saw the smoke coming from your house, I ran as soon as possible." Jayton would say in a clear and saddened voice.

"I ran into your house and saw you tied up, but it looked like the fire burned the rope, so I tried to carry you out as fast as I could, but then with all the smoke, I accidentally dropped you, and your eye got burnt." So Jayton would explain, trying to force any emotion to not show for Zac's sake.

"I picked you back up, and I was finally able to get you out of there and call for help."

As soon as Jayton finished talking, Zac noticed the entire crowd surrounding him as they suddenly appeared.

What first thought to be a bunch of chatter, barely making a proper word.

Zac would hear some people pity him, but more than that, it was a crowd filled with questions about what happened.

Looking back at his house, he would see it to ashes, not a single thing to remain, not even the corpse of his mother.

With no reason to him, he gets up, limping towards the ashes.

"You shouldn't get up; you have gotten hurt!" Jayton would yell with a worried look on his face.

"I'm fine." Zac would respond as he sniffles and rubs his eyes to clear any snot or tears away from his face.

As Zac digs through the ashes, he tries to find anything remaining of his mother, whether a personal item or a bone.

Trying to ignore the throbbing pain of his eye, it just didn't stop hurting; Zac would keep enduring it until he found something.

Nothing was found, not a single bone, not a single item.

Feelings of rage, sadness, and despair, mixed with the pain coming from his eye, he blacks out again.

~

1-hour-later, Zac would be dreaming about the past before the knights invaded his home.

"Zac, wake up!" His mother's voice would repeat, eventually waking him up.

Letting out a massive groan, Zac jumps up in an unfamiliar home and an unfamiliar bed.

Hearing the sounds of water dripping, he looks over to see as Jayton squeezes water out of cloth.

Seeing Zac from the corner of his eye, Jayton would look over, surprised and happy simultaneously, knowing that his best friend was awake.

"Zac, you're awake!" Jayton would say as he would then hug Zac very tightly.

He would grunt from the soreness and his friend squeezing him too tightly.

"I get it; I get it, I'm alright." Zac would push Jayton off slowly.

Zac then realizes he had a bandage over his left eye.

As he unwrapped it, everything he could see was blurred, and he couldn't make out anything in front of him.

Now sitting in silence, holding the bandage in his hand, everything returns to Zac on what's happened.

He shed no tears, but Jayton, just sitting, staring at Zac; he could see his cold expression was enough to know that he was crying and screaming from the inside.

"What happened?" Breaking the silence, Jayton would calmly ask.

Hesitating at the thought, to tell everything that happened to him and what he's seen, looking back at Jayton, with a pause, Zac would bring his head down, facing towards the ground, as he proceeds to tell him.

Zac would finish telling Jayton about all that had transpired as they sat there in silence.

"I can't believe that happened to you." Jayton would say with a trembling voice.

As he stared at a wall, Zac would take a heavy breath and lay back down.

Jayton would soon leave the room, leaving the space empty except for Zac and his thoughts.

A few days passed, and Zac would look restless every time Jayton would come to check on him.

Zac knows he won't forget the past, which has left him with an emotional and unforgiving scar.

Without sleep after reliving his trauma, a thought comes to his mind every time he's gone to sleep.

The best he can think of is to go to where the Lord resides, Glairyplains, and ask for the knights to face justice for what they've done.

With Jayton out of the room, Zac would get up while groaning from the pain. He then sneaks out of a window, leaving the town and Jayton behind.

The Kingdom of Boly [Town: Glaryplains]

After weeks of traveling through dangerous woods, with nothing to eat but plants that he could identify as non-poisonous, barely getting any sleep at night, he finally makes it.

Knowing how the city lord resides in the town, he does not realize how peaceful and luxurious a place can be at first sight.

Eyeing food as soon as he passes the shops, Zac's stomach starts to grumble.

After some years of theft and street knowledge, he attempts to steal the closest thing near him.

In an attempt to steal the bread, Zac would create a distraction and grab the food, but as soon as he put his fingertips on the bread, the shop owner would immediately notice and proceed to hold onto Zac's arm.

Yanking and pulling, trying to get away, Zac did not have the strength to release himself from the man's grasp.

In irritation, the man then started to call for help.

Everyone would then look over; as the crowd began to chatter amongst themselves, they would look at Zac with confusion and disdained looks.

Feeling anxious, Zac could finally slip away, suddenly darting away from the crowd.

Looking behind, they would stand there looking, and as soon as he looks forward, Zac finds himself about to bump into a knight; he stops himself; as Zac was looking at the Knight, then was instantly struck with flashbacks of the Knight Captain, shivering from fear, he could not move a muscle, eventually getting himself captured.

Sounds of a wheel creaking mixed in with the stomps of a horse, faint chatter, and enclosed in a dark space.

Zac's heart starts to race as he gets thrown into the back of a carriage, soon sent off to prison after trying to steal some food from a shopkeeper.

Looking in front of him, he could only stare at a dark wall with only a dim light shining through a crack; he then started to get up from the hard wooden seat that he had been sitting on since his capture.

"Let me out; I need to talk to the Lord!" Zac would yell as he was pounding and kicking the wall behind the knights.

"Shut up back there!" A knight would respond.

Zac, frustrated and violent, would not stop pounding until the carriage came to a sudden break.

He heard the sounds of the Knights armor that would clank loudly, drawing closer to the back entrance.

Pushing himself against the far back wall, away from the door, Zac would cover his eyes in an instant reflex as soon as the door had opened, blinded by the sunlight.

There were two knights, one for support and the other that captured him.

The Knight would continue to enter the back of the carriage.

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" The Knight would say as he holds a rope in his hands, attempting to tie up Zac. Zac would push, yell, and hit the Knight, trying to keep the Knight off of him, but he was picked up and slammed to the ground, then putting his knee on Zac's arms, not letting him able to move.

"If you keep being loud, I will cut off one of your limbs; now shut up, brat!"

Zac shortly calmed down and abruptly was released.

Rubbing his arms and trying to relieve his arms' soreness, Zac would look at the Knight with cold eyes, openly showing disdain towards him.

The Knights resumed returning to the front of the carriage as they began moving.

~

The Throne Room

*Footsteps*

A man wearing a full black uniform, shining with many different metals, as a cape hanging from the neck of his coat, would lightly wave around; he walks up to two guards, blocking the door to the throne room; as he dreads closer, the guards immediately brought up their spears to their sides, as they step away from the door.

Pushing the gigantic door before him open, he would walk on a long stretched red carpet, leading to the King and the throne he sits on.

"Report!" The King would demand.

The man in the uniform immediately began to kneel and bow down to his majesty as ordered.

"Yes, your majesty, we still haven't seen any sightings of who you're looking for, Sir. We've sent out a description of the man to our neighboring kingdoms to capture him if seen immediately."

The reporter would say as he looks up to the King that has hidden behind shadows.

"That man will not get captured easily, but we must do all we can to find what he is hiding." The King declares in an aggravated tone.

"I understand, my lord; I will do everything in my power to make sure he gets captured."

"Yes, you will; even though you're the most helpful subordinate to use to find who we are looking for, that man is numbered in years but impossibly strong. If he were to die before his capture, you would take responsibility, do you understand?" The King sternly glared at the reporter as he emitted faint killing intent.

"Yes, I understand."

"You may take your leave then."

The reporter swiftly got up, turned around, faced the door, and immediately departed.

Hearing the sounds of the door creak open and suddenly slammed shut, the King rests his face on his knuckles, letting out a sigh of disappointment; he then starts to talk to himself.

"That man holds power to destroy a kingdom by his lonesome; I'm surprised he still hasn't come for me… None of that matters; he must be captured, no matter how many sacrifices and resources we'll have spent. Once he's in my hands, I will finally be able to get what I want, and then I will be the most powerful individual in the world; no kingdom will be able to rival me, no matter the odds. Once I've taken everything from him, I'll finally be able to look into his eyes as I slice his head off with my own two hands."

*Chuckles*

*Laugh gets louder slowly*

The King then started to laugh as loudly as he could, letting the guards outside hear him clearly, only for him to put a distorted smile on his face.

*Laughter stops*

"The best thing to do now is to make sure he keeps his existence unknown to the world; if other kingdoms were to learn of the power he wields, It'd be an endless war, fighting for a dying man. There isn't a single person strong enough to capture him." The King immediately starts to think of a plan to capture this mysterious individual desperately. When a thought came to his mind, he started to laugh again.

"Why didn't I think of it sooner? The 5 Heroes! If I could get my hands on the new heroes, I could use them to capture that wretched man. There's no time to rest. Guards!" Once the guards get called in, he ordered them to send a message to every high-ranking subject, decreeing that if they were ever to hear anything about the new heroes, even a rumor, they have to report it to him personally, as to find the heroes and make them work for him.

Chapter End.