‘’My name is Brandr’’

I arise from my bed and put on my silken garment. Shoving the curtains to the side, which views over the kingdom of Edelweiss, I opens the windows, and breathe the fresh, cold air in, as I let my eyelids be filled by the southern part of the kingdom. Since I live very high up, the view is amazing, stretching over, revealing the plains and farms that fill the distance, with great mountains to edge the enormous landscapes. Looking closely, I can even spot some farmers working on their field, sized like ants in the distance. I squint my eyes, and use my fingers to imaginatively pick them put, and slightly squeeze them. ‘Today feels peaceful…’ I look down on the city, where the quantity of breathing beings increases with a hundredfold. Blacksmiths working in their warm workplaces, markets with plenty of people shouting, and other little stores like flowers shops, potteries and clothing stores fill the city. It truly is a buzzing place to live.

*knock**knock* Something unknown starts knocking on my door, followed by a refined woman’s voice calling out to me. ’Milord, its morning.’

'I'm already awake, Sylvestra. You can resume your duties now,' I respond without opening the door. Without a respond back, I can hear her footsteps fading into the distance, as she walks away from my room.

The woman with the refined voice is a maid called Sylvestra. She’s been with me and my family since the day I was born, and has always played a major role in helping me grown up to the person I currently am. So, because of that, I treat her like family, even though that isn’t a custom among the families that possess a maid. She’s devoted to her job, and takes her chores very serious, to the point that the people around her get nervous, including myself.

The only reason I have a maid is because I am the son of one of the dukes that help rule over Edelweiss, which is one of the city-states that dot the lands of Germania. Together with five other city-states, they form the North Star Alliance, a force that has had striven among each other for hundreds of years, until the current king, the pragmatic and peace-loving Agilulf, putted an end to the wars, and instead of fighting, established the North Star Alliance itself, and basically took the other four city-states, the noble Brixia, the technological advanced Berth, the warriors of The Iron Coyote tribe and the traders of Yarrin, under his protection, in order to look intimidating enough to the outside world. Because I am the son of someone so important, I hold a lot of authority, and am well known throughout the court of Edelweiss and the other city-states. That gives me the right as well to give orders to the people below me.

I don't like to order people around though. I want everyone to live their lives to the fullest. In that sense, I resemble the current king Agilulf, who takes peace and compromise over war and conquest. Because of that, most of the people in my family call me soft-hearted. A weakling with no feeling of authority or ruling. I think I just rule in a different way than the rest. The previous kings were all warmongers, warriors and fighters. The dukes and other high nobles all think like this as well, and that feeling has settled into the people of Edelweiss, and they can’t accept the fact that not only myself, but the king as well is a soft-spoken man, and acts the exact opposite of his ancestors. The nobles hate him for that. Their hatred towards the current king was so drastic, there even was an attempt for a coup d’état once, but that failed in its attempt. Now these lands are filled with peace.

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‘Does this look good…?’ I say to myself as I fix my hair. ’There!’ I leap backwards, and check myself out in the full-body mirror, as I turns around, checking every nook and cranny of my aristocratic outfit that I am wearing. Confirming to myself that I looks presentable enough, I head downstairs, to the huge dining room of my family, where I meet Sylvestra standing in front of the door with a few other servants, waiting for my arrival. ‘Your breakfast is ready, Milord. Your family is waiting inside as we speak,’ Sylvestra says while slightly bowing her head to me.

‘Thank you very much, Sylvestra. You can return to your duties now,’ I respond monotone, focused towards the closed doors in front of me. She bows her head once again, and takes her leave. The other maids follow example, and quickly disperse. All the servants eat in a different room than the heads of the family. ’I hope I can get them to eat together one day…that would be way more fun,’ I whisper softly to myself before opening the doors that unlock the huge dining room, decorated with a big fireplace, majestic banners and huge windows, hanging on the white stone walls. Paintings of hunters, previous kings and mighty animals finish the beautifully, stacked place.

‘Well, well. It looks like you're finally awake,’ I hear my father say, who is already sitting at the dining table with my little sister.

'Yeah. Sorry for keeping you guys waiting. Although you all woke up quite early yourselves.’ My father smiles at my response, as he puts a piece of bread in his mouth.

’Good Morning, brother,’ my sister says happily.

'Did you sleep well?' I tease and ruffle her hair, and she seems to enjoy that. My sister is a true gem, who I love dearly.

‘You can play with your sister later, sit down for now,’ he tells me a little more sternly. I quickly sit down to his right side, apposing my sister.

Seated, the family resumed breakfast. Trivial chatter fills the room as they converse. Slight laughter from me and my sister, and smiles coming from my father. ’You had a meeting today with some of the other members of the council, right?’ I ask in the middle of the conversations. My father smiles, but frowns a second later.

'Yes, I have...'

'You don't look to happy about it. I can help if you want.’ That puts a smile on my father's face.

'It's nice to know that I have a reliable son,’ he says smiling as he ruffles my hair.

'What about me?' My sister looks hopeful at father.

'You are really nice to have around as well. Your presence always lifts my mood. You'll make a good bride in the future.' My sister looks happy about that. We calmly eat our breakfast at that order, without anything useful to talk about. We just chat, until my father brings something up. 'Don't you two have your lessons to follow today?'

'Ah, I forgot,' both my sister and I say in synch, as we start to hurry eating everything. I choke on some bread in the process. 'Gah!' I quickly start beating my chest, as servants start rushing in to help me. My father starts laughing a bit.

'Brother is always clumsy,' my sister says, trying to hold in her laughter as well. What she says is a bit true. I have my moments sometimes. 'I'm going to my lesson!' My sister leaves the table dignified, as her personal butler escorts her out of the dining room. She is learning how to play piano. I heard from her teachers that she's a natural. Whatever she puts her mind to, she can accomplish it. The signs of a true genius.

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'I-I'll be leaving then...' I shake myself through the servants, and escape the dining room by myself. As for talent…I’m not that fantastic.

I head to our sparring hall. I'm getting lessons in our royal swordplay. I heard it's a unique style passed down by our family from generation to generation. It’s called the Royal Edelweiss Sword Style. I personally find the name bland. It has no creativity, but apparently, I have a lot of talent for it, just like how my sister has talent for the piano. 'It's probably just easy to learn...' I don't think highly of myself. I open the door, and see my teacher standing in the middle, warming himself up for the lesson, wielding a one-handed sword.

'You’re late Brandr,’ my instructor roars sternly as I enter the sparring hall. I timidly bow my head, trying to avoid eye-contact. It’s not that my teacher is an overly strict one, but it seems that he has served in the military before he came here in order to hone his technique. It’s no secret here that he brought some of his military behavior to the house, and especially to me. It was really hard to get used to, but it got drilled into me over the time. I clearly remember the times he made me to countless of push-ups and sit-ups, and even made me run countless of laps around the castle with heavy stones in a backpack. It was hellish to be honest, and I still get small chills whenever I think about it, but there is no denying it that my physique has gotten bigger by it all, to the point I can say that I am one of the strongest kids of my age. ‘Go get warmed up,' he tells me as I have no excuse why I am late. He doesn’t seem to bother as well, as he walks towards the small storage room.

'Yes, sir.' I grab a wooden great-sword, and start swinging myself warm. Even my speech changes around him. He’s scary when he’s angry, so I try to please him as much as possible. I put the sword down and start doing push-ups and sit-ups before I grab a random rope and start doing jump-rope. I use up fifteen minutes before I essentially ‘’report’’ back to him. He’s been training me for the last five years, so everything feels a bit natural to me now.

‘We’ve already discussed yesterday that I don’t have a specific lesson for you, since we’ve covered a lot these past few years. From basic training to wilderness survival. I have seen you grown from a young brat into a worthy fighter.’

I don’t know what is overcoming me. I clearly remember the wilderness training. It was one of the most difficult trainings I’ve had. Surviving by myself for a week, while constantly being attacked by people was a great way to harden me and strengthen my senses. But for my teacher to be praising me this much… I am at a loss of words…

‘That’s why I will tell you…congratulations. You’ve survived most of my training and have perfectly mastered the Royal Edelweiss Sword Style.’ A small smile forms on his usually serious and stone-cold face. ‘Well then…I want to have one more spar with you, before I finish the original lessons. I shall think off other ways to train you, of course, but that will mainly be survival training.

‘Y-Yes sir.’ I sound so nervous for some reason. It feels like I have to show my worth for one last time before I can head into the wild world.

‘Clear the doubt out of your mind, Brandr.’ He calmly tells me. I’m surprised. He usually would shout at me at this point, and force me to do push-ups, but today, he seems kind and calm. 'Come!'

‘Yes, sir!’ I charge at him the moment he gives the call. Our swords clash. We just keep pressing them against each other. He tries to match my strength, probably considering that I'm 15 and he's 32. Whenever I put in a bit of strength, so does he. Whenever I speed up, so does he. We’re constantly matching strength. 'Doryah!' I separate from him, and quickly close the gap between us, and thrust my sword towards his jaw. He steps back, and swings horizontally at me. I go through my knees, and duck under the strike. I thrust his open chest, but he changes the path of my sword towards his left with just his hand. Only that shows how much technique and skill he truly has. He reads my movement with precision, and acts according to previous experiences. That just means I have to think more creative and move more fluently. I jump left as well, and swing upwards. He deflects it. I do a low kick with a spin, but he jumps over me, and swings down. I quickly jump right, and spin with my sword. He reacts by parrying me. I leap backwards, and charge in again. I only use my right arm to swing my sword. I swing diagonally left and down. He easily dodges, but that was predictable, even for me. I let go, and grab my sword with my left hand, and swing back the way it came from. I quickly use both hands to give more momentum. He didn't see it coming and fails to parry normally. His sword flies with his arm high above his head. Techniques like that aren’t usually seen in real battle, so I can understand he had a bit of a stumble because of it. I place my sword by his neck, ending our battle. 'I win...' I pant confidently, trying to catch my breath. He smiles happily in return.

‘In real battle, I won't hold back my strength as I did, but I can see you become a great swordsman.' I can't help but smile. Today, for the first time, I won a match against my teacher.

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‘Ah…I’m stuffed.’ I gaze out the window in my room. After my training, I spent some time by myself reading some books about previous kingdoms, and other little things concerning their rises and downfalls. As a future asset for this country, I need to start learning these things. After that, I ate dinner. Today's dinner was delicious, and my sister helped the maids with it. It was a nice day. 'I should go to bed...' I take of my jacket, but my body comes to a standstill when I throw it on the chair. Did I just saw something out of my window? There’s no way. In front of my window, there is a garden forest in the middle of the huge backyard. They say it's magical. We don't believe it, but I saw a blue light floating just now. I grab my jacket, and sneak outside. Why would you ask…? In the past, I used to play with a strange light. It was blue and shined really bright. It was probably five years ago, but one day, the strange light disappeared, and I slowly forgot about it. It was a very weird time. A lot was happening back then, but that light easily slipped out my mind.

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Only when I saw that light just now... 'Nostalgia...' There was that feeling...definitely. So here I stand, in front of the dark forest. I can faintly see a blue light burning in the forest, heading in deeper. 'No choice but to find out...' I walk into the forest.

I jump over an overgrown branch, as I head deep in the garden forest. 'It's really thick here...' Don’t the gardeners maintain this small forest? It’s in the back of the yard after all. There’s no excuse not to maintain it…

I start to have hard time breathing. I jump and duck over and under a few more branches, until the path is too overgrown to walk through. I need to find another way... This is getting a bit hard for me, but I started this, so I might as well finish it. I circle around, and find a clearer path. I take it.

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‘Was this forest always so big?’ I get visibly tired and dehydrated. Maybe this was a fool's choice. I had no idea that this forest was this big. It looks at least three times smaller from the outside. Maybe this forest really is magical. ‘Don’t start believing it as well, Brandr…’ I fall over a branch. My knee hurts. My legs feel as heavy as lead. ‘What…is…this…’ I have had way harder experiences than this. My instructor has given me hell. This small little forest shouldn’t be this difficult to conquer. The only reason I can think off is…

‘Magic…’

A small light falls upon me. I get engulfed completely. This warmth feels heavenly. I open my eyes, its light make me sleepy.

'Wake up and heed my call.' I look at the light, still so small. 'I will guide, so you won't fall.’

My body stands up on its own. I have no control at all. My body starts walking, ignoring the pain.

I enter a clearing. The moonlight shines brightly through the trees, which makes this place more lit up. Was there a clearing to begin with? My memories suddenly feel jumbled up. The small blue orb circles around the clearing and comes to a halt in the middle of it. I walk towards the middle and find a large puddle.

'Look through the water.'

I hear the voice once more. The voice of unknown origin. Why am I listening to it? I look in the water, but instead of seeing my reflection, I see...what is that...? It looks unreal. ‘Is that…a kingdom…?’ I try to touch it, but the moment my finger touches the water I feel a strong force pulling me down. I try to resist, but it's clearly futile. The force is too strong for me.

'Wha-!!!' The puddle darkens, and as a big black mass starts eating me, I get taken through the puddle. ‘Whaaaaaaaa!!!!’ Screaming loudly, as I fall down into the abysmal darkness.