Chapter 1 - Fox Village

Deep within a wooded forest there were a series of erected huts that seemed to be only held together by dried mud. They looked as if they were made by a child who was missing an arm. These measly huts housed the people of Fox Village.

Surprisingly, despite the shoddy craftsmanship of the houses, there was primarily middle aged men who lived within the village. There was only one exception, the grandson of the village elder, Arnest.

“Follow through with your whole body when you swing. You’re too stiff!” barked one of the middle aged men.

In the center of the village, Arnest squarely stood swinging a wooden sword sloppily. For each of his mistakes his instructor, Old Man Vargus, would whack him with a thorny tree branch. All over his body were red marks after hours of grueling torture. As his stance started to fall apart, Vargus whacked him three more times for good measure.

Finally losing to the pain the twelve year old boy fell to the ground, unable to bear any more punishment. “What do I even need to train for? There aren’t even any dangerous beasts to fight.” he cried as his tormentor neared him.

“When you come of age, you will leave the village and adventure throughout the world. The elder tasked me to train you and so if you’re not ready by then, he’ll surely punish me with something unimaginable.” said Vargus, while remembering the first time he met the elder, shuddering.

“Could you at least stop with the beatings?” Arnest pleaded with hateful eyes.

“No, this is the only way you’ll remember.” Vargus said out loud while inwardly thinking “If I can’t beat the elder to death, I can still get revenge on his brat.” His mouth curved upwards unconsciously.

“Y-you smiled!” shouted Arnest in anger.

Realizing his mistake, Vargus quickly regained composure and adopted his usual stone stark face. “What are you talking about? You must be seeing things. Quickly run to your grandfather and ask him to check your eyesight before you start talking more nonsense.”

Begrudgingly he slowly pulled himself off the ground and started limping towards a hut on the furthest outskirts of the village. As he approached the door a voice bellowed out of the hovel, “Whoever it is, I’m busy. Leave.” His grandfather was always a bit eccentric and his mood would randomly change. No matter if you were the village idiot, a god or his grandson, he would treat you with the same indifference and lack of care when he was upset. You would think this sort of attitude would incite anger and an uprising among the villagers however this was the village’s sole elder. He was basically their king in this small corner of the world so his word was similar to a divine proclamation, which no one could argue with.

After being kicked out of his own home Arnest started limping again, this time towards the beach to the south-west of the village. This was usually the place Arnest went to pass time when he wasn’t being beaten by Old Man Vargus. He enjoyed the serenity of the waves gently pressing against the sandy shores and swimming in the crystal waters devoid of the usual punishments he endures.

Within the hut. In a hidden room beneath the floorboards.

“The stars of Navul and Salene have crossed each other…” a ghostly elderly man muttered to himself as he stared deeply into a murky glass ball. Navul is the god of the humans and Salene is the god of the elves. Their stars are two of the four stars in the world of Yzenten and each star represents another race's god. The other two stars are Mantus and Ulrend, who represent the gods of the demons and dragons respectively.

“Could this mean another conflict between the gods? The most recent recording of this event occurred a thousand years ago when the great war between humans and elves started… Well, we should be safe here on Lanex. We’re too far away from the mainland for the flames of another great war to affect us.” thought the elderly man as he rubbed his forehead with his boney fingers.

But as he was reassuring himself, a panicked voice rang within his mind, “Elder Black Fox, one of my familiars off the southern coast has detected a small fleet moving in this direction! They have banners with a three-horned elk on it, I think they’re elves!”

“Three-horned elk...the royal family? What are they doing here? Could this be a coincidence?” Black Fox was extremely alarmed. The timing of these events were too ominous to be a simple coincidence and then he remembered his grandson. Immediately Black Fox leapt out of his chair and shouted so that all the villagers could hear, “Where is Arnest!”

Unknowingly Arnest continued to wade in the ocean, ignorant to the world around him. Floating on his back half-naked, he stared into the cerulean skies imagining the world outside of his village. The men in his town told him fantastical stories of kings, dragons and the most mystical of all - women.

“And when the wise king, Maximilian, finally united all the humans under his wolfen banners there was peace. But only  two  years after the unification he became intoxicated with a woman of immense beauty. It was said that she was so beautiful that all who looked upon her would be stunned; man, elven, and demon-kin would stop for her. With just beauty it was said that she was able to command not only the human king Maximillian, to do her bidding, but also the demon and elven kings. At one point, she convinced all of them to fight to the death for the chance of marriage and sent the world in disarray. The three kings of each race attacked each other with their grand armies, starting the War of Beauty. In the end all three kings ended up dying and the beautiful woman disappeared.” Arnest remembered this story that one of the villagers told him a few days ago. What impressed him the most was the power one person had over the entire world. He had never heard of a king, even those with divine powers, who could compare and dragons usually were recluse, sticking to their own continent.

“What exactly are women?”  Arnest had asked after hearing the story.

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“They have long hair, big chests and don’t have a di-” the village idiot, Rufus, said before another villager clasped his hands over his mouth. “You idiot! If you teach him anything strange the elder will surely kill you!”

“So if I get long hair and a big chest then I can be powerful like a woman too?” Arnest asked innocently. But before he could get an answer, Vargus charged into the hut and dragged him off for a daily beating session. Remembering the beating he got, Arnest’s mind wavered back to reality. “One day, I’ll be powerful like her.” he gleefully thought.

Suddenly there was a change in the once tranquil waters. The calm waves turned into towers of water and crashed into Arnest making him submerge and tumble into the undercurrent. He struggled for a while, trying to reach the surface. When he finally was able to breath, he saw a huge shadow over him. He looked up only to see a giant wooden fortress floating on the water in front of him. Startled, he swam all the way back to shore. He noticed that there were a more of these huge ships about a stone's throw away from the shore, while few smaller boats were approaching him.

When they drew closer he was able to make out a few distinct figures. On two of the smaller boats there was mainly soldiers with shining armor and on the third boat, in the middle, stood resolutely a lengthy golden haired maiden. Next to her a man dressed in a suit held a parasol shielding her cream pure skin from the four suns hanging in the sky. A few of the other soldiers held banners with a three-horned elk which billowed in the salty sea wind.

Arnest held his breath. “Long hair...could this be a woman?” he thought to himself. But as the vessels beached along the shore, he was able to see more clearly. Although she had long golden hair and beautiful verdant eyes, her chest was clearly like all the men in the village - flat. Disappointed, but still curious, he walked towards the strange visitors.

“Halt! You’re in the presence of her majesty, Princess Mirima!” one of the soldiers shouted. The rest of the soldiers placed their palms on the adorned pommels of their swords and were alert. This was Lanex, the exiled lands the human kingdom used to send unwanted officials and heinous criminals alike. Although they only faced a young human boy, who would know for sure if he was innocent or a murderous bandit. This uncertainty, his half-naked appearance and the years of bitter war had demonized the humans in the eyes of elves all made them feel naturally hostile towards this perceived threat.

Confused, Arnest tilted his head to side and said “He isn’t a princess. It’s clearly a man! Look at his chest.” Upon hearing this the young girl turned blood curdling red and felt a mixture of embarrassment and anger. “How dare you make fun of me!” she screamed.

“Guards, kill this savage Navulian!” and with a simple order, a squadron of four soldiers rushes towards Arnest with silver swords drawn. Seeing this, Arnest runs towards the village with all his might. Weaving through the forest was simple for Arnest since he’s explored almost every inch of it. The soldiers who were chasing were unable to catch up to him initially but one of the smarter of the four took out his bow. He nocked an arrow, pulled back and released. The arrow whizzed through the air and fell short of its mark, piercing Arnest’s right leg instead of his back. Arnest face-planted into the ground instantly and groaned. The four soldiers circled him, blocking off any escape.

“Die human.” one of the soldiers said as he raised his sword up above his head and slashed downward.

Closing his eyes, Arnest awaited the blow.

Tens of moments passed but he did not feel any pain. Heavily breathing, he opened his eyes to see a glowing white formation in front of him. The elven soldiers were stunned by the scene. “A magus? In the exiled lands?” thought all the soldiers.

Typically magi, no matter their backgrounds or transgressions, were respected and revered for their craft. The human king wouldn’t have ever sent a skilled magus to Lanex, even if that magus killed his entire family or pillaged his treasury. A magus of this caliber was more precious than a prince or two.

“Grandfather!” Arnest exclaimed, relieved.

“Tell me, what did my grandson do to offend you travelers?” asked Black Fox. He scanned over them and saw the three-horned elk crest affixed to the center of their armor.

The soldiers winced at the thought of having to offend, let alone fight, a magus who was able to use defensive formations that could block their attacks. Each of them had trained to join the royal guard for the minimum of fifty years and were hardened by thousands of battles. A single one of their sword strikes should be able to split a solid rock in half with ease.

“Forgive us, lord magus. We did not know you were related to the boy otherwise we wouldn’t have attacked. To be honest, he offended our highness and we were ordered to attack. I’m sure if your noble self spoke with her highness that the misunderstanding between us can be resolved.” a soldier nervously said, trying to rid himself of responsibility.

“I’ll be sure to pay a visit to her highness once I’ve tended to my grandsons wounds.” smiled Black Fox.

“Thank you for your forgiveness, lord magus.” The soldier felt as if he just escaped from a dragon’s nest.

They started to leave but Black Fox said “When did I say I forgave you?”, still smiling.

Shivers ran down their spines as they turned around and with a wave of Black Fox’s hand, a magic arrow flew into the right leg of the soldier with the bow. He fell to the ground and groaned and the other three looked horrified. With another flick of his hand the soldier, who had struck at Arnest with his sword, felt an immense force press against him knocking him back through a tree which snapped in half.

“You’re forgiven now. Run along to your master.” Black Fox voice trailed as he carried Arnest back to the village.

The two soldiers who weren’t attacked stared at their fallen comrades in disbelief. “So powerful…” They quickly regained their senses, grabbed the two soldiers who were on the ground and carried them back to the beach.