Chapter 3 - Dreams of a Prince

After the blood oath was made, Black Fox and Arnest said their farewells and left the tent. Once they were a distance away, Mirima asked “Jaunde, why did you say the unification of Lanex was my mission? Wouldn’t it have been fine if we said we heard rumors of a mystical treasure or something simpler?”

“Think about it, Mirima. If you were to gain control over these lands, your brother will probably decide to allow you to return back to the kingdom.” said Jaunde with a sly grin. “Plus it doesn’t hurt to gain a powerful shield in these foreign lands.”

The four suns started to dip downwards into the ocean making the waters glow a brilliant orange. The light seeped into the cracks of the hut exposing the state of disorder it was in. The two fur beds, although comfortable, looked raggedly thrown together and a small table with two decrepit wooden chairs sat along one side.

Throwing himself onto one of the beds, Arnest felt exhausted for some reason. It wasn’t like he had been beaten half to death by Old Man Vargus so he was confused as to why he was feeling this way. But his eyes started to close before he could think about it any further and as if a spell was cast on him, his mind quieted and fell asleep.

Black Fox walked towards Arnest and placed his palm on his head. A shadowed apparition then suddenly appeared next to him. “Elder, why did you agree to help the elves?”

“There’s no other place we can go to hide safely from the elves. However if we give them Lanex, we may be able to sit in plain view with them none the wiser.”

Black Fox started chanting and a greenish hued formation appeared on Arnest’s head. “Release.” The air slightly vibrated and the spell dispersed.

“You need to remember a little bit of your past for the future.”

“Arnest.” a deep voice echoed from behind.

Arnest turned around and there was an old man with peppered white hair sitting in a burgundy chair. Books of all shapes and sizes lined the walls and there were a few of them even stacked up on the marble floors. The grouping of them looked similar to a model of a cityscape, made up of the millennial knowledge of countless predecessors.

The old man beckoned him to come towards the table. As he approached, he saw a giant topographical map that, when spread out, spilled over the four edges of the large table. There were many different land masses however in the very center, was a backwards crescent continent larger than any other. Pointing to the center of the map, the old man said “This is where we are. The capital city, Legaxis.” Again he moved his finger this time towards the north “This is the demon kingdom, Dargren.” and finally pointed towards the south, “And this is the elven kingdom, Tryll.”

For an unexplainable reason, Arnest started to feel nostalgic. Although he had heard the names of these kingdoms before from the villagers, he had a familiar feeling. It didn’t feel as though it was familiar because he had heard it before. Rather it was that he had heard these same words in this strange room before. But before he could explore this feeling of deja vu, his vision grew blurry and he fell to the ground.

Slowly opening his eyes, Arnest saw another familiar scene. There were half naked men grouped in a dirt field. Sweat glistened off of their hardened bodies and occasionally they would grunt or yell out. Most of them were sparring with thick wooden swords.

“Your highness, are you alright?”

Arnest looked up and saw a bearded face smiling at him, extending his hand towards him. He subconsciously reached out and clasped it and rose to his feet. “I’m alright, Varlan.” his mouth seemed to move without thinking.

“Who’s Varlan?” Arnest thought.

“Good, then let’s continue.” Varlan said as he assumed a stance and charged at Arnest.

But as he charged Varlan’s body seemed to be made of air as it phased through Arnest and the surroundings disappeared into nothingness. Everything was dark, except for a flickering light seeping out a crack of a door. Arnest started to near the light, peering into the room.

The aged man from before, dressed in noble clothes, sat at a desk in what seemed to be a study. He was staring at a picture frame with one hand stroking it lovingly. “Aryea, forgive me.” he said while tears ran down the wrinkles in his face like a stream down a rocky mountain.

“Father.” Arnest could feel his own eyes starting to tear.

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The tears filled his eyes until he couldn’t see no more and his chest tightened like a bow being drawn. He gasped to breathe and his vision started to dim. Again he returned to darkness and there was nothing. Then there was an intense light. With hurried panting he opened his eyes and saw a thatched roof with a few holes above.

“Stop making so much noise.” Black Fox lazily yawned.

Arnest felt extremely confused. He realized his eyes were still wet. “Was it a dream?” he thought as he climbed out of bed.

“Todhay ish gwoing to be a boosy day.” Black Fox said with his mouth full of heavily charred meat.

“Why?” Arnest was still recovering from the strange dream.

Swallowing and licking his fingers, Black Fox said “Today we’re going to be strategizing with princess on how to unify Lanex.”

“But what does that have to do with me? I don’t know anything that could help.” Arnest said.

“Think of it as getting some practice. Your training with Vargus will stop for a while starting today.” Black Fox started to put on his robes.

“No more beatings? Really!?” he said with a huge smile.

The two of them then started to head out of Fox Village towards the elven encampment. Now that the news of the magus Black Fox was assisting them in their “royal” mission spread throughout the camp, the guards allowed them to freely walk around unobstructed. Arnest noticed that some of the soldiers were sparring with each other. He noted that each strike was powerful, more so than the men in his dreams.

Walking into Princess Mirima’s tent, they were greeted by Jaunde. “The princess will be here shortly. Please feel free to take a look at the map of Lanex we procured before our trip here.”

On the map was numerous islands. Once counted, they amounted to thirty seven individual islands with six main clusters. Seeing the map, Arnest remembered the map in his dreams. This map looked like the north-eastern portion of the large map.

“This map is pretty good, probably from the elven royal library, but there is a major flaw. There are more than a hundred islands of Lanex and even I don’t know how many there truly are.” Black Fox pointed past the eastern edge of the map. “Towards the east, there are many more islands. They are also many times more dangerous than the western ones.”

Mirima entered the tent in a lime tinted dress that fit her petite body. “Then we should avoid the more dangerous islands to the east and start with the west.” she said.

“No, we should go east first. There are a few small city-states that were created by the natives once their islands were overrun by humans. If we were to gain their support, we could easily take over the other islands.” said Arnest, surprisingly.

Mirima and Jaunde looked at the young boy strangely. Although Black Fox had taken Arnest along they didn’t expect him to also take part of the strategizing. Even Arnest was slightly shocked but he suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his mind. He felt like he knew this was the best plan of action but from where this instinct came from he was unsure.

Black Fox nodded. “Arnest is correct. Specifically the three major city states, Zanabo, Crul, and Ralom will be our main objectives.” Hearing Black Fox’s agreement Mirima and Jaunde chalked it up to local’s knowledge and moved on.

“Okay, so how should we take over these city-states?” Mirima asked.

“Give my grandson a hundred men and one of your boats. He’ll take their castles. Black Fox said as he patted Arnest on the head.

“That snot nosed brat? You think I’m an idio-” but before Mirima could continue ranting Jaunde interrupted, “What she means to say is that she’s happy to lend a hundred troops to your grandson.”

“Well then, we’ll see you in a while after we capture a few islands.” Black Fox said as he lead Arnest out of the tent.

“Why’d you agree to that! He’s just a little savage, how will he be able to take over those city-states?” Mirima was steaming like a boiled tomato. Time and time again Jaunde kept making decisions for her. Was she not the princess of the Tryll Kingdom?

“Even if he can’t capture the islands with a hundred men, I’m sure that his grandfather will help him out either way. The hundred men is probably for the boy’s protection while the magus goes and takes the cities himself.” Jaunde explained.

Still pouting, Mirima smacked Jaunde. “Even so, stop rudely interrupting me!”

“Yes, your highness.”