This chapter ends the prologue and the next one will be the beginning of the main story. I introduced the MC in this chapter so enjoy :)
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Moments passed, melting into each other, transforming into seconds, minutes and then hours. The forest, as if feeling the situation, was still as if time itself had been frozen. A silent, unmoving atmosphere stood there, as Tvonznan sat on the ground looking at his beautiful wife. ‘Everything will be ok. Everything will be ok…’ he kept repeating in his head. The last bit of hope still clinging onto the thought that maybe it was still possible for them both to survive.
His heart skipped a beat, as he sensed a powerful force coming from behind him. It was dark, no dark wasn’t the right word. It was as if it was tainted, like after throwing paint into a cup filled with clean water. It was getting closer, fast and he already knew that the reinforcement wouldn’t make it in time. The hope vanished as he let out a long sigh and saw what was inevitably coming.
Varnak and Kernuff finally appeared before him.
“Brothers, this is blasphemous! You are about to cause a great war by invading my lands!” said Tvoznan “Stop, before it is too late”
“Hahaha, stop? War? Invading your lands? My brother you have quite a good network of spies” laughed Kernuff showing of his awry teeth. “But it’s too late, Tvoznan, your days of plotting to overthrow us are over. You will get the justice that you deserve!”
Varnak stood there quietly, not uttering a word. His head was hurting and every time he tried to analyze the situation he was in, the pain grew as if trying to obscure his mind even more. Kernuff summoned a huge sphere of energy in his mouth and it stood there, getting bigger each second.
“This is the end!” he uttered looking at the defenseless Tvoznan. Tvoznan saw the growing ball of Litra and took one last look at Rose. ‘Don’t worry, I will never abandon you. You were the one who taught me the difference between living and simply existing. I never felt unhappy when I was with you, nor do I have regret of meeting you, because these last few months with you were far more interesting than all those eons that I spent alone. Well, Haha, you can call me greedy, but I still do have one regret though, unfortunately it couldn’t have lasted longer…”
The ball flew from the serpent’s mouth, hitting Tvoznan and exploding on impact. Bright light as the bodies of 2 gods disintegrated leaving pure white smoke. It started raining, as if the earth itself was sad at their passing. What happened after that? It wasn’t really important, but I’ll tell you.
Tvoznan’s friends rushed to his help, but all they found were traces of battle and the 2 Greater Gods looking happily at each other. Angry at the death of their friend, they attacked them and without mercy slew them in cold blood. This was known as the Great War Of the Gods which lasted exactly 500 years. In the end, of the 400 gods that took part, only 23 were left. They spread out all over the world creating their own little domains and kingdoms. And that is how our world came to be!” finished the old man sitting in front of the fire. He was surrounded by a group of children of various age groups, that sat there open-mouther listening to his story.
It was winter outside, so all the kids in the village would sit by the fire and listen to Old man Seff’s stories. There gleaming eyes stared at the old man, while their minds absorbed each of his words like sponges. Their parents were at home preparing dinner, cleaning the house or in some instances even making them little brothers and sisters. The old man gazed at the room and waited for his favorite listener to ask him something.
“Then what happened to their kids and did Mamai die in battle as well, old man?” asked a youth sitting at the very corner of the room. He was only 6 years old, but looked to be about 15 due to his unusual size and muscular build. He always sat alone in the corner and never talked to any of the other village boys, and in turn was shunned by them as well. His eyes sparkled and his curiosity soared as he asked the question.
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“Again with the dumb questions! Can you get anymore stupid?” yelled the old man. All the other children laughed. Although he sound harsh and it looked like the old man hated the little boy, it wasn’t so. He always looked forward to the little boy’s questions, always mocking him in return and seeing how he would withstand it. ‘This one is different from the bunch of cattle, brainwashed by society’ thought the old man when he first saw him. “Didn’t I perfectly state that he mated with a fox and that’s how the beast race was created! What more do you want?”
“But old man, although the beast race is long extinct, weren’t there bear people, cat people and even horse people, which were also known as centaurs. They are still beasts, but are human as well. If Daconius mated with a fox, and his human form was already being dominated by his true form even before, then wouldn’t the second generation which would be only a quarter human be almost animal?”
The old man looked long and hard at the little boy. In truth Seff was greatly respected by the people of the Halatuan village, even if he wasn’t born there. He was an adventurer in his younger days and had traveled the whole human continent of OTOS and seen the vast desserts, high mountains and the flowing rivers. Met many people, both old and young, strong and weak, nobility and commoner alike, but he had never met a person quite like this little boy before. The boy had a special feel to him, you could even say a unique aura that could only be felt by people who had seen many lands and traveled to many places. Unfortunately the people around him felt something as well, they felt that he was different and as we all very well know what happens to “different” people in our society. For the past 6 years Seff saw the little boy grow up, get mocked, ignored and sometimes get beaten up and left for dead. The boy just stood up and kept walking, the light still shining in his eyes.
“Jaquez is just stupid, Mister Seff, you can ignore him and keep on going!” said a plump boy sitting by the fire. His name was Nador and was the son of the village chief. He was the leader of the boys and the one who started the whole shunning masquerade. The others just caught on later and took it as a norm, following Nador’s example. They all nodded at Nador’s comment. Jaquez was silent, not even looking at Nador’s direction. That got Nador even madder, but he couldn’t go at Jaquez alone out of fear, while going against him in a group would make him look bad in front of the old man. So he made a mental note to ambush him later and just said the usual: “What would a farmer’s boy, who has hay for brains, know about history?”
Jaquez turned red out of anger. ‘I can’t explode. I have to control it, keep it within me!’ In fact, he had already beaten the crap out of Nador and his lackeys several times, each time resulting his father getting punished by the village chief for not disciplining his child correctly. Each time his father would come and hug him, whisper into his ear: “I know it wasn’t your fault. My little boy would never do that.”
Tears would fill Jaquez’s as he would wail like a baby in the arms of his father, while the latter would pat him on the back, comforting him. Jaquez clenched his fists and without hearing the answer to his question, sprinted out of the hut, knowing that there would be a chase after him. If he reached his house, he knew they would not dare to attack him there, so he ran, ran without stopping or slowing down until he saw the warm lights a few meters away from the muddy road. The house was located on the very edge of Halatuan, a small village with about 200 denizens. He opened the door and ran in, saw his father stirring something in front of the fire. Jaquez climbed into the attic which was also his room and stared out of the window at the group of boys outside his house. “We will get the Jack-ass next time!” he heard Nador say as the crowd slowly decapitated. ‘Jack-ass? Really? That’s the best they can come up with?’
“Jaquez, dinner’s ready” called his dad from the kitchen. The aroma of stew filled the house, as the boy jumped from his tiny room, landing right next to the dinner table. His father set down the pot and brought some bowls and spoons from the kitchen. The both sat down, passing him the hard brown bread his father asked:
“So how was your day?”