Devan Osborn hates waiting.
For most of his life, he had to wait for Craig Spencer. Whether it be academically, athletically, or literally. It all started when Devan started to go to primary school; the day he met the young prince of Monotan.
On the first day of school, the short prince’s advisor saw Divan as a target to show everyone the difference between royalty and commoners but little did he know that Devan was a natural-born prodigy. He found out when Devan easily bested Craig in an IQ test, 100 meters sprint, an arm wrestle, and many other activities. To avoid embarrassment the advisor pretended, later appointed, Devan as Craig’s bodyguard, tutor, personal trainer, and friend. Devan knew he was being held back by serving the young prince but he had no choice but to wait until the prince could stand as a lone wolf. After all, it was now his sole duty.
Devan’s existence meant nothing in the eyes of the higher-ups, including the king, although he played such an important role in the development of the prince's growth. Occasionally the higher-ups would test Devan out of nowhere to see if he is still fit enough to be the prince’s attendant. They tried over and over but to their surprise, he always passed the test with an emotionless expression.
Why didn’t he run away you ask? In his eyes running away would only delay the inevitable. He hates delays. So day after day he would tolerate the royals.
5 years passed with a blink of an eye but Devan still felt stuck in motion. While being mentally motionless he picked up a new persona which made his presence more known. As a result, he became more valuable. The higher-ups began to treat him as their own, prince Craig opened up to him about everything and the king took Devan under his wing seeing his potential.
Thanks to the king’s teachings Devan’s muscles, intelligence, and integrity grew immensely. Craig was one of the first to notice the growth in Devan. This realization made Craig push Devan further and further away from him to truly become his superior. The birth of this rivalry made the pair come closer than they were previously. Furthermore Devan, finally, moved forward after all those years of being stuck in motion. At first, the rivalry consisted of only non-violent competitions such as an IQ test. However, after they reached an equal footing the two began to raise the stakes. They would fistfight in the middle of class, using anything in their arms’ reach to use to their advantage. Neither of them held back in these fights which got many primary and middle schoolers hospitalized due to being in the crossfire. The parents of the injured students raged against the teachers asking for the two boys to be rightfully punished. Every time the teachers would receive this request they had to tell each of the parents that Prince Craig and Devan couldn't get penalized because of their hierarchy positions.
At the age of 17, after 983 wins, 999 losses and 5 draws, prince Craig has realized he is inferior, and shorter, to the commoner, Devan. When it came to smarts Craig gradually surpassed Devan thanks to his family heirloom, the book of creations.
Odin gave this book to the son of the first human king as a gift for his father’s sad natural death. This book held the knowledge to build anything that came to mind however it was in an entirely different language. The "Greek God-language". Generation after generation the Spencer family could only decipher a selected amount of pages. The family continued to pass down the knowledge they had gained to their children in hopes that one day the book will fully be deciphered and their descendants gaining the ability to speak the language of the Gods. Craig was handed the book at age 13 as a gift. Immediately Craig understood a quarter of the book and read it to his father. His father was dumbfounded but enlightened. He knew Craig was going to be essential in the rise of humans.
However, the knowledge of the book didn't help him increase his strength or speed. Devan was the only one who knew this whereas Craig thought they were equals in every right.
One unfaithful day the sky was filled with no clouds only to have the sun scorching the earth. Devan's patience was in pieces. His persona had expired only to bring back the furious boy who wanted to live a normal life. Out of pure spite, he wanted to show how high he was above Craig. To show Craig, Devan brought him so far from the kingdom it was at the point where they couldn't even see the tallest building in Monotan even if they squinted just to make sure no one could interfere with their "final" brawl. They first had a face-off like they always do before a fight but this time Devan had a wicked smile on his face. Craig had every muscle fiber tensed, supposedly ready for anything.
Craig blinked.
Once he opened his eyes he could see every detail on Devan’s right fist. During these moments thousands if not millions of thoughts went through Craig's mind thinking of ways to counter-attack but his body was too slow to react. He showed a grin milliseconds before the punch collided with his left eye remembering everything that had led to this one moment in the battle. His defeat.C
Craig flew 15 feet back to only be cushioned by a boulder. He lied against the boulder, bloody eyed and unconscious. Devan looked at Craig with a devilish glare and hysterically laughed while letting his spit fly. He waited for this day where he could let the prince experience true defeat. Moments passed as he eventually calmed down after etching the image of the broken prince in his head. He said his farewells to the prince then proceeded to run back to Monotan excited for his new life adventure.
One hour had passed before Craig came to with his arms and legs being sunburnt. He slowly got up from the boulder and looked left then right. Just mountains and the ocean were in eye view. Not knowing Devan's reasons for ditching him he simply limped his way back to the kingdom thinking he’ll get an answer when he sees Devan once again. As he passed the villages outside the kingdom many commoners laughed at his red skin not realizing that he was the prince. Craig was in no condition to state his dominance so he just ignored the voices and continued with his journey home until he spotted a vibrant pub. He spontaneously decided to go inside the commoners’ pub and drink his sorrows away. At least a dozen people were dancing inside while others were slumped at the bar. He stumbled on the way towards the bar and asked the poorly groomed bartender for the best drink he had in stock. The bartender nods then seconds later gives him a pint of ale. Craig laughed as he drank the entire pint in mere seconds. He slammed his fist on the table and demanded more. It only took half an hour for the pub’s entire stock of ale to be completely gone. Craig, who could barely see out of his unscathed right eye, found himself singing songs with other drunk strangers. This was helping him forget about the burns he had on his skin and the battle he had just lost against his best friend. The drinking lasted for two days and two nights. On the third day, Craig was sleeping peacefully on the floor of the pub. Everyone tried to wake him up but nothing seemed to have worked. Suddenly a young messenger boy burst into the pub and yelled ‘The Kingdom has been destroyed by the Hylians and the king is dead!
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‘What?’
He shot up from the floor and pounced on the boy. Breathing heavily like a hungry tiger he asked the boy to repeat himself hoping that what he originally heard was just his mind playing tricks on him. Although the sentence was shakier the boy repeats "T-the kingdom was d-destroyed by the Hylians and the k-k-king is dead!" Craig's body froze up. The child had tears building up in his eye but before he let the tears go he felt a waterfall on his cheek. He looks at Craig and sees he was beaten to the punch. Before the boy could say anything a group of men grabbed Craig's shirt to then throw him across the room. Pain from the fight began to come back which brought even more tears. The group of commoners approached the broken Craig, readying their fist when suddenly the boy appeared right in front of Craig. He took one glance at his highness and knew one thing for sure.
"He's the prince of Monotan. If you hurt him you'll be punished by death!" There was silence in the bar. Only the water from the tap dared to make a sound. The boy helped Craig up and led him outside. Craig looked down at the boy and asked for his name. The boy shook his head. "That's not important right now. I'll fetch you a horse so you'll be able to go home quickly." With that being said the boy let go of Craig then dashed down the streets.
While Craig was waiting he had many questions piled up in his head.
Why are the Hylians bothering the humans? Who killed his father? Where is Devan?
He grabbed his head with both hands, getting ready to scream but a tongue covered his mouth. The fetched horse was licking the salt from his face. The boy, who was holding the leash, laughed at Craig's face, assuming he was petrified of the horse. After moments of hearing the boy's laughter Craig got on the horse waiting for the boy but little did he know that he was going alone. The boy smacked the horse's behind which led to the horse rushing out of town, toward the kingdom. Craig turned around seeing the boy waving goodbye and yelling something but he could only hear the horse's feet banging against the ground. He returned his attention forward worrying about what he'll soon see. This feeling didn't last long because it only took seconds till Craig started to see the path of destruction.
Left, right, front, and back. Everywhere was ransacked and in ruins. Some nobles were spotted cuddling each other while others were rallying together. He kept looking around not expecting the horse to stop in front of a huge statue. The horse stood on its own two feet leading to Craig being flat on the ground again but instead of being alone, he was greeted by several familiar sad faces. While the horse galloped sway Craig noticed that those faces in front of him were his advisors. Immediately they hugged the young prince while repeatedly saying how glad they are now knowing that the prince is still living on. Craig returned the hug thanking Gods for their safety. Following their group hug, the advisors brought Craig up to speed with everything that had happened the night before.
In summary, the Hylians broke into the kingdom looking for resources to put themselves in a better position in the war they're having with the Elementals and Devbarians. The king immediately stepped forward forfeiting everything and everyone, excluding the royals, to the hands of the king of all Hylians, the macabre Azazel Typhon. Azazel laughed at the offer seeing how easy it is to intimidate humans. Out of nowhere, with flaming hair, a bronze and goat leg woman flew down from the sky and landed on the shoulders of the ten-foot king. She introduced herself as Eliana Empousai then stated that this land will be owned by Hylians starting today. The king rejected the mere thought but he was quickly dealt with. Azazel had his snakes eat the king alive leaving all the spectators horrified but frozen still. Eliana repeated her order claiming all the land humans own now belongs to the Hylians. She then led the Hylian army out of Monotan heading home while celebrating their easy victory.
After hearing that story Craig became overcome with anger. He told his advisors to gather up everyone in the kingdom. He had something he needed to announce as the new king. Out of unadulterated fright, the advisors got right to the task. After that fact, out of nowhere, Devan appears behind and taps the angry, but short, king on the shoulders. "Calm down and think about the situation you're in right now. You are this kingdom's new leader so suck up your emotions and start acting like a leader for once. If you do that I'll help you then in your journey of revenge." Those words alone instantly made Craig compose himself and forget about Devin's previous actions. A menacing smile appeared on Craig's face knowing that with Devan on his side he'll make those Hylians pay for what they did and become the victor in this war.
Over the next twenty years, Craig made humans a force to be reckoned with thanks to the book of creations. He put humans into three categories. Builders, fighters, and scholars.
The builders, with the help of the book, were in charge of building the new Kingdom. This new Kingdom was built to contain all of the humans including the outsiders which made the kingdom much denser. Craig saw the previous design of the kingdom as old-fashioned so he modeled the new kingdom as a city-state instructing the builders what to do exactly to get his image.
The fighters are the main military force. Previously the humans solely relied on the guns' power but Devan saw that as a flaw so he took it upon himself to retrain the military and recruit young talented boys and girls. Devan taught them the various martial arts he learned from the previous King and some moves he created himself. He also had some of his troops run and swim for miles to increase their endurance and mobility while he had the others lift weights for their strength in both bones and muscle.
When King Craig gave out the new regulations he had made everyone below the age of twenty be put in or return to school. Craig and Devan were the only suitable teachers the country could offer at the time. Devan would handle the general studies while Craig would only teach the humans who had above-average intelligence. These humans were later known as scholars. Craig knew if he wanted society to evolve he had to teach some people about the book of creations. At first, teaching was proving to be a difficult task but in due time it all eased up and Craig's first students took over as teachers. Devan was also relieved of his duties as well thanks to his students becoming the new teachers. Scholars also had the task to build weapons for the fighters as well as model defense systems to show the builders. They would often turn for the aid of the book but later on, they used their ideas to create devastating weapons and indestructible defenses.
Over the years they had a few runs in with the Hylians, never beating them but never losing either. The Hylians would always be forced to flee the scene. The Hylians sent were usually grunts. Azazel and his main army had other things to worry about that didn't involve the humans so eventually the humans gained their land back.
Now, in the current day, Craig stood tall in front of a small audience while being televised so that everyone could hear his words.
"Today is the day we officially join in the eternal war!"