Chapter 1

The first thing I saw when I woke up was my nurse who handed me three things: a ornate key, a canteen, and a letter. From the canteen, I smelled something I had never smelled before, a sweet alluring scent that drained all anger from me.

When I removed the canteen from my lips, I noticed that it was empty. However, I had no recollection of either opening the canteen or of drinking from the container. Only a faint memory of bliss remained.

As I regained my senses and paid attention to my surroundings, I noticed that everything was different; the dirt of the cave walls was not the same brown from my childhood. Now, it was richer and fuller altogether.

I could hear sounds I could never hear before. I could hear water dripping down all around me and a strange thump repeating over and over again.

As I turned over to the source of that sound, I saw my nurse standing there with a smile. I looked at her, taking in the new details that I could only notice now. Seeing that, she said with a voice full of pride:

“You have finally awoken to your true heritage.”

She continued after a slight pause.

“It has been a week since you last awoke and some things have changed. First, you are now a King, the sole heir of Draconia. Secondly, Draconia is no longer yours.”

As what she said finally registered, I remembered what happened on that night before the fall from the window.

I remembered the coronation. I remembered the rushing air, and worst of all, I remember hearing my parents’ screams when they were slaughtered.

I stood there in shock hoping that this was all but a horrible nightmare. Even in my desperation, I couldn't refute this reality. What happened had happened, and from now on, I was alone in this world……everything…..everything has been taken...not a single thing left. When i thought of this my anger boiled. I thought of murdering the man who killed my parents. Of making his demise long and painful.

As I thought that, my mind turned from anger to our city. The smiling faces of our cities people, the happy children who were smiling to me when I walked down the streets. I asked terrified:

“What happened to my people?”

my nurse said with a sad solemn look:

“They fled Draconia before the paladin and his army arrived and are now scattered across the land and are currently being hunted down by the church as devil worshipers.”

I stared shocked wondering what they had done to deserve a fate such as this….to be hunted for living in the wrong land.

Stolen story; please report.

She was, however not finished, “The castle servants have all died as they slowed the Hero’s advance through the castle. The army we had fell as soon as the sun rose on the battlefield, burnt from the suns rays.”

-silently I wondered why our army burned when they could walk in the sun fine any other day-

As I stared off to where the castle was, an outline of it showed up along with the people in it. My mind snapped back to the things in my hand dismissing this illusion. There were an ornate key and a letter. I looked at the key carved with inscriptions in languages I could not read and I asked what it was for.

Upon saying these words, a seething darkness erupted from the key and a door appeared; a door so shrouded in darkness, it seemed to be sucking the light from the already pitch black cavern. I stared at it, watching it pulsate

Suddenly, my nurse spoke and said:

“this is the door to your ancestral knowledge; it is a training ground, a library and anything else you need from now on. Anything in there cannot be taken out. In there, you will not be hungry or tired, but nothing gained will directly affect you in a physical way. In the end, the knowledge will be the only thing retained. It will only open in front of those you trust and only allow those no longer alive to enter. I must go now and set the stage for your eventual return. Enter and return with the knowledge of how to gain the power needed to one day take your kingdom back.” ,with that she vanished from my sight.

Now alone with the door, I stepped forwards. With great trepidation, I stuck the ornate gold trimmed alabaster key into the keyhole. Unlike any keyholes I had seen previously, it was a circle with no defining traits other than being made of some type of metal that oozes darkness so dark that not even vampiric sight can see through it.

Once the key was fully in the keyhole, the door grew lines of white, turning the door into a spider web of white lines on a black background.

I looked at the design and slowly rubbed my hand across the black door. When my hand touched the center it seemed to sink inwards, slowly at first, then more rapidly as all the black sections of the door combined. In moments a black tunnel was formed in the endless white area where nothing existed.

I took one last look to the world i lost and stepped forward into the shattered black of the tunnel.