When you hear about the old world of Arkon, Everyone says it is a nightmare from your darkest dreams. Vampires ruled the earth and humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction, Out of desperation the last of humanity looked to the church for answers and prayed to god. This was when the church let out a lone warrior, One who could be as fast as any supernatural creature and twice as deadly, They named them the priests because they always had a tattoo of Gods cross on there bodies. At first there was only one priest but then more came forth from the church and humanity had finally be able to push back against the supernatural creatures, After thousands of years priests became less and less as the supernatural threat was all but destroyed. You see many soldiers from the church but it's much too rare to see a priest.
The church has become the head organization for all things after their success with the priest. The heads of the church have a motto known by all who live in the world of Arkon. "To go against the church is to go against God". If anyone else had said these word it would have caused a rebellion, but as the priests who carried humanity of the brink of destruction were a part of the church so everyone accept this fact and over the years this became something more than a cult. It became people's way of life. You cannot have the church without god and everyone in the church were respected and trusted. Ever 5 years the church goes to each outlined town. which are much smaller than the ones that have a church in their town and they test the children with trails on their speed,skill,strength and heart, from there the group which would be chosen will go to a town which is a bit bigger then the outlined towns and they would be trained on how to become rookie knights and start on their path to fight the evil of the world.
"Lucas wake up, I want you to go out and get some wood for the fire please". "I heard it is going to be extremely cold tonight". A beautiful young woman named Alice was standing over me with beautiful brown hair and a smile which could melt anyones heart.
"Ok Mother, I will go out there and get some wood for you, so we can be nice and warm tonight". I give my mother the biggest smile I can offer and get ready to head out to the woods to get some wood for a fire. I am quite happy to be mothers son, She is sweet and kind even though I am not her real child. She found me when I was baby in the woods and took me in and cared for me for 10 years as her own, because of this she could not find a husband because no one else wanted to raise someone elses child with no background. I have blue hair and aqua eyes so it was quite easy to tell I was not her child. But all in all, I love her regardless.
I ran outside and the light of the sun shined up me, when I was about to run out the town to grab some wood I was stopped by 4 bigger kids who often bully me because they are quite big and chubby for their young ages, While I am smaller and more agile than they are. Even thought we are all ten years old, They have been spoiled from a young age and have developed a vile personality's. The names of these boys are Nigel,Jacob,Nickel and the leader is John.
"Hello Little Lucas where are you off today on such a short notice haha" John says with an evil smirk like he is thinking of something really cruel.
"Yeah Lucas why do you not come play with us" The 3 other kids chimed in eagerly like they wanted to impress, The bigger leader John.
"Sorry I am about to go get some wood for my mother for these warm nights" I says while getting to dash off again.
"She is not even your mother you little idiot, But do not worry when I grow up maybe I should take her has my second wife and have my way with her Hahahahah! " As soon as the words leave johns mouth, I feel my blood boiling and angry surfacing, Because it does not matter if anyone insults me but if the insult my lovely mother then even I can get angry.
I charge at john at punch him in the face, He gets a blood nose and staggers backwards a big. "Grab this little shit" He shouts as the three minions of his come at me, I dodge the first swing of Nigel's but I fail to dodge the swings of Jacob's and Nickel's and I fall face first in the dirt with my stomach and face in agony where the two little boys hit me.
"DRAG HIS ARSE UP" John shouts with his first clenched, He did not think the little boy he has picked on for nearly his whole life so far would suddenly hit him and caused him to bleed, This gave way to new emotions in this young boy such as humiliation from being hit and angry from being caused to breath.
"Bring him to me!" John shouts while he has a horrible look on his face like he ate something rotten.
Two of his silly minion's grab each of my two arms respectively and the third moved my face so it was in line with Johns. He looks at me and starts punching me in the gut and face, Most of the people in this town see this but do not really care as I am not really part of this village, The only one who has ever seen me as part of this village was my mother but the rest of these people have always turned a blind eye to me getting bullied.
"So I heard a weak little shit like you wants to join the mighty church and become a priest in the future hahaha!" John and his stupid minion laugh at this because every kid our ages is getting ready for the church to come and do the trails, even the most vile ones.
"I will become the strongest priest ever!" I shout at them while I feel the blood coming up, I cough a few times while the blood comes out.
John comes up to hit me again but as he does I hear a resounding -SLAP- and I see my mother slap the young boy in the face and mother has a look in her eyes like she can spit venom.
"IF I EVER SEE YOU TOUCH MY CHILD AGAIN THEY WILL NOT FIND YOUR BODIES" She slaps each one of the children and they go run off crying she picks me up and brushes of the dirt which was on my clothes, she then give me so many hugs and makes sure I am okay. hahah She is such an overprotective mother.
"Do not worry mum, In a few days when the church organization comes and puts us through the trails I will become big and strong so no one can ever tease me or you ever again without having to fear the consequences" I give her another big smile.
"Just do not get your hopes up to much ok?". Mother has a worried face, "Just make sure you know I will always be with you, In whatever you do. Now go get me some wood" She gives me a kiss on the check and pushes me away to go to the woods to get wood.
The woods looked super dark and scary when I was 5 but as the last 5 years went by I went in little by little, Until I was not scared anymore. I walk around collecting the biggest stick my little arms can carry, I kinda use this as training my body. I also have a habit to run around the first dodging and weaving under sticks and branches to train. They said that the church will be here in a few days so I am trying to do everything I can to prepare for the trials because I honestly do not want to have to wait another 5 years to take the test after I fail, Who would want to do that?. I am running through the woods like a mad man, Twisting and turning ever which way and before I know it I am already pretty deep in the forest. I am quite proud of how far I have run.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Grooowl, I hear a noise behind me and when I turn around I see a feral goblin, They are quite common in these parts but the adults tend to take care of them before they even have a chance to get this close to anyone. I am shaking with fear I guess no matter how much you run around the wood, as soon as I see someone who wants to take my life I get scared. But I am 10 years old with a bit of training I will become the strongest. The goblin charges me as fast as its little legs will take it, When it is about to bite me, I swing down my piece of wood I collected clumsily at the goblin with a screeech the goblin falls over, It's just staring at me with hatred. I take a deep breath and keep hitting the goblin with the piece of wood until the life goes out in its eyes. I dump the piece of wood full of blue goblin blood and go to collect others ones. Even though I am scared and feel sick, I will overcome this and get the piece of wood so me and my mother want have cold nights.
When I enter our little home with the wood, Mother sees some of the blue blood on my clothes and it scanning my body to see if I am okay, Ever since I was younger, I have noticed whenever I was hurt or injured my mother would now the remedy for these wounds and also she is really strong. Once the butcher would not sell to me because in his words "Alice is a very beautiful women and now thanks to you no one even wants to talk to her or make friends with her, Let alone getting a husband" and when mother found out I heard she went in there and the butcher needed to call a medic in from the church because he was hurt so badly. In everything I do my mother always supports me, So I will become big and strong so she can be proud.! I put the wood down and start eating dinner that mother has prepared for me, It is a type of stew which has chicken and beef combo, I think it is one of the best things to eat.
"Hey Lucas, I just got word from someone I know from the other outliner city, That the church just came from there and they picked children to go and train with the churches order. It looks like they will arrive here tomorrow, I know I have asked this so many time now but are you sure you want to train and become a priest"? I look into my mothers eyes and see the deep fear in them but I think about what the worry could be for, But I came to the conclusion that she could just be worried for my safety.
" Do not worry mother, I will train super hard and make you proud. I will past all the trails they will give us and prove that I can become a priest and be the one who is closest to god!"
"hahah Sometimes you are so stubborn no matter what I say you will not change your mind?". This time she has a bit of resolve in her eyes.
"Of course, After hearing all the stories at priests and the vampire, I have decided to become one and help everyone! I laugh because in my heart I have always had the sense that this is what I am meant to do with my life.
"Ok honey just go get some rest for tomorrow " My mother gives me a kiss on the check and pushes me to bed.
POV CHANGE (ALICE) (Mother of the mc)
Today has been a tiresome day for me. The start of the day was great when I got to see my cute little Lucas' sleeping face, He is so adorable and his big smile when I asked him to go get wood was so cute. I swear that boy would do anything I asked, Even though I am not his Biological parent, I feel like I am much more than that because I made a choice to keep him as a baby. Not because of blood but because I knew as soon as I saw his cute little eyes, I had to protect him. Today I heard Lucas scream I am going to be the strongest priest which make me wryly smile, That boy just does not understand the top people of the church and I do not have the heart to tell him what kinda people they are. When I go outside to see what Lucas is doing, I see two kids holding his arms, While another is holding is head. When I see this you cannot fathom the kind of angry I was feeling, I walked over and slapped the main kid. Then I slapped all the others kids, I honestly do not care if they are all 10-year-old kids. You try to hurt my kid in front of me and your lucky I do not remove your head from your shoulders. After Lucas went to collect wood for me like a good boy, I go for a walk to the children's house who picked on my son. When I walk closer to the main house of the little bully named johns house I see not only are his parents outside the other boys parents are there to with some guard, Well this makes everything a lot easier to handle
"That is the wench who dared lay a hand on my son, My son will be a priest one day!, I demand you take her head and kill that little brat of a boy before my son becomes a priest and sentence you all to death!" Some fat woman who looks like the main bully John's mother is shouting and the other parents seeing their chance to get the guard to do there wishes start spouting threats at the guards who can only sigh and walk up to me.
Guard 1"Excuse me I would like you to come over here and answer a few questions" The man who looks to be in his early adulthood seemed annoy and had lust in his eyes while looking at me and his question seemed nice enough but we both knew he was not asking, So I looked him in the eyes and nod my head.
Guard 2 " Is it true miss you assaulted these 4 young children unprovoked?"
"Not at all, These children clearly needed some parenting because their parents did not raise them right, So I just did what their swine of parents should of done ages ago"
At this statement the faces of all the parents become red than blue and stop at something in between and the fat lady steps up and is about to go of again but I cut her of.
"You have a three choices here, Number 1 is for all your children to go and bow their heads to my son and say they are sorry".
"Number 2 is simple really, You can all go and leave this village in the next hour"
"Number 3 is simplest of all, I will kill all the parents of the children here and make the children and village forget you even exist" I see this one in a much colder tone then the first two.
The parents look at me like I am dumb and the guards have drawn their weapons then one of the parents shouts "Kill her she threatened to kill us"!
The guards charge me and are ready to swing their swords down on me, I take a deep breath and say "I guess it is option three" I lift my hands up and caught the tips of both the blades with my fingers, From this action I can see the shocked face of everyone present. I push the two swords in finger two the left and right so they leave the guards hands and fly in each direction. I take a step forward and before anyone know it I was standing in front of the parents with bloody hands.
"GUARDS GUARDS KILL HER" The parents are going frantic while the kids have fainted as soon as the swords come out. HmphMy child is better he can already face a goblin without fainting.
"The guards have already lost their heads silly parents" At my words the parents all looked over to the guards who were standing up fine but what made their blood run cold was that the guard had no heads. They guards corpses slowly hit the ground with a Thud, And the parents turned their attention to the floor near me wear two heads without bodies laid.
"PLEASSE Sob Sob Sob Pleaass--eeee weee will do anything, Just do not kill us" The parents are now begging for there lives and crying.
"Do not worry after I kill you I will strip the memory of you from your children and even the whole town and then I will give them to the orphanage" My voice was calm while I explain what is going to happen to them, One of the parents had come to some sort of realization and looked at me with wide eyes".
The sobbing parent who was looking at me with a scared and pitiful voice starts talking "I have heard in legends that the only one who can alter someone else memories are Priests!" When the words left his mouth the other look at me with a new kind of fear.
"Former Priest" And that was the last thing any of them parents heard before they went to the blackness eternal.
I look around and sigh, I see I have a lot of cleaning up to do before Lucas gets home from collecting wood, Maybe when he gets home I will make some stew?