The Dark Lord and his Golden Boy

Once upon a time there was a Great Warrior who fought with black weapons. Some said that he was a dragon because he could take on other forms. With a human wife he had two sons who were more like their mother. Unfortunately, she died giving birth to the youngest.

Nonetheless, the sons had a lovely childhood. They learned to fight alongside their father. Before he lay down to die, they promised him to protect the Unknown Gate, so that no one can get through with evil intentions.

In the beginning the sons kept their promise, but in the meantime they had become young men and wanted to see the world. They tried to find a way to keep their word and still be able to follow their dreams.

The older brother had an idea. Their father had told them to keep watch, not that they both have to do it at the same time. After all, their father had been able to guard the gate alone. They decided that one of them could explore the world for five years, than he comes back, so the other brother could see the world for five years after that. After these 10 years, they would decide how to proceed. Of course, you could return earlier.

But how should they decide who was allowed to go first. If they were to fight each other, the older one would always win. If it is a puzzle game, the younger one wins. After many days of thinking, the younger one had a brilliant idea. They shouldn't choose something that they would be good at, but rather that they would be bad at. Neither of them was artistically gifted. This made their father very sad, who was very good at it.

Everyone had three days to create a work of art and they would then have a nymph, a stone spirit and a tempest scare counsel as judges. After three days everyone gathered at the waterfall. The older one presented a small stone golem. It was crude, but it worked perfectly. The fact that the golem consisted of round stones made it look cute. The nymph found the work very sweet. The stone spirit praised the choice of material and the thunderstorm had nothing bad or good to say.

Then it was the Younger Brother's turn. He presented a ceramic mug. It was decorated with zigzags. The stone spirit praised the ceramic very much. The Younger Brother had not only used materials made from water and earth. He had also used fire to refine it. The nymph praised it as a useful device that could hold liquids. But the tempest scare lieked it the most of all. The decoration reminded him of lightning.

The decision was made that the Younger Brother won. Maybe the older one would have won if he had decorated his stone golem, or maybe not.

The Older Brother wasn't miffed about it with his younger one. They said their goodbye on the next day and also broke from their very manly embrace. Five years passed very monotonously for the Older Brother. The only bright spots were the letters his brother sent him. He wrote that he took students and taught them their father's martial arts.

At last it was time. The Younger Brother came back but he didn't come alone. With him came a 10-year-old boy who liked to fly kites. The older one asked the younger one why he had brought someone with him. The younger replied that the boy was an orphan and that he had promised to take care of him. Besides that, their father never said that not more people could protect the hidden gate. They, the brothers, would not live forever after all. The Older Brother agreed, but objected that there were two of them and the boy would be alone. The Younger Brother could have brought more people. The Younger Brother was angry about this. Only Swift Flight touched his heart in such a way that he took him as his son.

The older one said he could invited some of his students for a short time. The younger brother had to agree to that. Added that they could start a school entirely.

While he spent time writing letters to his students, the uncle and nephew got to know each other better. They agreed that they didn't like each other. Swift Flight was an arrogant tyke and the Older brother a haughty donkey. In front of the Younger Brother they were both civil, behind him they kept a large distance. Because they knew that they didn't have to live with each other for long.