Blessed || Sequel to Cursed

Prolougue || The Secret Kingdom's Revealed With a Reappearance

(No pov)
-Six years later-

It was a peaceful day outside in the Arctic Empire, the sun was bright and shining, the wind was light and barely blew the snow around.

The Empire had been peaceful for the last six years, and it appeared that it would continue for the a long time.

However, hours northwest of the farthest town in the empire, at the base of the tallest, scariest, and coldest mountains, was someone running.

They were unfamiliar and unwelcome to the hidden kingdom, but they emerged from the darkest mountains in a clear state of panic and kept looking behind them- as if to see if they were being followed.

They wore a purple cloak that covered their entire body, golden steampunk-like goggles covered their eyes but their terror and panic was still noticeable.

After awhile of running they figured that they were safe, but continued venturing into the snowy unknown.

Hours later, when the sun had finally set, they spotted glowing lights in the distance. They were confused after seeing that, there were no towns this far out, especially on the other side of those mountains.

Curious, they approached the distant town. At first, they assumed that it was a mirage or some sort of trick, but as they came closer they saw that it was, in fact, a real town.

They stood uneasily and stared at the town sign, "Wintercrest?" They said quietly, they shrugged and tugged their cloak closer to themself before continuing into the town.

The architecture was stranger then where he came from, it was also more elegant in a way- it was much prettier then the smooth boring buildings that he was familiar with.

After a few minutes of walking through the streets, he saw a sign that read Wintercrest inn, he sighed in relief and entered the inn.

A pleasant chime rung through the simple and cozy front entrance, alerting the person behind the front desk who was reading.

The person smiled at the traveller and put their book down, the traveller nearly gasped once he noticed the person's strange features.

The person had brown hair and unnaturally bright green eyes, he had thin square glasses and wore a back and red tunic with a checkered grey and white scarf and had black fingerless gloves. The strange features were the two black horns the grew from his head and the long black tail that was barely visible from behind the desk.

"Good evening, traveller!" They greeted, "My name's Bad, what can I help you with?" Bad asked, the traveller gulped nervously before speaking.

"Um, hi- I just need to stay here for tonight." He answered nervously, Bad nodded and quickly pulled out a notebook.

"Alright, I assume that it's just you?" Bad asked, the traveller nodded and Bad quickly wrote it down with a quill, did they not have pens yet?

"Okay, and what's your name?" Bad asked kindly, the traveller hesitated before responding, "Karl Jacobs." He replied with hesitance.

Bad wrote that down as well before closing up the notebook and putting it away, "Alright Karl Jacobs, it'll be 25 silver." Bad said with a smile.

Karl let out a breath of relief, he was glad that they used the same currency and that he brought money with him. He quickly dug through a pouch and that was attached to his belt and pulled out 25 silver pieces.

Karl had many things hidden beneath his cape, a pouch of coins, a two notebooks and fountain pens, another pouch with refills of the ink, a few bookmark ribbons, an assortment of daggers, clock pendants and charms, and his moon phase watch, and his two most important watches, the one that was behind and the other that was ahead.