UNDER SIEGE |COMPLETED|

⚔️Chapter One⚔️

Chpt. 1.)
PETAL LOCKE

Nix steadily rode in his wagon, directing his draft horse, Dragon, through the small but busy town of Petal Locke. He smiled at the merchants selling their craft, the farmers offering fresh vegetables, and the housewives making a show of their newly finished and ready for purchase clothing.

He usually only perused through town, but today had been grocery day, and so he had to hitch Dragon to the carriage. He saw his friend, Samuelle Kyndin, offering samples of his famous chocolate brownies- of course, a secret ingredient mixed in.

Samuelle waved at him and he waved back, clucking to Dragon to pick up a trot. Samuelle had been an old friend of his, a co-worker in Mingold Castle almost two decades ago.

Nix sighed, keeping an eye on the road. There was much of Mingold he missed. The steady job, the surplus salary was nice, but mostly the everyday life.

Rich had been a common word. No one knew poverty or struggle, but after Crone murdered King Chamridge and forced Queen Anastasia to marry him to protect her daughter, the kingdom long left the light.

Crone stormed house after house, demanding every coin and anything of considerable value, leaving the people poor and hungry.

The once booming kingdom had long since perished to crumbling houses, many living on streets due to tax increase, parents selling children as they couldn't provide for them, and hundreds passing from illness without funds to purchase medicine.

Nix had done well, he saved his money from King Chamridge, bought a small house several towns over, and kept his name out of the papers. He had a family to protect, and he would do whatever necessary to ensure their safety.

His house sat on the edge of town, far from the others. He halted Dragon, hopping down from the wagon to unload groceries. "Boys!" His son, Ari, immediately emerged from the house. Ari was a young man of twenty, jet black hair like his father, pale green eyes like his mother, accompanied by his father's tan skin and height.

Ari had on a light gray muscle shirt, one Nix always made a point to tease him about. "Why're you wearing that worn out thing? Your mom would have my head." Ari grinned at his father, flexing his defined arms from hours of outside labor, "what? Jealous?"

"He can still cook better than you without muscles," a boy called, stepping outside to help with groceries. Nix fixed his gaze on the head of golden hair, "see, Ari? Listen to Kyah." Kyah smiled, messing up Ari's hair before grabbing a few sacks of groceries himself.

It still to this day surprised Nix how much Kyah looked like the king and queen. His hair was the same golden shade it had been when he'd been a boy, his blue eyes still carried a spec of gold in the left, and his light and purity never left.

There were only small differences between the three year old boy Nix had cooked brownies for and the twenty year old young man Nix had raised.

For starters, Kylander's creamy skin had long since been tanned from working the farm, his slim arms were now shaped and strong, and his small body had filled out with muscle and age.

Still, a perfect stranger could see the resemblance Kyah had of the queen and late king; he looked much like Princess Cathleen as well. Her golden hair fell in waves down to her waist, whereas his golden hair fell straight just above his broad shoulders.

Her skin remained the same cream it had been at her birth, and she lacked muscle from living a royal life of no physical labor. Other than such trivial traits, the siblings looked like a copy and paste of one another. Nix feared that one day Crone would find out about Kyah's whereabouts and kill him.