A Call For Adventure : An unexpected beginning

Chapter 2- The Sun Festival

"It's fine N" the stranger declared in a rather proud voice "nice punch by the way" . "I am really sorry Adam" N proclaimed still rather embarrassed that he punched his friend in the face. But even though he was bleeding from the nose Adam stood there with a massive grin for he was beyond thrilled to see his friend. "How have you been N I haven't seen you in around four months"  Adam commented as he walked beside his friend who was still checking if he was ok "you went to go see those kids again didn't you". N looked over at his friend and slowly nodded with a ashamed  look on his face "you shouldn't give them false hope like that" Adam responded looking over at N "you know that the lord won't let you keep those kids" 

 "You know I'm innocent the only reason I can't have those kids is because I refused to follow his unjust laws" shouted N who had changed his usually shy personality to one of rage. "Ok I'm sorry anyway I don't want to end this interaction on a low so I thought that I would invite you to the festival of the sun".  N glared over at his friend as his mind went back to when they had last attended this festival. He remembered that fateful day as if he had lived though it a hundred times, it was making out to be just like any other day they would experience back then. It was a simpler time , the king hadn't fallen into his illness and the lord hadn't risen to power. For a time it was peaceful. N woke up to the rattling and scratching as his bed was shook from side to side "N wake up it's the day, it's finally the day". The boy scraped his eyes trying to come to his senses and to get a view of who had woken  him up, he instantly recognised the silhouette for it was one he knew too well it was his best friend Adam. "N wake up, we're going to be late". Still coming to terms with being so rudely woken tried to roll over and go back into his rather peaceful slumber , but to no success as Adam just pulled the cloth right off him.

"Ok ok I'm getting up what did you want Adam"  groaned N as he crawled out of bed yawning . His friend stared back at him with a smile that had enough joy to light up the entire kingdom. "Don't tell me that you forgot N" growled Adam "it's not like it's the one day we look forward to every year". The second those words left the mouth of his friend a spark lit up his eyes for he knew exactly what he was talking about "The sun festival is today!" yelled out N with glee to the dismay of Adams' parents who hadn't woken up yet. Now fully dressed the two boys made their way into the centre of town greeting everybody they saw , they knew exactly where they needed to go even if the two didn't discuss it on that day. N and Adam looked up to see the kings castle looming over them , its wide and open gates overwhelming the two in scenes of comfort and safety. They looked at each other with giant smirks plastered on their faces , it had been four years since they last attended this festival and they had been looking forward to it for the same amount of time.

The town town centre began to get crowded with commoners all of them with more glee than the last because to them it was the one day that the castle opened it's doors to the people of the city. "I want to see the armoury first N" chirped Adam "it's so brilliant, I'm so happy". N grinned at his friend sharing his enthusiasm , the two sprinted down the castle halls searching for it even though not many people had arrived yet. Orange light drooled from the torches to the floor of the castle as the sun was yet to rise which would usually be seen as an oddity to most but the inhabitants of this world it was common knowledge that one every four years on the first day of summer the sun would rise almost ten hours late however nobody knows why.

Despite this the king of Aland made a tradition of this to try and make his people believe that in celebrating this day it would bring forth a prosperous four years until the next sun festival. "And that is how you make a sword" Proclaimed one of the royal blacksmiths "I hope you all enjoyed the demonstration" The two boys grinning from ear to ear ran out to the courtyard as the time was almost upon them . Trumpets began to blow as a man covered in robes as red as wine walked down the the city streets and in seeing this the  people followed their king to the alter on the outskirts of the city where the king would initiate the festival . Finally reaching the alter the king would climb the stone pedestal looking on to his loving and loyal subjects he declared "my people I would like to announce my appreciation of you all for following me for the many years of my rule, I could not have wished for a better kingdom". The citizens cheered and yelled out in support of their king "I will now need one of you to light the alter to guarantee a lively and easy four more years" . The sound of commoners yelling "me" or "pick me" could be heard not only throughout all of Aland and most neighbouring kingdoms as well , but as luck might have it amongst the chaos the king had his eyes two boys he bellowed out "you two can pick between yourselves". N and Adam looked at each other with the upmost joy combined with confusion as they guessed that they would never come to an agreement on who would light the alter however knowing how much it would mean to his friend Alex gave N the confirmation that he could be the one to join the king upon the alter and light it. "Come join me boy" invited the king , surrounded by cheering peers N made his way to the alter.

Finally he reached the alter as the golden rays of the sun began to climb up the mountains surrounding the city slowly but surely painting the sky ,the king then turned to the boy asking "may I be granted with your name then" the boy then suddenly feeling shy managed to make out with "it's N your... m m majesty". Grinning the king reassured the child that he had nothing to worry about then moved on to passing him the torch "all you must do is light the alter to bring peace to this kingdom for four more years". Something strange then began to happen the boy began to feel a burning sensation in his chest , he then felt his legs go numb as he clung on to the king desperately trying to regain his balance . As the king held the boy he could sense his hands going cold and his regularly rosy red skin going pale and lifeless , he dropped to the ground . The crowd went silent . A chilling wind blew in from the east and the tensions grew as his fellow citizens turned against him spewing out names such as "traitor" , "murderer" and "devil" . With tears running down his face N turned to Adam whose face had gone sour with disgust and disbelief that the person who he thought of as his friend , his brother would do such a thing . N's mind then became foggy as it came back to the question that his friend had asked him "N" Adam questioned  "are you ok" , N looked up at his friend with a smile of sorrow as he stated "no I'm sorry but I cannot attend that festival with you , I hope you can understand"