The Kingdom

Chapter 1

Just like always, the Kingdom was bustling with life. Friendly chatter echoed along the bright cosy streets, and children's laughter rang out into the early morning sky, painting a picturesque scene. It was another beautiful morning, the sun just beginning to climb the sky, casting a gentle palette of pastel pinks and yellows across the horizon. The morning market was just picking up at this time, the golden rays of the sun coaxing people out of their warm beds and out to start the day. Whether it be tending stalls at the market, toiling in the castle grounds as maids or servants, or forging metal in the blacksmith's forge, everyone had a role to play, and no matter the role, every citizen was filled with pride for serving their Kingdom. In fact, the air itself seemed buzzing with pride, responsibility, happiness, and purpose.

The Ruler of the Kingdom was a young Queen named Alexandrea, who only recently came into power after her father, whom she was named after, the previous king, passed away. Alexandrea had proven to be tenfold kinder than her late Father and shaped the Kingdom into the humble, tranquil, and loving community it had become. No stomachs were left empty. No bodies left shivering in the night. Everyone had a home, somewhere safe to lay their heads at night, and those who didn't were taken into the castle grounds and invited to sleep in the servant quarters and have a residential job within the castle. Alexandrea's efforts did not go unnoticed by her people, and because of her, everyone in the Kingdom was happier than they had been in years.

Everyone except William Dawson.

Bitterness coursed through Will's veins as he perched on the rooftop of the watchtower just beyond the Kingdom's borders. He couldn't fathom why he still found solace in observing the Kingdom he once called home, despite having been banished from ever setting foot in the Kingdom again 7 years ago. His stomach clenched as he remembered the late King Alexander bellowing his sentence down at him, while he lay terrified on the floor, and the beating that had followed in his cell that night, with metal shackles chained to his wrists, biting into his skin, leaving bloody red rings behind.

Absentmindedly, Will rang his fingers lightly over the puckered, scarred skin on his wrists, remembering the pain, remembering the fear. His teeth clenched. 7 years, and yet the memory won't leave him. Bitterness and quiet fury curl its dark tendrils around his chest, squeezing the air out of his lungs, making it almost impossible to breathe. Will shakes his head as if to clear it, steadies his breathing, and descended the watchtower with a fluid grace that eluded the average person, using hand and foot holds almost impossible to even see, let alone climb on.

He gracefully lands on the murky ground, dry dirt puffing up around his leather boots from the soft impact. After a brief glance checking that nobody was following him, a habitual action, Will made his way back through the forest to the west of the kingdom's walls, headed home.

***

Never in all of his travels had Edward Hutchinson seen something so devastating.

The hidden, secret village settled among the forest to the far north of the Kingdom, a village nobody had truly believed existed, lay in ruins before Edwards hazel eyes.

The beautiful buildings carved out of dark oak and stone, intricate patterns swirled by dedicated architects into the surface, were falling apart and blackened with ash. The air, which Edward imagined used to be sweet with the floral scent of flowers and herbs, now reeked of smoke, and the flower and herb bushes were now crushed and charred beyond recognition. The rumoured crystal lake, that was said to have healing properties, with warm, calming water so clear it was like glass, was now a thick, murky, black bowl of dark mud, that radiated unpleasant energy, almost as if the lake itself was full of evil. Everything was in ruins, an empty, broken shell of the beauty it once was.

But none of that disturbed Edward as much as the bodies did.

Charred, blackened with ash, broken, blood-drained bodies scattered the forest floor, terror etched into the faces of the corpses. Rune-like shapes were carved into the skin of the corpses, a dark aura emanating from the dead, and blood coated the forest floor. Bile threatened to work its way up Edwards throat, but he swallowed it down. As he slowly approached the bodies, he tried to decipher the runes etched into the corpses, but the runes swam around before Edward's eyes, as if the runes were actively trying to prevent Edward from reading them. It was like nothing he had ever seen before.

Running a shaky hand through his curly brown hair, he stepped back from the bodies, and made his way deeper into the ruins of the village, in the hopes of trying to figure out what happened to the village, so he could report back to his Queen. His heart rattled in his chest as he made his way through the ruins, trying to avert his eyes from the bodies coating the floor of the forest, yet the sheer amount of them made this nearly impossible. He caught his hand on a stray branch, and sharp, jagged pain staps through him. The branch was charred and burnt, giving off the same dark aura that radiated off of the dead. The whole village was dead, the people, the buildings, and the shrubbery, and it was making Edward more and more uneasy the longer he remained in the village. Edward winced and shook off his hand, dismissing the pain as a minor wound to tend to when he's back at the castle.

Edward stumbled upon an opening in the ruins, and as he cast his eyes around the crumbled walls of what used to be people's homes, he saw something scrawled in bloody red along the north wall. Edward cautiously approached the writing, and once he was close enough to read it, he murmured the words scrawled on the wall under his breath.

'THE TIME OF RECKONING IS COMING; DARK MAGIC WILL CONSUME YOUR SOULS'

Edward laughed uneasily. Under normal circumstances, he would have dismissed the words as the last nonsensical rambles of a madman, but after seeing the carnage of the village, he wasn't so sure.

"I need to tell Alexandrea about this." He muttered aloud to himself. As he carefully turned on his heel to leave the ruins, he froze suddenly as he heard a blood curdling scream.

"Holy shit-" Edward ran in the direction of the scream, hoping beyond hope those screams belonged to survivors of the massacre so he could at least help them get to safety.

He flew through the forest, leaping over bodies, muttering apologies under his breath. It felt disrespectful to jump over the people of this village, even if they were dead, but the screams of the survivor overruled this. He skidded into another clearing, where he saw a young girl, crouched over the body of an older woman, cradling her to her chest, sobs wracking through her frail frame. The screams he had heard had come from her, as grief beyond most peoples' comprehension poured out of her, in heart-wrenching sobs and screams.

Edward cautiously approached the young girl, who must have been no older than her early twenties. A twig snapped beneath his feet, and the young girl's head whipped round to face him.

Tears continued to run down her cheeks as she spoke. "Who...who are you? Are you here to kill me, too?"

Edward shook his head violently. "No!" Then he lowered his tone, the poor girl was terrified, she needed comfort. Edward decided he was going to take the girl to the Kingdom and place her under Alexandrea's care, but first, he just needed to convince the girl he meant her no harm.

"No, I'm sorry, you must have experienced horrendous things I cannot hope to comprehend, but I can promise you that I mean you no harm. I can bring you to a Kingdom not too far from here, you will be safe there. I promise. " Edward held out his hands to the young girl. She hesitated for a moment, brows furrowing as she glared at Edward, not angrily, but almost as if she was analysing him, reading him to see if he was a threat. Then, with once last pained glance down at the corpse in her arms, she released the dead body gently and then flung herself at Edward, embracing him in a bone crushing hug.

"Oh, thank you, Edward. I trust you, please just bring me to safety." She said between sobs, but with a weak smile.

Edward smiled back, but nervously. "I never told you my name, how did you -" he began, but the girl cut him off as she pushed her hair back, revealing her pointy ears. She smiled slightly.

"Oh yes, sorry, I am fey."