Paths Of Time

chapter one

Ladine lays silently on the grass as he stares up at the blue skies, admiring the beauty of the trees, birds, and clouds. He does not know about how he got here, having woken up in the middle of the forest with no clothes or memories. He has been lying down for quite a while without a care in the world of what could be lurking around the forest. Ladine sits up and takes in his surroundings "Beautiful..." he thinks. He hears the chirping of the birds and the rushing of water not too far from where he currently is.

Ladine stands up and walks towards the sound of the rushing water having noticed he is thirsty. He stammers a bit along the way having tripped on a few rocks and twigs. The rushing sound of the water gets louder, and he eventually reaches the water and glances at his reflection; upon looking, he takes note of his appearance. His short black hair and his blue eyes held a glimmer of interest in his appearance. His body is of a lean stature as though it is agile and swift.

Reaching both his hands out, he cups them gathers some water, and reaches down to drink it. He then stands up and walks down the river with no particular destination in mind. "I seem to not know this place; I know this is called a forest, and I know the names of the animals, meaning I'm not completely unaware of what this world is," He thinks to himself. "Oh well it matters not, I should find something to clothe myself "

The sun was merciless in its heat, but the trees provided enough shade to prevent any sunburn. Ladine continued in hopes of finding settlements. After a couple of hours of walking, he found a cottage that looked old; the moss and vines had grown over most of the big stone bricks. Ladine walks towards the house and stands before the red, weathered wood that stands as a door to the house.
The sun had begun setting. He opens the door to the house and sees nothing beyond the door. Literally. There was pitch black. The sun was still out enough to see his surroundings and yet beyond the door was pitch black.

Ladine's body tenses as he feels a static energy beyond the darkness; it feels familiar, but he can't remember what it could be. He takes a step beyond the door, and upon walking through it, he sees a road made of stone and hears the chatters of people. Ladine looks back, and instead of a door, he sees a stone wall; he reaches a hand out to the wall, and instead of it going through, it stays up against the wall. Ladine tilts his head to the side in confusion and looks back to the road. It appears he is in an alleyway with houses on each of his sides. He sees people walking past, not noticing a naked man standing in an alleyway. Ladine walks towards the main roads where the bustling of the people gets louder. He reaches the middle of the road, not caring that people are looking at him with mixed stares of horror, amusement, and shock. He looks both ways of the road to understand where he is and where he should go next, but before he can take a step further, he sees men in armor walking towards him. Ladine spares them a glance in confusion as to why they are closing in on him.

Four men in armour continue towards him and two of those men restrain his arms. Ladine doesn't appear to understand why they are doing this to him. One of the men gives the two an order "Take him to the castle so he can get questioned". "I can understand what he's saying..." Ladine thinks to himself. The men then walk up the road and the stares continue to linger on Ladine's body. After covering a good distance of walking they reach a gated wall. The wall was long in both length and width. There were several guards around along the walls and four more standing in front of the gate itself they each had swords strapped to their waists.

"Who is this?" One of the men at the gate asks, "We haven't a clue, but look at his necklace." The guard spares a glance at it, and his eyes widen upon observing the necklace. "How does he.." "We don't know that's why we're taking him to the king." Ladine wonders to himself what they're talking about. He looks down at his necklace and glances back up at the guards, not understanding what the issue could be nor the significance of his necklace.