The Truth Over The Wall

Chapter 1 Part I: A Royal Hero

*As hard as it is to believe, sometimes I don't understand how you don't know just how important you are to me. And just how much better I am because of you*

Now let us discus some particular instances where Fate might be tempted to intervene. After all, even Fate needs something to work with!

                                                         A Royal Hero

King Fredrick of Araaia was a legend. Tall with a head of snowy white hair and deep, scrutinizing brown eyes; he was the fiercest warrior you could meet on the battle field. And the most terrifying adversary you could provoke.

But he was yet a good man and a better father. King Fredrick had four sons. Two of his four sons were already married and had provided him with wonderful grandchildren. And though that ought to have contented him...

It did not. King Fredrick's eldest and heir had yet to marry and that was just a little...worrying.

Yes, that is a good word. Worrying. And King Fredrick did a lot of that. Worry, that is.

The poor king died of it.

For a year, Araaia was shrouded in a dark gloom, mourning their king. And exactly one year had passed when King Frederick's second son Prince Hans stood up as champion for his grieving family. He declared that his elder brother Prince Jason would ascend to his rightful authority amidst rigorous celebration that very week.

And celebrations there were.

And amidst the celebrations the coronation was set to take place. It was winter when this happened. Freezing cold, with wet and snow dripping from the branches straight down your back making you shudder and curse that you had even set foot outside.

But inside the palace the celebrations were in full swing. Flames blazed majestic and gold in the fire places. The rich walnut wood of the beams and pillars had been hung with luscious green Ivy and wild red roses. Hundreds of candles lining the dining table cast the people sitting along it in a beautifying glow.

The royalty and the nobility had gathered in a dizzyingly large number. Just to walk into the grand hall and its suffocating heat was to forget the frigid cold of the outside.

There was laughter and jokes amidst the ladies dressed in rich velvets and exciting silks; cooling themselves with their lace fans and thinking: perhaps I dressed a tad too warm?

But no one cared. This was the first party they had had in years and by God they were going to make the most of it!

Making - pushing - his way through cousins and relatives that meant to pinch his cheeks and tell him how old he was - as though he didn't know - was a little boy with black curls and brown eyes that were deeply reminiscent to people of King Fredrick himself. And why would they not? The young boy was after all his grandson. To be specific, Prince Hans' son: Prince Dominic.

Dominic loved his uncle Jason very, very much. Which is why he had gladly forged his way through the torturous maze of touchy relatives just to get to the other side of the room where he could get to the stair case.

The stair case was a long climb upwards - not unlike a mountain - built of heavy gray stone and covered by a thick brown carpet that swallowed the sound of your footsteps even when you ran. So it was not a surprise that even though Dominic had made this treacherous and tiring climb gasping for breath, his uncle did not hear him.

Jason sat by himself in the south tower, looking over the forest. He knew that beyond those woods was a glorious lake with hidden depths. And that beyond the woods and past the snow covered mountain tops was an ever inviting ocean and a warm beach.