Random Adventure Story or Aedel: Unexplored

Chapter 1

"I don't believe this."

A boy stood with his back to a tree. His legs ached, his head ached, his arms ached, and pretty much every other part of him ached. For good reason. He was tied to said tree with strong ropes, and could only move his head. It was evident that he had recently been in a fight. His head was cut in several places, and his arm was bleeding rather badly. His clothes, which were fashioned after medieval clothing, were torn.

"We should have seen it coming as soon as that witch stepped out of the forest, your majesty," said a younger boy, who was tied to another tree.

"Even then, I doubt we would have been able to stop her," called a third boy, who was out of sight. "You saw how powerful she was, tricking the others into believing that you had gone mad and turning us into children."

"And she continues to hold them under some sort of spell. They act like we're not even here!" The first boy sighed, and shook his head. "I don't believe this."

It was hard to tell, but the first boy was Prince Asher Robbeson, ruler of Aedel. The prince was on a journey of exploration through the unknown realms of Aedel. He and his band of 147 men had begun their journey a week ago, and already they had fallen into misfortune.

On the dawn of the fifth day, the adventurers had stepped into uncharted territory. No known human had ever traipsed this far into the wilderness. All had gone well, and in the afternoon of the fifth day, they had entered a wood. The trees in the wood were ancient, as if they had been there for centuries. Still, their branches were spread apart, and as much light as was needed filtered through the leaves. They had been in the woods all day the sixth day, and all day the seventh. The underbrush was low, and easy for the men to walk through, especially because the prince and his closest friends rode in the front on their horses.

It was in the morning on the sixth day that the men encountered trouble. It started with the swamp. The land had been sloping downwards ever since they had entered the forest, and now it had reached an all time low. The prince was riding in the front, like he usually did, when suddenly his horse stopped and would go no further. The prince was confused by this incident until one of his friends noticed that the horse was ankle deep in mud. It could not move because of the thickness of the mire. With some assistance, the prince removed his horse from the mud, and the party turned to the right to avoid the mud. It turned out that the mud was just the beginning. They were on the edge of a swamp. It was an important discovery, but at a cost. There were unwanted creatures who had made their home in the swamp, including bugs of every shape and size, wild panthers, and, worst of all, snakes. The snakes were the worst. They were everywhere. On the ground, in the water, in the trees, everywhere. After one man died of a fatal bite, the prince wisely decided to turn away from the swamp to more solid ground. Then, the witch came.

The company was walking (or riding) along, happy to be free of the swamp, when a tall lady walked out of the woods. She was very beautiful, but when the prince looked at her, she seemed almost threatening and foreboding. She wore long, silken robes, and in her raven hair there was a circlet of silver. They halted, surprised that such a lady should be in a wild place like this. The prince, who was a young man, about 25 years of age, was well versed in how to treat a lady, so he dismounted, bowed, and politely inquired what the lady was doing in the wilderness. She laughed, and to some who heard her laugh, it sounded like the dancing brook, while to others it sounded like the croak of a raven. To the prince, it just sounded like a laugh, but a strange laugh, which meant something different than it seemed. After she laughed, the lady welcomed his majesty and his companions to her humble home, and told them to make themselves comfortable. Then, she led them into the woods, where under an especially large tree they found soft moss cushions to rest upon and sweet wild berry wine to drink.