Lineage

Chapter 1 : Impressions

My name is Jules Rymm; I live with my mom and brother in a simple cabin in the forest. I was born a five hundred years after the reborn started. I'm now nineteen this coming November. I never knew my real father but every night I always end up with one dream, perhaps a memory of him. My mom kept saying that he left when I was very young. She never mentioned him for years now and I don't really know what he looks like. Not even a picture.

The Royal Lineage keeps the peace here on the planet. Our latest ruler is King Jonathan. He's ruthless and politically powerful. Though I don't have any idea of what he looks like, my mother says to stay away from the politics. So we lived outside of the thermopolis, Silvervale.

Back to our place, I do my chores and I'm always upstairs because I can see the Metallic city of Silvervale. Everything there are mostly made of metal because it is the most abundant resource here on Ephrath. I always dreamt of going there but my mother forbids me because it's too dangerous and the people who live there are egotistic and irresponsible.

"Katherine, will you please come down here?" my mother calls me.

Her name is Cobie, short for Jacobie. She's a geologist, one who studies the planet. She collects rocks and minerals, and sometimes plants. She has locks of ginger and lovely eyes that is always targets her sense of adventure into the unknown.

I experienced the world thanks to her when we explored the extent of the forbidden border. The way of the wind caressed my cheeks softly together with the rustling of the waterless grass against each other made our tiny world a lot bigger.

"Coming!" I answered while running down stairs.

"Will you help your brother find some firewood before sun down?" my mother asks.

"Okay" I said.

I went outside to find my brother Ethan. He's a lot older than me by ten years. He has the same curly hair as my mother and often doesn't shave his stubble. He has bushy eyebrows, he must've got his looks from our dad.

As I walked through the green meadow, I saw my brother picks up his axes and goes through the forest where he usually gathers more firewood. When he has time, we hunt for some food using an improvised bow.

Our father was a hunter back in the day and he uses archery because it's stealthier and we don't have much to buy a rifle or hunting equipment. He died when he got eaten by a nasty Hybrid.

Ethan was very young but he loved him so much that he mourns him for about a year. Not even talking to my mother. By the time that I was born, he changes. He saw me as a new hope. A light that gives him a new chance, realizing his life would be fresh again.

A new start. At least, that's what they keep telling me. He taught me everything that father taught him. If only he was alive, we could hunt together with my brother.

"Hey Ethan?" I ask curiously.

"What?" he answers.

"Why is mom always hanging out with the Visans' Captain? Isn't that a bit cliché, I mean c'mon, Mom is not that beautiful." I ask as he chops some wood. It fell off like slicing an edge of an apple.

Visans are the rebels who want King Jonathan to be dethroned. My mother is one of them and the one who visits a lot is Captain Martin Pole. He was a former general of the King's army until he was replaced by one of King Jonathan's trustful and loyal adviser, Henry Scott. He is also the leader and the founder Visans army. Nobody knows why he was always wearing an eye patch or what happened to his face.

We were about to finish collecting the firewood my mother told us to get. It is also nearly sun down. The sunset is so beautiful that every time it touches the sky, it shines the whole city of Silvervale.

"Don't ask questions if you'd already know the answers, sis." he answers.

"I was just curious because they were always planning on something about us recruiting..." I said then he stops chopping and covers my mouth.

"Shh... Night Owls!" he said while looking at the armored Night Owls heading our way home.

He picks his axes and drags me with one hand. I can feel him very scared and worried at the same time because from the look in his eyes, he knows what's happening. We hurried back home and hides me through the basement into a small hidden room and covers my mouth with a handkerchief with an emblem of Visans.

"Trust the Visans and stay away from Silvervale and the night owls; you'll know the truth." Ethan says as he closes the door.

I can see what he's doing because there is a small opening at the side of the wall. As he builds a cover and assemble the gun we've been hiding for emergencies only. Someone' kicks at the door saying, "Open this door this instant or we will use force!"

My brother did not reply then it happens... as he battles the night owls, he resist on giving up. All that I see is flickering lights and the shooting between the two sides. Ethan manages to shoot a dozen to the ground. As he reloads, his shooting arm got shot.

They stopped for a moment as Ethan regains himself, then a man shows up in the staircase ordering cease fire. He was well dressed. I assumed he's just another military man.

"Hello Ethan, nice place you got here...cozy...safe houses...I've always want to stay in a place like this if it weren't for that little girl. Where is she?" he asks as he sits down on a chair that barely stands. His voice resembles someone I can't pinpoint. The sound of deep, husky voice.

"What girl? I don't know what you're talking about!" he answers as he struggles to hold his arm which seems to bleed to much. They must've hit his artery. Poor Ethan!

"Then why did you keep on firing you're stupid little gun? I know liars, you can't fool me. Now...Where the fuck is she?!" he yells at my brother and stomps his foot on the floor. His voice sounded like a clap of thunder.

"Go fuck yourself somewhere else you scumbag!" Ethan insults him.

Then the man pulls up a dagger. The very weapon made me stiff as my heart beat risen up as it glistens. He slid the dagger across Ethan's body with inhuman speed. Only when Ethan fell on the floor like a bag of rocks, struggling to breath as he was spitting blood from his mouth, did I realize why. He's dying.

"Risking your life for hiding a little girl you don't really know is really a fucking stupid promise, now you're done!" he whispers. As he stabs him over and over again.

The blood spills from his stomach. No! No! This is not happening. How could you? Please fight Ethan, please! Ethan....what are you?...

"I have another trick off my sleeve your Highness." Ethan answers with his dying breath as he pulls a trigger that self-destructs the house.

"He's a Royal..." before I could even finish talking to myself I fell down as the wave of explosion came through the room I was in.

It was deafening. I could feel my ears bleeding and all I could hear is ringing. The blast brought the house down. I thought it was over. Ethan's sacrifice would have killed them but something survived.

A dome of metal which the night owls use protected man from the explosion. They surrounded him with metal wings and covered him entirely. The room I was in was built to protect me from the explosion.

I started to regain my hearing but barely, just enough to hear. As the king rises up in the middle of night owls' protective barrier he orders them:

"Find the girl and do not let her live"