The Fight for the Golden Crown

Learning

The soldier nudged back a few steps, distancing the space between us.

I walked leisurely towards the bookshelves, brushing my fingers cautiously against the frayed wooden shelves as I went along.

The soldier stiffened, his eyes following my every movement.

My hands continued to wander through the plentiful books, looking in particular for any sort of history section. A golden tablet came into view. I squinted my eyes, looking at the cursive handwriting which displayed the title, "History of Risalia." My hand shot outwards to the nearest book I could reach within that area. "The Making of the Kingdoms."

I turned slowly to face the soldier staring at me mindlessly. He nodded, giving me permission to start reading. I quickly settled down onto one of the high, hard brown chairs nestled around each section. Its rigid quality made me sigh with disatisfaction. I sank deeper into the chair, opening the book, and getting into a comfortable position, the most comfortable I could get from the chair anyway.

"The Kingdom of Risalia was founded by two groups of people. The Fire Clan, as known now, settled into the southern area while the Ice Clan went up to the north. Neither realised there was more to the kingdom and therefore didn't venture far. All was well, and peace enveloped the people for a few years.

However, one unfortunate day, while a farmer from the Ice Clan had been collecting herbs from the forest, he seemed to hear a sort of growling. Terrified, as the Ice Clan had not heard of such a noise before, he ran back towards his home, and reported it to the 'government' there. They immediately went to the place of suspect, and searched everywhere for any sort of attack. None came, therefore they shrugged the matter off and retreated back to their homes. 

A few days later, one of the officials from the Ice Clan decided to venture further into the forest, his interest being sparked from the farmer. Therefore he packed his bags full of all the essentials for his planned trip, and marched onward. Once he had reached the forest. he travelled further, wanting to investigate more, as everyone else seemed to be content with how and where they were living. It annoyed him about how no one wanted to know more. So he journeyed into the outskirts of the forest, finally reaching an opening. This opening was covered by shrubs, trees and was hidden quite skillfully by the shadows flickering across the greenland. He was filled with both surprise and anticipation.

With his thirst for knowledge, he pushed through the opening, finding himself in an open area. He walked on, more cautiously now, as he had a thought that he had begun to leave the territory of his own clan. The burning weather also confirmed his fears, the glowing sun casting sheens of sweat over his face, contrasting hugely with the icy weather back home.

This went on for weeks. He managed to stay at various run down homes and survived with the scraps of food he could scrummage from the lowly parts of the town. The effects of being in this lifestyle were slowly starting to affect him, however. It unnerved him how no one had come to find him, from what he could hear from the villagers of the Fire Clan. He began to get more tired and agitated as the days went on, eventually doing the one thing he had tried to avoid: ask for a place to stay from one of the villagers.

Interestingly, the certain villager let him hide in one of the stables. He too was interested by this strangely dressed man, although it was less noticeable now through the layers of grime and dirt coating it. The villager was an old man, in his last years of living, and so he decided not to tell anyone, in hopes of living peacefully. All was going well for the man from the Ice Clan, who luckily aboded with a man who had little to no interactions with anyone from his own clan.

However, the day came when the elderly man had to leave for one of his monthly trips to the far side of the south of Risalia to collect his food. The Ice Clan villager, due to the circumstances, had to venture out by himself to collect the wood for the fire. Everything was fine, for the most part, until he came back. A neighbour nearby had noticed him dropping the wood at the base of the hearth, and called the other villagers. By this time, a huge crowd had gathered to watch the scene.