Bound To; The Wish of the Witch

Prologue

Long ago, a little girl was born with an affinity to magic. Orphaned after the neighboring tribe sacked her family's camp, she lived alone and had to take care of herself. The girl learned to use her magic to build a new home over the ruins of her old camp, transform tattered rags to fine silk clothing, grow new kinds of delicious food the land had never seen before, and even produce the purest of water from nothing.

She was able to live comfortably, but she was still alone and wished for someone to play with and enjoy everything she had made with. Using her magic, she created her own friend, a friend who loved to play and have fun, who could be anything it wanted to be, and could always be there for her no matter where she went. The girl and her new friend would play all sorts of games every day and for the first time in a long time, she was happy.

One day, a traveling refugee came across the girl's home and was captivated by its beauty and serenity. The traveler asked her if she would be so kind as to let him stay in her land. Her creation protested, saying that nothing good would come from allowing others into their home and getting in the way of their games. The girl agreed and rejected the traveler. He pleaded with her to allow him to stay. Her creation stood by its words, but the girl couldn't stand how sad she had made the traveler by rejecting him. Against her creation's wishes, she granted him permission to stay and with an elegant wave of her hand, a lovely home by the nearby river seemed to appear from nowhere for the traveler to live in. Overcome with joy, the traveler asked if he could have others live with them on her land. She really enjoyed how happy she had made the traveler and warmly welcomed more people to live there. She built more homes for them as they arrived. She was absolutely delighted by making all of these new people so happy.

Over time, a small village had formed around the girl's home and had become a popular place for travelers to visit. New people brought new cultures, foods, plants, animals, clothing, art, and all manner of things from every corner of the land. Seeing that there was no real fair way for the people to trade with all the travelers coming in and out, the girl took up handfuls of mere pebbles and turned them to coins of glistening gold. She gave everyone in the village equal shares of gold coins to trade for whatever they desired. The village prospered, eventually turning into an expansive city with her home, now a magnificent castle, at its center.

Other small villages began to sprout in nearby lands and flourished alongside the city. Schools and churches were built in every town and village to spread various teachings from the girl, now a beautiful young woman. Her people saw her as an idol and adored her for her kindness, wisdom, and beauty. A fantastic kingdom had been born from her magic and was named after her in honor of her greatness.

Years passed, the woman, as queen, was loved by all for her generosity, for her gentle nature, and for her genuine love for her people. Loved by all except for one. The friend she created so that she would never be alone had been pushed aside and forgotten. Envious of what the queen had, her creation concocted a cunning plan to bring her away from it all, so they could play in peace, just like they used to. In a land far away, it built a dark, towering castle, shadowing the queen's.

While the queen was asleep in the night, her creation, disguising itself as the queen, began raining fire and destruction from above in a hailstorm of chaos onto the kingdom's capital. Being the only person known by her people to possess such power, the citizens had no choice but to blame their queen for the cataclysm her creation had left in its wake. In anger and in panic, the people flooded the queen's castle to make her pay for her crimes. With all her power, the queen simply couldn't find it within herself to harm any of them.

She ran, in fear for her life, she ran from her castle, from her kingdom being chased by the people she loved with everything she had. Unable to understand why this was all happening to her, she ran with tears in her eyes, only to be alone once more. As planned, her creation showed itself and offered to take the former queen to a new castle where she would be safe from the angry people. She was thankful to the friend whom she had not listened to and forgotten about. She pleaded her creation for forgiveness with tears. It immediately accepted her apologies telling her that it would stay with her always and keep her safe from all people who wished to do her harm. Now in fear of the outside world, the former queen stayed locked within her new castle with her only remaining friend.

Centuries passed and people had begun hunting and executing people with magical abilities to keep the land safe. It was said that the sorcerer queen still resided within her dark castle since all of the magic barriers, charms, and traps remained intact throughout the ages. No one had seen her for such a long time, however the persisting magic proved to be enough evidence to the people that she was still alive. Eventually, people simply moved away from the dark castle and went on with their lives elsewhere, however their hatred for those of a magical persuasion carried onward throughout the generations. The land around the castle, left barren and unkempt, became tainted with the sorceress's magic, giving life to all kinds of magical creatures and abominations that went on to roam the world unguided and alone.

The kingdom remained, never renamed in an attempt to cling to the prosperity of its golden age, as a ghost of its ancient, former self.

Bound to; Lost Memories

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Thanks for reading my work! I know it wasn't much for right now but soon, I'm hoping to post the first three chapters together. I hope you come back and enjoy the rest of my story.

By the way, as I am not a professional writer, I will admit that some of my formatting and punctuation may be incorrect. With that said, I would very much appreciate you letting me know if I did something incorrectly. I love this story very much and want to do the best job I can with it.

Thanks again and I hope to see you next time when our story actually begins!