Divided Nation

Heart of The Land

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys this," Kyxio admitted as we were escorted towards a temporary camp to the west, "I didn't want my identity to go out, and I had to keep it a secret anyways so."

     "Who are you kidding?" I replied, hitting him in the shoulder," This is great news. You've been a king this entire time?"

      "Not a king," Kyxio replied as we got onto horses to where the soldiers described was their 'hideout', "I was a prince until I got about 15 years old. Then the Uprising broke out."

      "Things were looking pretty good until the Battle Of The Hammer," Kyxio continued, "My father wanted me to flee the castle, but the Heart really was the safest place I could be at the time. After all, it had never been taken for 300 years."

      "But when Windseeker fell," Kyxio finally finished, "my father had no choice. We had to keep an heir alive somewhere. He gave me the royal coin when I left. I slipped out of the gates in the dark, with nothing but the coin and directions to where my father said was a safe place for me to stay until I came of age to claim the throne back. A month later, the Heart fell for the first time in 300 years and my entire family was killed."

      "I'm sorry," Alexia consolidated, "It must have been hard for you to keep your identity secret for all these years."

      "Don't worry guys," He said with a smile, "I'm always Blue Kingdom at heart. No matter what."

      His words warmed my heart and I realized that we were two kings that both had our thrones stolen. And we would get them back.

       "We've arrived, my raiglar," The rider ahead of us said in traditional central plain language "Welcome to our humble establishment."

      It was more of a camp than a castle, but that was to be expected. Ever since the Uprising, there were very few stone castles in the central plains after Louis marched his armies down. Now, most of the population were rag band horsemen, wandering the land and setting up temporary camps very similar to the one in front of us.

      It was a neat row of tents, with a brief wooden pike wall around it. There were horses grazing the grass outside and a couple guards guarding the entrance to the camp, but other than that, there was no signs of soldiers anywhere. The small force that had caught us must have been the only sort of military that these nomads had.

     The lead rider rode out in advance to warn them of our arrive- of Kyxio's arrival, and they were all awaiting eagerly at the front of the camp. Most of them were just shocked, not having a monarchy for close up to 10 years now and most of them never have seen royalty before. A couple of them cheered, but most of them just looked and Kyxio with sullen eyes and blank stares. Probably thought it was his fault that they were forced to live this nomadic lifestyle.

     "My raiglar," The leader said, pulling back up, "You'll be safe here until we manage to escort you to the Heart. We'll throw a feast tonight in your honour, but we can't spare much food with the war brewing."

     "No, its fine," Kyxio declined, "We brought our own food with us. We need to ration our supplies now that the war has broken out. Until we regain Hayden his throne, we will not be throwing any feasts."

     "As you say, raiglar," The leader said, pulling away on his horse.

      "Please call me Kyxio," He said sheepishly, "And your name, soldier?"

       "Fons, sir," The soldier said, swelling with pride in his saddle.

       "Fons, get the people ready and send out messengers," Kyxio commanded, "Tell them that the King is back. And awaiting them at the Heart. We leave tomorrow."