Book 8: The Holy Stone The Kid Emperor of Occultoria

Chapter 5 - The Search Begins

A peasant's life anywhere in the Empire was hard and arduous, but a peasant's life in the Province of Magicka was even harder, since the duration and severity of the seasons were wild and unpredictable.

For you see, 85% of the people in the Peasants/Commoners Category in the Occultorian Empire's Order of Precedence were farmers and as such, they had to get up at the crack of dawn and begin the gruelling task of tilling the land or sowing seeds or reaping the harvest, depending on the season.

It was boring monotonous backbreaking work day in and day out, from sun up to sun down.

The only respite was the celebration of special holidays, usually church-mandated holidays or special harvests.

That year during the spring, a peasant farmer named Borin was in his field on the remote outskirts of Travers preparing for the spring harvest of pineberries, white strawberries that taste like pineapples. In the Natural World, they are nearly extinct, but in the Supernatural World, they are the most abundant kind of berries.

Borin was a quiet, conservative, reserved and resilient man. He had the gauntness and weathered skin of a young sprightly 160 year-old who had worked the land all his life. A deeply devout man with faith in yet fear of the Gods, he was hardworking and punctual, rising with the sun and retiring to bed long after the sun had retired to its own.

That day, he was picking berries along with his wife, Gilda, a stick-thin woman, and his young daughter, a little blonde girl in a blue dress named Alice.

Now, Alice was a curious girl who loved adventure, but she found life on the farm tedious and redundant.

She had been picking pine berries from the vines and dropping them into her basket for the past two hours when she decided she couldn't take it anymore.

"Daddy," she whined. "This is so boring."

Her father turned around, the sun illuminating his face. "Honey, this is what we do. We are peasant farmers, working for the Count of Magicka, who in turn works for the Duchess of Magicka, who in turn - when she decides to rejoin the Empire - works for the Emperor of Occultoria. We don't get to choose our stations in life. We are simply born into it."

Alice sighed. "I wish I could go to some strange yet magical land, some sort of Wonderland and just escape."

Her father knelt down and put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "Honey, we are in some sort of strange and magical land. This is the Supernatural World."

"Then why can't we have more fun?" she asked. "Working on the farm is so boring."

Her face grew excited as she pointed to something in the horizon. "Like that rabbit there. I think he's holding some kind of stopwatch. I think he's late, late for a very important date."

In the near distance, a white rabbit with long ears was hurrying toward some kind of hole in the ground, all the while muttering, "I'm late. I'm late. Late for a very important date."

Then, it disappeared into the hole.

Her father started to say something, but then stopped.

For in the horizon, something was lumbering toward the the farm from down Mount Jolie in the background.

It was like there was a mini earthquake.

The shakes and stomps rattled the field, even shaking some pineberries from their vines.

Alice watched as the rocky creature approached.

Her heart did a backflip when she realized his face was covered in scars.