Adventures in Moonlit Valley: Book One--The Protector of the Realm

The King and his Round Table

Marco found himself breathing heavy in fear as he walked the windy halls of the King's castle. Marco on the battlefield was a ruthless and brutal warrior that showed no trace of fear, but when he's the one that has to deliver bad news to the King he doesn't fear death but the torture that comes before it. He comes to the end of a long, dark corridor and finds himself standing before a giant wooden door. He sighs heavily in fear as he knocks on the door.

"Come in!" he hears from within the rom.

Marco opens the door to see King Klawr standing at a large metal table discussing battle plans with the Realmling Chieftan.

"Marco, what brings you here?" Klawr asked curiously without looking up from the map laid out in front of him. "I thought I sent you and your best men to search for the chosen ones."

"You di my lord."

"Then why are you here?" his curious tone turning to anger.

"Because we found them my lord." Klawr looked up. "But we lost them."

"WHAT!" Klawr yelled. "How did you lose two young kids?"

"One of them my lord," He coughed nervously. "Is the..."

"The what Marco? Spit it out!"

"One of them is the...protector of the realm."

Klawr then stopped what he was doing and looked over at Marco who was now sweating perfusely.

"You think your funny huh?" Klawr said, walking over towards Marco, he then slammed him up against the wall. "If you think your little joke is funny then maybe I'll give you an all expensed trip to the torture chamber."

"It's not a joke my lord." Marco said.

"Prove it." Klawr replied.

"My gift my lord is to show my memories through the eyes of someone else." Marco replied.

Klawr leaned in and Marco put his hands on his temples and his memories became his. Klawr saw Marco on the top of that mountain with his men, Pacchi and the chosen ones. He saw Marco get shot, test his army and get hit by one of his soldiers which turned out to be Pacchi's granddaughter. When Marco was about to kill her, Klawr saw the eyes of the boy light up and punch the air while yelling the ancient language of their land. The memory eneded.

"That's it?" Klawr asked. "Anybody with an incn's worth of magic can bend the elements."

"But his eyes lit up my lord, and he was yelling the ancient language that nobody has spoken for millions of years."

The king put his hand on his chin and thought silently for a minute.

"Call a meeting and I want you two and my other advisors in the council hall immediately. I want to discuss what we're to do about this."

Within an hour all of Klawr's closest advisors were in the council hall.

"My friends, I woule like to thank you for meeting me at my Round Table so to speak."

"No problem," A Realmling the name of Fralk said. "But why are we here in the middle of the night?"

"As you may have heard from me earlier in the past few days, the chosen ones were probably in Moonlit Valley," He paused, his advisors made up of Realmlings and humans nodded. "Well they're here for sure and..."

"And what?" another advisor asked.

"One of them is the protector of the realm."

The room burst out into yelling. When Klawr couldn't calm them down with his voice he pulled out his sword and stabbed it through the table making a loud screeching noise.Everyone stopped yelling and looked at their king.

"Are you kidding me!" Fralk yelled. "You brought us all the way out here for a joke!"

"I felt the same way when I first heard the news." Klawr said. "Marco, show them."

"Everyone join hands." he said.

When everyone joined hands Marco put his hands on Klawr's temples once again and the memories from Klawr's head to his advisors. When the memories stopped everyone was speechless.

"What do we do?" Fralk asked.

"We kill the child before he knows how to harvest the power." The Chieftan said.

"But he is with Pacchi." Another advisor stated. "He will learn how to use the power within a matter of weeks, and with that and the rebels...we're in for a war we might not win."

"We will win!" Klawr yelled. "I want every soldier I have here by yesterday and I want them to train and to be ready for anything! Recruit soldiers from other Realms if you have to! I will not let thousands of years of me ruling and conquering go down the drain. Especially when I'm this close to conquering all of it."