CHAPTER ONE

It was a splendid party indeed. The King and Queen treasured and cherished their daughter more than anything else the world had provided them. They took care of her dearly. Nothing was more precious than their beautiful and wonderful daughter. 

No ruby or jewels and diamonds and pearls were as precious as their beautiful darling daughter.  

The princess was protected, nourished, and loved by everyone in the kingdom. She was the heir to the throne of Prestoria and must be protected all her life to lead the kingdom in the future. Prestoria was a great and happy kingdom everyone loved but…not everyone was happy about this.

Not everyone can be happy and satisfied with the success of others, that’s how this world works.

 In another nearby kingdom called Pintraid, was ruled by a wicked and tyrant king. The evil King was the cause of the failure of Pintraid. He terrorized his citizens, caused pain and there was nothing but shedding of tears every day. 

Their world was covered with darkness and people were trying to flee from Pintraid. The king was evilly ambitious. He was extremely jealous of the way Prestoria was becoming more popular and successful every day. 

He even got angrier when they had gotten an heir to their throne. 

“How dare they?!” he would say over and over. 

He had tried to copy the ways of the King of Prestoria but always failed because of the evilness inside him. The King of Prestoria did kind and good things every day but he was a pompous, selfish, and greedy King that thought of him alone. 

So because of this, he thought of a new way to go about it. Instead of becoming better than Prestoria, he would make Prestoria worse than his or even worse, destroy it.  

He laughed evilly at the idea. He wondered why he didn’t think of it after so many years. He was most especially jealous because Pintraid had been around for many years but Prestoria just awoke and it was doing better than them. 

He was full of envy especially with the way Prestoria was succeeding. He wanted to cast it down. He did not care what it would take him but he was bent on making his idea become a reality. 

One fateful day he assembled his royal advisors to give him ideas on how to make his wish to destroy Prestoria come true. It was all he cared about at the time. Royal advisors, royal board members, interpreters, and many more gathered into the castle to collect ideas during their secret meeting. 

Hours and hours passed, the King was not satisfied with any of their ideas. 

“We should kill their heir, if they have no heir! No future!”

The king shook his head at the idea. 

“We can cast a spell on Prestoria and send it far away from our side.”

That is even worse! He thought angrily. 

“We must infest their land with termites and insects so no one will go there anymore!” 

He had no idea his royal advisors were idiots until he called upon them. Fools. 

Nothing was able to satisfy the quench of hatred he wanted to show Prestoria until something came into his mind. He loved the amazing idea that entered his head. He wanted it to be performed right away; if possible. 

A war. As he suggested that, everyone in the throne room gasped. 

Why would they gasp, it’s just a war but it was more than that. The last war hadn’t happened since 1000 years ago and when it did. It remained a bit before the world was destroyed because it was a massive world war and after that, the people of authority banned wars forever because of the fear that another war would completely destroy the world, but that had all been forgotten because the rule stayed strong for only 500 years.  

That was then but things had changed now. 

People had forgotten what happened then and had not learned their lesson. Human beings will never learn their lessons and that was why the magical beings saw humans as the weakest beings living on earth, though they were the most populated beings on earth. 

“Your highness, what you are asking for is…” one of the advisors said but was immediately cut in.

“So are you saying you cannot do that for me? That is what I want and that is what is going to happen!”

They tried to convince him out of it but they had no choice but to follow his orders because of course, he was the King, and not following the King’s orders would only mean one thing for them…trouble. 

He gathered his not-so-noble army and ordered his General to prepare the army for war.  

“Daddy, what is going on?” his little daughter asked pulling a part of his robe. 

He pushed her away. 

“It is none of your concern! Go and play with your toys!”

She cried. “But I want to play with you daddy.”

“You heard me right! Go away!”

His voice was so loud, it made the little girl stumble and fall. She got on her feet in haste and ran from her father, the beast, with tears in her eyes and fear in her heart. 

Ungrateful ingrate. He thought watching the thing his wife left behind in the world take to her heels.

The general didn’t hesitate in following the king’s commands. He was more than happy to do so. 

They practiced for two days straight until the time would come and before they knew it, it did. The night was at its darkest. The night animals crept out of their hiding spots and woke up from their daytime sleep. The crickets began their shifts for noisemaking. 

The full moon shone brightly, spreading its thin white light around the world with the stars by its side, twinkling, and glittering high in the sky. 

Owls, wolves, and bats began to look for their next prey. They were not the only ones looking for prey. So would the Pintraidian army as they would barge into Prestoria. The whole army was ready for the war of ten lifetimes. Nothing would stop them from making sure they would win. 

But of course, they would. Prestoria didn’t stand a chance, they weren’t prepared. A war would be the last thing on anyone’s mind that night. The only thing people of Prestoria would be thinking about is having a nice peaceful sleep. 

The army marched silently towards the gate of Prestoria, marching in strength and working together in silence. Just as they had planned they came from behind and knocked the giant unprotected gate of Prestoria down in a breath.  

The loud sound of the giant door hitting the ground made almost everyone startle awake. It was so loud, even a deaf person would have been affected by it. Dust spread out from the area as they walked in…unnoticed. 

Everyone became alarmed and took their weapons, locked their doors, and hoped to be alright but the chance of them surviving in that kind of situation would be one in a thousand. 

The evil soldiers of Pintraid crashed into the peoples’ houses and killed all the armed men and helpless children. Some of the soldiers took their women and raped them while the children watched in despair before slaughtering their necks off. 

As soon as they gained entrance into the castle, the royal family became alarmed. They had already sent their soldiers out to fight but they would be no match to the over-prepared evil army. 

Even they knew they couldn’t defeat them because they weren’t prepared. Prestoria had never expected such a thing to happen that day. The King was confused, saddened, and scared. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t protect himself speaking of the whole Kingdom.

How can this happen to me? He thought. There was nothing he could do. The royals couldn’t blame him. No one would have expected such a thing to happen on a simple and decent night. 

He had never been so scared and worried in his life. He wasn’t worried about himself but he was worried about his kingdom and his family. He did not know how he would protect them. He had not an idea but he needed to think of something. 

His heart was gripped in fear, his brain was dipped in a pool of confusion and his legs were moving on every little impulse. 

The King carried his daughter giving him a feeble sheepish smile. What can I do? If he couldn’t protect himself or the kingdom, he would try with his whole might to protect her, his sweet daughter. 

The King took no time to get to his great and trusty royal sorcerer with his wife and the royals by his side. 

“Your highness…”

“Say no more Jonathan…here.” The King handed him his most prized possession. Jonathan looked down at the beautiful baby girl then faced the King with a stoic expression on his face. “You know what to do Jonathan.”

“B-but your highness…”

“Go Jonathan, go and do not look back.”

“I…we…I…”

The place they called an asylum which they hoped they would be safe in was broken down. They heard shouting voices outside, amidst the dust, arrows were shot out from the other side to their side. 

Everyone screamed in terror and fear. They knew death was near for them. 

“Go, Jonathan! Go!”

Jonathan wasted no time and ran out faster than he ever ran. 

When the dust cleared a bit, the evil soldiers ran in to attack. The King brought out his sword, ready for a great fight. 

Jonathan ran out of the room, with some of the evil soldiers at his tail but he would obey his King, no looking back, no stopping, no hesitation. He was going to do this because this may be the only chance Prestoria had to be saved. 

Fast on his feet, quick he made a spell. His feet moved faster. He was quicker and was as fast as a cheetah. The soldiers were in awe. They wondered how he moved so fast. There was only one explanation…magic.