1 Chapter one

Chapter One

The night was dark, and the air was cold from the winter growing closer. You could feel the ice forming on my hand made It hard to hold my ax let alone a torch. The town I was coming to was old and smelled like pig crap. As I walked down the street people stared at me, for I am in a cloak made from a bear pelt. I looked like a mad forest hermit walking into town. This wouldn't be far off; I am a prince from the northern kingdom of Masanya.

I am a bit different from the rest of the people all around, when I get pissed off, I tend to lash out at everyone. I'm also extraordinarily stronger than my common men and women. I can lift over six human-sized boulders over my hand and throw them like a ball. I'm a bit on the out-shape side but you can tell I'm solid.

As I am walking down the street, I see this Inn and Tavern at the end of the town. I was heading south and had been walking for at least a whole day. There was a storm coming my way and I needed shelter till it passed by. So, I went to get a room from that INN and was met with the same glares from outside. "Hello, miss tavern keeps can I get a room for this storm," I said as the little lady handed me a key for the room straight up the stairs. I smiled at her and welcomed her but then she said before letting me go. "I must have your first name in my book here." She pointed at her logbook of everyone who's ever stayed at the Inn. I saw only a couple of names in the book, and it was old from what I could see.

As I put my name down, she looked at it and said. "Ah, a Jacob, are you from the north then?" I turned and smiled, "Yes from a village not too far from here, but there's a lot of my name where I come from." I then went to my room after giving her the coins for payment. I sat in a chair near the window when the rain began to hit the roof of the building. The sound of it put me into a deep sleep which was nice and made me feel happy at least for a little bit. I had been traveling for some time and I hadn't rested since my departure from my true home.

As I slept for a short time in the chair, I could hear a commotion downstairs. The tavern keep was being harassed by a couple of bandits. They had come in after the rain stopped for ale and food. The young lady was closing up for the night, but they wanted food and drink. So, they started to make a mess of the tavern. This woke me up from my deep sleep and I was starting to get angry. So, I got up from my chair and headed down.

With every step I took down the stairs could be felt by each of the men downstairs. My face is covered in scars and long dark brown hair. I glared at the guy in front of everyone not saying a word at first. I was still tired and had not woken fully up just yet. The guy I was looking at started to move towards me but stopped when I cracked my neck. The guy pulled a knife on me but he was shaking after grabbing my ax waiting for an excuse. The guy then lunged at me and I blocked with my hand breaking the knife in half. The rest of the bandits saw this and ran off and I was standing over the broken knife laughing at them.

The tavern lady was scared of me after that, she saw how strong I am, and she told me to leave. I knew this was going to happen because it always does. Since I was born with incredible strength and speed like I was some kind of monster. This didn't bother me at all because people are just people you can't do anything to change. So, I left the town in search of somewhere to hide and settle down as my own. I walked for the rest of the day looking forward with my hood over my head.

Then as I thought I was lost I came across a huge city deep in the south where it was warm. I had traveled to the southern kingdom near the coast of the ocean. You could smell the pine trees and ocean mixing together. I looked around the entrance and guards were posted there watching me closely. Then I was on the post wall next to them, so I went up to it. On the wall were hundreds of job requests and help-wanted posts on them. I looked over every one of them till I came across the job for groundskeeper at the castle in which the King lived. I Grabbed the job request from the board and handed it to the guards. "I'm here looking for work of some kind. Would you please let me in?" I asked them and they smirked at me, but they let me in and went straight to the castle.

The building was way bigger than my father's castle and intimidated me at my core. I went up the gate and said loud. "I'm here for the job of groundskeeper!" just as I finished saying that the gate opened up and a couple of guards came out. "You sure you want this job, sir?" One of them said grabbing the request form from me. I shook my head, yes and they took me to a cabin in the back of the castle grounds. The cabin was big and meant for at least a family, but I am here alone with nothing but the fire blazing in the fireplace. This was the first time I ever had a fire next to me in the months I was on the road. It was nice and I was comfortable where I fell asleep for a moment.

Then I heard a knock on the door, I went to the door and saw two guards holding a kid by the back of the shirt. They turned the kid around and I started to smile, "Why did you follow me here little brother?" I said as the kid smiled at me, "I wanted to go with you, so I followed you since you left." He said to me as the guards let him down. I apologized to the guards and told them My brother was not a threat to anyone. They laughed then told me that my shifts start early at first light. My brother smiled then headed into the cabin, "Thank you guys for understanding and letting my brother stay." I said to the guards as they left and headed back to the castle.

"headed to bed and make sure you're up early too, we have work in the morning," I said to my brother who passed out just as he laid down. I stayed up till the light came over the trees behind the cabin then woke up my brother to start the day. He was on the couch in the fireplace room still passed out from his journey following me. I picked up a bowl of cold water and then threw the water on him. He fell off of the couch and on the floor. "Damn it Jacob why do you always wake me up like that." He yelled getting up from the floor grabbing a towel I had waiting for him. "Well Brad you needed to get up, but you never do if I just shake you," I said to him as I started to put on a spare outfit for the groundskeeping job they'd be doing.

A bit after Brad got himself together, he and I went to the castle with my small woodcutting hatchet and Brad had his small dagger. We looked like true commoners going to work, but in truth, we were royalty, or at least for the north. Brad as we walked along the path kept looking at my hair. I had cut it and shaved my face to freshen up my face. Brad smiled, "You look like a father with that haircut brother." I punched him in the shoulder laughing with each other.

we walked all the way to the garden of the castle's courtyard, as they turned to go to the main building, we saw the guards around three people. I saw an older man with two young-looking girls, which one of the girls looked my age and the other looked like my brothers' age. I looked at the older guy and saw the crown on top of his head. I jabbed Brad in the side and said, "It's the King brother." I walked with Brad right up to the king and introduced myself to him.

"Hello, my King, I'm your new Groundskeeper and you can call me Jacob. This is my little brother Brad he's going to be helping me out while I am here." I Said only bowing a bit as Brad bowed too. The King looked at Jacob and then he smiled. "Ah, yes you are the young man my gate guards mentioned this morning. Heard you had long hair and a beard though?" The King said looking at my freshly cut hair. "Oh, yes I had to cut my hair, I was getting really warm and it felt like changing," I Said laughing rubbing my neck. The King laughed, "you seem decent enough to trust, feel free to ask for anything to get the job done." The King said and gave us a list of things for us to do which was only fixing the stable door for the horses. The king turned to the girls and then introduced them to us. "These are my daughters, Annaya and Ella. They are going to be around a lot so make sure you watch out for them." The King said as I looked at the older one which was Annaya. My heart started to beat really fast as she smiled at me, "Hello my princess please to meet you."

Brad bowed and noticed I was blushing, "I must get to work, but it was good to meet you all." I said as we said goodbye and went off to start our list. After we got to the stables they began to work on the door. I checked what was wrong with it and saw the hinges were broken so I asked the King's guards watching us. "Here we need new hinges for the door." I showed the guard the hinges and they grabbed money for us to go get them.

As Brad stayed at the stables, I went with a guard with the broken hinges to either get new ones or fix the old ones. As we went by two-bit shops, I came across one that had a hammer on the sign made from black iron. We walked into the shop and saw a short man with dark brown skin at the front counter. Behind him were well-made weapons, armor, and steel hand tools. The man looked up from the counter and stood straight up. "Jacob, is that you may Cousin?" The guy said running around the counter grabbing me by the shoulders. I looked at the guy closer and saw it was my first Cousin Jarod. "Oh my god, you are my first Cousin Jarod. I thought you went…" I said realizing he said he was going south when he left the kingdom.

The guard looked at us both and wondered for a minute why we were excited to see each other. Then I told the guard we were family and he moved here years after leaving their home. The guard bought what I told him and then I gave Jarod the hinges. "I'm the new groundskeeper and I'm fixing the door to the horse stables. These broke and I was wondering if you could fix these or make new ones." I asked Jarod as he looked at the hinges and saw they were not able to be fixed. They had to make new ones for the doors. So, Jarod went to work and made the hinges and spares in record time. It took only a couple of hours for Jarod to complete them and then he gave Me a new ax he had made the days before.

Jarod gave me the hinges and then said to me and the guard. "you can have these for free, tell the king I'll make all his weapons and other equipment for free. I need some kind of work, all my supplies are going to go bad." He told us as I looked at the old weapons in the back. I took the sword from the guard and then looked at one of Jarod's. I then swung down with the guard's sword and it broke as it hit the ground. I did the same thing to Jarod's sword and it didn't even bend from my full strength. I handed the sword to the guard and then I told Jarod. "You can be sure I'll pass along the message, but can I bring a couple of those laying in the back?" Jarod looked at the crate full of his swords and weapons he made. Jarod smiled, "Take them they're not doing me any good just lying there." I picked up the crate of swords and weapons then left with the Guard back to the stables.

When I was walking the guard looked over his new sword, I gave him in repaying for breaking his old one. "you know I was mad you broke my sword. I worked so hard to buy it at the shop near the castle. when I saw it break so easily and this one didn't break, I was glad you gave me this one. It's really light and balanced plus it looks manly like your new ax." The guy said looking over at my blade then he put his sword back in his sheath. "My name is Justian Rul by the way, I'm in charge of taking the help to get things from in town." I laughed, "Good to finally get your name my friend hope we can be good friends before long." I said as we got to the stables where Brad was waiting for us and was talking with the King and his daughter.

Brad reluctantly told the King I was getting the new hardware for the door. The King saw I had a crate of weapons and wondered what it cost. "see you have new toys for yourself, what did that cost me?" I laughed softly then said. "Funny story is the shop we went to is a Cousin of mine who moved here years ago. He opened a blacksmith shop in an alley, we talked a bit and he gave me all this for free under one stipulation." The King looked at me to finish what the stipulation was. "He wants to be your personal blacksmith for anything you need so he can keep his hands moving." I showed him a Sword and then I gave him the sword. The King swung it and looked pleased then Justian spoke up, "The sword I had, Jacob broke by smashing it on the ground. This one he did the same thing and not even a dent on the whole thing." He gave the King his sword and he inspected it like what he saw. "I guess I'll be getting all my guards his ironwork from now on. I'll even make him a better offer by inviting him to work in my blacksmith shop as the foreman." The king smiled then I went to work replacing the hinges and then I had Brad spot me as I lifted the door back up. I held the door up while Brad nailed the door hinge on and then we tested the door.

It opened and closed perfectly like it was supposed to. They saw me lift the big heavy door with ease then he looked at his daughter. "He just lifted a door the weights like six horses." The King said as I laughed when I overheard him, "Yeah I'm stronger than I look you know." The king laughed with me as the King had me follow him to the training fields with him. Brad came with and The King's daughters followed as well. I came to a huge crowd of soldiers training with practice swords sparring with each other. They all were skilled or at least enough to meet regular standers. I had brought the weapons from the crate and put them in the armory.

The men and women looked over and saw us, peasant-looking groundskeepers, with the King watching them. One of the soldiers was mad for some reason and came to question my brother and me about why we were even being looked at by the King. "Why are these common folks around you my King, why not I company you for a bit." He pointed at me and Brad, this made me angry. For one we weren't common folk, but we couldn't say that because we don't know what might happen if anyone found out. Found out that I was banished from my own kingdom for accidentally killing a general. This fact would make me seem like a monster I know I can be. The guy looked me up and down and with my shirt rolled out I didn't look too intense. So, he challenged me to a fight, this confused everyone. One moment we were talking and then I found myself in a fight.

I looked at Brad and then accepted the fight anyways. "Alright, don't know why you want to fight me but let's do it. I need a good workout since that door was the only thing I had today." I took off my shirt and gave my weapons to Brad. The guy went with a dagger and I let him because I wanted to test myself with the southern soldiers.

I got into my defensive stance and then waited for the guy to attack. The guy came at me but slow like he had lead feet. I quickly grabbed the dagger and then crushed it in my hand. The guy got angry with me then pulled out his sword. He thrust it at me and I caught it with my hand then he backed off. I was still holding the sword thinking about breaking it but gave it back. "How strong are you actually? You make that guy look like he's a novice at combat."

The King said to me as I turned to him and was struck in the back of the head. The King saw my eyes turn purple like a demon or something and Brad jumped over everyone and got in my way. "Brother let it go, don't kill him please," Brad said as he made the guy get on his knees. "If you don't apologize, he might kill you," Brad said to him as I started to get closer to the guy. The King watched Me as I got closer, the guards all jumped to help the guy, but Brad told them to stop.

"If you hit him in the face or back to the head, he goes berserk on anyone. Only a few can snap him out of it and I'm one of them." I stood there for who knows how long till I heard Annaya's voice behind me. "Please forgive that idiot he didn't mean to attack you like that." She said and my mind went numb and my eyes turned back to my normal blue. I turned to her and I got to my knees, "I'm sorry please forget about this incident." I said almost crying to their feet, The King lifted me up and then said. "Son you came back on your own and you didn't kill anyone. Plus, it was his fault for choosing a cowardly attack, he'll be punished for this." He said as I feared the worst for the guy, "No, that's quite alright, he can be let go. I have no quarrel with this man."

After that whole thing at the field, we headed to the cabin where I spent the whole afternoon reading a book I found. It was about the history of families of the kingdoms, the Eastern, the Western, the Empire of Nail, and the Southern Kingdom. I looked over the whole book twice and it never talked about the Northern Kingdom much. The only thing it mentioned was that they were all blood-thirsty evil warriors. Which I laughed a bit saying out loud, "Yeah no" which Brad was just coming into the cabin. "Brother, let's spar outside it's so nice out." He asked me to spark my flame of a good battle. "Sure, let's go,"