1 Ch. 1

"Awake now!" I heard my mother yell "You wouldn't want to miss your first trip to the capital, would you?". I opened my eyes, excited for this new day and hopped out of my bed. As I got ready for the day, my father knocked on my door "Come, Klay, you need to hurry, we need to be off in a few short hours, yet" I looked over and said with a grin "Yes, Dad, I'm so excited for today!". I walked out into our humble kitchen to see the meal my mother had prepared for my father and I, blue oats and bull sausage with eggs, a meal fit for a king I thought. After gorging down my mothers breakfast, I gave her a hug, and went to help my father pack. We loaded the wagon with silver and gold, with food and artisan goods, all the things that would be our taxes to the capital. Although you are meant to pay in coin, my father, the village head, often accepted goods that the farmers and artisans produced in their stead, as our village was very poor. As a result, my father must stay in the capital for sometimes weeks just to sell the goods so he can submit the tax money to the lord. This was my first year going with him to the capital. The city was named Gratis, after lord Gratis, and represented one of the 7 great cities. It is said that the Gratis family was the most charitable of the great families, and the first king had single handedly taken down Juero, the evil god of greed, and upon plundering his stolen riches, used it to construct the city to house the refugees of the great war.

As my father and I finished packing, kiss and hugged my mother goodbye, and took off toward the capital. Though normally you would need to lead your horses, ours had been to the capital so much that they knew the way. Our horses were named May and Fo, and they were the pride of the village. Despite being magic creatures, my father tamed them by hatching them and raising them from infancy. May had brown fur, but a blue and orange mane. She was very smart, and was able to use magic to recover her stamina, meaning she could go for days without ever feeling tired. Fo had dark blue fur on his upper part, with light blue on his belly, with a shiny black mane. He could cast a spell which intimidates nearby creatures, making it so we didn't have to worry about bandits or monsters along the way. Although May and Fo were technically wild animals, I loved them both like family, and so did my father, who had raised them now for 20 years. He said he captured the eggs when he was a young adventurer in his teenage years, and apparently fighting off their mother, who had been terrorizing this very town, granting him leadership upon her defeat. My father was, in my eyes, the biggest and strongest man in the whole kingdom, maybe even the world. As we set off toward the Capital, I asked my father "Hey Dad, how long does it take to get there?" my father scratched his scruff "Well, it all depends on how the weather fares. Should the travel remain under this beautiful weather, and given we make no stops, we should be there by tomorrow morning".

I spent the day talking to my father about the capital, asking him questions to no end. "So dad, where did the evil god that Melfont Gratis defeated come from? Did it always exist?" He smiled and said "Well, it's a bit of a long story, so strap in. Long ago, the great old God, whose name is forgotten to history, created 9 beings to populate this world, but made a mistake, as collectively, they were more powerful than him. The first two gods were Deftr and Ecks, the world trees. Deftr was evil, and created the monsters of the world, but Ecks was good, and created the noble beings of the world, like you and me, but just because Deftr created the monsters doesn't make all monsters bad, nor does it make all noble creatures good, just look at May and Fo, they are monsters, yet they are good, and there are bandits, which are humans like us, but they are bad." As I tried to wrap my seven year old brain around all this, he continued "So, he had created 7 more gods after the trees of life, and they built the world, creating the land, filling the oceans, putting blue in the sky, and finally, filling the world with life. In the end, 7 of the gods had grown jealous of the great gods love for his creatures, and told Deftr to make the monsters to kill all of Ecks children. Deftr, knowing no emotion, quickly submitted to them. A great war ensued, lasting thousands of years. It didn't end until the 7 heros defeated those 7 evil gods, but not before they had killed the great old god and sealing away his body deep within the world and it is the decay of his body that floods the world with magicules."

I looked at him, confused "What are magicules?" I asked. He looked at me, took a deep breath, then laid the palm of his right hand face up, before reciting an incantation in a language I had never heard, then suddenly, a flame appeared about an inch above his hand. "You see this" pointing below the flame "these are magicules" small blue particles could be seen appearing and disappearing below the flame. "Magicules are the active particles of magic. They grow and divide over time, and are so small, you can't see them. They hold onto an energy called Mana that's used up when casting spells, like this. If there is a high mana density in the magicules around, you can cast a bunch of spells no problem, but if there isn't, it's really hard. In that case, you need to use the mana stored in your body, if you have any." Pretending I know half of what he was talking about, I asked "But how do you store mana in your body?". Sighing, he said "Don't you think that's enough questions for today, Klay? Try practicing some magic instead how about?" He grabbed onto my hand and told me an ancient verse for a simple spell "Activos Lan". As I said the spell aloud, I felt him push energy from his hand into mine, and suddenly a fire appeared. As he let go of my hand, the fire vanished. "Where did it go?" I asked. "The spell needs you to direct the mana. You felt that energy? That's called internal mana and you spend a small bit of it to direct and maintain the spell, then the mana inside the magicules does the rest, but it still takes focus and practice".

Elated, I spent the whole day practicing the spell. Eventually, I had actually summoned a flame on my own. "I'm impressed, Klay, usually that takes a while to nail down. I'd expect no less of a prodigy from my lineage" He said, laughing hard at his own joke. Smiling, and in hopes to impress him more, I increased the size of the flame, bigger and bigger until...

I woke up in a daze, it was dark outside the cabin, and my father was asleep in his chair. "What happened?!" I yelled. My father woke up abruptly, looking around and finally coming to his senses. "Boy, calm down" he said "You overdid yourself and passed out is all. Just don't overdo it in the future and you'll be fine". He leaned back in his chair and fell asleep once more. Tired still, I drifted off to sleep, but awoke not a few hours later by my father telling me to look outside. There I saw it, illuminated by the rising sun: Gratis City.