5 3.5

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Saying goodbye to everyone in the village was sad, but it felt right at the same time. Now I would finally be able to meet my real family and I was so excited. But I will always be grateful to Nehemia for looking after me for six years.

"Goodbye, everyone!" I waved goodbye to them as Nehemia and I headed back toward the stream.

My eyes almost burst out of their sockets at the sight of the pegasus standing before me. Although I had seen drawings of them in my textbooks from the village, the real pegasus were much more beautiful than the drawn ones. With giant elegant wings. pristine white hair and a much sturdier build than the average horse, they were definitely creatures to be admired.

"Are you ready to go?" My uncle asked me. I nodded eagerly. With that, he climbed up onto his pegasus. When Nehemia started walking to her pegasus, I instinctively followed her, but my uncle Cassian stopped me by taking hold of my hand.

"No, come ride with me instead." He grinned down at me. He then hoisted me up onto the pegasus and seated me in front of him.

"Let's go." He swiftly tugged on the pegasus's reins which immediately made it spread out its large wings and then trotted a few meters before taking off into the air. The lift-off made my body jerk backward and press into my uncle. It was a little embarrassing but my uncle just patted my head and told me not to worry about it.

Flying by pegasus was awesome. The Pegasus was really a majestic creature who flew surprisingly smoothly in the air. Furthermore, the view from way up in the sky was amazing. The further we flew, the scenery got more and more beautiful. From the forest to lush open fields and huge lakes. Everything excited me and I couldn't help myself from laughing and pointing.

Sights I had never seen before and experiencing things for the first time. I made the right choice to reincarnate.

"Ahh, that's right. You've never left the forest before." My uncle reasoned from behind me. "No wonder these shabby views amaze you." He teased.

"Shabby?" I asked, almost offended on behalf of the green hills we were flying over.

"Wait until you see Azlantean. It's the most beautiful kingdom on Bragon. I guarantee you, these views pale in comparison to our kingdom." He chuckled.

"Umm... is it alright if I call you uncle?" I asked as the thought popped into my head.

"With pleasure." He replied with a content smile on his face.

"May I call you Torryn?" He asked.

"Please do, Uncle." I smiled back up at him. He ruffled my white hair affectionately.

I turned my head around to look back at our fleet of pegasus. I waved at Nehemia who was riding alongside the other knight with the long blond hair, I think I heard one of the other knights call her Twila.

The rest of the way we flew in silence. I watched the scenery change from great grassy hills to beachfront until finally in the distance I saw the outline of a huge city against the sky.

"Is that it?" I asked as I poked at Uncle Cassian's armoured sleeve.

"Yes, that is our Kingdom."

Even from far away, I heard a strange rumbling sound coming from the direction of Azlantean. As we got closer the noise only got louder and louder. I was frowning and wondering what it was until I finally saw what was going on.

From far away I could just make out the figures of hundreds of thousands of people jumping and cheering as our Pegasus flew closer to them.

As we got closer to Azlantean, the people's figures became clearer and their volume increased immensely.

Besides the people, my uncle was right, the Kingdom was absolutely magnificent. It was built on top of a huge mountain and the kingdom spanned the entirety of my vision from the top of the mountain to well into the flat land and valley surrounding it, some of the Kingdom was built on the huge lake that connected to a river that flowed to somewhere beyond the kingdom.

"Why are there so many people out there?" I asked Uncle Cassian as I looked down at them wondering what all the fuss could be about.

"This is all for you." He chuckled. "The people came out here to welcome home their prince, of course." I looked up at him to confirm whether he was serious or not. He had a wide grin on his face but he looked sincere.

"This is all for me?" I asked as I looked down at the masses of people cheering for me, I had never seen so many people gather in one space before. As the pegasus started to descend to the ground. I saw that the people were waving royal blue and silver flags. A group of women were holding up a large white banner that read 'Welcome home Prince Rosenheim'

"This is incredible..." I whispered as I looked down at all the people cheering and clapping as we flew over them. They were all smiling and waving up at me like they were so happy to see me. I had honestly never felt so appreciated before. Back in high school, I was the weird sickly kid who was always coughing at the back of the class. People tended to stay away from me because they were afraid of catching my disease, so that made making friends really hard for me. But here an entire kingdom of people was cheering for me and looked happy to see me.

"Get ready to land Torryn." Uncle Cassian warned me as he began to tug on the reins of the pegasus.

"Okay!" I turned around and put my arms around his waist and held on tight. Uncle Cassian ruffled my hair affectionately again.

The pegasus then stretched out its long white wings and began to swiftly glide down to the landing spot.

We landed in the middle of a long and wide stone-paved walkway that led to what looked like the palace gates. On each side of the walkway, the crowds were cheering and waving at me. There were also knights and guards already waiting on each side of the walkway preventing the crowds from stepping onto it.

"Prince Rosenheim Welcome home!" Some people in the crowd shouted.

"Prince Rosenheim over here!" Someone else shouted. "How was your journey? What are your thoughts on reuniting with the total family?"

"We love you, prince Rosenheim!" I heard someone shriek very loudly but from right behind me. I turned around to see that it had been Twila, the pretty knight with blonde hair. I waved awkwardly at her, not knowing how to respond. I noticed that all the other knights, particularly Nehemia and a knight with dark blue eyes were glaring at her coldly.

My uncle helped me off of the pegasus and set me down on the ground.

"Lead the way, we will follow behind you." He said encouragingly as he gave me a little nudge forward. I took in deep breaths and started walking forward. I felt so awkward with all of the people staring at me that I suddenly had a lot of sympathy for runway models who had to walk with hundreds of people staring at them. However, my nerves quickly went away because the crowd kept cheering me on. They were really supportive and whistled and clapped and threw embroidered handkerchiefs at me. I thought I should do a little crowd service so I decided to wave at the people as I walked. That small action seemed to really pump them up as they started cheering even louder and even more embroidered handkerchiefs were thrown at me.

I relaxed a little bit when I turned around and I saw my uncle walking a few meters behind me, and the other knights a few meters behind him.

I eventually reached the elaborate silver gates that marked the entrance to a ginormous hall. I noticed the huge carvings of silver lions on each side of the large gates. The two guards there bowed and opened the gates for me.

As I stepped inside I was treated by a luxurious-looking golden hall, with royal blue material banners hung from the walls and an unending blue carpet that stretched all the way to the end of the hall. Each side of this great golden hall was also filled with people, but I noticed that the people here were all considerably better dressed than the people outside. Perhaps these people were nobles or wealthy people and the people outside were commoners, I didn't know. All I knew was that I had to keep walking.

As we walked past them, the well-dressed people either bowed or curtseyed to me.

At the very end of the hall I could just make out two figures, but as we got closer, I could see them better and I realized who they were. Standing there was a man and a woman. The man was tall with long black hair with golden-amber eyes, staring at me. He wore magnificent royal blue robes with golden sashes across his chest.

The woman who stood next to him was stunningly beautiful with frosty white hair like mine and light blue eyes. Even though I had never met them before I could tell who they were. My mother and father, the king and queen.

I was suddenly filled with joy and excitement and I couldn't help but pick up my pace. I wanted to meet them I wanted to hug them. They were my parents and I was just so eager to be with them.

My parents were standing on the steps in front of a large golden throne.

Finally, I had walked the distance and there were just a few paces between us. My uncle and the other nights stopped behind me and kneeled down on the floor with their right arms across their chests. I wondered if I was supposed to do the same so I looked up at my parents.

My mother was smiling down at me with tears in her eyes while my father looked very stoic and honourable but he still had a warm inviting gaze towards me. My father then stretched out a big ringed adorned hand towards me, I reached up and took it gladly. Before I knew it I was hoisted up into his arms and pressed against his chest, the action made me laugh and smile wider than I had ever smiled. it was great to have a dad.

My father held me in front of him and smiled slightly at me.

"Welcome home my son." He said against the top of my head. I felt my mother's hand stroke my hair and I heard her sobbing softly against my shoulder. I turned my head to see that she was smiling and crying at the same time. She then leaned forward and gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek.

"Oh look at you, you're so grown up already..." she whispered sadly.

"Don't worry about what we've lost, let's only think about the happy times that are yet to come." My father's tone was surprisingly gentle when he talked to my mom.

I guessed that he was one of those really gruff and stern types unless he was talking to his beloved wife, which I thought was kind of endearing.

The people in the hall began to clap and cheer for us. They began to chant as well.

"All hail King Rosenheim!"

"All hail Queen Rosenheim!"

"All hail Prince Rosenheim!"

Finally, I was where I was meant to be. I was going to live the life I was meant to have and I was going to enjoy it to the fullest.