Arc 1: A Child from Firden

Chapter 1: The Boy Named Samuel

The old man opened his eyes and looked around. He saw an incredible world around him. It was a beautiful world. It was similar to many gardens he had been in before. There were flowers, trees, and grasses of innumerable quantities. The sky was blue with not a cloud in sight. There was an ambience of tranquillity.

A path led through all the flowers and trees which led to a mansion. The mansion looked old, but it was still in incredible shape. It reminded him of the house he wanted when he was a kid. He wasn’t born rich, and he used to dream of having a house like this. This made him rather happy.

As the old man walked around he found that his body had changed.

“I guess I’m not so old after all.” The old man said.

His body had become youthful again. He jumped up in amazement and happiness. However, there was one thing missing. He scanned all over for that missing thing, until finally his eyes rested upon her.

A beautiful woman sat by the patio of the mansion. Her long blonde hair rested on her shoulders and she held a peaceful smile. She was looking at a picture gallery of their wedding. The man teared up just looking at her. The second she saw him she began to run towards him with tears in her eyes. They shared an embrace filled with love and true happiness. As they shared their embrace he felt in his head that this was true bliss, and that he would happily spend eternity with this woman.

Time seemed to fly in paradise. Every day passed by quickly and joyfully. During this time the man had found out about many things. He realised that just by thinking about what weather he wanted it to be it would change to that weather, and if he ever wanted a material item he would simply have to think it, and it would appear in front of him. However, a material item was nothing when compared to the true beauty of paradise.

In his previous life the man had been an avid outdoorsman. He had walked on many mountains, walked many long hikes, and was a passionate environmentalist. And yet, even with his vast experience of seeing beautiful picturesque scenes in nature he had never experienced as beautiful a place as this paradise. The trees, the rivers, the lakes. It all came together like an orgasmic constellation of true natural beauty. With such beauty you’d imagine that the man would get used to it, but the sight never got old to him.

Even with all of this together the man still had one concern. The red eyed baby. Perhaps there was some sort of parental instinct that made him feel uncomfortable having left the baby behind, or maybe there was something else. Ever since he saw the baby he felt a strange connection to it. He just wanted to know if the baby was all right. He looked up towards the sky and saw the two suns that lit up the paradise.

‘Perhaps he is out there somewhere. In a different universe or dimension.’ The man thought ‘Maybe the baby had been born again, and will be loved again.’

A voice suddenly broke his thought.

“George! What do you want to eat?” His wife asked.

The man, or George, smiled at the sight of his wife. Even with the baby gone he would never, ever, regret his decision of choosing paradise.

“Honey.” He said “I would eat rocks if it made you happy.”

Somewhere in a different dimension entirely there was a planet, and on that planet there was a country called Aegria. Within Aegria there was a town called Firden. It was a quaint little village. It was placed within the grasslands of the country, but there was a small forest just by the side of it. Rivers coming from the mountains provided the town with clean water.

On one summer morning there had been a strange occurrence in Firden. A baby had been born with red eyes! The mother and the father both had brown eyes, so a baby being born with red eyes was rather peculiar.

The strange baby had been born into the Terret household, where he was given the name Samuel. The Terret household was one of the richer families within Firden. They were known for their connections to one of the noble houses in the capital.

Samuel was lucky to have been born in a family such as this. Any other family might have thrown out a baby with red eyes, as red could be sound of evil or malevolence, but the Terret family took the opposite approach. They boasted about how their son had beautiful red eyes, and showed him often, as if he were a prize of some sort. Somehow the Terret family’s openness and willingness to show off Samuel caused the rest of the town to no longer worry about Samuel. If anything, he had become a minor celebrity.

As time passed the celebrity status of Samuel began to fade and his life began to get more normal. He was just a little child living happily with his parents. His red eyes had simply become a physical feature, and he was no longer judged by them.

One morning Samuel lay peacefully in his bed. Suddenly a sound was heard outside. It was their neighbours annoying rooster again. The rooster had some problems with its understanding of the day and night cycle and it would often crow at random times during the night. However, for once, the rooster actually crowed right when morning came.

The second Samuel heard the rooster he jumped out of bed, already fully dressed. With a big smile on his face he ran towards the door of his room. He did a little jump to reach the handle and managed to open the door. His red eyes glistened with mischief as he ran across the empty halls of his house.

Eventually at the end of the hall he reached the final room. He opened the door in a similar fashion as how he opened his bedroom door. This revealed the sight of his parent’s bedroom, with his parents still snoozing on the massive bed. A gleam of light flashed across his red eyes as he ran and jumped right on top of the body of his father.

“PAPAA! MAMAA!” Samuel squealed out.

“Uuughh.”

Both of his parents groaned simultaneously.

“Leave us alone! It’s too early!” Samuel’s father said playfully.

“NOOO! It’s my birthday!” Samuel exclaimed while giggling as his father tickled him.

Samuel’s parents eventually managed to get out of bed and got dressed. They marched together towards the kitchen. The entire time Samuel was singing about his birthday. His parents exchanged smiles at the sight of their happy son.

They all sat down at the dining table. The light shone from the windows, revealing the happy family in all its glory.

Samuel’s mother was called Evelina. She was the most beautiful woman in all of Firden. She had bright brown eyes, light freckles, and ginger hair. However, while she looked lean and frail she was truly a devil when she got angry; at least from the perspective of Samuel.

Samuel’s father was rather different from Evelina. He was called Richard, and had the true body and look of an honourable knight. He was a large man, standing at an impressive 190 centimetres tall, and while he had gained a bit of weight after he stopped working in the army he still had his strong cheekbones and generally handsome look. He currently worked as a guard in the town.

Richard and Evelina were a typical love story. They grew up together in Firden, but grew distant when Richard went to leave for the army. Several years later they saw each other by pure coincidence in the capital city, they hit it off again and the rest was history.

“Samuel! Guess what present papa got you?” Richard said excitedly.

“WHAT! A present? For me?” Samuel reacted hysterically to the concept of getting a present.

“Before we do that shouldn’t we sing happy birthday?” Evelina said.

In unison Evelina and Richard began to sing the happy birthday song. Samuel tried to sing along, but it was a bit too difficult for him to follow the words.

After the song was finished Samuel had become even more restless.

“I want my present…” He mumbled.

“Yes, yes. Here it is.” Richard handed the present to him “It’s your sixth birthday so I thought you should have something special.”

Samuel inspected the present and looked at it for a while. Suddenly he realised what it was. It was a sword. But it was not just any other sword, it was a model after his favourite book character called Python slayer Warwick. Samuel always requested to listen to this book as a bedtime story. In the story Warwick has a longsword made of pristine steel and had a handle made out of the scales of a python. While Samuel’s sword was made of wood it had been painted to look exactly like the one in the book.

Samuel hugged his mother and father before immediately running into the backyard to slay some mighty ants.

“I guess he’s more like me than I thought.” Richard said as he saw his son run outside.

Samuel was chasing after some butterflies with his sword until he realised he had gone a bit too far from home. Samuel was an incredibly cautious and careful child. He would not go further than 100 metres from his house unless his parent’s accompanied him. This did mean that there was not much opportunity for Samuel to make any friends. However, this did not bother him much. For Samuel found playing alone entertaining enough.

He slowly walked back to his house. Suddenly he stopped. He looked at his sword and thought back to the books of Warwick the python slayer. At that moment he decided that now that he had a sword he had to go on an adventure.