Hi, guys. I finnaly finished the map of the world and just a comment, if you look at the scale you can probably notice that the world is huge. The human continent of Otos is as big as the amount of land on Earth, and Adel and Jangna are even bigger than that, so there are a lot of places to explore and even when those end, there are the unexplored lands to explore for later in the story. Here is another chapter and i finally started building up the plot, so keep on reading and enjoy. :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cold filled the air, as the darkness began to slowly change, becoming less dense and obscure. The sun was still below the horizon, but its rays illuminated the sky in various shades of orange and yellow. The waves washed the shore, as if knocking on it and trying to wake it up. The cool sea breeze flew inward towards land, until it came across a little cabin, about 150m from the shore, as it passed through it, covering the shack in the morning freshness, that could only be felt by the ocean. The temperatures never dropped too low, or too high due to the ocean being nearby, so the villagers of Halatuan always wore the same old clothing all year long, sometimes changing the colors, by dying it with cloth paint they could get for a few coppers from Calomb Keep.

In the shack closest to the sea woke up a boy, six years of age… uhhhhm… sorry got it wrong there… seven years of age, since today was his birthday and like we all know birthdays are always important to youths who wait impatiently and see them as ladders to adulthood. But this little boy wasn’t like the rest. He wasn’t too happy or too sad, as he stood up from his little bed made of hay and wool to keep him warm. The cold air surrounded him as he shivered and looked through his attic window. The sun wasn’t fully up yet and the village was drowned in silence. The boy always woke up at dawn, he never remembered when this started and why this always happened, but it was just so, as if an axiom that could not be broken.

Mother had died last year of an epidemic, which had swept the whole village, and what was once a blooming fishing village with over 5000 inhabitants was left in ruins with about 200. Most citizens had lost their whole families to the disease, while others migrated east, as if to avoid the outbreak on the first week of the epidemic. Halatuan was located not too far from the main city of the Durchy- Calomb keep and the travel took about 2 days by walk or half a day by horse. The caravans with their slow-moving oxen that seldom passed through our village to trade before the epidemic took about 3 days.

I remembered mother, a plump woman with dark brown hair, always nagging my father and letting me get away with almost everything I wanted. She didn’t have a pretty face or an attractive figure, or some kind of unique trait that made her stand out. She was just mother, a face that always shined with kindness, sternly scolding me for my mistakes and excessively praising me for my achievements. Just a farmer’s wife, a common person in the world, an insignificant existence to royalty and nobles, but to me, she was the best mother in the whole world and nothing would change that, even death. Tears streaked down my face as I remembered how she always stayed up all night on my birthday, so she could come, hug and kiss me as soon as the sun came out of the horizon and say: “Happy Birthday, my little angel” handing me something sweet, usually a piece of chocolate that she had brought from her trip to the city a few day before.

‘Mother, I know you are somewhere in heaven and every day I look at heaven, asking the gods Where you are? Are you looking at me? Did you see what happened to us after your death? Mom, we were destroyed completely and there is nothing in the world that I wouldn’t give to get the life back of when we were all together. God, if you can bring her back, I swear I won’t do anyone any harm for the rest of my life, I will even just stand there and let Nador and his goons beat me to death without retaliating. Mom, Dad couldn’t stop crying for a month after you passed away, I even heard him in his sleep shouting: “Take me with you, please, take me with you..!” Don’t worry too much and wait for us mom, I will live a long and happy life, find a woman as kind and loving as you, build a family and when I am old, pass away from old age and we will be together again, you, dad and me. Please wait for me and I love you, Mommy.’

I went outside, got a bucket full of cold water from the nearby well and washed my face. To tell the truth most villagers couldn’t understand my parents. They had taken me in when I was a baby and raised me as their own, because they couldn’t have children. Of course they had never told me I was adopted, but come on I’m not THAT stupid to not notice the queer looks the other villagers gave me or that I looked nothing like my parents. My dad just like my mom, had dark brown hair with little beady black eyes, while I stood out as an outsider in the village with my jet black hair and eyes blue as the clear sky in the middle of the day. I was way bigger than all the other village boys my age and it was fun to think that my biological parents could have been giants that were rumored to live in the Ralik Mountains that separated our continent in 2.

It was still fun teasing my common farmer father, though and today was no exception. He was always forgetful and always forgot my birthday, but I always knew that he cared for me just as much as mom did, because every time he saw me eating the chocolate that mom had given me, he ran to the little market in the middle of the village, bought some paper and wrote with his fanciest handwriting “Happy birthday, my son Jacquez!” What made it even more precious to me was that he had never learned to read and write, just as the rest of the village, including me, but he still traced carefully each letter from a book of letters he had received from a passing by merchant for 3 silvers. He still hadn’t realized that I had found out a long time ago that I was adopted so I asked putting on the most innocent face I could muster up: “Hey dad, was the weather just like today when I was born.”

My dad was preparing breakfast, some oatmeal and he dropped the whole packet of the dried fruits he was adding into the pot. Looking nervous he quickly tried to pick up the dried fruits from the burning hot oatmeal, burning his hands he jumped back landing on his bottom. I started laughing hysterically. He looked at me, his eyes still darting from side to side, and then slowly stopping as he had remembered that it was my birthday.

“Finish cooking the oatmeal and eat some, I’ll be back in a little while” he said as he put on his jacket and ran out of the house.

‘He still thinks I’m a little kid” I chuckled as I finished cooking some oatmeal, ate some and covered the rest so it wouldn’t lose warmth, so when dad came back he could still have a warm breakfast. I walked out to our little field where we grew various vegetables, depending on season and sold them in the city. I started my daily work of taking care of my area of the field and saw my dad running towards our house with a little piece of paper in his left hand. He was huffing and puffing as he made his way up the hill. He was just a poor farmer from a poor village. He couldn’t write, nor could he read. He never had any power, nor did he ever want it. Just a simple man, with a simple job and a simple life of being the best father in the world.

‘I love you, dad’

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun shone through the thick trees of the Calomb forest, illuminating the sleeping faces of 20 men. They were all carrying weapons, daggers, swords, axes, you name it. The stench of blood that covered their bodies was unbearable for a normal person and thus they were shunned and hated all around. They were bandits, they understood that and hated it as much as any person would. Killing, robbing and raiding the passing by caravans and escorts of the nobles, but they hadn’t asked for this kind of life. All of them were victims of different unfortunate situations that forced them into this life, filled with sin. But they were also people, the wanted to survive, to live on and found the only way to do it was through these malicious acts, causing them to be looked at with feelings of animosity.

A fire burned in the middle of the clearing and in front of it sat two mean deep in thought. By their clothes it was clear that they were the leader and his right hand man of this little group.

“Reca, we can do this, the info is genuine, I have an informant among the servants of the Duke and he said that the Duke’s daughter is returning from the capital of the kingdom after visiting her relatives and that she will cross near the forest. There is only one path that goes near the forest and leads to Calomb Keep, so all we have to do it wait and then ambush the escort, kidnap her and then ask for a ransom. After receiving the ransom, we can disappear and start a new life somewhere far away in another kingdom perhaps” explained the man, jesting with his hands as if trying to accentuate the fool-proneness of the plan.

The other man looked at the fire and without redirecting his point of view “What happens if we can’t overwhelm the escort? Even if we do, many of our brothers will be killed? Is it really worth the lives of the majority, so just a few can live in comfort for the rest of their lives?” he asked finally turning his head and looking at his companion in the eye.

The man answered: “I already talked to the men and they all agreed with my plan. Better to die trying to reach a brighter future than to rot away even further in this hell hole!”

Reca sighed, he had this strange feeling he always got when something unexpected was going to occur, but he waved it off. The plan looked perfect with just a few mishaps here and there, but those wouldn’t change the outcome by too much. ‘If this plan works, the survivors can finally take control of their own fate!”

“Maet, wake up all those lazy asses and start preparing for our final raid!”