The Warrior

Daniel was training to be the strongest warrior of his village. He saw loathed & feared by all his peers as he was the son of the village leader. His only two friends were: Logan - who was also training to be a warrior & Piper who was learning to be the next village soothsayer after her mother. Twice a year the clans and villages all across the land met to compete & sell. The Warrior Class fought, the wise Shaman philosophized, the soothsayers..er.... soothsayed & the rest of the people bartered. Anybody with a rare gift was very important. Children were often traded to other families. Nobody was loved. Daniel's Grandfather saw this injustice & wanted to reform the traditions that his village had followed for centuries. This had caused the villagers to exile
Daniel's Grandfather to the wilderness. They couldn't kill & replace him with another as their creed forbade it.
Instead, he & his descendants would live as the scum and hated of society.

Not long after, Piper & Logan's parents had disowned them for helping Daniel.They lived with him. Once again their creed forced the villagers to allow them to continue their training. Every night, the three young protagonists would return to learn from the best.  But  the rest of their colleagues were jealous & treated them as outcasts. Nobody else had powers like them.

Daniel, along with his Granddad, lived in a weather beaten shack on the outskirts. Daniel would do odd jobs to keep them from starving. His Granddad was the grand old age of 98 and still going strong. Daniel himself was only 9, but looked a good few years older. Daniel was average height, size, strength but not average smart. This boy was cunning, quick and adaptive to the situation. 

That Nightmare Again

Daniel always liked listening to the stories his grandfather told about the origins of their race and how they had come to live in the foothills of the Himalayas in Sapelia.  However, after all that listening to the old man he would sleep soundly only to be awakened some four or five hours later by the same frightening dream.  In it he was a young warrior just after coming of age and he was always out in the jungle with his friend whose name he could never remember.  All he knew is that they had just recently gone through their gruelling initiation ceremony and they were now boy-warriors.  They were always in pursuit of a fearsome nameless quarry.  His nameless friend always gave him encouragement and strength to keep going.  Then the same frightening sound always woke him up and he found himself always repeating the words his nightmare gave him "Beware of Batu!"

Prelude: A Boy in America

A few hundred years later, a boy, deep in the south of America, read about stories of Stapelia & it's dynasty. How he longed to meet their descendants.

I can guarantee you that we will return to this boy later in this story.

"In the past we fought, we fought bravely. Our ancestors made it their duty to fight and they did that duty with their utmost. But we have choosen to move, not because we're afraid, but because we want to give you a better future. Although we have chosen to live in peace, it doesn't mean that we will not fight to defend; because as long as blood runs through my veins I will defend you and I will defend this nation."

"Remember, "history admires the wise, but it elevates the brave"".

"Where is Stapelia?" the little boy asked his grandfather with wonderment in his eyes.

"It's a very small kingdom at the foot of the Himalayas.  In fact, it's not much spoken of at all because its people do not have much concern at all with the trappings of wealth.  It is said that the founding father of Stapelia, a warrior called Philo Sophia, encouraged his tribal followers to dedicate their lives to the cultivation of two things only: the cultivation of the crops and the cultivation of their minds."

"But you said this Philo Sophia was a warrior, grandad.  Why did he turn away from fighting?"

"Well, Daniel, that's a long story.  Philo, like his father before him, another famous warrior called Theo Sophia, was long accustomed to training and fighting.  In fact he had once even fought against the famous Genghis Khan in Mongolia in the winter of 1200 A.D.  Philo was the strongest warrior of his tribe, then called the Muma.  To make a long story short most of the tribe were killed and Philo and some of his warriors managed to escape.  When they returned to their villages their women were distraught because so many of their husbands, brothers and sons had been killed. They spent nearly one whole month in mourning."

"On the last night of the month, Daniel, Philo had a dream in which a beautiful woman appeared to him and told him to take all his people with him and go to the foot of the Himalayas and set up a small Kingdom called Stapelia, a Kingdom of peace and harmony where there would be no fighting, ever..."

The death of the Hero of Time

Footnote: I'm writing the prologue in a flashback technique. It is set at the end of the story & we will write from there.(we have basically done the ending **& can now work our way up to it from there)


 Prologue
Batu sat waiting in a guest room of the Royal Imperial Palace facing charges against the manslaughter of the Child Princess of Stapelia. Nobody knew why he did it. He walked straight into the court said "Guilty, See Ya!" & walked out. The judge had no choice but to have him executed by firing squad.
The guards called him out. It was time. This was it. No going back. A large crowd had gathered to see the event. Everyone there hated the man who murdered their beloved ruler.
The Officer in charge asked if he had any last regrets. He said yes he did but didn't disclose them. Even if somebody believed him, it was too late.
The firing squad lined up.
"Ready!"
"Take aim!"
Batu sighed & took his last breath on this world
"Fire!"

Extract from a newspaper dated 2008:

Stapelians rejoiced today as the execution of the newly infamous Batu da Corgevelli took place.
Having been made famous from his many exploits involving liberating oppressed worlds, Batu's change of heart surprised & shook everybody to the core.
more on page 3

In other news the grand consolidated tra......



Fin


**Or at least part of the ending!