Who is that mystery man in the forest? What makes him want to be left alone? Why is he such a recluse?
Kingdom of Largo
Chapter 14
The Forest Man
The following day Samuel relayed Baldwin's findings to King Aylard, but before he could express what he believed they should do the king was already all excited. He immediately wanted to pay a visit to the man in the forest, throwing all caution to the wind.
Samuel had to temper the king's excitement in order to advise him that it was not the time, nor was it appropriate for the king to be visiting an unknown civilian, especially one who claimed his brother had been killed 14 seasons ago. He also reminded King Aylard how he had trespassed upon the Kingdom of Kebia in order to save and elope with Isabella, his future Queen. Samuel also reminded the monarch of the small wars occurring between the Kingdom of Kebia and himself.
Samuel suggested that they should send out some warriors to get this man into the kingdom for questioning first, and if found the truth about him and his deceased brother. Only then, Samuel advised, should King Aylard may decide what to do with him.
“Yes, but on what charge, Samuel? You cannot just take a law-abiding civilian into the palace when he has done nothing wrong. We cannot just go to arrest anyone we like. That is not how I would operate my kingdom,” said King Aylard.
“We will send out some warriors to ask him some questions – his name, for instance. Where and which tribe he belongs to. And if he refuses to answer our initial questions then the warriors will have to take him in for further questioning. We will continue to use Baldwin's reason: tell him that we are actually looking for the person who had been committing the robbery spree in the kingdom. If he doesn't want to answer our questions as to who he is or from where he has come, we will have every reason to take him into the palace for further questioning,” explained Samuel.
“That may appear to be within reason,” King Aylard responded, “but truly if he were the magician who helped me and the queen conceive Theo, I would not want anyone to harm him. He has greatly rewarded me and the Queen with an heir to the throne. Just conduct the whole thing courteously before we find out who the man is.”
“I know. I understand,” replied Samuel, “I will assemble a troop of warriors for this mission and you will hear from us very soon,” Samuel promised the king.
Later that same day, a troop of warriors was sent on the way to the man in the forest, with Baldwin leading the way.
A door to the cabin was kicked open and they found the man inside his cabin, meditating. The commander of the warriors stepped forward. Pulled a chair over in front of the mystery man, and, lifting one of his feet onto the chair, he bent over to look at the mysterious stranger.
“Name!” the Commander demanded.
The man did not answer, and made no effort to stand up either, but continued to sit calmly in his meditative pose.
“NAME!” shouted the Commander the second time, who did not seem impressed with the man's silence.
After a few seconds had passed, “Hey, dummy! Have you got a name?”
He reached over to grab the man by his collar.
“Hey, I'm asking you a question, and you better answer me. If you refuse to answer we will have to bring you in,” he warned.
Suddenly, the man waved his right hand, and a short-bladed knife appeared again. He slammed the blade hard on the Commander's hand. The Commander felt an immense sharp pain. He looked to the floor and found a pinky finger there. He then screamed out in pain.
“Ahhh! The bastard has cut off my finger! Get him! Arrest this bastard!” The Commander held on to his severed hand in pain. He bent down to pick up his severed finger.
Outside the cabin, the warriors were startled by a loud noise, followed by witnessing the figure of a man bursting through the rooftop of the cabin. He then bounced onto a tree at the back of the cabin.
“Haven't you people been told not to intrude or trespass on my area again? This is my space!” Yelled the man to the crowd.
“All you people, LEAVE right now! I have been here for 14 seasons. I don't bother anyone, and I will not tolerate anyone bothering me,” he shouted down at the warriors.
The Commander came wobbling out of the cabin, with one hand holding his severed pinky finger and his wounded bleeding hand, overcome with pain.
“That bastard has cut off my finger! Go get him! Get him for me!” He barked.
All the warriors now brought their arch bows and arrows forward, attempting to aim and shoot at the mystery man.
The mystery man, however, leapt from one tree to another, avoiding getting shot. Soon, all was quiet. The crew assumed he must have been shot down. They began to walk around the forest to search for the man's body.
To their surprise, the area was not unprepared for intruding animals or trespassers. Traps of many kinds were set up. Many of Baldwin's men got caught up inside of bear traps that snapped at their feet, wounding them. Others had stepped into loops of ropes and were hung upside down! Some other traps were made of deadly homemade spears. They were sharp, and those unwitting victims were pierced straight through their torsos, wounding some, and killing others. It was a sorrowful sight!
Another group of warriors was caught in a large net made of rope, elevated from the ground and required other warriors to help bring them down.
In the meantime, there was no sight of the mystery man in the forest. The Commander assumed that the man would have a secret hiding place, but at this stage, he would not go any further to look for him. He had to look after his severed finger first. He called off the mission and retreated to the palace.
Back at the palace, Samuel was furious!
“Haven't I told you, people, to be courteous when you get there?” Samuel shouted, “There was no reason to have caused this war against one person!”
“Yes, but the man refused to say his name! I had no choice if I were to arrest him,” said the Commander, in defending his own ignorant actions, “and besides, he was the one that started it first by cutting off my finger.”
“Okay, then!” Samuel looked at Commander Baldwin angrily. He had no sympathy for this man. Samuel now knew he had made a mistake by assigning this man to be the Commander of this mission. He should have known better, for whenever Baldwin was assigned a mission to arrest someone he would often get carried away by misusing his power of authority. He would become arrogant. It would not even surprise him that Baldwin had caused his own finger to be cut off. The only reason why Samuel had to assign Baldwin as Commander for this mission was that he knew the way to the cabin.
“Well, go to the nurses and get something for that finger. Hopefully, that finger can still be saved. I will consult the king first and let you know what you should do next,” Samuel was not happy about the outcome at all. What he thought was a simple mission had turned into a war. The Commander was obviously to be blamed for what has happened. Too sad, several lives had been lost because of this.
Just a bunch of misfits! Thought Samuel.
Later, he relayed the news to King Aylard, who thought of nothing evil but was impressed with the mystery man's ability to fight alone against so many warriors. He began to admire the mysterious stranger and wanted to meet him to recruit him into the kingdom to be one of his top warriors.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Samuel. “You don't even know his name and where he has come from? What if he has come from a kingdom that is our enemy?”
“Yes, but such a talented person should not go to waste living in the forest alone. He must have his own reason for being a recluse and unattached to any kingdoms or tribes. I should invite this man into our kingdom. He should be a warrior, not a hermit. He should join our kingdom to fight for us. Those unknown tribes down in the south are now often intruding on our guards at the border. I want to recruit good warriors to fight those unknown invaders. In fact, this man may be able to train my children too, to become good strategic warriors.”
With that being said, the king was not aware that he may have caused a pang of jealousy within Samuel. After all, Samuel had been the only council member who was closest to the king and who had gained his trust on all important matters for all these past years.
Samuel thought about his own two boys, Drake and Durwin, whom he planned to groom as members of the Royal Council. That possibility now seemed further away from coming to fruition.
“What if he was the magician from 12 seasons ago?”
“Then, I will make sure to thank him again for giving us Theo and Galien, followed by Xavier,” said King Aylard, “don't worry! The magician and I had a good relationship 12 seasons ago, and if this mystery man turns out to be the same sorcerer, he will be good to us too.”
“Your Royal Highness! I don't know how to advise you on this. You may have to be careful when receiving such a mysterious stranger into our palace,” Samuel responded reluctantly, feeling his powers of persuasion over the king in matters of state slip through his fingers. He noticed the king was now in the same trance-like state of mind as he was 12 seasons ago – being overly excited about the magician as to what he could do for himself and the queen, and he knew his monarch had once more thrown all caution to the wind. All Samuel could do now was to hope that the man was not the magician that they were looking for. He had yet to meet this man.
“I will personally go over there to introduce myself to this man and invite him into the palace,” King Aylard had excitedly made a daring decision.
“Okay, I shall accompany you there then. If this man was the magician 12 seasons ago, I may be able to recognize him,” Samuel reluctantly agreed.
XXXXX
At the forest, Miles began to tidy up the mess that was left by the troop of warriors. He hated it whenever he was being disturbed. He had chosen to live in the forest by himself because he wanted to forget about what had happened in the past. He had been more than ready to accept what happened and forgive everyone because whatever had transpired with his brother was meant to happen when the kingdom was at war and was not unexpected.
He remembered how excited they both were to announce to their parents that they had both been recruited into the palace as protectors for the Royal family. They were both proud of themselves. It was an unfortunate event that took place in the Kingdom of Kebia that forced King Aylard to kidnap Princess Isabella in order to elope with him.
Their plight was discovered by a palace guard who reported to King Kebia. Warriors were sent out to where King Aylard was supposedly waiting. Their mission was to kill King Aylard and his troops.
Unfortunately, unbeknownst to everyone, King Aylard had an alternate plan. The King was smart enough to have his troops already laying in wait, primed for a potential attack. He also sent a young woman from the palace who matched the body size of Princess Isabella to disguise as the princess to go to that spot where they supposedly would meet. The woman was supposed to run in a different direction to distract the warriors.
So, instead of waiting at that location, King Aylard had secretly sneaked into the Kebia palace to help the real Princess Isabella escape. It was an ingenious plot that no one saw coming. As a result, the palace was lacking in manpower to guard against the abduction. Many palace guards were killed during the process, and Michal was one of them.
When the warriors at the location found the woman who disguised herself as the princess. They were furious, and the woman was immediately executed on the spot. By the time Miles and the other warriors returned to the palace, the sight that greeted them was horrible. There were piles of slain palace guards everywhere. The princess was gone, and Michal was dead, along with many others.
The lives of both king Kebia and his Queen were spared, but they both felt defeated, along with what remained of the kingdom's warriors. Miles was disappointed with himself. He swore to God that someday, he would take revenge for his brother's life. But the King Aylard's Kingdom of Largo was too strong. How could they even begin to formulate a plan for revenge?
Within a very short period, King Aylard and his troop of warriors continued to attack the Kingdom of Kebia, thus causing the realm to lose even more troops. The king and the queen tried to get help from the King of Khaxaedia, the very same ruler of whom they had promised their daughter's hand in marriage, but the king flat-out refused to help. Their promise of sending 10,000 troops of soldiers to the Kingdom of Kebia was also denied because the marriage of the Princess and the King did not take place. The King and Queen of Kebia were both devastated by the downfall of their developing kingdom. Both had escaped the palace, and Miles had never heard from them again. The remaining men in the army had gone separate ways, some of the good ones were recruited by King Aylard as he overtook the kingdom as his land.
Miles did not want to work for King Aylard. As far as he saw it, King Aylard was an enemy who had killed his brother. He had a plan. He would disappear for the time being and would wait for an appropriate amount of time in which he could exact revenge upon the monarch for causing his brother's death.
Miles also knew he had a gift. Some would call it the gift of magic. These mysterious powers had been passed down to him when he was a young boy by an unknown magician. He did not know the man's name – he only knew the man was astonished by Miles's appearance.
Miles recalled a memory from his youth, when, as a quiet young lad, he was sitting underneath a tree. He could still remember a strange man suddenly appearing in front of him, staring intently into his eyes, seemingly astonished by Miles' appearance.
“What is your name, boy?” he asked.
“Miles,” he answered.
“Miles! Young man, you are going to go far!”
Miles didn't understand what the strange man meant when he said that.
“You are going to be a magician. You've got that in you, young man.” he continued to tell Miles.
“How? I do not know any magic,” Miles responded, wondering who the strange man was.
“Do not question yourself,” said the man, “Just give me your hands and I will transfer the magical power to you. You will be the future magician.”
“Who are you, Sir? Why are you talking so strangely?”
“You must trust me wholeheartedly if you want to be a magician of the future,” the man insisted.
He held out his palms and asked Miles to put his hands on top of them.
“When you put your hands on my palms, I want you to trust me completely, and trust yourself too that you shall be the future magician.”
Miles felt a tingling feeling from the touch while he placed his two hands on this man's palms. Suddenly, a strange blinding light occurred where their hands met. Miles closed his eyes. He felt the tingling feeling shooting up from this man's palms to his hands and then traveling up through his tiny body. Miles stood there, receiving the strange sensation.
“Are you a believer in magic?” asked the man.
“Yes!” at this moment, Miles began to believe there really was a transmission of otherworldly powers taking place.
“Are you a believer in yourself?”
“Yes!”
“Do you believe that you will become the magician of the future? Do you have confidence in yourself to become one?”
As Miles felt the sensation course through his tiny body, he couldn't help but said, “Yes, I DO believe in magic!”
“Yes, I am confident! I shall be the magician of the future!” Miles spoke at the top of his lungs. He was even surprised at what he had just said himself.
Then, he felt the tingling feeling begin to leave him. He gradually opened his eyes again, only to find that the strange man was gone. He looked around and everything was quiet.
“Hello! Where are you?” Miles called out to the man.
He received no response. The man had just simply disappeared. Miles wondered if it had been a dream, but the sensation in his hands and body was too strong to be ignored.
He looked at his hands and now discovered there was a strange symbol on each of his palms. Miles got scared and tried rubbing them away, but the signs seemed seared into his hands and would not come off. He went to the river to try washing them off to no avail.
Father is going to be mad at me! And Mother too! What will they think of this? Miles thought, as he began to panic.
This is no fault of my own. I might as well tell them what has just happened. Miles finally came to reasoning with himself. He wondered now if he had become a magician who could perform magic.
When he got home and told his parents what had happened, both parents were devastated. They tried every soap and solution to try washing off those symbols, but they just would not come off.
“You know better than to talk to strange-looking men!” said his Father, “Now look at what you've done to your hands! ” his father was upset. He looked very worried.
“You'll need to hide those hands of yours now! We would not want anyone to say you're a witch,” his father continued to show concern.
“I will have to make you some clothes with long sleeves so you can hide them, and you mustn't tell anyone about these signs. Okay?” said his mother.
“Okay, I won't show them to anyone,” Miles promised his parents.
Later in life, he was able to perform small miracles by himself, such as moving objects from one place to another without physically touching them, and elevating himself and objects whenever he felt the need. This magical ability became handy for him. He was brave enough to show his gifts to everyone, and he called himself “The Magician” ever since.
That was long ago when he was a child, and this was part of the reason why he had chosen to live alone in the forest.
He went around checking the forest area, making sure there were no dead bodies of warriors. He reset all the traps into working positions again. This was what he had learned in order to protect himself from wild animals and intruders. So far, the traps had been working well for him.
He thought about King Aylard and his royal family. At one point in time when he was younger, he had great admiration for the king and his ability to fight wars, creating for himself a strong kingdom, but after he learned that his brother Michal was killed he had lost all of his former admiration for the monarch. It didn't matter whether the King had personally killed his brother, or one of his warriors had killed him. It would not make any difference. After the death of his brother Michal, he felt the king was just a barbarian and a savage, even though he was a good warrior.
After everything had been reset, he went back into his cabin. He looked up to see the newly-mended roof and found it seemed quite sturdy now – good for many more seasons.
He sat down to get a drink of wine to relax.
Suddenly, a piece of rock flew into the cabin from the window. Miles managed to dodge the projectile, so it came crashing down onto the floor. At close inspection, Miles could view, attached to the rock, what appeared to be a note.
He picked up the rock and unfolded the letter. It read,
“Dear stranger:
Greetings from King Aylard. I have come to you with my Councillor, Sir Samuel. We have come in peace. There are just the two of us. No warriors are accompanying us. We have come in good faith and extend an invitation to you to come into the palace. If you agree to meet us, then open the door to the cabin and we shall come in to meet with you. If you do not agree to meet us, then just continue to leave the door closed.
Yours regally,
King Aylard"
At the sight of seeing King Aylard's name, Miles's heart was now pounding. He had not, in his wildest dreams, imagined that the king would personally come to the forest to invite him to the palace. How should he respond to this? He thought about the confrontation with his warriors and their Commander earlier, he wondered if it was just another trick to get him into the palace. He wondered if he was to be arrested for wounding and killing his warriors. What should he do? He wondered, his mind racing.
Should he fight with the king and his councillor? Such a brawl would surely find him dead. On the other hand, if he agreed to meet them, then at least he knew there was a possibility that he would not be killed right away, and besides, the tone of the note sounded sincere. There may be a good reason for the king to personally invite him. Why not give himself a chance?
Miles could still remember the time when he went into the palace 12 seasons ago. His original plan was to avenge King Aylard by stabbing him to death, but from talking with the king, he found himself more forgiving because the king and queen were unsuspecting and very friendly and sincere in asking him for help. He did perform the ritual for them to have a son. He wondered how that boy was doing now. He must be in his 11th Spring already. Perhaps this may be a good time to see the miracle his magic has brought into the Royal family.
Upon that thought, he opened the door to his cabin to welcome the king.
Thank you, all, for taking the time to read my story and placed your reviews with me. Your kind comments are so well-appreciated!!!
I still have so many storylines in my head to share, I feel I must have been living in that era in my past life. Perhaps, I was a queen or a princess in that era in my past life.
I'm so happy whenever I sit down to write chapters of this story! So, watch out!... More chapters are on the way!
An outstanding story that compels a reader to continue reading to the end....A very interesting and well written story. Will be very interesting to see where this story leads to.
I can imagine Sandy, perhaps 40 or so chapters down the road, that you will have a marvelous book ready someday. Perhaps your life's crowning achievement. Kudos. Kind regards.... rlc
You surely did hold my interest right from the start of this chapter and now I (we) wait in anticipation to learn what will happen. Love, peace, and best wishes to you, Sandie,
I'm so happy that this story is developing so well. Each chapter is more exciting than the last. I'm assuming the magician will be receiving well into the palace where there may be conflicts between him and Samuel. I can't wait for the next chapter to unfold. Sandie, you are the best in storytelling!
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