Chapter 1 – A Second
Chance
There was once a famous general whose
name is Harkan. He fought for his kingdom with honor and though he knew that
his superiors weren’t the most virtuous of people, he still loyally served. Harkan
was well respected by those who knew of him to the point where a custom helmet
in the image of a crow was made for him because he was a divine instrument that
signified death on the battlefield. Though he didn’t like the thought of him signifying
death, he accepted his gift with gratitude and became a reaper of sorts on the
battlefield for those he protected. That was until Harkan’s family along with a
troop of his friends were killed by an ambush by an enemy kingdom’s forces.
His family, friends, and their
small escort were moving from their destroyed homes to a safer location and
were given little help despite Harkan’s advice. He was already on the edge of
despair since he lost his home and many of his soldiers due to his mistakes and
the bad choices of his superiors, and now that he lost his friends and family,
he feels that he’s lost everything. With nothing left to lose, he staged a coup
against his former masters and took his kingdom for himself much to the joy of
his allies and his fellow citizens, and yet, he didn’t feel any better. Even
after destroying the other enemy kingdoms and establishing a relative sense of
peace in the land, he still wasn’t satisfied with himself. In his spare time,
he prayed and practiced with his two-handed mace to relieve himself of his seemingly
unending supply of sadness and feeling of emptiness.
Since he was such in a sorry and
useless state, his allies tried to convince him to conquer more lands or at
least marry a new wife so that he would be doing something other than making
minor political decisions here and there. He did none of these and because they
thought a useless king who does nothing is a detriment to their kingdom, they
tried to assassinate him to remove him from the throne so they could put a
better king in his place since there was no other way or law that could remove
him.
Harken tried to fight back, but in
his depressed condition with no purpose to live he doesn’t fight as well as he
usually did. He is then presumed dead as he falls from the third story of his
castle. A citizen who was sympathetic towards Harken assumed what happened,
took him away, fixed his wounds, and then hid him with some food and water.
When he came to, Harken wonders why he didn’t die. Not wanting to stay in the
spot for the rest of his life, he took his mace with him as he began to wander
the land. This is where his new life begins.
This new life of his relieves him
of some of his sadness as he realizes that he doesn’t have to worry about
ruling over a kingdom and keeping his people and supporters happy. Still, he
feels empty and without purpose. Speaking about feeling empty, he tries looking
for more food and water after finishing what was left with him. He comes across
what appears to be an abandoned camp near a cave. It looks like the person here
attempted to make plushies and people made out of stones.
“Did a child live here or an ill
individual?” Harkan asks himself.
Leaving the mystery in the back of
his head, Harkan scavenges through the camp until he hears the sound of someone
approaching him. He quickly turns around ready to strike whoever is behind him with
his mace until he sees that it’s just a small girl in rags. She clutches a
mouse plush that’s wearing a crown and dress. Harkan’s intimidating appearance
scares her and makes her drop the food and water that she has.
“Monster!” she screams while laying
on the ground.
“Oh, you are a child. Do not be
afraid of me. I will not harm you,” Harkan says with his hand out.
The girl looks at him and looks
away as she shakes in fear unable to move. Harkan takes off his helmet and puts
down his mace since he assumes that these things are scaring her.
“I’m sorry if my appearance scared
you. I’m not a monster. I’m human just like you.”
The sight of Harkan’s soft face
calms her as she takes his hand so he can lift her from the ground.
“What’s your name?”
The girl isn’t sure if she should
tell him her name so she just grunts.
“You speak to say that I’m a
monster, but you won’t tell me your name?”
She tries not to look into Harkan’s
eyes to not admit it.
He sighs and then says, “Okay, that’s
fine. My name is Harkan. It’s nice to meet you. I’ll help you get back to your
home.”
The girl makes a noise and shakes
her head.
“What’s the matter? You don’t have
a home to go back to?”
She shakes her head in response.
“I should’ve figured that given
your appearance. I won’t ask what happened to your home. Could I take you to
the nearest orphanage we come across? I’m sure it’s better to stay there than
out here.”
She considers it before agreeing by
nodding her head.
“Let’s go then.”
A group of four bandits ambushes Harkan
and the little girl.
“What do you people want?” Harkan says with his two-handed
mace raised up and the girl close by him.
“That little mouse stole our food.
In fact, she’s been doing that for quite a while now,” the bandit says.
The girl shakes her head.
“How about a deal? You can take
most of this while she has a bit. She is homeless after all.”
“I don’t care if she’s homeless or
on the verge of starvation. She stole what we earned.”
“You people don’t look like you do
any honest work so I’m struggling to believe that you’re telling me everything
I should know. What kind of work do you do?”
“The kind that will get you killed
if you don’t do what we say.”
“I’ve been employed in that kind of
work before. How about we get this over with? We both know what’s going to
happen.”
“If you say so, crow man.”
All four bandits attack Harkan at
once and with one swing of his hammer, Harkan manages to kill them all.
“Don’t look at the mess I’ve made, little girl."
The girl shrugs in response and
doesn’t appear to be shocked by how Harkan’s mace has made the heads of the
bandits into mush.
“You’re used to this?”
She nods in response.
“You’ve must’ve been through a lot,
which makes this easier for me, but it does concern me. A little girl like you
shouldn’t be used to seeing stuff such as this.”
The girl looks down and shrugs
again.
“I guess nothing can be done about it now other than to help you get a better life. Anyways, what should I call you if you won’t tell me your name?”
The girl holds up her mouse plush
to him.
“Mouse?”
She shakes her head to confirm her
nickname.
“Okay, Mouse. Let’s find you a
place to live.” Harkan walks to the nearest road with Mouse close by him. “I assume
those people were stealing food from people and you stole what they were
stealing. Is my assumption right?”
Mouse nods and is given a pat on
the head.
“We’ll be getting along just fine
then.”
Mouse smiles a bit before continuing to follow Harkan as he travels the road with a new life and reason to live.
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