• Long ago, war waged between four nations: the nation of the north: Izlude, the nation of the south: Kuro, the nation of the east: Siln, and the nation of the west: Miliden. Each nation held elite generals that commanded their army with brilliance. Yet, the four great warriors, one from each nation, took all the glory. It is written that these warriors wielded weapons with superior skill and mythical powers.

    The time finally arrived when the four great warriors stood against each other on the battlefield. Hours passed with each of the warriors not yielding to any other of the others. They each found their strengths to be equally matched and they came to a halt, laying downs their weapons so that a nation can be created together. In the end, each nation kept there names and governors, and a new center nation was created: Tirna.

    That was the history of the days in the past. For a struggling boy, I did not care much for it. Rather I cared to know where my next meal was and how I was going to live.

    You see, my family was taken away during one of the fires of the summer season. Everything was lost and I had to go on living by myself. That was about a year ago.

    “Are you paying attention?” A man hovering over my shoulder grunted into my ear.

    “Yes” I muttered back in a slight moan.

    “You could at least give me a better tone. Now straighten up your slouching.”

    If you haven’t noticed, this is my teacher. He took me in recently after I had tried to steal a piece of bread. It looked easy enough to take. I mean come on it was sitting on the windowsill.

    “That’s better” His head rose back away from my shoulder when I followed his instruction. “Now be careful of the triplets against sixteenths. Those can get pretty tricky.”

    You’re probably wondering what he’s teaching me. Well, in all honesty, I wish I could say swordsmanship or even archery, but alas I am being taught to play the musical arts mainly the piano.

    Well to finish up the rest of my story, after I was caught stealing he said that I had potential in this sort of career. So he gave me my first lesson and found out how I came to stealing his bread. In the end, he gave me room and board in exchange for work around the house. The lessons would come with the housework.

    I did the obvious thing…………..I took his offer. Yes, I wasn’t much into learning music but hey, I had food and shelter. That was better then anything I had in the previous year.

    A few notes rang from the strings of the large instrument. I was learning quick and was somewhat enjoying it. I never had a talent of anything, except for being able to run incredibly fast during moments of panic, especially when it’s a life or death matter.

    “Close, but remember the dynamics. The dynamics are extremely important in this area. This is the climax. Add some emotion. Put your heart into it.” He emphasized.

    I wished I could’ve put a sock into his mouth.

    My fingers glided into place and began to move. I wanted this over with so I gave my everything this time around. It had been already an hour of working on this piece and my patience was hanging by a thread.

    “Bravo!” He clapped in applause. “I believe that will be enough. Take a moments rest and start on the list of shopping items. Make sure supper is ready before dusk.” He left with a strong clap on my shoulder.

    I moaned to myself as I rose from the seat. I knew his list of tasks had hidden task among itself. That was a pain to deal with. His shopping list was found where he always left it: the drawer just by the door to the piano room. I’m actually surprised that no one stole the money.

    I trudged outside and quickly made my way to the shopping district. Taking a glance at the list, I found that most of the items would be in one shop. That was convenient. The only other thing was that I also had to shop for the food to cook with. First stop, was a friend of my teacher. He ran, what I would call, a music shop but in actuality, it was just a metal shop. I found that rather awkward but dismissed it.

    Rounding the next corner, I found myself facing the shop. It was across the street from where I stood. Checking both sides so that I wouldn’t get trampled on by a horse, I made my way across the street and into the shop. A bell mechanism rang as the door opened. I’ve always hated that but I had a task about me so there was no point in complaining.

    “Ah, Bou, I have Mr. Hillet’s shipment right here. Just wait a moment.” The man wearing what looked like a heavy apron went to the back room of the store. I indulged myself to looking at the displays that were set out. They were mostly weapons and instruments. The other things, I’d rather not say with my over active
    imagination.

    The man came out holding a rather large crate. He dumped it into my arms in which I stumbled backwards. It was heavy. “Thanks” I grunted.

    “No problem. Oh, and tell Jack to drop by sometime so we can chat.”

    “O….k” My voice cracked slightly.

    I made my way slowly back to……well I guess I could call it home now. I’ve been there for about a few months.

    “Hey Bou, need a hand?” a snicker came from my right. I was a bit afraid I’d run into these baboons.

    I turned my head slightly to get a good look. There stood Roger. In short words, he was the town mischief. He reminded me of a skinny pig with the head of a scarecrow. And where ever the pig went came the piglets. I was referring to his bodyguards, or rather buddies. They stood behind him, one on each side. They were rather larger then the alpha male, but they were a lot dumber. For some reason, their fashion statement had something to do with overalls. To me, the color was distasteful as well as the outfits.

    “Uh, no thanks, Roger” I didn’t want any trouble but I knew it was coming.

    “Oh don’t be like that” he waved a hand making it seem that I was in absolute need. He marched forward with his two goons following.

    I began to get afraid. Usually I could out run the three but I was carrying something heavy and fragile. In only a few weeks, I had already made friends with the wrongs sort.

    I came back to reality when the trio were just about five feet away from me.

    “Ah crap” I thought to myself.

    “Hey, you four, get off the road!” A man sounded loudly from afar. I turned to look at the person and was greatly relieved. He was one of the city patrols meant to keep the place safe and at peace. The three wouldn’t be able to do anything while he was able to see……and hear the cries of help from a screaming young boy.

    “You got lucky this time around Bou” They ran off to find another misdeed to do.

    I made my way with great difficulty. Eventually, I was back and had placed the box in my teacher’s room. It seemed he was out. That was a bit odd. He usually is never out of the house.

    I continued the rest of my task, buying some carrots, parts of chickens, eggs and some green stuff that I never knew the name of. They looked like leaves. Though I knew how to cook them.

    The house was still empty after my return. I began to get curious and a bit worried. This was very strange. I threw the thought out of my head and began to clean the place up.

    For some odd reason, the place was always filthy. No matter how hard I cleaned or what technique I used, within one week everything would be just as dirty. Today, was my cleaning day and about three days from now I would clean again. This proved the only way to keep the house in a tasteful look.

    After I had finished cleaning, I went back to the kitchen and started to cut up some of the carrots and chop the meat off of the bones of the chicken. The spices were added carefully so that the taste would be a whole lot better. The leaf things were placed in a rather large bowl. The frying pan was set on top of a fire I had started a few moments ago. I added some oil and placed the meat in there to fry. After a moment, I tossed in the carrots and cooked them. Once they were done, I took the frying pan out and placed it on a wet rag to cool down. Next, I grabbed a pot filled with water and a bit of that oil I had used. I added some spices to the water and tasted it with a large wooden spoon. I nodded in agreement with its taste and tossed the green leaves into it. These things didn’t take all too long to cook. I grabbed the pot out once it was done cooking. Of course I used a rag so that I wouldn’t burn myself. I placed each of the dishes into bowls and placed them onto the dining table.

    “Dinner’s ready!” I called out. I waited and listened but didn’t hear any foot steps, nor clapping and rubbing of hands and the words: finally I’m starving.

    This was giving me a rather chill in my spine. Something was wrong. I thought heavily and decided that my grumbling stomach should be eased first. I always thought better on a full stomach.

    After I finished my meal, and washed my dishes, I strode over to his room and looked inside. The box was untouched so that meant that he never came back during my time out of the house.

    “Where could he be?” As if to answer my question, the door opened and closed. I walked briskly to the hallway and found my teacher smiling widely.

    “Where have yo…..”

    “Never mind that,” He cut me off. It seemed he was eager to share the good news. “Guess what just happened.”

    “Please tell me you became super rich and I get half of the money.”

    He laughed heartily, “No, no, my boy, even better. I’ve entered you into a contest to be the talent that graces her majesty’s heart.”