Pepon Kingdom (Prologue, preview)

My name is Xy. Xy Shadowlock. I was born deep within Oaksoul Forest, and at the age of six I watched from a hiding place as guards from a neighbouring kingdom and a handful of angry castle peasants barged into our home and took my mother and father. I stood at the window and watched them burn my mother alive as my father struggled against the guard's grip. What was her crime? They accused her of being a witch. After the burning of my innocent mother they dragged my father away. His head was dangling low and his knees brushed against the dirt below, I followed after them.

I ran through the forest trying my best to keep quiet. I slithered between the trees; my father had taught me how to move quietly throughout the green maze so we don't disturb the shadows below. He would always ramble about them, how they'll help the Shadowlock clan when we need it most. I always thought it was just a fairytale. I trailed behind the murderous, blood-thirsty, group. My father still didn't move, he remained still and almost doll-like. Eventually they came to cobblestoned gates and pushed through it. The gates had closed before I got to them. I scanned the walls carefully, looking for anything I could use to sneak in. They were covered with green thick ivy.

I felt for grooves in the wall and clung onto the ivy, pulling myself upwards and climbing up toward the peak of the wall. I sat on it and looked around the houses were hues of orange and grey, a few green doors were lit by candle light. I dropped down from the wall, landing on a bench below. Looking around I realized I'd lost track of my mother's murderers and my father's kidnappers. I started panicking. I brought my knees to my chest and sobbed. The shock of my mother's death and father's capture had finally caught up to me. I was six but I was smart, I knew how to brush away problems but they would always come back. I knew I couldn't leave without my father, I had to find him.

Eventually I was found on the bench and taken to an orphanage. I stayed there for a year. I met my best friends Hexx Everblu, and Levena Fyreque. We escaped that dimly lit prison together and found a home, a crumbling tower in the south east corner of this kingdom. From the top of it we had a view of the entire kingdom. Now, ten years have passed from that fateful day when my entire life changed. I'm sixteen years old and this is my story so far.