I had been born on the day sacred to the tulip, and as a result my mother had named me Tulip, this of course angered my father immensely, me being his second son and third born. He would tell me I should have been named Bramble or Jarl like so many of the boys in our village, but no I was Tulip Konos Vas Oker, so named as I came from the small iron mining village of Oker, which lay in the shadow of Oker mountain, which gave the village it’s name. But no matter how much my father had protested my mother held firm as was her right, by tradition the mother would always choose the name of her children. I however spent the first years of my life completely ignorant of the shame my name caused to my father. I grew up used to his alienations and refusal to take me along when he and my elder brother, Blare, would go to work at the mines each morning. So every morning I would be pushed into the arms of my teenage sister and my mother, and at first I merely watched as they would go about the chores in our small three roomed dwelling. It was not long before I began to join in and would sit on my mother or sister’s lap and threading a needle through my father or elder brother’s rough tunics.

        Years passed this way and soon I was 9, unlike my brother who had grown tall and strong due to his years working in the mine, I was small and lithe, with long well kept black hair to the small of my waist. My father had grown closer to me over the years, and though he favoured Blare, he had accepted me for the anomaly that I was and was content to let me follow in my sisters footsteps as I learnt the skills of homemaking.

“I could always sell you into the home of a Noble as a servant” He would say every night as the family sat around the fire, prompting bursts of laughter from the family at my shocked expression.

Even though we lived in near poverty, with the local Lord taxing us heavily, we were a happy family and I grew resilient to the beatings I would receive from the other boys of the village and the advances of the girls and older men alike, including my brother’s friends, who seemed more interested in me than my sister.

It was a warm day in mid spring, and my sister and I were foraging in the hillside woods that overlooked the village. I was now 10 and had hair that was now permanently kept tied back as it reached my thighs; I carried a satchel of herbs in one hand and a stick in the other which I used to slice the heads off nettles as we walked back towards the village.

“Tulip. Father has engaged me to one of Lord Lucas’s warriors; I am to be married three weeks from now.” At this she looked my way as I continued to walk on, my face remained expressionless, when in truth I was shaken to the core. My sister had practically raised me; it had been she who had cooed as I sniffled, my nose bloodied by the village boys or cleaned the grazes when I had fallen while playing with friends in the woods. “Tulip” she prompted me. I looked at her my train of thought snapping. Suddenly I threw the basket at her feet sprinting up the mountain, along the old game paths, used by the hunters. I ignored her yells as she tried to keep up with me; I tore my tunic on a branch ignoring the cut that the branch had opened on my shoulder. I climbed high past the ancient oak trees and soon fir trees surrounded me their bristles scratching my bare arms as I pushed through the branches. Soon it began to darken, and the temperature began to drop, despite my anger I was cold and tired, and worse I had started to shiver, but I kept walking upwards. Soon I was making my way by moonlight the wind began to pick up, the ominous sounds of the valley forest creaking in the wind instilling pure fear in me. Suddenly I came into a grove, I made my way speedily across it but as I reached the centre, the ground shuddered, I stopped in my tracks, my heart racing, the ground shuddered again and gave way, the rocky, lichen covered, ground falling around me as I plummeted downwards, air rushing through my hair.

        I screamed as the water of the lake rushed up towards me, I slammed into it. The freezing water along with the pain of the impact drove me to beat my way out of the water and onto the nearby beach. I dragged myself ashore, wondering at the pale blue light illuminating the vast cavern as well as my survival of the fall. I looked up towards where I had fallen, it must have been 100ft how did I survive that? I slumped on the pebbly outcrop taking in my surroundings.

        I was on a small pebble island, below the hole through which I had fallen, the moonlight mixing with the source-less pale blue light. The island was surrounded by a gently lapping lake which extended off in all directions into darkness. This must have been the source of the springs that fed the village I thought.

“No”

I froze at the ghostly voice, I turned slowly towards the centre of the island, where an outline stood, it was more of a shadow, but it had form, I couldn’t make out a face but the figure was tall and enveloped in a cloak of shadows, it appeared as if the hood was up, but it was impossible to make out where the cloak ended and the body began.

“Come” The shadow lifted its arm towards me, inviting me. Without thinking I walked towards the figure. “Good” the shadow slipped a hand round my back ushering me towards the centre of an island where a small pedestal rose from the pebbles, on which stood an orb. Inside I could make out what almost appeared to be fog swirling. “Touch” once again I was compelled by the soft genderless voice of the voice; I reached my hands out lifting the orb in both hands. “Yes!”  I screamed as an emotionless face appearing in the fog, hollow eyes staring at me. I dropped the orb, it shattered on the ground, “YES!” screamed the voice, as the fog snaked up mixing with the now disintegrating shadow, to make a mixing swirl of white and black smoke, suddenly the mist lunged towards me, if a cloud could lunge, enveloping me. I felt as if I had been stuck by lighting, as pain rushed through my body, the smoke sifting in through every pore of my skin. My arms were spread eagled held their by an invisible force, my back arched, my lips sealed. I wanted to scream in pain but couldn’t. Suddenly the pain stopped, and I fell to the ground in an almost pile, my muscles refusing to work, I shuddered as each I felt a gentle tingling throughout my body, almost as if I was a warm rug and a dog was stepping it down to lay down and sleep. The feeling intensified and soon I couldn’t take it anymore, suddenly it stopped, I whimpered and passed out, as I slipped into the darkness I could hear a faint laughing at the back of my mind.

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Author guidance for This story

This story follows a young boy in the turbulent times in this fictional world.
In this fictional world, the know world is shattered, after a millennium of war the old kingdom, built upon magical might, has collapsed. Now a small empire, known as Furmetari is building, under the iron fist of the emperor, a mysterious figure, who few have met and rules the kingdom from his capital by lake Drakeshrad, so named because of the myth that a dragon, lays sleeping at its bed. The empire is surrounded by the frontier; the inhabitants of the empire know little of what happens beyond the frontier, all they see are the emperor's armies going forth to dominate in his name, and a new region entering the empire.
Some phrases:
Names:
Names come in four parts:
The first name: the family name: bonding name: Bond
Here is a list of stuff to help: I will add as I go along.

Okercra:a small iron mining village in the shadow of mount Oker
Vas:Serf bond, this denotes the social rank of serf, and bonds the serf to the bond which follows, this is commonly a place or person. If it is a place, the serf is bonded to the owner and if it is a person they are bonded to that person.
Vra:denotes ownership, and responsibility of a bond, commonly a lord would hold this title, the only lord to hold the title 'Vra Genghis" is the monarch of the Empire
Family name: The name of the family, the head of a family effectively owns all the members of the family; this is commonly a father of a family. The ownership is not extended to sons over the age of 14 who merely respect the wishes of the father figure. Once a son marries into a new family, they become the head of that family. For the simple serfs this is effective, but gets more complicated in the aristocracy with more than one grandfather controlling the same massive families, often leading to disputes, and rank is called in to settle the hierarchy.
Ves:The rarest bond, this bond literally means no bond, the bondless are freemen and women and are exceptionally rare, there has only been one in known history at that was the emperor before he took power and pulled the surrounding serfdoms under his control. In order to become bondless, the bond holder of an individual must not only release them from it but have the express permission of the emperor to do so.
Oker:The serfdom surrounding Mount Oker, one of the smallest and newest of the 164 serfdoms which make up the empire.
Okerta:a farming village near the Lucas family manor,
Beluse:The massive serfdom which lies between Oker and the rest of the Empire, populated mainly by farmers and lumber workers, the serfdom is dominated by the Beluse forest which provides most of the lumber for the other serfdoms in the region. The Beluse family is a powerful family with strong connections and a strong army. The Father of Beluse is rumoured to wish to expand his lands. Most of Beluse live in the large town of Beluseford a key trading town and source of the wealth which feeds the Beluse family army hundreds strong.

updated Apr 21 '11 by d-w