Chapter 1 – The Forgotten Crown
The village of Elmsworth was quiet that morning, though the smoke rising from distant hills told another story. Ash sat on the worn wooden fence near the edge of the fields, a loaf of bread in his hands and worry in his eyes. He was seventeen, though the hardships of war had made him appear older.
Everyone whispered about the kingdom these days—how it had fallen, how the king had vanished, how shadows now roamed the countryside. Ash never cared for politics, but when soldiers marched past his village, taking food and sons alike, he began to care more than he wanted to admit.
“Dreaming again?” a voice called.
It was Lira, his childhood friend, with strands of dark hair falling into her sharp, mischievous eyes. She carried a basket of apples, pretending not to notice how his hands trembled as he broke the bread.
“I’m not dreaming,” Ash muttered. “I’m thinking. There’s a difference.”
“Thinking about what?” she pressed.
“The kingdom,” he said at last. “If it’s truly gone… what happens to us?”
Lira looked away. “Maybe it’s not gone. Maybe it just needs someone to bring it back.”
Ash laughed softly. “And who would do that?”
Lira’s eyes lingered on him in a way that made his stomach twist. Before he could speak, a horn sounded from the woods—deep, mournful, and unfamiliar. Birds scattered into the sky.
The villagers froze. No one recognized the sound, yet everyone felt its meaning: danger.
Ash dropped his bread. His heart raced. Somewhere in the forest beyond the fields, something stirred. Something that had not walked openly in the land since the kingdom fell.
The horn sounded again.
And Ash’s life, ordinary until this very moment, would never be the same.
