Chapter 1: A Means To A Future
Walking through the kingdom on a warm Saturday evening, with a gentle breeze gently coursing through the large city. Civilians are seen interacting with each other, buying, selling and conversing. If these people were to take a glance up at the top of the three story tall buildings, they would notice young men and women dashing across the roof tops, weaving in between, in and out of balconies, chimneys and climbing up or down walls. All to arrive at their destination in a short interval of time. The art of parkour is truly beautiful when observing the delicate movements, such as the vaulting objects, somersaults, cartwheels, cat climbs, leaps and any other movement associated with such. Propelling himself from a particular tall building to a smaller house with a steep roof, he landed just right for it to act like a slide and he was then shot away from the house and onto the next, not once stopping or hesitating.
'I was, and still am a weakling… I can't believe that my own brother and father detest me, just because I'm not as strong as my brother'. These thoughts were running through the lonesome mind of an innocent teenage boy, aged fifteen years of age. The boy had a rather weird gene mutation which brought upon his hair colour to be a rather dark blue, more or less like a midnight blue with amber coloured eyes. He has a well defined jaw line, yet he still had a small portion of his baby fat amongst his cheeks. He stood at five foot six, which isn't very tall for his age, he also has an average build that consisted of him having small pockets of fat in areas such as his lower abdomen and his four limbs, all the while having just next to zero muscle definition. He wore a standard plain grey t-shirt with black training pants that had a custom design of a white dragon upon the left thigh of the pants which covered his tanned body.
It just so happens that the current empire he lives in, is actually a militant empire, which trains kids of a young age, to be formidable warriors in order to serve their king and queen which also happens to be this boy's parents.
It is a rather strange world in which he lives in, the warriors in which are trained, are also trained in the art of wielding supernatural abilities, these being named sphilk's. The sphilk's use what every human has the ability to use, it is the energy which is stored within one's body, although the storage capacity varies from person to person, albeit, this storage capacity can increase with training and frequent use of certain energy control exercises. It can be a rather tedious and annoying process, but it pays out in the end-
"Hey, Hunter! Get your ass out here, dinner is ready!" exclaimed the brother of the now identified boy as Hunter. He simply nodded his head at his brother who in turn muttered something about stupid mute brothers then proceeded to exit the room. Hunter got up from his grounded position and ventured down the stairs which gave off a rather annoying creak. He arrived at the dining room to where he was to eat dinner with his 'so called family'. He was greeted to the sight of his talkative mother, complaining about how weak Hunter is and how his father should train him harder. She stopped mid sentence when she noticed said child sit down into his seat which also happens to be the furthest away from everyone else.
An awkward silence fell down upon the family once Hunter had sat down and prepared to devour the meal that sat before him. A simple dinner containing a rather large portion of mashed potatoes, carrots, peas and beans. Along with that was a mouth watering sized leg of chicken, perfectly cooked to be juicy and succulent as well has it having a nice browned skin coating it, while slathering it in gravy. It was a meal to be salivating at, although Hunter, he is a different story. He simply sat and started eating, not bothering to wait for his family.
No matter what attempt his family made, Hunter either responded with a nod of the head, shake of the head, shrug of the shoulders, or simply silence.
His father, often tried to pull the 'I am the king' card, and demanded respect, which earned him a look of disdain, to which made his father seethe at the blatant disrespect. His mother, deciding to try and disarm the obvious tense situation by trying, yet failing to engage her son into a conversation. "So Hunter. How has your training been? I hear you are progressing nicely according to your father". She simply got a shrug of the shoulders in response.
Although according to Hunter's father, this was the last time in which he was to not give a reply and actually speak. "Damnit Hunter! Why won't you ever speak! For the last nine years! NINE. YEARS! Not ONCE, have you spoken to any of us! But this ends now Hunter, I know you don't like the training I give you, but if you don't speak, I don't know what to change, or what to make better". A deafening silence followed after that as everyone at the table seemingly expecting Hunter to talk, yet he simply sat there, an impassive expression pasted onto his features. Although, to Hunter, it got the least desirable result.
Hunter's father got up from his seat and strode over to where he was seated and got right up in his face. His father's face seemed to be pulsing as each second passed as he got further more pissed off with Hunter, refusing to utter a single word. Hunter just tuned out his father's rant, just looking off to the side, looking out the window, noticing a rather unruly thunderstorm that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
His attention snapped back to his father as it seemed that he noticed that Hunter wasn't even giving him the slightest bit of attention, thus, decided to get physical.
Lifting Hunter up by his collar, just enough so that he was face to face with him, which considering Hunter's father was an entire foot taller than him, was rather scary for him. Their noses were millimetres apart from one another as his father took in a lungful of air and let his son have what has coming to him.
"I have had enough of you! You simple minded twit! The only thing that is of benefit of you is your bloody silence! You are of no other use, you can't fight, you can't shoot an arrow, you can't swing a sword. You. Are. Useless! You are simply nothing to me anymore, it is like a stranger is living the my castle! Either you shape up or you are gone!"
Deciding that he hasn't enough, he abruptly crashed his skull onto Hunter's. Noticing a thin trail of crimson liquid traveling down his sons face and towards his chin. Even after that, he figured that this wasn't enough, so he came to the conclusion that propelling Hunter towards the door using his superior strength, that led to the outside balcony was the best decision.
Due to popular belief, the king and queen were supposed to be the strongest in all of the lands, yet they are to be kind and gentle when dealing with their families and people of their empire. Yet Hunter had just experience first hand, that this was a load of shit.
Sailing through the air, Hunter crashed through the thick wooden doors that led to the outside world, which also happened to be one that was pouring down rain. Although as he crashed through the doors, he didn't stop on the balcony, oh no, he didn't stop there. He sailed over the ledge and down four stories directly towards the solid, unforgiving earth. He paid no mind to the frightful yelling from his brother and mother.
Wind whipping past his face, hair flailing wildly along the descent. He was about to come to a conclusion that he either to meet his demise, or be severely maimed. Albeit, he didn't want either. He noticed a lone tree branch protruding out towards where he was falling.
Taking advantage of the poorly cared vegetation, he tried to change his falling trajectory. Time seemed to slow down as he tried to get as close to the branch as he could, and considering that he has very little time because of the ground that was approaching, was a little too close for comfort.
He approached the branch at an impressive yet deadly speed due to the situation Hunter was currently in. He extended his arm out towards the branch of hope. Adrenaline coursing through his body, mind working a mile a minute. Despite his best efforts, he closed his eyes and hoped for the best, arm still extended towards the branch.
Upon feeling rough bark quickly slipping through his hand, he flexed his muscles and closed his hand to enclose it around the branch. The branch was quickly becoming thin as he reached the end of the branch. He was running out of branch! Then he felt nothing in his hand and continued falling towards the ground.
Time sped up as he noticed he was on the ground. He let out an involuntary groan as he was carefully to not do any more unknown damage to himself from his earlier descent. Yet as he did a once over himself, all he noticed was a few bruises along his limbs and he had a dull ache from the back of his head. Probably whiplash from when he landed. He took a glance up to look at his branch of hope. It had slowed his fall considerably and had essentially saved his life. Scowling towards the balcony he had just fallen from, he took off towards the forbidden forest just behind his parent's estate. He took off as fast as his aching legs could take him. He entered the supposed protective forest, covering the view of those who he didn't want to be spotted by.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
She had just witnessed her husband, verbally and physically abuse, and essential kill her son, all in the matter of forty seconds. She remained silent within the first thirty, but when she saw her youngest son flying towards a set of doors, she started to dread the feeling of her son potentially being killed, by his own father no less. Letting out an indignified squawk, she raced across the dining room towards the door in which her son had just left. Seeing him no where on the balcony, she took a trembling glance over the edge of the balcony. To see nothing but a dent in the ground in the shape of a teenage boy. Her teenage boy. Her son had just fallen four stories… Four fucking stories! Her blood started to boil as she turned towards her husband with an expression that promised him nothing but the worst of pain. Her face had gone red whilst the bangs of her hair covered her eyes. Yet it was lucky for those around her because if you were to look into her eyes, one would see they held nothing but pain and unrelenting fury.
The king took a step back, not wanting to be on the receiving end of a woman's rage. Although, he wasn't capable of escaping said rage as before he could blink, his wife was upon him and pounding him into oblivion.
Hunter's brother was just staring slack jawed at the set of doors in which his brother had been sent through. Although to most it would seem as though that he didn't like his brother, that was completely false. He loved his brother. Sure he was mute and that can get really annoying, but he still played with him, smiled with him, and trained with him. But as he watched his treasured brother crash through the dark oak doors, and from where he was sitting, over the railing of the plain white balcony, a part of him died as he feared the worst, thinking that his brother had just been killed, by his father no less. Just like his mother, he shot up, out of his chair and strode towards his father, intent on maiming him.
Oh yes, the king wouldn't be getting up in a hurry once the remaining of his family had finished with him.