The child

In a small hut on the very outskirts of the king's land there lived a happy farmer, Brian, and his beautiful wife, Sharon. They lived a quiet, peaceful life. Unlike the other farms, their farm did well even in the harshest winter months. No one knew how they fared so well, even when the Earth became hard and the sun was sparsely seen as snow fell.

From what anyone could tell all the farmer did was tend to his crops like everyone else. Yet, when the other farms died off in the winter theirs still produced bountiful harvests. The crops grew well enough that there was plenty for the farmer and his wife and even more to be sold. This farm kept most of the people on the outskirts from starving.

However, what Brian and his wife were most known for throughout the entire kingdom was not for their amazing crops but for their perfect, red roses. They were the farmer's wife's pride and joy.

The roses grew during every part of the year, even when the winter flowers themselves withered from the cold. Sharon kept them healthy and properly tended to, unaware that the type of roses she had were not flowers that should have been able to survive, to thrive even, through the frosts and many snow storms that the kingdom suffered each year.

Even though Sharon worked hard to keep the flowers well and thriving, it was Brian who truly kept them alive. It was a secret he kept to himself, kept even from his beloved wife. He could make any plant grow and stay alive for as long as he willed them to. This precious gift of his was why even as other farms failed during the harsh weather his remained alive and prospered beyond anything anyone in the kingdom could ever hope for.

Brian wasn't truly aware of this gift of his until his wife and his first winter together. Sharon had planted roses as a symbol of their love when they had gotten married in autumn. In her mind she was to keep the flowers alive as she was to keep her marriage alive. So when the roses died that winter it left the farmer's beloved wife in a terrible state of depression. Since both the roses and their marriage had been doing so well she had convinced herself that if the roses died that meant the marriage would fall to ruin as well.

Every day she would gaze out the window they had been planted under and sigh miserably.

Unable to take Sharon's misery anymore and terrified that she would grow ill from her depression Brian went out on a cold winter's night and replanted the roses in the frozen Earth. He then got down on his knees and prayed over them in hopes that they would grow back full and healthy. He knew this was silly and would not work but still he prayed.

By morning full, beautiful, brilliantly red roses were blossoming below his wife's window and then when she saw them she no longer sat there sighing miserably.

Day after day Sharon would happily trim and pick the perfect roses to sell in town so that they would have money to set aside for more seeds when spring came. She would go door to door to sell them at a cheap price so that anyone could afford them, therefore spreading a bit of life back into the otherwise dead kingdom. This little bit of joy kept her content throughout the hard winter but once spring came so did her need for something else, something new that she could love to look after more than roses, something else that could symbolize the strength of their love, a baby.

For a year the farmer and his wife tried to conceive but no matter how many times they tried nothing seemed to work. Winter soon came around again and again his wife was by her window trimming the roses that had spread and grown as the year passed but now even as she set to work on the task she once loved, a sigh left her red lips.

"God, I wish I had a child…" She whispered to herself one day as she stroked the petals of a rose she had just trimmed away for the purpose of selling, "A son. Yes, a son to help my husband run the farm when he's older. He must be strong with skin as white as the snow that falls from the Heavens."

She smiled and laid the rose in her basket with the others before reaching for another but as she grasped the stem a thorn pricked her finger. Pulling her hand back with a surprised gasp, a few drops of blood fell onto the snow that was on the windowsill. The blood was bright and beautiful, much like her beloved roses.

"Yes, he will be pale and beautiful like the snow," She mused to herself as she looked from her small cut to the bloodied snow, "and he will have lips as red as my roses and as the blood that his father has put into working this land that he will grow to own."

She turned her attention to the sky and smiled more, "He will have eyes like the spring sky as well and a smile as warm as the sun…"

It didn't take long for her smile to fade and a sigh leave her lips once again. She got up from her seat beside the window to tend to the cut on her finger before she went to town to sell her roses. She stopped on her way to the sink when she spotted Brian standing in the door way with a worn smile on his weathered face as if he had been listening.

He walked over to her, taking her wounded hand in both of his large, callused ones. "And what would his name be?"

She looked to their joined hands in thought before smiling brilliantly and looking back at her husband. "Charles. His name would be Charles."

Every day after that the farmer prayed for the child his wife wished for, just like he had prayed over the roses but soon it was many years later and they still had no luck. They were losing hope in this feat and beginning to give up the idea of having the child Sharon wanted or any child at all because it seemed God did not want them to bear one.

Besides this constant source of disappointment, life on the farm carried on as normal. Brian tended to his crops and livestock while Sharon trimmed and sold her roses. Even as her husband seemed to accept they would not have a child, Sharon still clung to the dream of having her little Charles, the perfect baby boy she always wanted, even though every attempt to bring him into the world seemed to fail.

One day, Sharon grew very ill, despite her protests Brian spent most of their seed money on a doctor so he could to come to their hut and make sure she was okay. He needed to know whatever was causing this wasn't deadly. He couldn't bear the idea of losing his beloved wife when he had no child to remember her by.

He paced outside of the room since he was not allowed in while the doctor was with her. He nervously chewed his lower lip, glancing at the door periodically while he waited impatiently for it to open. An hour or so passed and he continued his pacing, practically wearing a hole in the wooden floor. However, as soon as the door opened he stopped moving and stared at the doctor who emerged from the room with a wide grin across his face.

"Congratulations, you will be a father soon. It is just the morning sickness." The doctor pat him on the back and shook his hand as Brian stood and started at the other man in shock.

All their prayers had finally been answered.

It was a long eight months wait after that day for their baby to finally be ready to be born. Labor pains lasted hours before it as time for it to be delivered. The delivery was no easy task. There had been a point where they could have lost the baby if the doctor and nurse hadn't acted fast enough. In the end Sharon fainted but a healthy baby boy was finally brought into the world.

When she awoke Sharon could not hold back a smile seeing the crying baby in the nurse's arms. He was placed in her arms and her smile grew. He was just as she had dreamed. His soft skin was a snowy white, only his cheeks and the tips of his nose and ears were rosy. His small pouting lips were a deep red as if he had painted them with the wild barriers that grew everywhere in the spring. His hair was a curly mess on top of his head, the color of the bark on the cherry tree that grew at the edge of their property.

He was completely perfect.

When his eyes finally opened for the first time, after he had finished his crying, Sharon gasped in surprise at the beauty they held. They were brilliant blue pools, a mix of all the most beautiful blues. She had never seen eyes so lovely. They could be passed off as treasured gems.

He began crying again and Sharon couldn't stop smiling. She stroked his little cheek and he stopped his crying again as he drifted off to sleep.

When Brian was finally allowed in the room he immediately ran to his wife's side and kissed her sweaty forehead. He had been frightened he might have lost her during delivery like many poor farmers had lost their wives. She had screamed and cried loud enough for him to hear her through the door during delivery so when all fell silent when she had fainted he feared the worst.

"Darling, look." She whispered softly and looked from her husband to the sleeping boy wrapped snugly in a blanket she held to her chest. "It's a boy."

He looked to the baby in her arms and smiled. He was the luckiest man alive right now. His wife had survived and now they had the baby they had prayed for.

"He is perfect. Is his name still to be Charles?" He asked as he reached out and gently stroked the mess of soft curls that covered the baby's head.

"Yes," She smiled, "I can think of nothing more suited for him."

.Meanwhile… Elsewhere in the kingdom

"Mirror, mirror on the wall who holds power over all?"

As always you do, sire, but this day a child has been born to a farmer in your kingdom. He has skin like the first snow of winter and lips like the reddest rose, his eyes hold all the colors of the sky, from the darkest to the lightest of all blues. He will be the one that will take power.

A loud crash echoed down the empty hall as silver trays and papers and pens were sent to the floor in one angered swipe of an arm over the large oak desk. The man responsible for the mess spun around on his heel to face a mirror which hung on the bleached white wall behind the desk.

It was ornate with black tendrils curling out from the glass which sparkled and shined like it was made of diamonds and not the simple reflective glass that it was. However, the surface of the glass didn't reflect the man's angered face like most mirrors did. It showed the face of a woman. Her long golden hair cascaded over her bare shoulders, framing a beautiful face and accenting her bright blue eyes.

"How has this happened?" The man asked in a very calm, collected manner, the exact opposite of how he had reacted only moments ago.

The woman knew this behavior was far more threatening than his outburst had been. This calm attitude told her to tread a little more carefully or she would be taken off the wall and smashed in a million pieces.

You have many years before the child will even know of this great power that lies dormant inside of him but nonetheless he will learn of his gift and that will be your down fall.

The king turned his back to the mirror again and closed his eyes, clearing his thoughts. He refused to believe that some stupid child would ever take the power and land he had worked so hard to gain. Once he was last in line for the throne but in his quest for it he mercilessly killed those that stood in his way until he was crowned king. With control over the army he set out and conquered other kingdoms. He took what he wanted but now there was a threat to it. He would not have it, not from a mere child.

"Where can I find this child?" It must be killed. The last part remained unspoken but that did not matter, the mirror knew it hung in her king's mind just the same.

I do not know his location, sire.

The woman in the mirror was lying. She knew everything about the baby's whereabouts. He was curled up in the warmth of a blanket pressed to his mother's bosom in a small hut on the outskirts of the kingdom. His name was Charles and he was the son of the farmer, Brian, and his wife, Sharon. The Mirror knew better than to tell this to her king. Charles had to live to aid another in the destruction of the King's corruption.

"Guards!" The king called and an instant later, in a cloud of red and black smoke, two men appeared. The first man was dark skinned with piercing black eyes. Though compared to his partner he had abnormal physical qualities. The other man was taller, older with cold blue eyes and deep crimson skin. He looked like the devil himself with his slicked back dark hair, red skin and razor sharp tail that swung idly behind him. Both were dressed in strong black leather armor signifying they were part of the king's special bodyguards.

The king kept only a few trusted men close at all times. He sent them on the missions no one would want to take, like killing a newborn baby, and in war time they were at his side protecting him almost 24/7. Those men were set apart from the other knights by the armor they wore. Theirs was black while other knights wore armor very similar but was made white leather instead.

In unison both men stooped to one knee in a quick bow before the king. He looked them over with cold appraisal, deciding if these where the right to for the task.

"There is a problem I need to have taken care of as quietly and quickly as possible." The king walked out to stand in front of his desk, gracefully stepping over the mess he had created in his momentary outburst. "There is a child I want found. It is a baby born to a farmer in the kingdom. It must be killed."

If the two men as any objections to harming an infant they didn't make them known, not even but the slightest twitch of disgust or discomfort passed over their faces. The devilish one nodded, confirming they would take the task, "and the farmer's name?"

"I do not know." The king confessed irritably. "I have a description of the child. It is a boy with blue eyes, red lips and pale skin. That is all I have to offer as aid in this mission. It is up to you two to find it and when you do bring it to me. You must not fail me."

"Yes, your majesty." Both men bowed again before vanishing into the same cloud of red and black smoke they had appeared from.

After nearly a week of combing through almost every house in the vast kingdom the two men returned with the only three children they found that had fit the vague description and were born on the proper day. They presented them to the king in his private study, the one with the mirror hanging on the wall behind the large desk.

The king smiled, knowing one of these awful things had to be the monster that could destroy him and he could easily kill it now before it became even the slightest threat.

One by one they were presented to the woman in the mirror. One child was pale with dark lips, brown hair and dull blue eyes, another was pale but darker than the other two with blue eyes, blonde hair and bright pink lips and the third one was lightest of all with flaming red hair, pale blue-green eyes and light red lips.

One by one they were each rejected. None of them were right. Important in their own way but not the one the King was looking for.

"Kill them." The order was sharp, demanding immediate action that the two in black were just about to deliver when the woman in the mirror shouted.

No. Do not.

The king rounded on her to demand an explanation but she was no longer visible in the mirror. In fact, he found himself glaring daggered at his own reflection. Anger boiled beneath the surface. He was ready to grab the mirror and threaten to drop her if she didn't come back and explain why they must live. However, he managed to calm himself before he even touched the mirror.

Turning back to the two holding the children, ready to slaughter them without hesitation, he gave the order for them to return them and find the proper child.

.

Four years passed and each day was more of a blessing than the last to Brian and Sharon now that they had their little Charles. He was their world now and everything they did they did for his benefit. Brian taught him, when he was old enough to understand, what vegetables could be planted at what point in the year while his mother taught him simple household talents that could come in handy someday.

As he grew up it seemed that all Sharon's wishes for him came true. He was only four years old and already so smart. His eagerness to learn seemed to be insatiable. He was strong. He always volunteered to carry his mother's large basket of roses for her or help with his father's heavy farming tools. Most of all, he was beautiful. No matter how many days he spent in the sun with his father his skin never darkened or burned, it stayed snow white. His lips were a softer shade of red now that he was older but darkened to a blood red color whenever he bit or licked them too much. His dark hair grew in long, dark waves flopped across his forehead. His mother only cut his hair when it started getting in the way of his bright blue eyes.

He was only allowed out of the house when he was with his father in the fields or if he was following his mother to town to help sell her roses. He wasn't allowed to play with the other children. Not only did the other children all live closer to town but over the years there had been rumors of children his age going missing and then reappearing out of the blue. So his parents kept him good and safe in their home, where he was truly happy. He expressed no great longing to have friends when he had the company of his parents and the livestock and books.

Their lives seemed perfect for those first four years.

It was a late summer afternoon when it happened. Charles was poking holes in a little patch of earth his father had set aside for him to grow his own little vegetable patch with his fingers and Sharon was at her window watching him and his father work. He had just stood up to show his mother what a good job he was doing, just like his father had showed him to do, when she screamed "Brian!"

When she disappeared from her window to run outside Charles turned around. He saw his father just as he collapsed, clutching at his chest, a few meters away from where he stood.

He tilted his head to the side not understanding what was happening, sometimes his father did this when his mother was mad, saying things like 'oh my heart can't take being broken' or 'you're hurting my heart' when he got back on his feet. This would always make his mother laugh though, why had she screamed this time?

He waited a moment for his father to get back up grinning like he always did but he didn't move. "Daddy?" He called but still there was no movement from the man on the ground. He knew something was wrong. He started running as fast as his little legs would carry him, trying to avoid stepping on the withering sprouts that had just barely poked up through the dirt.

"Daddy!" He called again as he dropped to his knees beside his father who was face down in the dirt. He grabbed the back of his shirt and tried to turn him over. "Daddy, get up already."

His mother was there within seconds, knocking his small hands away so she could turn her husband over and see what the matter was.

"Brian?" When she got no response from him she checked for breathing by putting her ear to his lips. She found none, so she checked for a heartbeat, still none.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" Charles asked as he watched his mother grow pale. His voice shook with fear even though his father always told him he needed to be strong because showing fear was what makes you weak. When his father told him that he would always ask if he was ever afraid of anything and he would nod but smile and say that he makes sure to never show it for him and his mother's sake.

"Mommy?"

"Go inside, baby." She ordered. "Mommy has to go take daddy to the doctor's."

"He's okay, right?" Charles tried to hide his tears by rubbing his eyes but the quiet sniffling gave him away.

"Go inside." She ordered more firmly, ignoring his tears and taking on the tone she did when she got mad.

Charles nodded and quickly followed her instructions and ran inside so he didn't make her madder. He hurried to his mother's window and got up on her chair so he could watch. Outside his mother was getting the horse and cart and putting his father in it as fast as she could.

Charles wanted to yell out to her and say "daddy will be mad when he's done at the doctors and finds his hard work is ruined" but he thought it better to stay silent.

His mother didn't come back until very late and when she entered the house she came alone. Charles got down off the chair where he had waited the entire time and ran over to her to hug her but she ignored him and walked straight to her room. He watched as she flopped onto the bed and immediately go to sleep.

Biting his lip he made his way to her side, guessing it was time for bed even though his tummy growled, asking for food. He had had a couple crackers while she was gone but he didn't want to spoil his dinner, she always seemed upset when his father would let him eat something big too close to dinner time.

He sat on the bed and took off his shoes then crawled into his parents' bed and not his own since it seemed like his father wouldn't be coming home from the doctor's tonight. He curled up beside her and looked up at her sleeping face, she looked peaceful but he could see tear marks down her cheeks. He reached out and touched one of her cheeks; it was still wet from the tears that must have stopped just before she walked in the door.

She grabbed his hand and muttered something in her sleep. Her voice was too quiet and slurred for him to understand what she said. He wrinkled his nose when he smelled something unpleasant on her breath, it smelled like the clear, stinging cleaning stuff the doctor had but on his father's hand when he accidently cut it on a tool. Charles had picked up the bottle and frowned, rubbing his nose to get rid of the smell that burned his nose.

"What mommy?" He asked quietly, hoping she was awake enough to repeat whatever it was she said. She was but the only words he could make out was 'your' and 'daddy.'

"What?" He asked again, "I can't hear you."

Her eyes opened this time, then narrowed like she was angry with him but he didn't know what he did wrong. She had said something and if it was about his father then it must be important enough for him to hear. "Your daddy's gone."

He furrowed his brow and bit his lip. What did she mean by 'gone?' What had happened to him? He tried to understand what she meant on his own, afraid that if he asked she'd get madder at him for some reason.

His silence didn't seem to help at all, she got mad anyway. "He's gone! Dead!" She snapped, "Now go get in your bed."

Charles stopped breathing for a moment as he processed what his mother had just told him. Before he understood the gravity of it tears were welling up in his eyes and his nose was already beginning to run. His father wasn't coming back from the doctor's, ever. The tears rolled down his cheeks and by the time he was getting ready to crawl into his bed he was sobbing.

He didn't understand why his mommy was being so mean suddenly, especially about this. He wanted to sleep with her tonight, feel her rubbing his back like she did when he was upset but he knew she'd yell at him if he got back in bed with her. He cried so hard that he wore himself out and drifted off to sleep before the tears even stopped.

The next year was a terrible one. Everyday his mother would go out and come back smelling like the cleaning stuff and go to bed without making a single meal all day. After only a few days of this Charles learned to just clean up the vegetables they had in the house and eat them if he didn't want to starve. Since he wasn't taught how to start a fire, his mother thought that was too dangerous for a boy his age no matter how smart he was, he couldn't cook any meat or anything at all really.

Every night, before bed, he'd pray to his father to come back and help them. He was so scared and he couldn't hide it like he was always told to do. Each time his prayers went unanswered he'd curl up in bed and cry himself to sleep only to find in the morning he had the strength to keep working.

Everything was okay with the farm in the beginning. He knew what vegetables would be ready when and when it was autumn the apples were ready. It was impossible to reach any of the apples on his own since he couldn't climb this tree, the branches started too high, so he got another framer to help, promising he could have some of the apples if he helped. He sold two of the chickens to another man if he would let his wife each him to cook, it was no use though, he burnt everything at least he now knew how to start a fire for when winter came.

However, by the end of autumn most of the plants had died from the frost that was starting to freeze the Earth, including his mother's roses. He couldn't help being happy that they were dying, it no longer gave his mother an excuse to go into town to sell them and then come back with no money smelling like she did every night. Sadly not having the roses didn't seem to stop her at all.

Winter hit and it hit hard. Snow fell by the bucketful, keeping his mother from going in town. For a short time things returned to normal, his mother cooking while he busied himself by playing all sorts of games he made up in his head to keep himself entertained for the first time since his father had passed. It was good for a few weeks but once the snow calmed his mother started going out again but this time when she came back it was worse.

She started bringing a man home with her.

She took him to her bedroom and closed the door. Terrible noises would come from the room, mostly it was his mother sounding like she was in some sort of pain, like the man was hurting her but once he'd leave she'd be smiling and make him something to eat.

Charles would always cry while it was happening and then stare at her with questioning eyes when the man was gone but she'd never explain what happened in the room.

One night when it was particularly bad sounding in there Charles couldn't block it out so he ran to the door. Opening it just a crack he peered inside to make sure the man wasn't hurting her. When he saw what was happening all the breath in his body left him.

His mother was on the bed and the man was between her legs, they were both naked. He didn't understand what he was seeing and he couldn't tell if the man was hurting her. The man spotted him and grinned, moving his hips forward, making his mother make the almost-but-not-quite-pained noise louder than normal. He held Charles' stare, making it practically impossible for the boy to look away from his cruel eyes as he moved his hips again and again. That was the first night the man stayed over.

It wasn't long before the man, Kurt, Charles had learned, was practically living with them. He brought his son to stay with them as well, forcing Charles out of his bed and onto the floor in the living room. Charles hated the son, Cain, he hated the way the man looked at his mother and he really hated the way they both looked at him. Every time he saw Kurt's eyes staring at him, which was always too much, it was worse than Cain's stares because he thought back to the night he saw what the man did to his mother.

He always wanted to cry when he was alone with the man or his son for too long but he stayed as strong as he could, hiding his fears like his father had told him to do.

But one night changed everything.

Charles was sleeping on a matt by the dying embers that used to be the fire when he heard the floor boards squeak. He was going back to sleep when he felt someone lay down behind him. He thought it was his mother so he relaxed, again ready to sleep but suddenly his pants were pulled down and he knew this wasn't his mother. Before he could react someone was touching him.

He pushed the hands away and got up as fast as he could. He screamed when he saw it was Cain who had touched him. He had pulled up his pants just as Kurt and his mother came out of their room. He instantly started crying as he ran to his mother, throwing his arms around her, hoping she'd protect him.

When he told her the place Cain had touched him she got angry, but not at him, at them. She picked him up and held him close for the time in months as she pat his back and tried to sooth him. She told them that she was going to report Cain to the authorities but Kurt told her he'd take care of it and took Cain outside.

She took Charles to her room and shut the door. He was allowed to sleep with her for the first time since his father died but even with her rubbing his back and saying she'll tell the authorities tomorrow he continued to cry. He wasn't just crying about tonight, he was crying for his father, the months since, having to be around that man and his son and he was also crying for a strange pain he was feeling, as if someone was hitting him.

He woke up when the sun was just coming up but his mother was already out of bed. He wiped his face on the sheets before he got out of bed to find his mother. He walked across the worn carpet and left the room. His mother wasn't in the living room or kitchen. Confused, he pulled on his shoes and his father's coat then ran outside.

His mother was standing near two men on horseback while Cain and Kurt where nowhere to be found. Running over to her he grabbed her arm and looked up at the two men with a small smile. One man was in the white armor of the army, there wasn't anything distinct or remarkable about him. However, the man in black armor had sharp black eyes that were fixed on him the moment he left the house. He didn't think anything of it because he was so happy, his mother really did go to the authorities like she said she would and it appeared Kurt helped Cain to run away. He could only hope life was going to be good again.

"When was the child born?" asked the man in white.

"Close to five years ago." His mother answered.

The answer seemed to please the man in black because he smiled and nodded when the white knight turned to him. Charles watched both men, frowning, he stepped behind his mother when the man in white got off his horse and knelt before him. "What pretty eyes you have, little one."

"My mommy said God gave them to me." He muttered, pressing close to his mother.

"I bet he did." The knight smiled ruffling his hair then stood up. He took a pouch off the saddle of his horse and handed it to Sharon. "Thank you for your help."

Sharon just nodded and looked toward the snow covered field as Kurt and Cain came into view. Charles started at the two in confusion, he had thought they ran off to escape authority but now they were standing beside them like nothing was wrong.

Charles was just about to ask what was going on when the knight picked him up. His eyes widened seeing Kurt smiling at him as he was carried over to the horse. "Mommy?"

"Be good, Charles. You need to go with the nice men." Sharon said smiling sadly as she reached out and stroked Charles' soft hair.

"No Mommy! Please mommy I want to stay with you!" He started crying and struggling to be put down but the grip holding him only got tighter. The knight placed him on the back of a horse before getting on it himself, holding Charles so he couldn't jump down and run back to his mother. "Don't let him take me!"

The man turned the horse around and road off, the black knight following close behind. Kurt smiled watching them go then led Sharon back into the house. She turned her back on the child she once wanted more than anything.

"MOMMY!"

The kingdom was so vast that the castle was a full three and a half day's ride from the farm and Charles tried to escape every chance he got. He tried to run home when the knights stopped to eat and take a break from riding but he didn't get far at all before the knight in the black armor ran after him and grabbed him. He screamed and cried and kicked as the man handed him off to the man in white on the horse then got on his horse and road off.

When they finally got to the castle Charles was asleep in the white knight's arms. He had fought and cried so much that he had worn himself out completely. The knight looked down at the small boy in his arms and smiled, he was so beautiful and a lot more so now that he was asleep and not trying to claw his face off so he could get away. He was a fighter, no doubt about it.

"What does the king want with this child anyway?"

The knight in black just silently looked at him then back at the castle.

"Not a man of any words, I see." He said.

As they passed the main gate and entered the court yard where two more men in black came out to meet them. Charles woke up just as the horse came to a stop in front of the steps leading up to the main doors. He looked up at the knight with tears already forming in his eyes but there was also fire building behind those blue pools. He was about to start fighting when the two other knights in black grabbed him and pulled him from the horse.

He growled and kicked one man in the face, more than likely breaking his nose, while he scratched the other man's neck. They both dropped him and he got up and ran as fast as he could. The knight in white laughed as he watched the five year old race toward the closing gate and the others chase after him.

"Let me go! Mommy!" He screamed as loud as he could as a knight in black shoved him to the ground so he could pick him up and carry him over his shoulder.

"Let me go!"

"Stop it! You're hurting him!" Another boy yelled. He worked in the stables and had come to fetch the horses when he saw the knights chasing Charles.

"Erik, come along." An old man said quickly pulling the boy away before any of the knights could do something to him.

"Silence him." Someone snapped at the old man who nodded pulling the boy away.

Charles struggled to see what was happening around him as he was carried up the steps. He managed to look over at the other boy who was being led away by the old man. For just a brief second their eyes locked, the boy's deep blue-green eyes and Charles' stunning blue, then the door slammed shut.

He was carried up three flights of stairs and taken down too many corridors to count. He wasn't getting nowhere by fighting and screaming after the first staircase and he knew he was tiring himself out so he decided to wait and make it look like he was tired until they got to where they were going to do anything.

After another corner they entered a large room where he was unceremoniously thrown down before a large desk and a strange-looking mirror. There was a woman reflected in it but the person standing beside it, looking into the mirror, wasn't a woman.

"Well?" The man standing in front of the mirror asked when the woman hesitated as she stared down at Charles.

The woman nodded only once and the man turned around, all he saw was the man's ice blue eyes before there was a splitting pain and his world went black.

world went black.