Chapter 1
On his mighty black-coloured stallion, he is on his way to a special place. The soldiers marched behind him, uniformly but also trying their best to catch up with his pace.
His name is Aaron, Prince Aaron is the future King of the Country of Haven, the son of King Leroy.
Where is he on his way to?
He is visiting a man, whom everyone has said to be the wisest man in this world for any questions you ask him, he would be able to answer them correctly. Prince Aaron had heard this from his father and got very interested about this old man. Thus, he asked for his father's permission to come and see this so-called very wise man.
There he is now, slowly getting off his horse as they have stopped before a cave. It looked eerie but he will not leave until he gets his answer. He marches in bravely, alone with the soldiers guarding the entrance of the cave.
He moves inwards carefully avoiding the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave. It is almost pitch black in there but thanks to the light from the entrance he could make out a little bit of everything in the cave.
Finally, light is seen coming from the other end of the cave. He approaches it and soon he sees an old man with a long white beard that had grown to his waist. He smiled as soon as he caught sight of Prince Aaron.
"You must be King Leroy's son, Prince Aaron," he says, with the coarse voice of his.
"How did you know?" Prince Aaron asks, surprised that he knows about him being King Leroy's son, "You are very wise indeed."
"It is nothing. I see that you have come to me to ask me something. Now, tell me what is it you would like to know," says the old man.
"I want to know where the most beautiful maiden, more beautiful than anything can compare, in the world is," says Prince Aaron.
"And why would you want to know that?" the old man asks him back.
"Of course I want to know where this maiden is. Anyone would want a beautiful maiden as his wife. Now, let me know where she is," says Prince Aaron.
"Okay, if you wish, Prince Aaron. The reach to this maiden you are looking for, you will have to leave this country and travel towards the east. Sail past the Mediterranean Sea towards east. Then, travel past the scorching deserts of the east until you see the first greens. You will see mountain ranges all around. The maiden lives at the peak of the highest mountain there," the old man instructs.
"What? We only have to sail past the sea, cross the deserts and climb up the highest mountain? Haha. That is more than easy for me!" Prince Aaron says, proudly, "Thank you very much! Once the maiden and I return to Haven, I'll let you be the first person to see her!"
Prince Aaron walks back to the cave's entrance arrogantly thinking that he would be the only one who knows where this maiden is and it would take him no time at all to reach where she is.
Prince Aaron got on his horse before shouting, "Let's go!"
He and his horse gallop off leaving the other soldiers to run after them.
Meanwhile, back in the cave, the old man is smiling to himself.
"Children nowadays only know how to dream. If I really know where that maiden is, she would have been my wife already now!" the old man says, shaking his head at the prince's stupidity.
Weeks, in fact, months had past and Prince Leroy with his leftover soldiers are using up all the last bit of energy they still have in their body to carry themselves past the deadly temperatures of the desert. One by one, the soldiers dropped and died of exhaustion and dehydration. With the will and courage in him, Prince Aaron had managed to last through everything till now. Three soldiers are still following after him.
The endless journey through the desert and the scorching temperatures caused unrealistic images to appear in their mind every moment. They had not brought any food with them as Prince Aaron had immediately left Haven after listening to what the old man said. Despite having bought supplies of food throughout the journey, the supply still dropped to the last bit. Their water bottle was so dry that not even a drop of water can be seen.
Then, one soldier collapsed followed by another and the last one too collapsed.
"Hey! Wake up. This is an order. You all are supposed to follow me through this journey," Prince Aaron says while shaking them all but to no avail.
Prince Aaron pushes back the motionless body and gets up to continue his journey.
'I will never give up until I reach her. Never!' he thinks.
Prince Aaron drags and drags his heavy legs trying his best to carry himself forward. Finally, his legs could not bear the weight of his body anymore and he dropped onto the scorching sands.
The sun continued glaring fiercely above Prince Aaron who is using his hands to pull his body forward. His hands started to bleed. His hands which are growing weaker and weaker every second stopped moving. Slowly, he became unconscious…
To be continued…
