So this is now the main story! the whole kid thing was just set up for this :) x

Chapter 1

10 years later

Nick sprinted down the corridors of the massive castle he lived in, it was a sunny day outside and Nick sure didn't want to waste the good weather indoors. When he reached his destination in the castle he knocked rapidly over and over on the door and when he decided it was a good enough warning he burst through the door to see his best friend lead on his bed writing something,

"Jeff!" Nick said, trying to announce his entrance into the room,

"Yes, Nick?" Jeff asked, rolling his eyes, his friend was far too active for the morning,

"Can we go riding in the woods today?" Nick asked, as he saw the reluctance on Jeff's face, he sat next to him on his bed and gave him the best puppy eyes he could muster "Please?"

"Ugh, fine" Jeff said, rolling his eyes and smiling at his friends' adorableness, he placed his book on his bed and followed a very enthusiastic Nick out of the door.

Nick and Jeff were riding on their horses through the fields that almost looked like gold in the sunlight, they were headed towards the wood, it was split in half by a long wide river. One half of the wood had bright green trees that glistened in the sunlight and sun shined down through the branches lighting it well and then there was the other half of the woods, this half was dark and looked like death. If the old tales were correct, then the dark half contained all sorts of dangerous magical creatures that the old Kings had banished from the kingdom. The light half of the wood was safe for human entry and any one could go in it, the only time anyone went in the other half was for knight training, there was a small camp potential knights went to every year, Jeff was in line for that and it worried Nick because sometimes people didn't not return from the woods alive.

"I will be going there soon" Jeff said, nodding towards the dark half of the woods, Nick could tell he was scared. He didn't blame Jeff though, he would be scared too especially since Jeff is not a great swords man or anything to do with fighting, he was smart though.

"I know" Nick replied, he couldn't hide the concern from his voice. Jeff's heart fluttered slightly when he heard the shakiness in Nick's voice at the thought of him being in danger. Jeff was completely and madly in love with Nick, he didn't really understand how or why but all he knew it was true and he had gotten over the denial bit a while ago.

"How about we practice a bit?" Nick suggested,

"What?" Jeff asked, he shook his head slightly to remind himself to stop ogling at Nick and actually pay attention,

"Your sword work?" Nick said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "You need to work on it if you are going to that camp thing"

"Ugh, fine" Jeff groaned, he hated practicing; he was awful at this whole fighting thing, where as Nick had a natural talent for it.

"Good" Nick said, he jumped down from his horse landing perfectly on both feet, whereas Jeff had to carefully get off his horse so he wouldn't fall. Nick pulled his sword from where it was kept on his horse saddle and Jeff quickly did the same, "I'm just going to show you the basic's since you still can't do that"

"Hey, I'm getting better" Jeff said, feeling slightly offended, he really did try with this kind of stuff because he wanted to make his father proud,

"You are, but your progress is far too slow" Nick said, pointing his sword upwards and getting into the proper stance, Jeff quickly copied. Nick suddenly lunged towards Jeff and out of shock Jeff fell over, his back hit the ground and his long leads kicked out, tripping Nick over who fell on top of him and Jeff thought things could not have gone worse.

"Nick you are going to need to get off me" Jeff said, while Nick just bust out laughing when he finally composed himself he pushed himself up on to his arms so he was hovering just above Jeff,

"Well that went well" Nick said sarcastically, however Jeff couldn't concentrate anything other than the fact that Nicks face was inches away from his and how easy it would be just to kiss Nick, no matter how much he tried to shake those thoughts it didn't work. Jeff just tried to shake it off by laughing too and then Nick finally got off of him to Jeff's great relief,

"Can we just go into the woods?" Jeff asked, he wasn't in the mood for this training anymore, "I'd rather not hurt myself"

"Yeah, okay" Nick said and they both got back on their horses, Jeff taking longer than Nick, which was normal, "Don't you think it's weird how I'm the one that can fight reasonably well and you have all the brains, it's like I should be the knight and you should be the prince"

"Yeah I've noticed that, do you think that annoys our fathers?" Jeff asked, he was always worried that he would disappoint his father,

"I think it does a little but they know I still have lots of time until I am king and you still have that Knight camp to go to" Nick said, "We will be ready for our roles, I promise"

"I hope you are right" Jeff said, heading towards the wood followed by Nick. Jeff took one last look at the dark side of the forest before it disappeared from view, he was so afraid of what would happened when he went into there, he could come back untrained and useless and his father would hate him or even worse he might not come back out at all.

Thanks for reading! Please review if you can 3