Chapter Two: Beginning of a Hero

Arthur knelt at his father's grave, tears streaming down his cheeks. Hammer placed a massive hand on his shoulder and knelt next to him. For a few minutes they sat in silence before Hammer spoke.

"I know what it's like to lose a father, but you can't let grief consume you, come on Theresa wants you" said Hammer, rising up.

Arthur remained at his father's grave, as Hammer left Theresa appeared out of nowhere.

"Arise, you are doing no good sitting at your father's grave and wasting away," said Theresa "if you continue to waste away all is lost and I may as well have let Reaver take you to work in his factories."

"What is lost, everything that I ever loved died. My mother died giving birth to me, my sister died at the hands of bandits, and now this" replied Arthur.

"If you do not embrace your destiny, heroes are lost and as is Albion, and Samarkand and Aurora, and the lands still unknown to us" stated Theresa.

"Why me then, what makes me so special."

"You are the grandson of the bastard child of the old hero king" Theresa placed a hand on his soldier "the line of heroes that you belong to has given birth to some of the most powerful heroes ever seen. The Hero of Oakvale, the Hero of Bowerstone, the Hero of Brightwall"

"What about Garth and Hammer and You then, where do you and they come in"

"Garth was a Hero of will, in the time of the old hero king; Hammer was the Hero of strength. Nearly Six hundred years ago, my brother was the hero of Oakvale."

"But that would make the both of them over eighty! Hammer only looks as if she was in her forties, and how are you so old!"

"Some descendants of the first Archon were given the gift of immortality; fate decreed that all three of us are immortals."

Theresa got up and Arthur followed, unable to process this information that had just been told to him.

Arthur and Theresa went to the city's main courtyard, Garth and Hammer were almost in a fight, Garth was charging his shock spell and Hammer had her hammer in one hand and a broadsword in the other. The two circled each other wearily; Hammer swung her sword then charged. Garth quickly rolled out of the way, and shot Hammer with a bolt of lightning. Hammer leapt out of the way, the ground shacked in her wake as she went back down.

"Is that all you've got!" exclaimed Hammer.

"I was going to ask the same of you!" replied Garth.

Theresa cleared her throught and the two jumped, Theresa raised her eyebrows then smiled wryly.

"I was hoping the two of you would be a bit more mature than this when the time the two of you have been called upon to help the coming age" said Theresa before spinning off.

"Well… to be any good at strength or skill, without being a true hero of that specific discipline," said Garth "you must have a modicum of Will power."

Garth had begun his training by telling Arthur to meditate, and only when time meant nothing, would Arthurs training truly begin. On the sixth day, after around ten minutes, Garth told Arthur to stop. Arthur got up; believing that Garth had finally ran out of patience. When he went outside, the night breeze blew upon his face, and he sighed contentedly, before stopping in his tracks as he realized that it was night, and only moments before it had been day.

"Didn't you know," Garth chuckled "good."

A/N: Well, this is a short chapter I know, they will be like this until around chapter five or six, when the going gets good. During training it will be always be short, because it will get repetitive.

Disclaimer Notes: The training sequence was partially inspired by the training in the book White Tiger by Kylie Chan.