THE FIRE OF AEDON

CHAPTER4:FIRST-CROWN

(800 years ago)

Arin was in his mid-twenties. Even though he was now living apart from his family, he realised that he could never completely sever his ties with them. It was not that he was dissatisfied with his family, but the fact that his father was a council member and his mother was one of the clerks of the council made Arin's goals in life remain a dream. However, as time passed, Arin realised that the pressure of his family could not get in the way of his dreams. His purpose of existence was to explore, to get more in touch with the world he was in. His curiosity about this subject was increasing day by day and he was getting further and further away from his family's ideology.

The predicted end was not long in coming. This was the reason why he was now at the very border of the city of Fengium. In the small bag he had taken with him was enough food to sustain him for a while, a few items he hoped would help him survive in the wilderness, an old map he had stolen from his mother's room, and a scroll of parchment, a box of ink and a plucked feather quill to note down what he saw. He had left his whole life behind him in the city built between two mountains. He would be lying if he said he was not worried about his future, but this worry was very small compared to excitement and curiosity. So little that it could be ignored.

Now, as he stood on the rocky and stony hill and looked around, Arin was free. The adventure he had dreamed of all his life was waiting for him right in front of him. He could meet other races, he could confirm with his own eyes the rumour that Humans were indeed uncivilised, he could see if the Slergs were really as wild and savage as they were described. Right now he could go anywhere he wanted and do anything he wanted. A world of limitless possibilities lay before him, a world where not even maps could yet depict the entire planet. A vast world that he had been dreaming of since his childhood, the protagonist of his dreams. However, it did not take long for this vast world to pull him into the darkness. Whatever seemed good in life, there was also the other side, the bad side, and Arin realised this truth very late and painfully. Although he thought he was ready, someone who grew up with all the opportunities at his disposal had no chance against pure nature, even if he thought otherwise. Just as Arin had no chance.

He spent the first two months in the woods near the city of Fengium. At the time, he thought that the rest of the world was like this forest, but reality made him realise that he was never ready for that. His encounter with the wilderness and the Slerg, a race known as the embodiment of the word "savage", brought him face to face with the true face of the world, and this event marked the beginning of months of chase and survival. But it was also the beginning of a storm that would rage on Aedon for years to come. Time is so strange that no one understands what is happening, but every action they take throughout their lives becomes a link in a great chain of events in the future. Living things are both simple enough to be ignored and complex enough to change all time. In the end, it is time itself that always wins, and those like Arin, like the Fengs, like Humans, like Slergler, are only part of the ongoing cycle of nature.

But this is not so fast in time. When the foundations were being laid for an event that would happen centuries later, Arin did not realise that he was a big part of it. Arin has travelled so many places and seen so many things during this game of cutting corners that he has passed places, ruins and natural formations that he probably would have stopped for days to admire their beauty had he not been in the midst of his life at that moment. Everything he had dreamt of for years was as close as a glance, but further away than he had ever seen in his dreams. This situation continued until the long, tiring and exhausting effect of the chase finally caught him unawares and exhausted him. He travelled to all the places he wanted to visit and see, but he could never stay long enough to see them. However, in the end, a tribe he discovered at a time when he was at the end of his struggle for survival became his salvation. This tribe was a small community of about 30 people who for years had been worshipping a large green emerald they called "The Treasure", a crown with branches that surrounded it like a net, and who declared themselves the guardians of that crown. Years of experience had taught them how to deal with the Slergs and even how to neutralise dozens of them. Arin learnt many new things from them during his time with the tribe and was eventually able to fulfil part of his purpose in leaving home.

However, Arin's involvement in this tribe, which had been in existence for years, and learning their methods brought the tribe to its end. Like almost every living creature with a mind, Arin was an ambitious and greedy young man. Combined with curiosity and an inconceivable hunger for power, it did not take long for him to deviate from the right path. This process, which resulted in him taking the crown and running away at the first opportunity, resulted years later in the crown in the hands of the Feng race, which would play a key role in the war they would fight in the future. Although Arin's name was written in the history books as a hero, no one wondered about the events that took place in the background, and those who did never got the truth.