Once Upon The Life of The Wise King

The Black Firestone

ONCE UPON THE LIF OF THE WISE KING

Volume 1

The Birth of the Wise King

Chapter 7 - The Black Firestone

Prince Colin woke up with sore muscles the following day. He had a hard time getting up from bed. The Prince managed to fix himself with some difficulty and went to the study hall for his morning lessons. Yesterday, he had economics, geography, and algebra. Today, he had lessons for history and arts with his instructor.

The instructor was the same lady from yesterday. She wore a red dress and hair long brown hair tied in a ponytail. Her glasses glinted in light when she turned to the door opened by the Prince.

"Your Highness, good morning," the lady greeted.

"Good morning, Miss Clarence." The First Prince groaned as he made his way to his table.

"Are you alright, Your Highness?" Miss Clarence noticed his unusual lack of energy.

Slumping on his seat, Prince Colin replied, "I had my first swordsmanship training yesterday."

"Oh, so that's why you were in a hurry after our class."

"Yeah...I was so excited."

"That's understandable, Your Highness, but let me remind you that you should not run in the hall," Miss Clarence admonished lightly.

"I'm sorry."

"Very well. Let's begin with our history." The lady turned to the board behind her and wrote something. She said, "Around a millennia ago, our ancestors founded our nation, Luciel Kingdom. Back then, the land was a waste. People can't live in such a land full of hideous creatures that lurked not only at night but during the day. There are no known records of why our ancestors decided to build the kingdom from a wasteland. The historian's believed that the founder of our nation found the source of the creature's inexhaustible life force that made it possible to turn the wasteland into what it is now." Miss Clarence moved back from the board and faced her only student. A crude drawing of the said hideous creatures and a stick man holding what looked like a stone were on the board.

"Who's that?" Prince Colin pointed at the stick man on the board.

The lady looked at the stick man. "That," she said as she turned back to Prince Colin, "is the founder of our nation and the first king of our kingdom, King Luciel von Sierra. And the life source he found is the black firestone. It is a one-of-a-kind stone that contains infinite majika."

"So that's..." the Prince's eyes widened. "That's the source of our majika?"

"That is correct, Your Highness." Miss Clarence nodded. "How he found the black firestone was an accident. Luciel and his companions fought against those morbid creatures when Luciel unexpectedly separated from them and fell off a cliff. He found himself in a cold cave that seemed to absorb even the light from the mouth of the cave. King Luciel felt enormous energy from the heart of the cave. He followed that feeling and found a tiny black stone lying on the ground. He was certain that the stone was the source of that enormous energy. He thought that there could be another creature that protects it, so he had to be careful. But what he did not expect was that there was no such creature, so it came as a surprise to him when he picked up the stone, and nothing happened."

"Nothing happened? Nothing at all?" the young Prince inquired.

"Well, nothing." The lady turned back to the board, erased her drawing, and made another drawing. "At first, nothing happened," she said. "He returned to his companions, spent the night together, and continue fighting against the monsters the next day." She drew three stick man figures fighting against what looked like disfigured hyenas in the wild. Turning back, she continued, "But something has changed. It was subtle, but Luciel noticed that the monsters did not attack him. His companions were still fighting, but whenever he got close to help, the monsters stopped moving as if they can hear Luciel's thought of 'stop fighting!' Out of curiosity, he tried a different thought such as go back, and those creatures followed it."

"Over time, Luciel and his companions managed to subdue those creatures and killed them. It was not easy to kill them because using any means was impossible, but Luciel did it. He suspected that the black firestone had something to do with it." She paused and made another drawing on the board. "Later on, his usual black hair turned white, and his hazelnut eyes turned the iciest blue. Or so the history books said. Anyway, as it happened, his companion speculated that his change in physical features was due to his overexposure to the black firestone. Thus, Luciel gave the stone to one of his companions. However, what happened next was one of the dark histories for him."

Prince Colin gulped. "What happened?"

"That man burned down to ashes," Miss Clarence said gravely and heard the Prince inhaling deeply. "This confused them. How did Luciel stay alive while the other got burned? It brought fear to others, so Luciel picked up the stone again to keep it from being touched by anyone, accidentally or intentionally."

"A lot happened since then. The people got divided. Some believed that Luciel did something to their comrade, while others thought the stone was cursed, and so did Luciel. War also happened. To make the story short, Luciel won some trusted people. With his brilliant mind, they were able to become victorious in war and built the nation. The people believed in Luciel's power and integrity, so he was elected as the King. King Luciel also learned to control the black firestone's power and discovered its benefits. The black firestone can distribute energy, or majika as we now know it, to everyone and heal every wound and disease. It can also absorb any impurities from all living things."

"That's amazing..."

"Indeed it is," the lady agreed.

"But, Miss Clarence, where is the stone now?"

"The stone, unfortunately, disappeared after the second war that happened 300 years ago," Miss Clarence replied softly. "And if you want to learn more about it, you can read your book when you have free time, Your Highness."