Alexander has always been drawn to danger.
It runs in his bloodline, its always been so. Whether it was his great-great-uncle Steward who opposed the reigning king or his father who travelled all over the world. Each and every single person in his bloodline somehow put themselves into immense danger, and he is no different.
Before he had turned seven years old, he almost lost his life to an ogre. Yes, you read that right, Alexander had got chased by an ogre as a child. A god damn ogre. Do you even know how big they are? A single ogre can rise up to three meters and way over a ton. It runs at an insane speed and has the strength of a thousand men. However, apart from common myths, they live peacefully in the forest acting as protectors. And somehow, Some-fucking-how. Six-year-old Alexander managed to piss one off by peeing on a cherished flower.
If not for his father being an esteemed warrior, he would have died.
The first time Alexanders interests had been truly piqued was on a Spring day. It was a travelling magician, similar to a travelling clown. The magician would go into villages located in the outskirts and show them cheap tricks. Alexander had a fond memory of these tricks, it was of a very simple trick. The man had made a ball of water float in the middle of his hand.
This memory would go on to impact the Alexanders future greatly.
Ten years after this memory, Alexander had said goodbye to his parents and parted on his journey. As he left the village he looked back at his parents, he saw them comforting each other in tears. looking at him. They looked sad but satisfied in a way, Alexander made sure to shout goodbye before he left them.
The plains were lush and filled to the brim with flowers. Almost every single colour could be seen in the grass, black was the only colour missing. The sky was light blue with no clouds to be seen, in front of him was a forest. It was Spring and the important examinations would begin soon.
The examinations would be held in the city. Alexander had to make his way to the city, but it was quite a distance away.
Packed on him were not much, after all, he would have to carry it a long distance. He had a cloth t-shirt, cloth shorts and leather boots. He carried a pouch of water and bag to sleep on and some salted fish, he also had one silver coin. His family could have given him more money than they did but his father said it would ruin the "fun" of it. "What's the fun in being poor?", Alexander thought. On top of that, he had a spear with a metal tip, his father had insisted he brought a spear instead of a sword as Alexander had originally wanted.
The journey to the city would take him at least a month and he had figured that he would hunt for more food on his way there. He walked with strides as he made his way into the forest, there was a glint seen in his eyes. The path to the city was quite simple, he had to go north until he saw it.
He had gone there once in the past. His father apparently had something important to take care off and Alexander tagged along.
As he was walking he thought about the near future. Alexander wanted to become a mage, he had always dreamed of it after his first encounter with magic. Sadly, learning it was a very tricky task, the books of magic around him were either too advanced or not existent, on top of that a magical spirit was required. As he thought about the magic he felt a sense of warmth spread from his chest up to his head, at that moment he stopped walking and started running.
An hour later and Alexander panted heavily, everyone had a limit, and motivation was not some sort of magic to break through it(not in this story at least). He thought of taking a quick rest but decided against it. It was the middle of the day, he could rest when night would come. Instead, he kept walking, at a slightly slower pace then he did before.
Soon it was noon and the sun started lowering; he thought about whether he should continue moving or if he should rest. He felt the energy to keep moving, but resting was more appealing and more practical, after all, it was about now the predators of the forest would come out. Walking would only make him a bigger target for wolves, bears or any other dangerous creatures.
He found a hidden spot, it was in between a few bushes and a tree. He put down his bag and sat beside it, he was sweating quite a lot so he decided to take a small drink of his pouch filled with water.
Water has a weird property of tasting like a godly liquid when you are thirsty, making it really hard to put it away. However, Alexander only had a water supply consisting of four days and finding water could be a tricky task.
When you live out in the country, there is not much to do after dark. If you went out, you could not see anything. Alexander had no siblings, and his parents would go to sleep quite quickly so there was nothing to do at home. In other words, there wasn't much to do without dying of boredom, so sleeping quite early was only natural to Alexander. He fell asleep before it got dark.
The next morning he woke up, the first thing he caught sight of was a bluebird. The bluebird was staring right back at him, he had a staring competition with the bird. After about ten minutes his eyes were bleeding tears and he gave up. He got out of his bed, packed up his things and kept on following the road.