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The downfall of Meriah

🇳🇴Katrinne_Karlsen
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Synopsis

Chapter 1 - A night to remember

It was a rainy and cold night, as it has been for the last few days, in the small kingdom Heberigge. Heberigge, which was once considered a powerful country, was now a dying kingdom due to the fact that rain was something that rarely occurred in the last years, causing many to die, transforming the land into a desert, a wasteland filled with abandoned villages scattered across. The only place that has survived till now was it's capital Korel. The reason for this was its close proximity to another kingdom called Meriah.

Different to it's neighbour, Meriah was a kingdom full of wealth. It was regarded as one of the strongest kingdom around, not only loved by its citizens but by other nations as well. Making it so that the only problem Meriah has to face was its lack of land. And so it was not hard to imagine that Meriah was the cause of Heberigge's downfall. After all such a phenomenon could not be a natural one, and Meriah was the only place with the resources and motive to do something like this. And so, on this very night was their last move to fully take control of them.

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Nox woke up with a start, the sound of yelling coming from outside still audible over the heavy rain was what woke him up. Now, Nox was a curious child, after all he was only 7 years old, and although he knew his parents would get mad at him for being awake at this hour, he went out to the living room. There stood his parents, his mother Miriam, a frail woman with dark hair and pale blue eyes, and his father Maxwell, a simple man with bright purple hair and eyes. All in all they were both very plain in Nox's eyes, nothing like the people he would see on the streets, with fancy clothes or special powers, but he still loved them very much.

Nox however was very different from his parents, while still having his mother's hair added with faint purple tips, what stood out the most was his eyes. Just by looking at his eyes it was obvious that he has some sort of power, but no one has been able to figure out what it is exactly. As the only thing that they have been able to gather so far was their unique appearance. His eyes was that of a night sky, a perfect mixture of black, purple and blue covered in silver spots creating stars.

Nox himself has never liked his eyes, their unusual appearance made many in their previous village to act hateful towards him, as is was one of the few places against magic, claiming that everyone able to use some sort of power was cursed by a demon. It was the reason why Nox usually hide his eyes from strangers.

"Nox dear, what are you doing here?" Miriam stared at her child, obvious worry written on her face. "Mama? What's with all the noise outside?" said noise was now louder almost reaching their house. "I don't know Nox, but I'm sure everything will be alright. Now why don't you go back to your room and try to get some sleep" although Miriam was worried, scared, she knew she couldn't show it to Nox, and fearing that her mask will falter, she hushed him to his room.

But before he could move much, a group of foreign soldiers, soldiers from Meriah, barged in. Immediately Miriam stepped in front of Nox in an attempt to shield him from them. At the same time Maxwell began backing towards them while always keeping his eyes on the soldiers "What are you doing here!?" The demand was ignored by them as they began to close in on them. "Didn't you hear me!? I said what are you doing her-" his sentence was cut short as one of the soldier's sword pierced though him. After retracing his sword Maxwell fell to his knees in shock, staring dumbfounded at his wound. Blood began to pulse out of his body, staining his clothes, while pooling at his feet. Miriam and Nox could only gape at the scene, both not daring to move, but the soldier was not done just yet as the very next moment he swung his sword down effectively cutting off Maxwell's head. As his head landed on the ground and rolled to Miriam's feet, she felt like everything was crashing down more and more the longer she stared in her husband's dead eyes. Looking up from the scene there was a soldier right in front of her, even with half of his face covered, the glee he felt from the event was very obvious. Then Miriam's world went dark, reuniting with her husband, while still hoping that her son would be okay.

Nox felt hopeless. After all, how was he, a 7 year old boy, going to get away from these five experienced soldiers aiming to kill him? But, he didn't want to just give up either. And so he ran, ran out the door and onto the street. The soldiers might be much bigger and stronger than him, but he was small, fast and had the advantage of being familiar with the area, with those three in mind he successfully left. Although they were quick to react and was swiftly on his heels, now, he at least have a chance and he'll take what he can get. And so, as long as he can out smart them in familiar terrain, all he had to worry about was the gate and the surrounding wall. For you see, the capital of Korel was surrounded by a large wall ment to keep out intruders. You can see how well that went. Anyway, the gate was the only place where people can get in and out and had probably been taken over by the Meriah soldiers by now, and so the only option he had was to go over the wall.

And Nox know just how to do it.

When they first moved here, Nox went and got familiar with the area in the first few days. At the last day he went exploring, he found a way up the wall using the rooftops and surrounding buildings. From there, the top of the wall had become his favourite place to be. It was quiet, had a great view, and no one could disturb him there.

Now, standing at the top while people where scrambling up to catch him. There was one thing that prevented him his freedom.

The way down had a 20 meter long drop into some bushes and ..water...? It was to hard to tell what was down at the bottom of the wall. And as seeing that there was no other option, Nox closed his eyes and jumped down.