Nero tossed and turned on the floor of his bedroom. His bed lay cold and empty, still made up from the day before. He couldn't relax on the too-soft beds of the palace; he had always slept on the hard, dirt floor of the stables with the other squires. He despised unnecessary luxuries and palace life but he liked the pay and the friendship of the prince he protected. They'd grown up together after Nero was taken in as a aquire and were both now rugged men of war at the age of twenty-four.
Nero hefted a sigh as he saw the trickle of sunlight beginning to peer through the cracks between the heavy drapes of his windows. He scrubbed his face with his hands and sat up quickly, his muscles flexing beneath his tunic as he pulled himself off the floor. Maids quickly brought in a tub and hot water, silently trembling in fear as they tried to finish as swiftly as their small bodies would carry them. Everyone in the palace feared Nero, his mountainous, muscled frame towering over everyone, even the King. The halls would fall silent as he strode past the bowing, shivering servants to find the prince in his quarters nearby.
"Oro," he boomed, his deep, gruff voice echoed throughout the large chambers. He was met with fake snores and a slight snicker. Nero rolled his eyes, shoved the sleeves of his tunic up, and ripped the blanket off the bed, throwing Oro to the floor.
"Hey! I am still a prince. I could have you beheaded for attacking me," Oro quipped, trying to hide the cheeky smile beneath his palm as he sat up on the floor.
"Yeah, give the order and see if anyone comes to face me. I'll bet ya a month's worth of gold you'd be met with silence and excuses from every last damn person in the entire kingdom before anyone would dare deliver the message," Nero remarked flippantly, offering his rough hand to the prince to help him off the cold, stone floor. Oro pushed his hand away, laughing as he got up and began to strip before the blushing maids preparing his bath. Nero could hear the giggles down the hall as they whispered beneath their breath about how handsome the blond prince was. Nero rolled his eyes as he polished off the breakfast that had been served alongside his highness's bath.
"So, what's on the schedule today, your royal pain in my ass?"
Oro laughed as he finished dressing behind an elaborate gold screen that Nero hated since they were children and Oro had the maidservants bring one into his room and try to help him dress as if he was an inept child.
"The Forbidden Forest." Nero's brows rose in surprise.
"Says who?"
"The King. Wants me to prove myself yet again, so looks like you've got your job cut out for you today in keeping me alive."
"You sure this isn't a trick and the queen isn't trying to kill you again?"
"No."
"All right then, when do we leave?"
"Now," Oro answered simply as he slid his shining gold sword into its sheath at his hip, the roaring lion perched atop it symbolizing its owner's courage.
Nero sighed, tightening his black leather armor, securing daggers to both thighs, a bow across his chest, and the largest sword ever made for a man at his left hip. Nero rested his left hand atop the plain blade, gesturing with his arm for the prince to go ahead. Outside of this room he had to treat him as such and act like the sellsword he was supposed to be. His boots slammed against the marble floors, one step behind the prince as they began their journey to the Forbidden Forest.
While the men began their journey, Amina was alone in the Forbidden Forest, just awakening to the sunrise and the sounds of the animals rousing with her. She stretched her petite frame beneath the old, simple blue dress she had sewn herself. She yawned as she packed her bag, rolled up her blanket, and set her meager belongings in her makeshift tent. Amina had a rough life since the night her parents were murdered. She was alone in the world, shunned from the village, and without a true home but she didn't allow it to bother her. Amina gathered berries and herbs to sell in town and buy necessities before heading back to the forest to her shabby tent and the animals she cherished. Amina didn't care about the people who glared or cursed at her, but she did care quite a lot for the few regular customers she had that were friends of her parents. Sometimes they couldn't afford to pay her, so she would simply ask for a story about her parents for payment and wave them off with a smile, wiping the tears from her eyes once they had passed beyond sight.
Amina had sold out today, with a few silver coins and many, many stories about her parents in their younger days before she had been born. She giggled as she pictured her father falling into a lake after stumbling back from kissing her mother for the first time. His face must've been so red as he gathered the courage to face the love of his life after embarrassing himself so thoroughly. Amina loved hearing stories of their love the most. She could always see their love as she grew up; the way they looked at the other, the sly smiles after stolen kisses when she pretended to look away from her parents, the belly laughs, the small touches throughout each day. She hoped to find a love like her parents had someday. Amina sighed at the meager possibility, trudging uphill back to the Forbidden Forest and her tiny, lean-to waiting for her.
Amina shivered as the sun fell low over the horizon. Tonight's air was chillier than normal and something didn't feel right. Amina held up a glow stone, clutching her mother's locket against her chest as she quietly crawled out from beneath her tent, hearing the animals scattering in fear nearby. She had never heard the animals of the forest make such noises, sounding frantic as they skittered up the trees and lunged behind boulders. What was scaring them so? Amina took a deep breath, slowly creeping forward toward the noise the animals were so desperately trying to escape from. It sounded as if something was in pain, screeching and tearing at the forest floor. The sun crept ever lower as Amina was greeted by a pair of glowing red orbs. Amina squinted, trying to make out the creature, and sighed when she realized it was just a small panthera, one of the large cats found in the forest. Amina laughed at herself but stopped suddenly when she realized something was wrong with this cat. It was writhing on the forest floor, crying and panting as if it was in pain. Amina approached slowly, only then realizing its eyes were red when they should have glowed yellow. Her footsteps fell silent when she looked at the soul of the cat, seeing it bubbling black and red inside of it as if it was mutating. Amina began to tremble in fear, slowly and silently backing away, hoping the cat wouldn't notice her. She had never seen a soul so twisted and she didn't know what it meant, but the cold feeling in the pit of her stomach told her to fear it, to run.
Amina was almost out of the cat's sight when it suddenly stopped, crouched low on the ground, and sniffed the air. The cat growled low, its red eyes snapping toward Amina and locking on her frozen frame. Amina knew she would be killed if she didn't make it out of this forest. She tensed the muscles she had built over the years before she turned and hurled herself forward, sprinting as fast as she could. She could hear the cat chasing her, quickly making up their difference. She was going to die here, alone in the forest, like her parents. Amina squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for the cat's pounce, but instead slammed into something hard and warm before falling to the ground, hearing a slice through the air, and feeling something large and wet fall beside her. Trembling, Amina laid her hand against the ground to steady herself and felt it come away slick. She quickly recoiled before looking down and find herself in a pool of blood, next to the dead panthera with red eyes no longer glowing. She watched its mutated soul sink into the ground rather than rising to the air like all the other dead souls she had seen. Amina gasped, her head reeling as she searched for what had slain the big cat. Her eyes found her savior even more terrifying than the cat as he loomed over her, dark and foreboding.
"You all right?" He asked in a low voice, reaching his hand down to help her up. She grabbed his enormous, warm hand with her unbloodied one, her knees almost buckling beneath her as she looked up into his red eyes before looking through him to find nothing but black emptiness.
This man had no soul.
She ripped her hand from his, falling immediately to the ground as she tried to process all she had just seen. She felt sick as she looked up at the man, his black brows knit together in confusion. Amina could hear someone coming behind him, causing her panic to rise as she saw a flash of blond hair peeking out from behind a tree.
"What are you?" she blurted out, her head reeling as she tried to steady herself again but the shock had set in and before she could hear his answer, or find out who the other man was, everything went black.