Odi Jaek sat outside the castle stables feeding a brown paint mare an apple. This was not what he wanted to do. All he wanted was to get out of the sickly country people called Nitra. There was nothing for him there. He wanted to be a soldier and fight in battles but not for the evil king and queen that ruled the country. His father was a general in the Nite army and his mother was a nurse. They both have shown tremendous loyalty to the country and its rulers. Odi longed to travel to Eddeathra. The supposed land of peace. He had heard magnificent stories of the land from his mother who had lived there when it was founded. She wanted Odi to be able to live there, free, and not under the oppressive rule of the Nites. Odi's father, however, had different plans. He wanted him to join the army and serve the king.
Odi kicked a bucket. "Why do I have to stay here?" he asked the horse, not expecting to get an answer. "I wish I could just knock some sense into Dad."
Suddenly, a sharp, high-pitched whinny pierced through the air along with the shouts of men. The sound didn't come from the mare that Odi was talking to. It came from outside the stables. Odi tossed the last half of the apple onto a hay bale and walked outside.
Raindrops fell from the sky, signaling the beginning of a storm. People were making their way inside buildings and gathering up their things so that they didn't get wet. Odi looked across the bailey over towards the drawbridge where he saw three men in Nitish armor, one being his father, tugging on ropes trying to get a feisty foal to the stables. It was the most beautiful creature Odi had ever seen. It couldn't have been more than five months old and its glossy coat was pure black and was soaking wet from the oncoming rain. A fiery look of defiance was in its eyes as the men tried harder and harder to get it inside. Odi stepped out into the downpour and over to the men. "Maybe you should try coaxing it inside," he suggested as he pulled out an apple from his coat pocket. "He might follow you if you're not always pulling on him."
Odi's father snatched the apple from his son's hand, reluctant to accept help from his eight-year-old son. He forcefully held out the apple to the foal. The foal backed away from him. Odi's father smirked triumphantly at his son. "There, see? It doesn't work."
Odi took the apple from his father and held it out to the foal. The foal eyed Odi. He looked him right in the eyes as if he recognized the boy from another life or the future. The defiance left his eyes and he slowly approached Odi. Odi smiled and petted the foal. "How did you get him?" Odi asked his father.
"The king sent us to Eddeathra to find and to bring this foal back. Said something about the foal in a dream."
Any other time, Odi would have been furious at his father because he went to Eddeathra without him but now, all Odi could do was look at the foal. One word floated around his mind. Askari. Odi thought. Why does that sound so right? Is that a name or a place? It's the only thing I can think of when I look at him.