Opening my eyes, I hear a quiet, motherly voice egging me to get up, "Wake up dear, it's time for breakfast." Groggily, I sit up in my bed, the satin sheets rustling under the large, fluffy wool comforter. My mind, still recovering from a long rest, is now starting to process where I am.
As I look at my surroundings, I see the large room I am stationed in. Standing to the side of my queen size bed, a massive, dark oak armoire that held my clothing, was being accessed by my mother. She was wearing a lovely, black casual long gown. It showed a square neckline, with gold trim on an A-line silhouette. The casual gown sat perfectly on her full frame, which gave her an elegant presence.
Turning over the covers to get out of my bed, I stepped down from the tall bed frame, and fell a short distance. My child-like body, although it has grown some, is still too small for the frame of the bed, standing two feet off the ground. When I got off the bed, my mother, yet again, called me over, "Dear, come here please. We need to get you dressed and ready for the day. Now hurry up, and come on."
After hearing my mothers hurried voice, I walked over to her, and started to get dressed with her help. As soon as my clothes were fitted to my body, I glanced into the mirror on the side of the large armoire. My mother began to set me into a well crafted black vest, bearing the silver lined Azazel household insignia on the left breast pocket. Under the vest lay an all black dress shirt, much like the one my father often wears.
My body that the suit laid on was slim, allowing the suit to push my shoulders wider than they were. My face, much like that of my fathers, bore pale skin, black hair, and sharp eyebrows, that enhanced the contours of my strangely silver eyes. Still though, I am quite young, so my face hasn't gained a mature look. Instead, my face is slightly round, with a reddish blush on my cheeks.
Along with the more usual qualities I'm used to, there is one thing that I still feel uncomfortable about. On top of my head, poking out of my hair, stood two, small, jet black horns rising into the sky. Reaching up to touch them, I couldn't get over the fact that they were there. They stood as a reminder to myself about the fact that I wasn't human anymore. Noticing my frown as I felt my horns, my mother knelt beside me, and asked, "Honey, I often see you frowning when you see your horns. Why is that?"
In response, I told her a half truth, "I just don't like the way they look. They are a lot smaller than yours' and fathers'." My mother soon reprimanded me in a motherly tone, "Awe, honey. Don't worry about that. When you grow up, they will grow too. These horns of ours represent our heritage in this world. They are proof of our power, and our position in the hierarchy of our world. As the descendants of Fallen Angels, we carry the physical characteristics of our ancestors. Remember though, not everyone who is a descendant is guaranteed to gain horns and wings, but luckily, our family has them. So, never be ashamed of your horns. They prove your worth, even without you needing to do anything, okay." In a soft voice, I replied back to her, "Okay, mother. I understand" "Alright honey, as long as you understand. Now let's go to the dining hall for breakfast." Following my mother down to the eating hall, I walked through the long, dark halls of the castle, passing by multiple maids.
After walking with my mother for a considerable amount of time, we reached the entrance to the large eating hall. Inside the hall was a large gothic trestle table, at which food had already been laid upon. My father, in his usual vest attire, was sitting at the head of the table, in a large, intricately designed, dark oak chair.
As we moved into the room, my father beckoned us in, standing up to pull a chair out for my mother. After sitting down, my father started a conversation with me, " I have heard good things about your studies, correct Luke?" In response, I said, "Yes, father. I have learned how to read and write. Now, mother is teaching me about our history."
As I thought about the past year of studying to read and write, I remembered how difficult it was to try and understand the archaic language of this world. In this world, there is only one language that every species speaks, unless, of course, they are only partially intelligent. Sadly, when I was put into this world, although I could understand what my parents were saying to me, reading the language was not a benefit I gained.
Soon after I spoke, my father, with a joyful tone, preached across the hall, "Now that your mother has taught you how to read and write, and you have turned four, I want to teach you our families martial arts! This was decided a while ago. Personally, I would have taught you sooner, but your mother said that a child should grow up a little first." "And I still think that it was the right choice." My mother inputted. My father spoke again, "Well, now that the time has come, I want you to come to the training hall after breakfast. When you get there, I have a bit of a surprise for you." I responded to him in confirmation, and started to finish my well-balanced plate of food, which seemed to be a mix of bacon, biscuits, and a soupy sausage gravy.
A while after that conversation, I finished my plate, and asked for a maid to come and take it to the kitchen. Standing up from my seat, I proceeded to walk to the training hall. Yet again, walking past maids at work, and other butlers seemingly pacing the halls, I made out of the castle, into the training hall. As I walked onto the paved dirt flooring of the training hall, I saw multiple soldiers, swinging their swords under the lead of a muscular man of great height, and patches of fur on his shoulders.
Standing next to this man was my father, who seemed to be scrutinizing the soldiers. Walking up to my father, he turned around, waving his hands for me to stand next to him. When I finally got into place next to him, he leaned over to the muscular man, and the man proceeded to yell out to the soldiers, "Stand in attendance!" Immediately, all the soldiers hustled to stand in a single file line, and with practiced movements, saluted the man. The muscular man yet again called out to the soldier, saying, "Listen up! As you all can already see, the Earl is here today. He has come to tell you all some good news, so pay attention as he speaks!" Soon after, my father stepped in front of the muscular man, and said, "Good morning soldiers. I am here today to share some great news. As you all may know, my son has turned four, and starting today, he will be learning my family's martial arts. So, I want you all to help mentor him, but don't make everything easy for him. He's a good kid, but he hasn't done anything requiring physical activity. So, I want everyone to train diligently, to help my son learn from proper soldiers. Is that Understood!" "Yes, Sir," The soldiers replied.
The muscular man, in a commanding voice then said, "That is all. You may go back to your training!" Afterwards, my father turned to the muscular man and, with a smile, spoke to him, "I hope you have been doing well Kai." "Yes, I have been doing quite well, Edmond. I see that your son is a spitting image of you in your younger days."
"Haha. I sure hope he's a little more responsible than I was." My father stated. The muscular man named Kai responded, "Ha, I hope so too. You used to be quite the trouble maker." Turning towards me, he spoke again, "Well, it's nice to see you again Luke. You surely won't remember me, but I was there when you were born. My name is Kai Ingress. I am an old friend of your fathers' and the commander of the Azazel household." He held out his well worn hand for me to shake.
I grabbed his hand and shook it, then responded to him, "It's good to meet you, Sir Ingress." As I was shaking his hand, I got a read on him. He was a man of considerable height, probably around 7 '4, which was slightly larger than average height in this world, but still massive compared to humans on Earth. If I had to guess, he was probably part of the demon race of hell hounds from the patches of red hair on his shoulders. My mother had taught me that hellhounds are a race of demons that have great strength, and are loyal to their chosen masters. They are also known to be found in large groups. Generally, they take on roles as mercenaries, or even military men due to their combative nature. Kai Ingress spoke again, "You don't have to be formal with me. Your father and I have known each other forever, so just call me uncle Kai. I will also be supervising your training for the next month or so, and during that time, I hope you train hard. Trust me, the gift your father is preparing will be well worth the trouble." As I started looking over at my father, he began to speak , "While I am preparing a gift for you, it will be quite a while before it is ready. So, train hard, and use this for practice." Pulling out a large wooden axe-like weapon from thin air, he proceeded to hand it to me. Speaking about what it was, he said, "This weapon is meant only for training, as it is all wood, but it will be very similar to the weapon you will use in the future. As I said before, our household has their own martial arts that have been passed on. We use a weapon called a Bardiche. It is a weapon used for heavy offensive battle that allows you to defend yourself from range, or up-close."
When he was done talking, I started to look over the weapon I was handed. It was a four foot long pole with an axe head at the end, and a spear like projection at its bottom. The axe head extended about a foot down the pole, a half foot of the axe head also went above the pole, and it contained a place to set your hand inside of. I also noticed that the polearm was heavy, even if it was only made of wood. My father asked me how I liked it, and I told him, "It seems like it can be used in a lot of situations." He responded to me, saying, "That is the original design of the weapon. Although it is very useful in and out of combat, there are still problems with it. When you get yours in the future, it will have most of those problems fixed, but for right now, I want you to get used to using it. Kai, I want you to make him a physical training regiment. Luke, I will personally teach you how to use our family's weapon after your training sessions with Kai. That will start tomorrow, as I have some work to finish up. I want you to go see your mother and proceed with your studies." After hearing my fathers orders, I left the training hall and headed to the library where my mother usually was. After looking for her for a while, and noticing that it was getting dark, I decided that I should go to sleep.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself here, huh." Barachiel appeared and said. 'Your right. I am quite enjoying myself here. But still, it's weird how loving my parents are. I was expecting demons and fallen angels to be more, I don't know, I guess evil.' I thought.
In response, Barachiel told me, " It's not that they are not evil, it's that everyone you have seen isn't only a demon or fallen angel. They are all part human as well. Not to mention the other races of Exilium, they all have personal needs, and desires. Still, although they have a human side, that only applies to their personalities. When they revert to their instincts, they will take on whatever form the state of their soul is in. So be wary, alright."
'I know, but it's still weird how this world works. You would think that they would have progressed further as a society since they are able to act rationally, and behave in a proper way.'
"That is because you haven't seen the outside of your castle. Your parents have kept you sheltered in a castle filled with trained personnel. In the future, you will see how just ruthless this world truly is. And for the reason that this society is in a state of stillness. Well, that is because of a few reasons. When God banished all the magical races here, they had the knowledge of Earth up until then. That is why everything has a medieval feel. The second reason that there haven't been major advancements is due to the fact that advancement isn't what is wanted by this world's overlords. They only care about returning to what they claim is "Their rightful place on Earth", which is a ridiculous idea in and of itself… "
As Barachiel began to fall into his usual rant on why the fallen angels were "stupid" as he says, I got into my pajamas, hopped into bed, and started off to sleep. My eyes drifted closed as I wondered how the next day would go.