Chosen

Prologue

  In the village where he lived, Giles Prince was considered a king. He wasn't of course, but he was a war hero. He saved many and slew many during the Great War between the kingdom Reria and Wrolan. He fought for Reria like a good soldier and decided to settle in a village with the name of Haram. There he had met his loving wife named Ava. After a year of their marriage, they decided to have a baby boy named Edward. Edward wasn't like most children; he loved to work and study.

When Edward was finally seven, Giles was in the pub with his friend Amos. "Have you heard?" Amos asked him.

"What?" said Giles. "What is it now?"

"Wrolan declared war on us. They want every boy from seven to sixty to fight. Seven! That's too young!" Amos growled.

Now that he thought about it, Giles did remember something like that. It was a soldier who came to tell him but he was busy caring for Edward so he must've forgotten the soldier was talking to him. To him, this was like getting struck in the heart. He obviously didn't want his child, his only child for that matter, going to go fight in a war that might kill half the kingdom's population.

"Amos, are you going to have your boys go?" Giles asked. "One's nearly an adult, the other's only twelve."

"I don't want to have my boys go," said Amos, "but I must. I'm a loyal citizen, aren't I? I'm okay about my eldest going but I don't want my youngest to go. The good thing is we're going with them, aren't we? So we'll be able to watch over them."

Giles nodded slightly and but then thought of the grief he would leave for Ava. She'd have no way of knowing anything. Maybe she could become a nurse to heal the injured. He'd fought past wars and came back. What was he to lose? When he went home he talked about it with Ava.

"Are we to have him leave with me or stay?" he asked her.

"I don't know, Gil," Ava usually called Giles by his nickname, Gil. "I don't think he should go. He's far too young."

They settled on this; when Giles was to leave, they would hide their son when the soldiers came to pick up every man in the household. Giles suggested having Edward dress up as a lady, but Ava smacked him with the new book she had bought. And then the day came when the soldiers knocked on their door. Giles was in full armour and had his sharpest sword on his back.

"Just a second!" he yelled at the door. He bent down and faced his son for the last time for a while. "Eddie, Daddy's going off to fight the bad men. I'll be back, I promise you, alright?"

The door pounded again.

"What?" Edward asked. "When will you be back?"

"I- I don't know, Ed," Giles brushed his son's hair with his hand. "Amos's wife, Mrs. Jones is going to help you. I'll be back."

"Daddy, I don't want you to leave!" Edward said, on the verge of tears. Ava was holding him, and the door pounded again. "Can't I come with you?"

Giles stood for a moment but then shook his head. "No, Edward."

And finally, the door was broken down. The soldiers burst in and eyed Giles, and then Edward and noticed he wasn't in armour.

"Trying to hide him, are you?" said one. "Well, we do not tolerate that, Prince!"

"Please, do nothing to him or my wife!" Giles pleaded. "I am already going to fight, and my son is only seven!"

"That's the age required to fight," the first said. "Grab the boy!"

"No!" Ava and Giles said. Giles pushed the soldiers away and so did Ava but then Edward fell and was caught. Giles was kicked to the floor.

"It's fine," he told Ava. "I'll fight with him, I will."

"You're not going anywhere, you bastard," said the soldier. "The punishment for hiding your boys is not fighting with them. Now let's go, you runts!"

Giles reached out to grab Edward just before the door closed but it wasn't any use. Ava slumped down to the floor and cried, and Giles did too. Mrs. Jones came moments later and aided them.

One year later the war was announced over, and Reria was declared the winner. Many lives were lost, and the knights were being sent back to their homes today. Ava and Giles waited eagerly by the door. Edward had known Amos's kids, they would have fought together. And then they saw the soldiers carrying blankets and Amos and their kids come to the door. They knocked, and they answered.

"Well?" Ava asked. "Where's my boy?"

The soldier revealed a face under the blankets. It was Edward's face. His beautiful face was inside the blankets they used for the dead.

"I'm so, so sorry," the eldest named Manuel said. "My brother Otis and I fought along with him but he was acting very strange. He didn't know who we were, and we took him to the forest to see if he was okay, and then he was stabbed."

The soldier revealed a stab wound in Edward's stomach. Ava had erupted into tears, as had Giles. Amos hugged him and Ava and then they were clueless.

What was the point of living, now that their boy had been slaughtered in the war he was supposed to fight? It was all Giles's fault, if he hadn't hidden his son, then maybe, just maybe he'd still be alive. A funeral was held the next day and many gifts were given to them. Valuables were most of them. Some of the villagers gave them free things from their shop for as long as they needed.

But something told Giles that Edward wasn't dead. He pushed the feeling away and remembered the one lesson that his father taught him; "If your child dies, it is obvious that nothing can replace them. But in time, you must move on. You must have more, or this world will not be filled with joy. You must always keep going." He had told him that after his eldest daughter, Giles's sister, Marie died from a raid. And Giles knew his father was right.

So they had a little girl named Bella.