Everyone has learned of the legend of a beast so great, it would strike fear into their hearts.
It had become a common myth inside his village, a snowy little village in a wyld wood.
The snow lion was nothing to mess around with.
Its mane was supposed to be made of silk. It had properties that altered someone's appearance if woven into the thread. The ancestors did so when they tamed the mighty snow lions for mounts in combat. It held a deep-rooted magic.
Its pelt would always keep someone warm and cozy. Never would the wearer touch the grasps of hypothermia once the garment was on. That's how the first ones survived in the fierce winters.
Its teeth, they were as strong as the moon. Their jaws would snap a tree in half and did so much more when was head was crushed.
More importantly, it was the symbol of royalty. The snow lion had been hunted for long for its magical properties that Raja never got to see one in person. They were thought to be extinct.
"Raja, baby!"
Raja shook his head, dropping the stick he was using as a pen in the snow. It was his mother.
Lunis had become more or less a wyld land after Emperor Idos had come. The teacher that taught the small children said that Valider had his crown ripped from him. Idos succeeded the throne, and after that, war ensured.
Valider, prior to the dethroning, had declared war on the land of the sun. He planned to take both kingdoms in order to rule the massive land mass of Alteria. In his time of royalty, he had gone literally insane. He consumed one too many vials of blood collected from unsuspecting brothers of the pantheon. It mixed, but the brew did not set.
He was immortal, and later took the name "Raidon", who is now known as the king of despair, the main of insanity. He killed thousands of people on both sides.
In light of it all, in that time of despair, the reason that all brothers had fallen had been discovered.
Luna herself had fallen with them in the facade of a little girl. Her name was Sam, and she had trusted her first born to take care of her as she was pushed into the very same process that her children had gone through for many years. She met a small elf boy, by the name of Donovan with bright violet eyes.
They grew up and fell in love. He had become the first ever dragon rider of a moonstone dragon, the ultimate mortal. He had become a demigod when they married. They even had a child, a daughter. Her name was Hala. She had started the spark of mortal dragon riders as well as the start of dragons in the wild to be tamed.
She, in turn, fell in love with a man also. It was her supposed dragon that she was bound to.
But luck was not in her favor. She was used and abused by none other than Orion, the little brother sun, who only wanted freedom from his place as Hell's keeper. He had offered a human a deal, and she took it. In the end, they, too, had their own children, but that egg was lost with time.
It has been a thousand years since then, and the gods had gone quiet. The brother gods had stopped falling to the earth. It was in disarray. Only the strongest survived.
The twelve-year-old boy huffed and started back to his home. It was just the two of him, Raja and his mother.
He would chop wood for her and prepare the house when she went to work as a hunter. He was alone a lot, and with that, Raja made do with his time. He would read the books the trader would deliver, and he would stay after school to play with his friends.
"What were you doing?" His mother asked him as she stirred the stew, "Only Luna knows what could have happened if something spotted you in those woods."
"Mama," Raja groaned, "I was just . . . keeping to myself. I wasn't too far."
His mother accepted that answer, and he was told to go to his room to finish his homework. Raja reluctantly obeyed.
He soon got to his room which was made up of a small bed, a trunk for his clothes, and a small desk with a candle. His homework was neatly set in front of his chair. He sat down onto it and sighed, glancing at himself in the mirror.
He looked the most like his father, who had abandoned them in his younger years in pursuit of civilization. He had jet black hair that was tied into a small bun on top of his head with a ceremonial ribbon that he got from his father. His eyes were a powerful blue like the sky on a spring morning. His skin was rich caramel in color, completely contrasting to the others in his village.
"Your father was from the sun land," His mother would say to him, "Where both brothers burn your skin to eat."
Sometimes, that would scare him, give him nightmares. He knew she was just kidding, but he was a very creative kid. Now, it just bothered him.
Raja was different.
He wasn't teased about it, but at the same time, he definitely wasn't treated the same as the others. He often wondered what it would be like to have a father from the village. Only then would his skin be pale as a snow hare.
He picked up his feathered pen and started to write out a small report on what they talked about that day. They learned about the different animals they would eventually hunt and how to read a poem. They also talked about the extinction of beast tamers in the last seven hundred years.
"Beast tamers are myths!" Yelled one kid, "Who would want to control a dumb animal?"
That offended Raja, but he didn't have an exact reason why. It was weird.
He continued to write for a while until his mother called him for dinner. They sat in the very same pillows in their small space beside the kitchen and ate in silence.
It was always like this.
Raja was tired of it.
**
Raja found himself going into the forest a lot. Each day was a foot closer the wyld wood, the unknown. He would memorize the land. It felt familiar.
It was a familiarity that he needed to cope. It was hard having only his mother. The pain of losing his father killed him inside. The snow and the trees, it comforted him. Something about it weaved his core into something moldable.
Perhaps his curiosity got the best of him. He found a cave one day, one that was hidden by the onslaught of snow. Something lived inside it, but Raja kept to the side and peeked in.
Inside was a man in furs. His spear was bloody with the deep red color of blood and next to him was a dead animal that he was skinning. Upon closer inspection (or as close as he could get without being caught), he noticed that it was a feline shape. It was white in color.
A snow lion? Raja thought to himself, It can't be . . .
He was proved right when he saw what looked to be a female snow lion skin being rolled up. The meat was torn apart and eaten raw on the spot. Next to all of them was a small cage, a mewling kitten inside it. It looked to be a year old, perhaps. He couldn't really tell. He was no expert.
"You best shut up if you wanna live, you useless brat," Spat the barbarian. The man picked up the cage, and the kitten mewled and hissed in fear. Raja quickly hid as the man walked out and towards a direction with the meat hacked up over his shoulder.
This was obviously something he shouldn't be thinking. If he walked straight into a camp full of hungry (and possibly cannibalistic) men, he would definitely be targeted, kidnapped, or worse, eaten. He shivered at the idea.
Something about it, though, pulled at his heartstrings. This cub just lost a parent . . . like him. Who wasn't to say he couldn't save him? A boost of confidence rushed through the boy. He was going to save this little cub's life!
Following the man was hard in the harsh weather of the sheets of ice. With his small size, he was able to dodge a few arrows by hiding behind trees if the man got suspicious. Eventually, he was led to a small camp full of these men. On the fire was a hog leg roasts and around it, hungry men with empty stomachs.
The man walked inside a small tent and came back out with the lion meat. Everyone was hungry for more food as he plopped it down. Summoning his courage, Raja slipped under the very same poorly-made tent and spotted the kitty. It was in the cage, trying to claw its way out as it mewled.
The boy looked around before crawling over to it. The kitten took notice and stopped the cries for help. Raja, in turn, was taken aback at how... beautiful the animal was. It was a male kitten, one with beautiful snow-like fur. Its eyes were a full-blown mercury color, a sizzling metal that sent an arrow through his heart.
Raja pressed his fingers to his lips before reaching over to the cage door, unlocking it. Snow lions were extremely intelligent creatures.
"You need to come with me before they kill you," He whispered very quietly to the kitten, "They'll eat you too." He then lifted the bottom of the flap of the tent, letting the kitten walk out.
It was such an adrenaline rush to do this. Raja could die from doing this, yet... the thrill. It was always that that got him in trouble. Raja followed the kitten in the thick snow before the heard some noises from the camp. His empty cage had been spotted.
"Okay, come on, come on!" Screeched the kid as the both of them started to run. When the kitten couldn't keep up, the boy just picked him up and sprinted towards the village. The cave . . . They would go back to it knowing the kitten would want to seek the comfort of a familiar place.
Raja ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, and for what felt like two miles of nonstop motion, the boy finally reached the outskirts of the village. He ran over to the small cellar door that was outside and walked down the stairs. That's when he plopped the cat down, realizing what he had just done.
Raja smacked his head, "Stupid idiot!" He scolded himself, "You just brought a wild animal into your home! And it's a snow lion! A myth! He may not even be a snow lion! Could be a panther!" He glanced over to the kitten which was lying down, looking up at him with those powerful silver eyes. The boy sighed again, "I'm sorry . . . about your mom. Barbarians, they do it all the time. They raid out supplies, and we're tired of it!"
The kitten huffed out a breath before hiding its face with its paws.
"I know, I know . . . I'm really sorry. Look, I lost my dad. I still have my mom, but it's okay-- hey, what're you doing?"
The kitten had gotten up and walked over to him, sitting next to him as he pawed his pants. The boy crouched down and sat onto the cold rock floor of the cellar. The kitten proceeded to climb into his lap and lie down, shaking slightly.
Raja took this time to run his fingers through his thick fur and feel the softness of it. The kitten allowed it.
"I would have to leave you down here for a while to keep you safe," Raja explained. Some part of him knew this was dangerous, but . . . this kitten, it was special for some unknown reason, "My name is Raja, by the way."
The kitten's tail flipped around before settling into his lap, the animal falling asleep almost instantly.
The twelve-year-old hummed before patting his head, "My mom . . . is going to kill me."