Prologue

There was once a little homeless boy who wanted nothing more than to see peace in his land. His land was none other than the Kingdom of Cold Stone, which is nestled in the passages of a mountain, which is where the name comes from. The snow capped mountains release a cold breeze and the stones are cold to the touch. The town that encircled the palace wasn’t a very wealthy place, with the taxes being collected from themselves unable to afford simple, but important necessities such as; clothing, food, and even shelter. This little homeless boy was one of those people. His parents abandoned him when he was eight, which wasn’t even a year ago, but his shirt was already becoming too big for him. His last nutritious and healthy meal was the day before he had awoken abandoned in an alley the darkened, shaded, walls was his only comfort. The boy would only venture out of the darkened ally to steal any sort of meal he could get, granted he found most of it in garbage cans. His days would come, pass by, and repeat all over again the next day. He was small, for his age anyway. His hair, used to be short and neatly combed each strand of hair had its place, now is a shaggy mess. His fringe raked over his eyes, sweeping side ways to the right. His shirt used to be his favorite long sleeve shirt but because of the recent humid and dry season those sleeves had to be torn off and discarded.  The same for his pants; they were torn off at the knee. His shoes and socks were no longer with some where in between. His days dragged and repeated and it was just like sitting in a torture chamber. He wished that something exciting or good would happen. He wished it everyday, until his wish was answered.

The day his life changed was on a particularly chilly morning, just when dawn approached. That morning, a loud screech echoed through the crisp, chilly air, resonating through the buildings and alley ways. The little boy looked around and crept out into the streets. Looking around, he listened carefully to find out where the sound came from. The screech came again; it came from outside of the town and seemed to come from the forest borders that stand before the entrance to the passageways to the mountains. The forest was a dense area and many spiritual creatures resided there. Another reason why Cold Stone is a thriving kingdom, enemies can never get passed the forest. The little boy knew about the mystical and spiritual creatures, but he had never actually seen one in person he figured that no one really cared anymore, about him. So, he left the stone walls of the town and wandered into the forest. It was dense and thick, even the sun was fighting to shine light onto the forest floor. The little boy cautiously made his way into the forest his foot placement was calculated and exact. He needed to keep going foreword, if he lost his footing, he would never get back to the comfortable and dark alley ways. He froze when he heard the screeching again, this time to his left. The sound seemed painful, whatever it was, needed medical attention. He quickly followed the screech until he saw it, in the clearing, there was a vampire. It was on the ground, whimpering in pain. Vampires and other such beasts lived in the forest they rarely show themselves to the humans out in the open, but it wasn’t the first time that a human stumbled upon such beasts. In most cases, the human would be a hunter looking for game to hunt and ends up either killing a beast such as a vampire or a vampire killing a human. This is, also, why humans who don’t live in the mountain can’t get through to the mountains; the forest is dense, thick, and on top of that there are beasts who are deadly and will kill if found on the wrong territory. This vampire, however, seemed oblivious to the younger boy. It was more interested in trying to find a place to rest its injuries. The little boy crept closer, being careful to not step on anything to create noise and draw attention to him self. He settled in between some bushes just a few feet away from the vampire. Its injuries looked pretty serious; this vampire looked like it was fighting for either territory or for a mate and by the looks of its state it lost. The boy wanted to step a little closer without getting spotted, but a twig snapped and the vampire growled it pushed its weakened body up and crept over to the bushes. The boy gulped and watched the creature appear in front of him. Even though it was injured, the vampire still looked frightening and it was ready to fight to defend itself. The little boy gulped, unsure of what to do.  He looked at its injuries and uttered, “I don’t want to hurt you.” The vampire made a questioning sound in its throat, as if it was confused. It began to circle the boy “What do you want, then?” It wondered, keeping a good distance away from the human. “I just wanted to offer my help.” The vampire stood still as the little boy walked over to it. It was then that vampires weren’t monsters who kill; they were just defending their territory. . The vampire, also, realized that humans weren’t cold blooded killers, they were innocent, the small ones anyway.

The little boy looked at the injuries and began to bind the injury with some leaves that were scattered on the forest floor. “Was it over territory?” The boy asked. The vampire looked at the boy, “mate, actually” the vampire replied. The boy saddened, “I’m sorry.” He muttered. The vampire sighed, “I don’t need your apology.” The younger boy saddened, the vampire sounded bitter and angry. The little boy didn’t talk about the incident after that instead; he concentrated on helping with the vampire’s injuries. “Don’t think you’re going to get something in return for this.” The vampire muttered. The little boy chuckled, “I wasn’t expecting much for this anyway.” The little boy stood, after he was finished, and said, “there all done, don’t push yourself, ok?” The being watched the little human leave before crawling into the bushes to rest.

For the next few months, the little boy came to visit the vampire. The boy didn’t have anything to do except sit and stare at an empty alleyway all day. He was at least keeping himself busy. The vampire started to not mind having boy around, in fact he found it comforting that he could have someone to talk to. Pretty soon, the vampire began to watch over the little homeless boy. He would walk him back home and meet with him, he became the guardian that the boy never had. They were both content, until one morning. The little boy was ready to go and see the vampire, but was stopped by a few older boys, who had more money in their pockets than their mouths. The little homeless boy bowed, “I’m sorry.” He said before getting ready, but the older boy grabbed the younger boy’s wrist, “after running into me, ‘sorry’ won’t do you any good.” The vampire who was in the forest sensed a bad presence in the kingdom and what was worse, the little boy’s presence was mixed in with it, and he quickly took off for the village.

The little boy was shoved to the ground after being poked, touched, and prodded in places that violated him to the extremes. “I-I said I was sorry, please stop.” The little boy begged. The older boy smirked, “fat chance, kid.” The older boy said before turning to his friends at his side to say, “finish him.” The little boy began to shift away until he heard a roar pierce the sky. Looking around, he didn’t see anything, but he knew that the vampire that he was looking after was close by. This was the first time that the vampire attacked humans out in the open, but when he appeared in front of the little homeless boy to protect him from the attackers, he knew it was all for him, for this little homeless boy. The attackers backed away and ran off, most likely to get the guards. The boy stood up and muttered to the vampire, “Please, go they’ll kill you.” The beast growled and brought the boy close to him, “let them try.” The boy held onto the vampire.  The guards had surrounded them, their weapons loaded and ready to fire. “fools, how dare you point a weapon at me.” The vampire growled. The little boy buried his face into beasts shoulder hoping that the guards would let them be. The guards weren’t fools, they knew that vampires were immortal and regular bullets wouldn’t do much good, so with that in mind they tried a different approach, the captain of the guard lowered his weapon and said, “I don’t know what possessed you to come and protect this boy, but we don’t want any trouble, release the boy and we will let you go peacefully.” The vampire’s expression soured even more, but he did not release the grip on the boy. The little boy held on tighter.  The other guards were becoming impatient; one of them placed his finger on the trigger and fired. Everything suddenly stopped and went in slow motion then, the boy’s grip on the vampire slacked as he slumped foreword. The vampire was horrified, “hey, hang in there.” He uttered. The captain turned to his men and demanded, “Who fired without my command?” While the captain lectured, the vampire lay the little boy down on the ground. He nuzzled the limp body and lay beside him, he wanted to protect this boy and yet he ended up bringing this young soul to his death. The guards had no choice, but to try and get rid of the vampire that was still a threat to them. The vampire didn’t fight them, instead he allowed it so he could rest with boy that he wanted to protect.

Word quickly spread throughout the land about the tale of this boy and this vampire and it was decided that a monument would be built in their honor and that when a child turned eight years, a guardian will be given to the child. That’s how the tradition started. Whenever a child turned eight years old, a guardian would come to them and protect them. However, there was one case that threw the tradition off course.