CHAPTER I

Tragic Of Frost

 

   In the northern hemisphere of Eartheria, lay the place called Acklea and a small kingdom stood in the middle its land.  Its castle was once isolated by the wall of Hoarfrost decade ages ago. No one knows nor even how to find the true world behind it and its exceptional beauty. The glorious realm existed only in the eyes of the people of Acklea and only knows it as a tale grandfathers told their grandchildren and was passed thoroughly as their generation passed.

 

The majesty— both the king and queen of Acklea— gave their warm and loving hearts to the people they governed and especially to their sole heir named Glacier de Acklea, the sole child of King Xiendra IV and Queen Mariea Herminia; the boy who held the power of ice. 

And in return, without any oppression, the folks of Acklea protected and loved their king and queen, and their prince.

 

It was another casual day and the skies poured snow. But it was actually a miracle for the whole land of Acklea for they've never experienced it. It began the same cold day the Prince of the kingdom of Acklea was born.

He was born as cold as ice and white as snow glace. Tears continuously fell from his eyes, and it quickly turned into frost. 

To keep their son safe from the possible harm, Queen Mariea and King Xiendra IV chose to keep Glaciers mystery. It has become a taboo and the secret was kept only inside the palace.

 

Glacier was the greatest present the god has ever given to the King and Queen but many of their people died from the abrupt climate change: the cold winter. Children and elders was not used to the freezing weather and eventually died while the others died from starvation.

The queen and king did everything that they could but both failed to save their people's lives as their reign passed by.

 

Fifteen years later, and everyone was already used to the cruel snow weather that never seemed to end. It seldom turned into surges that caused avalanches and it only happened once on the land nearby Acklea and the kingdom thanked the heavens for luckily, no one died. 

People learned how to make thick garments to fight back the biting cold and shoes to use while walking across the glace of frozen ponds. They bartered goods from other lands and learned how to store food in the time of chaos. 

They started to live peacefully and somehow comfortably again.

 

But however, the fate was just too cruel. 

 

Queen Mariea Herminia fell into sickness that saddened the entire castle. The king chose to keep the queen's condition a secret to the people of Acklea to protect his wife.  Only a limited people— including their servants only knew. 

 

The Queen gradually became weak and her body became thinner and paler as each day passed. Her skin became rougher as her vision became blurrier. 

No one came— not even the most skilled healers in Acklea— to discover the unknown sickness of the beloved Queen.

 

Prince Glacier held his mother's hand as tight as he could. Tears of sorrow fell from his eyes and turned into droplets of ice every time he hear his ill mother weeping from the discomfort and pain while King Xiendra IV was already lost into madness. 

He couldn't bear the sight of his poor Queen slowly withering and dying. 

The sobs of the auxiliaries in the palace can be heard everywhere but it was the king that cried the most every night and day. 

 

It was another day of seeing the queen slowly being eaten into death; it was starting to be a daily routine inside the castle. 

The palace was quiet except for the hushed breathing of Prince Glacier that sat beside his mother's bed when a atrocious scenario came before his eyes. 

 

The king of Acklea stormed inside the domicile of the sick Queen and suddenly pointed his silver calvary saber on his own child, weirdly blabbering all the faults inside their land, and blaming his own son for the illness that slowy ate the queen. 

 

When the loud slam of the royal threshold was heard, the King run towards the prince. 

The servants of the Queen and Prince tried to halt the King but they were brutally slained one by one. The blood splattered everywhere; on the wooden floor, on the king's feet, on Prince Glaciers cheeks, and on the edge of the coat where the Queen lay.

 

The Prince was momentarily dazzled and his hands unknowingly clutched the Queen's sleeping gown. It seemed like his feet were glued to the ground, and his brain just stopped functioning as his widened eyes bore into his father's hate filled eyes.

King Xiendra IV lifted his royal sword and was about to end the prince's life when the Queen suddenly ascended from her bed and lifted both of her arms and held her son tightly and turned her back against the king to shield her fifteen years old son from the length of the king's sword. 

The Queen's blood splashed onto the king's physiognomy, and his eyes widened just like his opened mouth that never seemed to close.  The Queen's pale, translucent body gradually sprawled onto the floor, and the king couldn't stop his legs and limbs from trembling. His hands slowly loosened and his sword fell onto the floor and kept staring her wife in horror.

The Prince groveled and immediately stood up and reached for the ornate carved brass door of the room after realization dawned on him that his father killed his mother.  A possible danger.

He rose on his feet, and got up from the bed.

The King got his senses back at the sight of the prince escaping away from him and quickly, he frantically chased him. 

 

The king completely loses his sane and couldn't fathom rationally the death of his Queen.

 

When Prince Glacier de Acklea was about to open the door, he heard a rippling sound of a fabric being torn. Seconds after, his hand gripped the surface of the wooden door as he felt a great pain on his back then felt something warm that trickled down to his feet. His breaths grew more unstable after knowing what the liquid was.

His own blood.

The prince's grunts and howls of pain echoed inside the castle of Acklea. 

 

And as if on a cue, the lagoons and swamps that lay before the royal palace swiftly turned into ice.The Hoarfrost slowly crawled onto the castle walls that rapidly variegated things into and ice crystals and glaciers.

 

 And as the prince's snowflake shaped birthmark glowed and shimmered from his left chest, its rays of light escaped from the tiny holes of the fabric of his royal outer garment and the King merciless slained his son's back once again and the latter's knees finally gave up and he fell over to his right side.

 

Prince Glacier lay on his stomach as he extended his right arm to his bleeding servant near him which he remember calling as Light  Seeing. Pain shoot althroughout his body, and he gave his one last thread of power to slowly open his palm as he tried to reach his loyal servant. 

 

Light Seeing was alive.

Darkness tried to consume him and he tried to struggle against it as he saw his young highness reaching for him. 

He slowly lifted off his right arm and reached for the prince's trembling hands. 

They both felt a tiny spark of electricity as their fingers slightly touched, and a  resplending light blinded both of their eyes. 

Light Seeing unexpectedly felt a fervid draught from his thorax and his hand clutched it tightly; eager for the unnerving discomfort to go away.

Minutes have passed and he slowly closed his eyes by the time he let his thorax free. The scorching light already faded away and what he didn't know was the whole kingdom has already turned into ice statue outside. 

 

He suddenly remembered the glowing light in his chest and he hurriedly unfastened the button of his garment and saw the sign, or the birthmark, perhaps, that was shaped like a snow frost. 

Light Seeing wasn't so sure what was the shape was but he was certain that his young highness' power was transferred onto him.

His fingers slowly traced the curves of the snow flake shaped mark on his chest. A curve, a point, a slant, and another curve and he softly gasped. 

It looked just exactly like his own birthmark that kept on shinning on the back of his palm.

 

 Light Seeing was one of the Legends that held the power of light where his appellation came from and it was also the reason why he had his birthmark always shinning and glowing.

 

Light Seeing looked around and wandered over the whole palace. He can't feel any presence of any livings in except for the mad blizzards and the severe snowstorms that enveloped the entire land of Acklea. From the looks of it, he thought, no one would be able to recognize that this was once a kingdom filled by people and once ruled by a king and queen. 

 

Light struggled to escape the wrath of frost from the Acklea. Wounds almost covered the half of his body from the shooting hailstones. He soothed his arm once again to warm his body but nevertheless, his teeth just clattered noisily from the biting cold. Light Seeing only wore a thin, long coat and a scraped boots and it didn't helped that much.

 

Light Seeing finally chose to leave the isolated kingdom and to travel towards the east instead.

For three continuous weeks, food and sleep deprived him and his body finally gave up. 

Light woke up and saw a foreign place in front of him. Houses with chimneys, townfolks walking here and there and a sign above his head that said he was at the lands of the native country of Avestan wherein blacksmithing weapons was the land's specialty.

 

Light Seeing smiled to himself and blackness consumed his vision once again.