The Hero King's Many Children

Chapter 1: The Dweller Children

Excerpt; Henry, 18, Dweller Man, first known child of the King of Albion

In northeast Albion in the snowy untamed wilderness within the Mistpeak Mountains lives a small community of people. They own not much, living in small wooden homes on wheels with meager possessions. There tribe is small, and they operate only three businesses within the small town. But they seem to be a strong, family oriented people, with a rich culture that is unmatched to any other I have seen in this land. These are Henry's people; who's story is the first we are going to hear.

[My mother's name is Raina. She's a self-taught musician, who's known throughout our camp as a talented lute player. She's a beautiful woman, though she claims she has lost all her beauty with age. Every time she says that there's a tone of bitterness present within her words.

However, those times of bitterness are rare. Mostly she busies herself with taking care of our caravan. While there isn't a lot of space, we do have a bed, stove, bookshelf, carpets and shelving filled with many spices. We eat on the carpeted floor, as per our traditions and when weather permit's, outside in front of our camp. Most within our community envy our home due to its location within our camp. It is to the immediate right of Sabine's test, where the Dweller king himself sits and looks over his people.

My mother say's to be within Sabine's compound is blessing. There's a gate that surrounds it as an extra measure of security against bandits, wolves and the winter wind. She says it's thanks to my father, who wanted to ensure his children were safe.]

Did people realize that your father was at the time, the Hero of Brightwall? If so how did that impact your childhood growing up?

[Everyone knew. Our tribe has around 40 people in it, you can't hide anything here. However, many Dweller children didn't have fathers who were present in there lives. Therefore, growing up, I was never treated differently, until around the age of 10 when the kingdom faced devastation.]

You mean the Crawler's invasion?

[If that's what you fancy people call it. Its destruction forced half our men and a few of our women off to war. Sabine himself left the safety of our home to fight for the kingdom. Fear took hold of our people. While we were eating better than before, we faced total annihilation something my father would have had to take full responsibility for. Our neighbors feared and hated us, the children who I used to call my best friends bullied me restlessly. My sister was a small babe, so she remembers nothing of this time.]

That's the past. What about the present? What does your father provide your family with? Does he ever visit you?

[My mother gets monthly payments of child support, as is the law. In terms of my father, I swear we've never met. Apparently he used to come around all the time when I was young, but there was a world to save and now a kingdom to run.

I now keep these negative thoughts of my father to myself. Everyone in our village, from our leader to my younger sister Lyla, have nothing but the highest opinion of him and his character. They say things such as, "It is with his help that we people regained their rightful territory!" or "Have you forgotten the lack of food from the early days? Our people were starving in the street!" and "Yee young in's take everything for granted!"

I always roll my eyes at them.

"Honestly, Will I don't know why you hate him so much", Lyla always says. She often scrunches up her sweet face in frustration.

I tell her, "I don't hate him, but he shouldn't be praised to be so God like. Haven't you noticed that he owns everything within our town?"

To which she replies, "Mother says that's to keep the rent controlled, he doesn't want us to be taken advantage of as we always have been."

I hate always explaining this to her. Also usual I say, "Lyla he controls every aspect of our lives without even bothering to show up. He's picked our names, our homes, controls our livelihood and our territory. We're supposed to be free, strong and independent people. Our ancestors would be ashamed to see us today."

She always sighs, shakes her head and walks away. She'll never understand me or my anger towards the King.

But not even those thoughts can bring me down, as today is my 18th birthday. It is Dweller tradition that one moves out of the caravan they were born in and finds his/her place in the world.]

What are you planning on doing?

[On leaving. I have not informed my mother yet, but there is a tribe in a few days away from here. I'm planning on joining them and finally seeing the world. And I know I finally will get to prove my worth and be rid of my father's name once and for all.]

Henry was true to his word and left his community a few days later. His mother distraught by his departure refused to allow me to interview his younger sister. This is a shame as she is the only child of the King's besides the royal children that had a sibling by the same mother. Before I was asked to leave to village, I obtained some more information from a few elders that could be persuaded to let loose a few tales for the right price. Apparently, Raina had been quite enchanted by the young Monarch after he saved their village from a band of mercenaries. He stayed for a few extra weeks within the Dweller compound, and soon Sabine's alliance was not the only thing he had gained. Henry was born 9 months later, and was doted upon by his father who appeared with lots of warm clothes, toys and eventually enough funds to buy Raina and the tot their own caravan. The couple seemed happy, and as the young Hero was determined to take over for his brother, everyone thought eventually Raina would become queen. However, after the birth of the second child his visits became much less frequent and then all together stopped. Raina had sent several letters, but they all remained unanswered and eventually she gave up trying to seek contact.