Prologue~

When I was a child, my father, the Arami of the Serpiente people took my hand and lead my brothers and I to the top of Python hill, a place sacred to my kind which overlooked the Serpiente Keep and the surrounding city. Unlike my brothers, I stood tall in the outlook of this ancient place, unafraid to go to the edge and stand tall, as if challenging the wind to fight me for this place where I stood, or defying the ominous shadow of my destiny to fall upon me, controlling me in a way that it would later in my life. My father saw this strength in me, and, stepping away from my older brothers, he came to me, placed his hand in mine, and with his strong and sturdy voice, the voice of a king and leader that would always put his people first, he said, "One day my son, all of this will be your Kingdom, and you like all of the kings before you will take your son to this hill and on it you will say what every king as said before you: "The world is as wide as it is narrow, and people are as diverse and different as the blades of grass that cover this hill like a blanket, and you as a leader must know and understand that." My father's words haunt me like a scar that never seems to heal, his voice ever present in me, his words ever powerful. I looked up to my father on that day that he took me to the hill, my wide eyes focused on him, but still through the corners of my vision I could see the vastness of everything that had always belonged to my family. "You will never leave me, will you, Father?" My father smiled, but never answered me when I asked him that question. I realized following his murder soon after that day that he had been afraid to.