Journey Of A King - Chapter 1

“Hey Jax, remember when mom used to always come back with meat every Saturday night so we could have it for dinner.” Said Aiden, as he reminisced the good time in the path.

“Yeah I remember, she would always try her best to give us a life she never had. She would do anything she can to keep happy and healthy.” Jax replies in a sad tone. looking at his brother Aiden who is in a wounded state.

During the skirmish a few hours ago, against the Gorgonian Kingdom Aiden was unfortunately pierced by an arrow launched from the opposing sides archers. Due to the arrow, Aiden is now lying on a bed in the infirmary, waiting for further treatment.

Aiden was Jax’s brother. He looked similar to him with a handsome face with brown eyes and brown hair. He was about 5’10 and had a muscular build due to all the battles he had faced alongside his brother.

“Where’s the doctor? It’s been an hour now and they still haven’t come yet.” Jax said angry for his brother.

“Just be quiet and wait, we’re just footmen with no status in the army. We’re nothing in their eyes, so why would they want to treat a peasant first rather than a noble.” said Aiden. Knowing that Aiden was right, Jax couldn’t argue back.

In the world they live, people like them don’t have a meaning. They’re just numbers to the nobles, numbers to be thrown away in the midst of battle.

Aiden and Jax grew up in poverty alongside their mother and owned very little. They weren’t allowed to learn much except to read and write a little which was not enough to gain a job at a shop since they required to know more than they did.

It was fortunate enough already to learn as much as they did though. Since their mom worked at a shop, she knew how to read and write. Every time she was free she would try to teach the both how to read and write. But sadly, they weren’t able to learn everything their mom planned to teach them.

When Jax was 14 and Aiden was 15, their mom sadly passed away from exhaustion. Ever since then, they had joined the army.

After another 10 minutes the doctor finally begin to treat Aiden’s wound by cleaning and stitching it up then wrapping it up with medical tape.

“This should keep your wound together.” said the doctor.” “Remember to not do anything stressful that would cause the wound to reopen ok.” The doctor warned him.

“Yes, sir.” replies Aiden with a smile on his face.

Seeing that the doctor moved to treat other injured soldiers Ajax asked.

“How you feeling Aiden?”

“Well it itches, but that means that your wound was healing” Aiden replies back with a laugh.

Seeing that his brother was fine, he couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

“oh shut it, I wasn’t going to die to such a superficial thing” Seeing his brother sigh in relief, Aiden berate his brother ‘Did he really think that I was gonna die due to an arrow piercing me? I mean, it didn’t even pierce a vital spot.’ But even though he was angry, deep inside he was happy.

Seeing that his brother knew why he sighed a relief he couldn’t help but say.

“Well nice to see that your fine, let me go to the cafeteria and see what they’re cooking up.”

“Fine, go see what they’re cooking and if you see Andre, thank him for protecting me when he could’ve left me to die.” told Aiden as he watched his brother exit the infirmary.

Exiting the infirmary, Jax then makes way to the cafeteria. As Jax was walking he could see soldiers donned in chain mail and a helmet equipped with either a spear or sword. underneath the chain mail is thick clothing dyed with blue and and grey stripes indicating the kingdom’s colors.

upon reaching the cafeteria, Jax could see a long line of hungry warriors. He couldn’t help frown upon seeing a long line but couldn’t blame those that got in line before him.

Even though the Skirmish ended a few hours ago, they still had to march back to camp and carry the wounded to the infirmary. Some of the unluckier ones were commanded to load the bodies or pieces of the bodies of the dead onto the carts and sent back to their home towns to be buried.

It’s never easy to have a job like that, to see your dead brethren or pieces of him right in front of you.

As Jax got closer to where the food is being distributed, he could hear some bickering among the soldiers who just received the food.

“Shit as always, why can’t we get something at least close to what those nobles are getting.” said one solder.

“It’s cause we’re peasants, nobles don’t need to waste any resources to meat shields such as us. I mean, in their eyes we’re already dead. So why feed a dead person?” said another soldier.

Seeing the soldiers who bickers walking away, Jax couldn’t help but feel depressed. ‘Are we supposed to do this for the rest for our lives? Are we gonna keep on doing this till we die?’

Knowing that thinking won’t do any good, he pushed away those thoughts and waited till he was able to get the food from the chef.

upon receiving the food from the chef Jax looked at it and frowned. ‘When I thought this food can’t look any worse, it does somehow.

The food Jax received looked unappetizing to the extent that even a person who has been starving for almost a week would pass on. it looked like as if they mixed water with shit and still thought that it was edible.

‘God, how the hell will Aiden and I eat this shit?’ As Jax stood and thought to himself.

“It’s actually not as bad as it looks you know.” said a voice who seems to be talking to him,

Turning towards the voice, he could see the person who was talking to him was Andre.

“Oh really? You mean this piece of shit tastes decent?” Jax questioned him.

“No, it’s not decent but like I said, it tastes better than it looks.” laughed Andre.

“Well if you can eat it, I can as well.” smiled Jax as he looked at Andre.

Andre was like Jax and Aiden, a child born poverty but with a sadder story compared to theirs. Andre was a slave for most of his life. He was supposedly sold away as a child by his family at the age of 6 due to them not having enough money to sustain themselves. And from then on Andre was forced to do manual labor for 18 years till he was 24.

Luckily due to some unforeseen events his master was killed and since his master had no relatives, he was able to be freed from the life of slavery alongside all the slaves with him. But even though he was freed, Andre had no education, leading him to become a soldier.

“Oh right, My brother thanks you for saving him back there at the battle and I as well.” Happily said Jax as he smiled.

“Don’t worry about it. People like have to stick together if we want to see light of the next day.” shrugged Andre. He then looked at the two bowls.

“I see that you got a bowl for your brother. Let me take one and go with you to the infirmary. There’re some people i wanna talk to.

Not rejecting Andre’s offer, he then gave a bowl to Andre and together they exited the cafeteria and walked towards the infirmary.

“Hey Andre I have a question for you.” asked Jax as they were walking.

“What is it?” Andre looked at Jax curiously, wanting to know what Jax wanted to ask.

“Do you think well be doing this fore…” But right before Jax could complete his question. The ground begins to shake and a loud sound could be heard far away but was getting louder as it got closer.

Soon the soldiers on the watch post shouted

“Enemy attack! Everyone Get to your positions!”