The Beginning of Kyth's Story

[youtube:https://youtube.com/watch?v=yb2PYdFH8HI]Story Script:

The wagon bumped noisily down the road.

“How much further, Paw?” Asked the Boy.

The old man looked over at the young boy, smiling “It’s a long journey, Jom. Longer each time you ask.”

It wasn’t the first time those words had been exchanged between the grandfather and his grandson, but each time, the ritual brought a smile to Kyth’s face. He could still remember asking his father the same thing on these long journeys between towns, and his father's patient answer.

The boy pulled a book from his pack. Glancing over, Kyth considered the child. He was going to be 8 years this winter. Though he still had the face of a child, he had been studying diligently with his grandfather for the past year and had hard-earned wisdom and knowledge of many things.

“Turn to chapter 11, we will do the questions on alchemy and it’s reagents,” Kyth said.

Though the boy's face was turned away from him, Kyth could feel the eye rolls. “I know these, Paw. Know them like the back of my hand.”

“Indeed….. in that case…”

Kyth froze. Pulling the horses up by the reigns, his eyes searched the road ahead. Something…..

“Get down!” He whispered harshly to Jom.

Pushing the boy’s head down, they both ducked behind the side of the wagon before the first bolt struck

Jom’s eyes were wide in fear. “What is…”

Kyth placed his finger in front of his lips, shaking his head to warn the boy to be quiet. He peaked around the side of the wagon. Another bolt hit the side nearest to the duo.

“There are 9. Pillagers looking for an easy theft.” Kyth’s face was hard in determination. He dug into his cloak and pulled out a small red velvet pouch.

“Just give them our iron!" Jom’s whisper seemed only an instant away from sheer panic.

Kyth stopped moving and looked into the child’s eyes. “They shot first. They’re not here to rob us and allow us to live. We’re too close to Port Breigh for that. They can’t leave people to describe them.”

His face softening just a bit. “Stay here and keep your head down and behind the cart.”

He dumped out the contents of his pouch. A few small vials of magenta liquid, two iron nuggets, and a single diamond. Another bolt hit the wagon, just inches from Kyth’s head. The sounds of horses were getting closer.

Kyth moved with quick practiced motions, dropping the iron nuggets in one vial and the diamond in another. Shaking them rapidly, Jom could see the metals dissolving in the solution. The child was beginning to lose all color in his face.

Kyth ripped his shirt open, buttons popping off and falling silently to the ground. Reaching back into his cloak, he produced a feather and dipped it in the iron solution. With grim determination on his face, Kyth began to draw on his exposed chest.

The speed his hands moved at showed his experience. He drew shapes, one on top of another, writing, in a language Jom had never seen. After just a few seconds, Kyth finished and while he reached for the diamond vial on the ground beside him, the dark grey liquid seemed to harden onto his skin.

Kyth ripped the sleeves off his merchant's robe-like they were made of paper and started drawing even more complex markings on his forearms. If Jom had not been so afraid, he would have noticed the years nearly falling off his grandfather’s face. He was just short of ginning and looked like a man half his age.

Just like the dark grey formula, the light blue liquid on his arms hardened instantly forming the most complex symbols Jom had ever seen. Kyth’s looked at the boy, “Stay here and close your eyes. I’ll tell you when you can open them.” When the boy covered his eyes, Kyth stood up from behind the wagon and ripped what was left of his shirt off, gripped the wagon, and flipped it on its side, giving Jom more cover from the approaching Pillagers.

Walking to one side of the wagon, the sudden appearance of this man must have caught the pillagers off guard, several of them pulled up and took aim with their crossbows. Kyth started striding towards them. Three fired in rapid succession. Two bolts missed, but one struck true, hitting Kyth directly in the middle of his chest. The bolt simply bounced off him and fell to the ground.

Another crossbow fired and it’s bolt merely glanced off Kyth’s leg, and yet another off the side of his head. Sensing he needed to hurry, the older man, broke into a run. Reaching the first of the nine pillagers in just a few steps, Kyth pulled back his unarmed hand and punched. The pillager went flying from his horse at least 30 yards. He came to rest against some rocks, dead before he hit the ground.

The next two pillagers were on foot. One was killed by a blow to the face, the other’s neck snapped in a split second. Kyth took a diamond sword to the back. It did not even make a scratch but allowed him to grab the weapon and heave it through the air, striking down another.

The rest of the skirmish was over in a few seconds. Kyth stood in a field littered with the dead.

When Kyth turned back to Jom, he saw his grandson standing beside the wagon, face pale as bonemeal. The writing on the old man’s chest and arms was almost gone. It was fading from his blood-covered body as he walked back to the wagon. Jom stared as his paw pulled a clean merchant robe from his pack and started cleaning himself.

“I suppose you will have questions?”

“Those are called runes. There are many different kinds, but the short end of it is, they allow someone with the proper affinity and training to gain certain… abilities for a short time.” Kyth was sitting on a trunk he had pulled from the overturned wagon, his grandson Jom was sitting on the ground nearby.”

Kyth looked up at the darkening sky, “We’re going to camp tonight, tomorrow we’ll start walking. Without our horses, it will be several days walk to Castle Caraway.”

“How did…” Jom made no move to gather a campfire, he had seen the impossible.

“Hush now gets the fire burning and I’ll tell you everything in the morning.”

That night, the grandfather and boy laid awake for many hours, counting the stars.

“I won’t start at the end. If I’m going to tell you a story, then I’ll start where stories start; at the beginning.”

Kyth and Jom had woken early in the morning after a difficult night of sleep. For Jom, he had seen his grandfather struck repeatedly and yet suffer no injuries. He needed to know what his Kytholique Comely had done….how he had done it. Kyth was in a different mood.

He had known for a long while this moment would come and had planned a hundred ways to tell his grandson]] about who he was. Now though… it didn’t seem any of those well-conceived plans would work.

He paused, breathing deeply, he had rarely ever spoken about his family to Jom before, and when he had, his grandson had been much younger. “What do you remember about your parents?”

There wasn’t much to tell. Jom shook his head, he didn’t remember his mother at all, she died shortly after giving birth, and his father…. he mostly just remembered him not being around.

Kyth nodded, with a single small understanding look. “This will make it easier in a way, because there won’t be lies for me to skirt around. I can just tell you the way things happened, and prepare you for what will happen in the coming weeks.”

“I’ll start with the hardest truth first. I am not your grandfather.” Jom’s mouth gaped. As he inhaled to speak, Kyth simply raised a finger. “Jom, I will tell you everything, but this is the time that you listen and try your best to remember all of it, I doubt I’ll be able to tell it again. You must know this story, as it will tell you who you are.”

—————

“I was born a very long time ago. My name was, in those days, Prince Kytholique, heir to the throne of House Comely. We were a house far to the south of here, and in those days, we were mighty. I was born into a time of war. The Nether War was being waged by all the known world…. but not together. Just as it is today, in our second Nether War, each house proceeds as they think is best. King Donao defends, King Howst hides in his kingdom of ice, King Belenos attacks, but lacks the manpower to do serious damage.

Our entire society was one of war. It wasn’t that we were warmongers, so to speak, but more, we understood what people today have forgotten. Every life depends on the outcome of the Nether War. You see, in most wars, after the carnage of war is over, many of the people continue to live as they did before. They still grow their crops, sell at the market, attend royal balls, go about their day to day business. They might wear the new colors of the conquerors or pay taxes to their new lord, but for many of the people of this land, nothing changes.

My father was a wise man. He sent out ambassadors to every kingdom in the known world to try to convince them this war was different. The forces of the Nether would not stop killing once they won. They would continue until all life in the overworld burns.

Years before I was born, our people started a special branch of our military. It was known in those days as the Zygon Society. This is where my story truly starts.”

People In the Story:

* Kytholique Comely

* Jom Comely

Locations are shown in Cinematics:

* Thumbnail: The Great Dragon Skull & Bone Bluffs

* The Anduir's Rest Amplatheater & Above the city

* Anduir's Rest

* Artif

* The Great Dragon Skull & Bone Bluffs

* Brienne’s Gate

* Castle Caraway

Other Mentions:

* Zygon Dynasty

* House Comely

* House Belenos - More Specificly @[Geralt Belenos]]

* House Donao - More Specificly @[Tre Donao]]

* The Frost Druids- Celaya - more specifically Howst