Elven king - 1. Chapter 1

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[Human World - Decades after the crowning of Lhathron]

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This dream again, Casden thought. He knew the moment he heard the chantings, it was that dream again.

Casden has had the same recurring dreams for the past four nights. The dreams all end the same way with him trying to wake up but finding it too difficult.

Each time Casden closed his eyes to sleep, he was pulled into the deep dream. Casden was finding it harder and harder to wake up with each passing day because of that dream.

But tonight was different from the other times.

Casden was sitting on his bed reading before lights went out, when he felt a faint pull, tempting him to close his eyes. No matter how hard Casden fought to keep his eye's open and resist the pull, he ended up falling into a deep sleep.

The place he found himself at this time was different. Even more vivid than the rest and this time casden had a feeling that he wouldn't wake.

The voice that always lured him into these dreams was calling again. A truly alluring sound that whispered the same words over and over again.

This melodious voice pulled him deeper and deeper into the abyss of no return.

"...Facio, Voco, Ferre..."

"...Arise thine son, the Empire is ours to claim. It is time, arise thine child the moon awaits thee..."

"..Facio, Voco, Ferre..."

"W-who’s there?"

Casden called out in the darkness but no one answered.

"..Facio, Voco, Ferre..."

Casden took off running through the darkness that surrounded him, sweat dripping from his slender body and soaking through his clothes. Casden’s whole body started to burn up and it made him want to claw at his skin to release the heat.

Casden was following the voice that seemed to take over his entire body and soul. He wanted to know why they kept bringing him here.

"...Facio, Voco, Ferre..."

It was guiding him, causing him to be wholly transfixed by it. Even if he tried too, Casden couldn't turn away from this enchanting sound.

The sound was coming from up ahead. He couldn't see a thing but Casden knew that he was near where he needed to be.

The chantings suddenly stopped when Casden was only a few meters away.

Casden stood still, waiting - for what? Not even he knows. He looked around at his current surroundings making him even more aware of the darkness that surrounded him. Everything had fallen eerily silent and the darkness that surrounded him made his skin crawl. Casden had this feeling that something was lurking, watching and waiting for him in the darkness. And deep down Casden was drawn to whatever that something was.

The ground began to tremble beneath his feet. It was so sudden that it caught Casden by surprise and he couldn’t react in time.

Gasping, Casden held out his hand into the nothingness around him, trying to find something, anything to steady himself. A flash of light and the ground beneath his feet finally gave way.

His hand slipping through the air, Casden fell and a scream ripped its way from his lungs.

Casden closed his eyes, praying that today was not the day he meet his death but he wasn’t holding much faith in that prayer himself.

Yet due to some miracle, Casden’s prayers seemed to be answered.

Casden was caught in his decent, pulled from out of the cold darkness that had surrounded him like hungry leeches and abruptly wrapped in something warm and comfortable.

Even the burning feeling he had felt moments ago was gone, chased away by this warmth.

Casden knew he wasn't falling anymore and that made him feel relieved. He could also feel that he lay on something soft with a cool breeze blowing gently around him.

Casden opened his eyes to see where his dream had brought him to this time.

Shocked by what he was seeing, Casden gasped. "This...is still a dream...right?"

Everything around him stood out so vividly, making him doubt whether all this was still just a dream. But then where else could such a beautiful and stunning place be found except in a dream? It was simply too unbelievable.

Casden was lying in a bed of lush green grass, the softness of the grass acting like a blanket against his skin. Casden looked up into the sky above him and his breath wooshed out of him. Never would he have thought to witness such wonders.

The sky was the brightest blue he has ever seen, but that was not what had Casden frozen in place. It was the two planets that sat pregnant in the sky. His eyes couldn't look away because he felt that if he looked away it will all disappear. That is how enchanting it all was.

Yet, it didn’t stop there.

Shock after shock, Casden saw that before those awe inspiring planets, there was a huge city floating in the sky. It was a city he thought would only exist in his fantasy books. These books that Casden loved to read, he will also sometimes pretend to be inside of them and now it's real? Or he feels it's real.

Casden forced his head away from the spectacular sight when he heard the sound of gushing water. It sounded like a waterfall, flowing hard and strong in the distance, only he couldn't see it. He wanted to seek out this water source but felt more compelled to take a closer look at the city in the sky instead.

He felt more than knew that maybe he was meant to be here - maybe all this wasn’t just a dream.

It could be that something is waiting for me up there...the owner of that voice...Casden thought.

Just as this thought entered his mind, his body began to float off the ground and ascend towards the sky causing Casden to panic again.

Now he was hoping it was just a dream because this was becoming too scary once again...what if he fell? He didn’t want to look down. That’s how high he knew he was, and yet higher he continued ascending.

" Wake up! Wake up!” He yelled at himself, slapping his face as hard has he could.

Casden winced at the pain it brought, but nothing changed as he was still floating higher and higher into the bright blue sky. He even began pinching his arms, trying anything to wake up from this beautiful nightmare. But Casden just couldn't wake himself up and his body just kept on going up.

Then that voice from before suddenly reappeared, sounding even more revered and clearer this time.

"The moon is within our reach, do not fight it….Facio, Voco, Ferre..."

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"Casden, p-please wake up!”

Someone sobbed, breaking through the spell that had tried to keep Casden from ever waking. Casden could barely hear the sobbing, the voice small and faint inside his head, but still, he heard it.

Someone was calling his name, and crying. Casden let the small crying voice lead him back, the faint touch on his hand making him look towards it.

But as he moved forewards, he felt someone else was also there with him. They were Invisible to his eyes but he could feel their presence.

This other presence felt weird to Casden. It didn’t feel like it belonged to this place. Casden stopped ascending when this foreign presence latched onto him, trying to keep a desperate hold on his hand. Whatever was holding onto to him, suddenly pulled him back to the ground and knocked the breath from his lungs. Their tight grip on his arm pulled him from the dream and back into the darkness of nothingness.

They whispered. "You will return for it is your destiny..."

Casden felt the release on his mind instantly as fear instead took over. He felt his hands shaking and he felt like the darkness around him was trying to swallow him whole.

When he thought he could never escape this darkness, only then did he wake.

Casden jolted awake and sat up in his bed. When he cracked his eyes open, the bright light of his room almost blinded him. He found many faces staring at him, causing him to gasp in shock.

He was glad to be back in reality but then he felt a faint sting in his eyes which made him close them. Only the stinging intesified and he started to panic.

Casden’s eyes began to burn and his breathing fell at fast pace. He dropped back onto the bed clutching his head with his hands and screaming from the pain that suddenly started to wreck its way through him.

"Casden!” Gale screamed as she saw her brother writhe in pain. "Oh, by the gods...Calus! Get mother quick! Casden’s burning up!!!”

Whatever was happening to him, Casden felt as if his head was about to split in half. Gale watched over her brother as he cried out, wringing her hands anxiously. She couldn't explain what she had seen, one moment Casden mumbled in his sleep in an unexplainable language and the next moment, he was glowing - it was a bright light that had surrounded his body. Then the light suddenly flashed and tried taking casden with it, only Gale and Calus had quickly grabbed onto their brother's hand, trying to keep the light from taking him. They gave it all their might until the light finally dimmed and Casden woke.

But earlier she had also realized Casden was becoming transparent, and that had frightened Gale to no end. That was before she began to grab at her brother, yelling for him to wake up. And now it was like his skin was on fire, just what is happening to him?!

"Make it stop! It burns!! It burns!!” Cansden continued to cry out in pain and agony.

"Step aside!” Their mother said as she quickly entered the room. "Gale, go fetch some cold water!”

She saw her daughter was still frozen to the spot and demanded coldly. “Hurry child!”

Gale snapped out of her trance and hastily did as her mom wanted.

Bethany looked down at her baby boy crying on the bed. She was wondering what else was going wrong with their family. Her husband had just been laid off at the plantation and money was becoming an issue, now if Casden was to become ill, they would not know how to get by and care for him.

Rushing back in the room with a pail of cold water, Gale soaked a damp rag in it and passed it over to her mother. Bethany had already stripped Casden and as she feared, his body was as hot as a fire stove. This was definitely not normal, Bethany thought and started to panic. But she couldn't show any of that on her face, less she frighten her other children.

The cold rag placed on his body helped to calm Casden down and his breathing eventually evened out. But his eyes remained close and he was still groaning a little.

Sighing, Bethany took the rag from her youngest head after sometime and switched it for a fresh one.

"I will leave you each to watch over him,” Bethany told Gale. "I have to run down to Mr Benton and get Casden some pain medicine.. keep cooling his head with the cloth."

After she said this to her oldest children, she stood and left them in the tiny room to tend to their younger sibling.

Bethany set out in the cold winter night to find help for her baby, even if it would cost them an arm and a leg.

Back in the room, Casden had opened his eyes a little, the burning he had felt becoming dull.

"Gale…” He tried calling but his voice was too hoarse and the words sounded garbled.

"Oh by the gods, Casden! Thank heavens! We thought you wouldn't wake up."

Clearing his throat casden look at his sister weeping by his side.

"W-wa…”

"Here drink this."

Easing up on his elbows, Casden let Gale feed him the cold liquid. He closed his eyes as the water did it's jobs and soothe his throat.

"Thanks…”

"What was that casden? Something...we haven't told mother because we are scared." Gale looked at casden with frightened eyes.

"What was what? All I know was that I was dreaming... then I woke up in pain."

"You were like... y-you were surrounded by this bright light casden... we had to pull you out of it...i-it was like you were going to disappear..." Gale whispered in fear. "And you kept speaking in some unknown language..."

"W-what did I say?”

Gale glanced at Calus who was standing quietly at the end of the bed. He was also looking a little shakened up.

"Facio, Voco...something, you kept calling someone...moon.” Gale said softly. “Casden, just what is going on?”

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"The sun shall rise and meet the moon, and the two shall rule the skies together. When the bond is set, the sun shall shine brighter than ever, the kingdoms shall fall to bring forth an Empire. If the sun should die, the moon shall be no more and Thelinora shall crumble."

"Facio, Voco, Ferre" = "This I do, I call, to bring you forth"