“My people are suffering!” said James, the king of the Sixth Realm. “There is not enough livestock for them to eat!”
“My people are dying too! Is there anything we can do?” asked Thomas, the king of the Fifth Realm.
Everyone was silent, lost in thought of what must be done. Seth, the king of the first and most wealthy realm said, “I know what we shall do.” He waited for all eyes to look at him. “There are too many people in this land. Let us change that by randomly selecting two young people from each realm and sending them into the wilderness to meet their doom.”
James objected, “How can the death of twelve people help? Killing our people will not save us or make a difference in the population!”
Seth had a slight smile on his face, “We won’t do it just once but two or even three times a year.”
“This is outrageous!” James yelled.
“Let us vote,” said Thomas, doing his best to break up the argument. “All in favor of King Seth’s idea, raise your hand.”
The kings of the First, Second, Third and Fourth raised their hands, the Fifth and Sixth did not.
“There we have it,” said Seth. “We shall have a gathering in one month. All children between the ages of 14 and 20 will enter their names into a box, and we will allow fate to choose the unfortunate children who will set out into the wilderness, never to be seen again.”
That is the decision they made to lower the population of our land. Two weeks after that, they had a large gathering of people between the ages of 14 and 20. We all wrote our names on a piece of paper and put them in a box, depending on our realm. We waited and waited until they came with the results.
I was chosen. I went home with tears in my eyes. In the morning, I said goodbye to my parents, saddled my horse, and set out to the entrance of the wilderness. Everyone was waiting for me. A solider led us into the woods for a while until we were under a shadow of a mountain. Then he said, “This is where I leave you. Survive long, but remember, we don’t want you back. May your death be swift and painless.” He quickly trotted off on his horse and left us alone. I looked at everyone, six girls and six boys: Amber and Joshua of the Sixth Realm, Jacob and I of the Fifth Realm, Jade and Peter of the Fourth, Crystal and Amos of the Third, Pearl and Nathan of the Second, and Diamond and Daniel of the First.
“What do we do now?” asked Jacob, who was from Fifth, “Anyone have any ideas?”
I looked around. No one said anything until Joshua broke the silence. “Let’s get closer to the mountain. I know a path there that might keep us safe.” It was hard to notice Joshua, even when he spoke. He was very plain and his voice was quiet. “There is something different about this boy,” I thought.
So, we all followed him toward the mountain. As we got closer, the horses became uneasy and kept trying to go off in the wrong direction. We arrived at the foot of the mountain and found a winding path. We followed it and came to a door carved into the stone. Strange runes glowed in the fading sunlight.
“What does that say?” I asked.
Joshua answered right away. “It says ‘you may pass, but perils lay ahead.’” Suddenly, I trusted in Joshua that he would lead us to safety. It seemed that everybody did too as we all followed him without question.
We entered. The horses started to jerk back and forth until we all fell onto hard stone floor. The horses fled. We wandered in the dark for what seemed like ages. Joshua was surprisingly resourceful during our long journey through the darkness, but he was absent some nights while we were sleeping. He helped find food and water when it seemed impossible and was a light in the dark.
On the fourth day in the mountain, we were walking slowly through the dim tunnels. The tunnel became smaller and smaller. Before we knew it, we were walking in single file, and then we were forced to crawl.
“Let’s turn back now,” said Jacob.
Joshua stopped and turned to Jacob, “We cannot turn back now. I know this path, and I promise you will come out of this.”
After that, we kept going until we were able to crawl out of the small tunnel and into a large hall. Clearly, it had been crafted by the great kings of old. At the end of the hall, there was a door that led out of the mountain, but a large chasm lay between us and the door. The only way to get across was a small foot bridge with no railing.
All of a sudden, the whole room was lit up by fire. I grabbed the hunting knife from my belt and turned around. There was a dragon, big as a castle, with talons of fire. My fellow tributes and I ran to the bridge, except Joshua, who walked towards the dragon. He drew a sword that we had never seen before. I wanted to go back to him, but just kept running with everyone else. We started to cross the bridge, but it was so small that we had to slowly walk single file as we tried to escape.
Joshua fought valiantly. He slashed at the dragon. It swiped Joshua off the edge and he disappeared into the chasm. His last word was simply, “Run!”
We did. We ran for our lives out of the mountain and into a thick forest. We stopped and sat on the ground with tears rolling down our cheeks. We stayed there for I don’t know how long, until a small, narrow path appeared in front of us.
“Let’s follow it,” I said.
We got up and started walking. The path was crooked, with many bumps and steep hills along the way. After three days, we came to a sign that read, ‘You have now crossed the border into the Seventh Realm.’
“It can’t be,” I mumbled to myself. I ran as fast as I could to the forest edge. What I saw made my jaw drop. The grass was covered with flowers of all colors and a small cheerful town was in the distance. A pure blue river was running through it. Tall mountains in the background touched the bright, clear sky.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” said a familiar voice. I was stunned. It was him – Joshua. He was dressed in royal robes and had a circlet of gold on his head.
The only words I could say were, “We thought you were dead!”
He didn’t speak right away, but Joshua said, “I was dead, but I have risen and I am the king of the Seventh Realm. The sacrifice I made was for you. Now, we have work to do.”
Our adventure had only just begun.
– By Shieldmaiden
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