We walked down the busy streets of the town apparently called Berkton, my eyes darted around from building to building, person to person so I could truly see everything that Berkton had to offer. It was a completely different world from the forest. Buildings built almost on top of eachother, stalls where merchants sat and presented their wears, big steel towers where blacksmiths sat and hammered on tools and weapons.

“Fresh bull strips, get ya fresh bull strips!” a man yells out to the sea of people from a small wooden shack. 

“Leviathan teeth, Real Leviathan Teeth, only 20 Ouras!” Another man yells from a wooden stall on the other side of the first man. 

“Witness the living miracle Johannes! The man who defies fate and the gods, the unkillable man!” a third man yells out from a small tent closer to us. 

As I look around to figure out where to begin my eyes quickly stop at an old wooden sign. “The wonders and madavers of Sebastian's marvelous books”. 

“Can I look over there?” I ask my mother as I point towards the sign. 

She gave me a nod in response and we headed to the small store. As the name suggested it was a bookstore. The store is quite spacious despite the exterior showing it to be smaller. The walls are lined with books of different sizes and textures. There are also scrolls hanging on the walls in different languages, artifacts and tools of different varieties lay spread out on the tables in the center of the shop, maps showing different towns and the domains of kings as well as one huge map plastered onto the ceiling that shows the 4 main continents. In the corner of the shop a man not much taller than my mother stands seemingly dusting off some of the books. His boney frame shows through his ragged clothes. As we entered a small doorbell rang out in the store. the ringing of the bell seems to have snapped the man out of his focus. 

“Oh, great goddess… customers!” The boney man exclaimed as a bright smile formed on his face. 

“Welcome To the wondrous world of Sebastian's marvelous books! I am terribly sorry about the mess. We haven't had many customers for a while now you see.” The boney man says letting out a laugh.

“So what could I help you with?” the man asks, combing his brown dirty hair back with his hand. 

“Oh we just wanted to browse to see what you had to offer. You see, my son has been obsessed with stories since he was a baby, when we used to tell him fairytales.” My mother said with a smile. 

“Then take your time. I can assure you that at least something in here will peak your interest.” The boney man says stretching his long arms out as to show off his wares. 

I immediately head towards the many books that are on the walls. Many of them seem to be written in a language that I can’t read. 

“So this one is a bookworm Huh.” The boney brown haired man says walking up to me, his voice full of excitement. 

“So what kind of books do you like? Maybe stories about a hero saving the princes from a mighty dragon?” The man says waving his hand. As he does what seems like thousands of small firelights gather up and form a small man holding a sword and a tower holding a princess with a long dragon guarding it.

“Or maybe stories about the kings?” he says waving his hand again and the particles of light quickly dissolve and now form small figures with crowns alongside pointy objects of various sizes.

“Maybe your interested in the biology and knowledge of the beasts of our world.” He flicks his hands a third time and the light particles now shows beasts of different shapes and sizes. 

“Or maybe you are just interested in cookbooks” the man says with a grin as the particular now forms a big feast and how the food is made.

I let out a big gasp of amazement. 

“A magus?” My mother says walking up to him.

“I didn’t know the capital had any Magus stationed here in Berkton.” She said with interest in her eyes. 

“Oh no. I’m not connected with the capital or the general army. I’m just a retired adventurer that now runs this bookstore.” The boney man explained. 

“Okay...interesting, so are some of the stories here from your own experience out in the world. I’ve heard that a lot of ex-adventurers use their own tales for profit.” My mother asks. 

“Hehe. Some yes but most are either books I found while exploring the world and some that I’ve gotten from others while exploring…. Oh I completely forgot!” The man says, putting out his hand to my mother. 

“I am Sebastian. I hope some of my wares will be of use for you” the boney man named Sebastian says, keeping his hand extended. 

“Well Sebastian, I’m Miranda and this is my son Adam.” She says, shaking his hand.

Sebastian glimpses at the ring on my mothers finger 

“Of course she is already married” Sebastian mutters under his breath, a bit louder than I think he had meant to. His statement makes my mother laugh.  

I start to tune them out as I start to explore the store. My eyes dart over all of the books until I stop at one. 

“The king of the world's great journal” I read out loud. 

The book is covered in a hard leather like material painted green. On the front of the book is a picture of a tall muscular man with red hair holding two marble white swords looking towards a big obelisk. Beneath the picture is the text “the king of the world’s great journal” embroidered on with a golden threed.

“Oh so you found something?” Sebastian says walking up to me. 

He takes a look at the book I hold in my hand. 

“You have good taste my little friend.” He says smiling at me. 

“You want it?” My mother then says as she notices the book in my hand.

“Can I have it!?” I ask gleefully. 

“Since it’s your birthday I’ll buy it for you” she says with a soft and motherly tone in her voice. 

I looked back towards Sebastian and saw him looking at the book, for a moment he looked almost sad, like he was thinking of something. But as soon as I saw him like that he quickly looked back at me with a happy smile as if what I saw was just my eyes playing tricks on me. 

“your birthday huh? Then why don't I sell you this book for just 5 Oura.” Sebastian says.

“Only 5 Ouras! a-are you sure?” my mother asks with a bit of concern. 

“Well if it's the boy's birthday then you can see it as a gift plus it has been sitting and collecting dust for a while now. Not many who are interested in old myths and children's fairy tales around here apparently” Sebastian says letting out a soft laugh. 

My mother chuckles at his response and she pulls out a small pouch of metal coins. She then gives 5 to Sebastian. They are small octagon coins made of metal, on the coin is an emblem resembling a balanced scale holding what seems like a feather in its left “hand” and some rocks in its other. On the other side of the coins is the face of a woman, she is depicted with long hair and a veil covering her face. 

Sebastian takes them and heads to a desk next to the wall. From what sounds like metal hitting glass I take it that he has put into some kind of storage. 

“Well then Adam I wish you a happy birthday. Return whenever you want.” He says giving me a small wave. 

“bye, Mr Sebastian!” I yell out waving goodbye, making my mother giggle seeing how happy I am after getting the book.

After visiting the bookstore my mother guided me through Berkton. There were many different shops and boutiques. I was enthralled. This was nothing like the massive forest I had grown up in, it was like experiencing a completely different world. I only knew little of the world from the stories of my grandpas expeditions or tales my parents had told me. I had heard about the concept of Arcana, Big cities and warriors from around the world but the stories could never have prepared me for how magnificent it actually was to experience it. 

Soon after we had left Sebastian's shop I decided to look through the book. It was old and consisted of drawn pictures with pages of text.  Of what I could read whilst walking was that it was about a man named Ezekiel who traveled with friends searching for a so-called Obelisk. Apparently if he sought out and found the obelisk he would have been granted the title of king, In fact he would have been granted as the Worlds King. Eventually I was snapped out of my reading when my mother told me it was time for us to head home.

When my mother told me that it's time to head back I didn't want to, I couldn't. Why would I return to the forest now when I had barely seen what the world had to actually offer. But my mother only let out a sigh towards my protest.

“Adam, Follow me. I want to show you something.” my mother said ignoring my protest of wanting to leave. 

I reluctantly followed her towards a small hill on the outskirts of Berkton. When I eventually got up to the hill my eyes laid witness on a beautiful sight. Endless fields of grass stretched for miles with only some small cottages or small groups of trees filling the landscape. My mother pointed to a big gray tent way out in the distance. 

“You see there are some bad people in this world, some want to hurt people for personal gain or money. While others just do it for the sake of hurting another and some do it because they see it as salvation for the rest.” My mom says with a hint of spite in her tone. 

There is a long pause before she continues, all I could hear was the distant rattling of the townspeople. 

“And those people over there are the reason you've had to spend such a long period of your life hiding in that forest.” She says with a cold demeanor. 

She then looks into my eyes. 

“I took you out today not only because its your birthday, but because I think your starting to get old enough to understand. I wanted to explain why we have lived in the forest for such a long time. " She says.

Pointing to the tent my mother says.

"They see what you and your father is as something bad, something evil and they will hunt you for it.”  

I just stand quietly taking in everything my mother just told me. 

I look towards the tent way out in the distance. I couldn't completely understand but I decided to believe in my mothers words. She then bent down to see me face to face.

“I'm sorry for telling you all this on your birthday, Arameth… but this is the world you will one day venture into. So me and your father will make sure you are prepared for it.” She says. I'm not used to her using my actual name so I got taken aback when she said it. 

She hugs me and then grabs my hand as we start to head back into the forest.

Since the trees of the great Berkton forest extended kilometers up into the sky it became dark early. It was still a bit hard to understand all that we just talked about, why were they hunting us? What did we do to them? Why would they want to hurt us?

As we near familiar roads I start to smell the familiar scent of the many flowers and plants, hear the sound of the trees swaying and the warmth of the fireplace outside our home. Makes me feel more comfortable and relaxed, relieving me of the worring thoughts.

When me and mother had finally returned to the little house I could hear some snicker coming from our garden house. The small shed was completely darkened except four glowing and burning eyes hovering in the darkness.

“well at least he is trying…” I could hear my mother say under her breath. 

"SURPRISE!!!" A voice yells out from the shed as a giant man with four burning eyes and missing his left arm walks out.

“Father!” I yell out in suprise.