The Story Of Maldu Chargeme

        Chapter One - The Start Of Something

                                    ……Year 63E……

0. In the sandy open palace of the Seperean capital city called Orange Bay, due to the sun’s light always appearing orange and from the common disease that causes immense burns on peoples skin from this burning sun, since Seperea laid right on the equator of this earth. A little girl, covered up in her tan shawl, wandered around the halls of her home while her guards surrounded her, made her way down the palace halls to the largest room, calmly calling out to her mother. 

“Mother! I have some news to tell you!”

As one of her guards opened the door, the girl's mother was seen standing across the spacious room, staring outside the tall windows, looking highly dismayed from the angle that the girl saw her face from. 

"Mother…” The girl’s smile faded as she stepped forward, “are you okay?" The girl asked, seeing her mother looking so distraught.

"I just wish your father would be the rightful kaunah that he is and stop making his men fight against these demons!” She shouted, "it's going to get all of them killed! We are not prepared for this like the others, this has to stop, but your father is so stubborn, he'll never listen to me." She walked away from the window while sighing heavily.

Hearing the frustration in her mother’s voice, the little girl ran to hug her mother. "I met a boy while I was playing in the garden, and he said that his people are doing the same thing." 

"His people?" Her mother questioned, "you're not messing with other nations are you? We told you already, the Seperean people are the safest to talk to right now." 

"Well, mother, he is from Lesothia, he sometimes talks to me about the things that's going on. His father is trying to make him one of the soldiers to fight. His name is Marshogon, and he's my friend." 

"Marshogon?" Putting her hands on her hips, looking shocked, the girl’s mother turned towards her daughter, putting her hands on her tiny shoulders and saying, “he is the Prince of the Lesothia, I know we haven’t spoken of our connection with the Lesothians since these attacks have started, but… we must not bring any of this chaos to them. They are the only other nation with us in this continent that we can trust, if these demons get to them because of us, then-” 

Stopping herself from saying anything further, her mother instead walked over to her bed, covering her face and hair as she gestured to her guards to bring her a bowl of sand to put on her head, then she knelt down and went straight into prayer.

"Mother..." 

"Maldu, go tell him to be careful.” Her mother calmly said before going back into prayer.

"Okay..." She let out, simply walking away after, knowing that her mother was now deeply focused on praying.

#

Maldu ran outside to an area full of orange and yellow palm trees, passing the sandy desert air of sadness and war, with the area around her full of drought, dryness, with the people full of confusion, wondering if this was how the world would end. Maldu walked away from all of that, walking in the shade of beautiful palm trees that lead to a rocky pathway, into a garden that was now full of dead flowers, dry and cracked from the lack of rain recently.

She walked past her guardian, Pahlo, who was standing in full bronze armor right by the garden. He started saying to her, "Princess Maldu, what are you doing? You should not be out here?" He stood in front of her.

"Pahlo, I'm talking to Prince Marshogon again. Mother wants me to talk to him and tell him that I can no longer speak to him, by our same of war, please, let me talk to him before I can’t anymore?"

Pahlo stood back and said to her after looking around. "Make it quick, a ten year old girl shall not linger out in this war for so long. Now go, I'll be here." 

Maldu walked towards some bushes and a small path viewing a discreet border of the other nations. A young boy came over to her while holding something behind his back. He stood at the path while Maldu stood in front of him. "What are you hiding from me? This is no time for games." 

"I found something when you left, it's a map and book about some island below us. It's a very powerful place, it says, and that some warriors made from the crystals that fall are here to save us by killing that 100-year span demon, here look, it's called the Southern Island." 

Maldu looked at it thoroughly and said after reading it, "oh my, it is amazing, this will help us! I need to take this to my father, this can definitely help us understand how to be rid of these demons. Tell your people about it as well," she hugged him tightly while saying, "thank you for finding this, Marshogon. You have been a blessing from our Creator indeed." 

“That is why my guards and I came to visit, although I am not supposed to be here, I heard my parents talk of what was happening with you all. If they weren’t going to intervene and help,” he held her hands, looking into her eyes while saying, “then as the prince, I wanted to do something. So… my guards and I brought this book over, one our people have been studying for some time.”

Maldu started feeling saddened by the fact that this was her last time to be with Marshogon, she didn't cry, but she closed her eyes instead, hugging him dearly. She started saying, "my mother doesn't want me talking with you anymore, she said that it's very dangerous for our nations, and that everyone needs to be with their own nations during this chaos." 

"Maybe that'll change, asking for help can be hard in ways, but when you have people looking up to you, the ease comes to you and helps you make the right decision.”

He pointed at the book. “Once you show her the book and the map inside, then the problem should get easier to handle. Do it now, I need to get back, I can’t lie to my parents anymore about what I am truly doing on my,” he quoted, “training trips." 

Marshogon pulled away from her as they both let out small laughs. "Go now, go!" 

Maldu turned away from Marshogon and ran back to her home, with Pahlo following after her, shouting, "Maldu, wait!" 

Maldu ran as fast as she could, running as fast as the desert wind. Maldu made it to her home and saw her father there with all of his countless horsemen, so she stopped right in front of him and his horse, dropping the book on the ground by accident after the adrenaline of running so fast came down. "Uh..." She muttered, trying to pick it up.

"Maldu… why were you running so fast? Has something approached you??” He worried and then asked her while curiously looking around, “and where is Pahlo?" 

"Right here, my kaunah," Pahlo walked up to his ruler, kneeling down and placing sand on his head. "I had to chase after her from the garden, she ran as fast as the wind, I was running as fast as I could." 

"From what exactly?" He said, confused. 

Pahlo answered him, "I don't know exactly myself, she was…” Knowing that the Lesothian prince would come by and visit every so often without his rulers knowing, Pahlo tried his best to not speak on it until it was right to do so, in his eyes. “I was facing away from her, my ruler, I didn’t see who exactly she was talking to.”

"Be more watchful next time, you know the dangers of outside right now, don’t you!" The king yelled, his tone, strict and strong as the Seperean language easily implied.

"Yes, my kaunah." 

The kaunah turned to Maldu and said, "speak, my child." 

As she was about to speak everyone came around her, including her mother who stood at the bottom of the stairs of the palace. "That person I've known for a while, he found this book and map, it's very powerful he says, it says that it's about a Southern Island below us, and that the crystals that are falling are very powerful meaning that ten of those crystals are warriors, here to live as people to kill the 100-year span demon, and that the island is very important and the warriors will train there, meaning that the island has a connection to the Adenians. I believe it is true." 

Everyone stayed silent, until the kaunah started laughing, causing everyone to laugh after him. 

"This is not funny, father, this is serious!" 

"If that's the case, bring him here, which tent does he live in?" 

Pahlo looked at Maldu with a look to speak the truth. "He is not from here, he is from Lesothia." Maldu said.

The kaunah casually lost his laughter. “Why are you messing with the Lesothian people? How long have you known this… boy..." He said sternly. 

"For five months, only once in those months would he visit me. He is not only just a friend…”

Her father lifted a brow.

“He is Prince Marshogon, the prince of the seven provinces of Lesothia.”

He looked at Pahlo, then back at Maldu, with his eyes now widened with hidden fear. "We are going to speak with the Lesothian Sovereign about this, in no way have we not known this,” he glared at Pahlo before turning to the rest of his men. “It is time we handle this, our people have had enough of these countless deaths and destruction!”

He hopped on his horse, pointing his scepter to the sky, calling on the Most High as he started chanting the battle cry words of Seperea, “may our hot sands and sun blind the eyes of all our enemies!” He then shouted to the people, “these Adenian demons will burn!!”

All his horsemen followed suit with his words, then he proceeded to leave on his horse, with everyone following after him. "My dear, we must not bring harm to the Lesothians! They may be helping us, but I don’t want these demons to attack them!" The kaumaa yelled. The kaunah stopped in his tracks, he barely looked at his wife and said, "the demons will attack who they want, and the Lesothians are always protected! Regardless," he snickered, “these Lesothians have all the essentials of the world, they will be fine!” He turned back to his men. "Let's keep going!" 

They all shouted and cheered once again, following after their ruler. The kaumaa walked over to Maldu, grabbing her while asking, "did you even listen to me?" 

"Of course, as I said goodbye, he gave me the book and the map, and he told me he will not come back to our land. He was the one to tell me to go." Maldu confirmed, saying this truthfully.

Although the kaumaa could see the truth in her daughter's eyes, still, she sighed and stood up from her, saying softly, "let's go follow them, I'm the kaumaa, and I need to show responsibility for this, come on, both of you." She said this to Maldu and Pahlo, all while ordering her guards to ask the priest and priestesses to watch over the palace.