The bright morning sun shore down on the castle kingdom of Maliium.

This day is a special day. It is of a yearly ritual that this kingdom has been performing for longer than anyone can remember. It has been so long that no one can actually recall why they perform this ritual, but nonetheless the people of Maliium follow through with the ritual because of their faith towards their kingdom.

A person is chosen from the whole kingdom. The social status and position of the individual does not apply from the selection of the individual. No one can be excused from the selection. To add to the mystery of this ritual, no one knows how exactly this choosing process works, but everyone in the kingdom, being a citizen of Maliium just “feels” and knows that they are chosen and who is chosen. The individual chosen rains with an aura that cannot be ignored by anyone.

I am a knight of the castle. One of my duties as a knight of this kingdom is to guard the chosen individual. Once the individual is chosen, no matter where in the kingdom they resided, they are to make their way to the castle that very morning, alone.

This year’s chosen was a boy, probably in the age of his early teens. He looked of a poor peasant boy, draped in dirty, ragged clothes. As the boy arrived at the gates, he proceeded towards the main castle doors where I stood waiting and on guard. Many castle guards stood scattered around the front entrance of the castle as well.

As the boy approached, all the other guards stood back, keeping a distance between themselves and the small boy. The other guards were taking precautions because of the rituals’ circumstances that allow the chosen status to be transferred to another due to close proximities of that individual. However, throughout the years that I have guided this ritual, I have been unaffected by any sort of transfer, so it has been solely my duty to assist in this ritual.

When the small boy stood before me, I push open the giant castle door leading in towards the castle’s main entrance. I welcome the boy and tell him to proceed forward through the door and straight down. He walked passed me and continued as instructed. I close the door behind me and follow right behind him. After shutting the door, the insides of the castle become quite darkened and dim. All the windows of this castle were all very high and draped with thick curtains, which seemingly let the bare minimum of light pass through. It was enough light to see about fifteen feet ahead of us at a time.

Between the castle’s doors, the atmosphere of the outside and the inside seemed like complete opposites.

The small boy and I walked for about a minute and everything went to black.

***

When I opened my eyes, I was in the room of where the ritual is to take place. It is a huge cave, dirt floors and dirt walls with little light. In the middle of the room is a rectangular, stone box where the chosen one is to be held… and sacrificed.

Walking closer to the stone box, the top lid has been opened and a corner of the box smashed. I quickly lifted the lid of the stone box and revealed that there was no body inside. No blood or remnants that the boy had been there at all. The chosen one has gone missing. This ritual must take place, we have never failed to perform this ritual before and I didn’t want to know what the consequences for failing were.

Deep panicked thoughts filled my mind.

A small sound of a footstep caught my attention and I snapped my head towards that direction in hope of it being the small boy. However, as I looked, the dark shape of the figure was too big to be a small boy. Then it spoke in a slightly deep, but elegant voice. “You’ve lost the chosen ONE, you will fail this year’s ritual…that’s too bad.”

-END

NOTE: The kingdom looked very similar to the kingdom that was in the pokemon movie of Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.