The Warrior King Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Over half a century before the death of Sengin another woman was near death. She however wasn't dying of old age; she was dying from complications during child birth. The woman looked weak as she laid there, her shoulder length hair matted to her as she looked over at the man holding her bundled up child. The man was ageless, and it showed in how he stood and how he moved and how he held the child. The woman had known the man all her life and he had never aged in appearance, his dull silver hair had always been the same color as it was now and he had always been the same tall and lean man he was now.

The man looked over at the woman, his eyes the red of smoldering embers filled with sorrow. He and the woman had lived together for years as husband and wife, as lovers. They made an odd couple for she was, until that day, the last known member of the Hammer bloodline and he was an Immortal of The Goddess. The village they were in had questioned it when they became attached to each other and married, but she had always been respected in the village and had for years there been the village's leader.

The woman remained still as she felt herself growing weaker, yet her eyes refocused as another man entered the room. He stood tall, taller then most men she knew; his entire body seeming to be carved from stone into a muscular man, his black hair was held back in a small warrior's knot. He and the woman's husband seemed to talk with each other for a few minutes yet the woman could not hear them even though she could tell they occasionally glanced at her. Her mind clouded farther as they looked at her, and she knew what they wanted at that moment.

"His…his name is Rume, Rume Hammer." She got out, and even though it was with her last breathe her voice still held onto the kindness and softness that had caused so many to listen to and follow her. After she spoke though she closed her eyes and laid there, unmoving and silent again, not because she was weak but because she had held on as long as she could.

With her gone the two men slowly and somberly left the bedroom and the house to enter the night air where a full moon the color of blood sat low in the western sky. "My brother would say tonight is of sorrow, and for me it is." The father said, looking up with at the sky with sad eyes. His voice was soft and caring, befitting his status of a doctor

"What will you do with the baby?" The other asked; his voice ragged and gravelly with age that seemed to not touch his body. He stood as tall as he could as he looked at the now single father, his shoulders squared off as he did.

"I don't know, my love is the one who wanted a child and I supported her with it." The man said softly, carefully holding the baby as he looked down at the boy. "I'm not a father, I'm not right to be a husband either but she had made me things I though I'd never be. Of course you wouldn't know about such things would you Xiv?"

"I know plenty of being what I'm not." Xiv said calmly, carefully reaching out and take the baby from the older man. "And I have a suggestion, let me take the boy and take care of him, I have debts to repay and this is the only way I can see to do it now." He said, his voice shifting to a sad and pain lanced tone.

The unnamed man stood there a minute, looking coldly at the man before him. "One condition, once every year you bring him to me or my brother." He said as he crossed his arms, his eyes focusing to pierce the man like a toothpick holding a bug to the wall. "You don't then you will have trouble and you know what trouble I can cause you."

"I will hold to your condition, I can't expect to be trusted yet." Xiv said calmly as he stood there, carefully holding the baby in his arms.

The two stood there a long moment looking at each other before something passed over the moon, the father turning to see what it was. When he looked back however Xiv and his son was gone, as if they hadn't been there a