The Realm of Fantasy

Once upon a time,
There was a magical land,
Where people and mystical beasts,
Dwelled side-by-side.

They were ordinary people,
Like you and me,
Who went quietly about their business,
Just trying to put food on their families' tables.

Then there were the wizards and witches,
Known as The Guardians, they were the select few,
That were blessed with magical abilities,
Who protected this fair realm.

Lastly, there were the mystical creatures,
Some good and some bad,
Each blessed with varying magical powers,
That could be both wonderful and terrible.

Sometimes the realm would come under siege,
From the evil beasts of the land,
But each time they were foiled,
As they could not match the sorcery of The Guardians.

But, on one faithful day,
A wicked warlock called Vladamir,
Came to The Realm of Fantasy,
To destroy it and make it his own.

He was severely outnumbered,
The Guardians of the Realm should have dealt with him easily,
But Vladamir was more powerful then they had reckoned,
And they were swatted aside like insects.

The land was his for the taking,
He stormed the villages and captured slaves,
He rounded up all the evil beasts of the Realm,
And made them into his army.

A small group of people tried to resist,
But they were crushed by Vladamir,
Few managed to escape,
Those who did, fled to the slums.

Vladamir never attacked the slums,
He failed to see the value of such an action,
A rabble of poor people is all they are, he remarked,
Divided and leaderless, with no magical power!

He was right in his judgment of them,
They were indeed divided and leaderless,
They often squabbled amongst themselves over nothing at all,
And they had no one to turn to, to prevent these arguments.

There were over six hundred of them,
All squashed into tiny, little huts,
They struggled at times for food,
Since the land wasn’t fertile enough to grow anything.

By now, the entire land was covered with Vladamir’s evil,
The once evergreen forests, were black to the core,
The once clear waters of the rivers, were murky and filled with mutated fish,
The creatures that were of pure heart, fled the land for pastures new.

Then, worst of all, The Guardians fled the Realm,
Believing that Vladamir could not be beaten,
That his power was too great for any man to overcome,
With that, it seemed that all hope was lost.

Vladamir wished to mark The Guardians flight,
So he decided to build an enormous black tower,
This tower would become the symbol of Vladamir’s power,
It could be seen from everywhere in the Realm.

When the Black Tower was completed,
It blocked out sunlight completely,
The Realm was shadowed in permanent darkness,
The people of the slums thought the world had ended.

On the day that the tower was completed,
A boy was born in the slums to a single mother,
His father had died in the failed rebellion,
At the hands of Vladamir himself.

His mother named him Sunrise,
The irony being that he would never see one,
Unfortunately, she passed away soon after giving birth,
Leaving Sunrise with no family in the slums.

Sunrise learned a lot from the people of the slums,
He learned about how Vladamir had taken over the Realm,
He heard tales of The Guardians and of their mystical powers,
And he learned of his fathers heroic death.

Vladamir did not bother with the slums for a long time,
But, one day, on Sunrise’ 18th birthday,
He decided to purge the slums with his army,
Just to show the people the true extent of his power.

It was on that day,
That Sunrise witnessed evil for the first time,
The blood of his comrades was shed,
And all he could do was hide and hope they wouldn’t find him.

When he decided to look to see if the onslaught was over,
He was met with a gruesome sight,
Blood was everywhere and huts were burnt down,
Only a handful of people survived.

Sunrise went to sleep angry that night,
Angry because they had been caught unawares,
If Vladamir is so powerful, he thought to himself,
Why then, does he attack defenceless people without warning?

Sunrise had a strange dream that night,
In it, he was talking to his parents,
They were telling him to round up all those of pure heart,
And start an uprising against Vladamir.

But there are only a small group of us, Sunrise said,
We are too few to defeat Vladamir and his army,
It is your destiny, they insisted,
Vladamir shall fall by your sword.

Sunrise awoke with a burning determination inside of him,
He gathered together the last surviving people of the slums,
Today, he said, we shall rebel against Vladamir!
They thought he was insane.

We cannot rebel, we are too few, one said,
It would be suicide,
We were lucky to survive the last attack,
Let us not push our luck.

Sunrise looked at him and issued a rallying call,
If we stay here and do nothing, Vladamir shall return and finish us off,
I am tired off living under the terms of a tyrant,
It is time for us to take back what is ours!

But should we fail, another man said;
Sunrise drew his fathers sword from its sheath,
Then we shall die an honourable death, he replied,
As the first Knights of the Realm!

Then they marched toward the Black Tower of Vladamir,
As the first Knights of the Realm,
Sunrise drew his sword once more,
And challenged Vladamir to a battle.

Vladamir heard the challenge from the top of his tower and was surprised,
No one had dared challenge him for over eighteen years,
Ever since he crushed that small resistance from the slums,
He looked out of his tower window to see who dared challenge him.

What he saw shocked and amazed him,
He could see what The Knights hadn’t yet seen,
Behind them were The Guardians,
And behind The Guardians were the creatures of pure heart.

They returned after hearing of the attack,
The wished to help the people of the slums recover,
But, upon seeing The Knights of the Realm gathered at the Black Tower,
They knew the time of the final battle had arrived.

Sunrise turned and was shocked to see them all gathered there,
He hadn’t noticed them arrive,
He held his sword aloft and shouted,
Today is the day we fight!

Vladamir released his army of foul beasts,
Just as the army of the Realm charged,
Blood rained down as swords met claws,
And as spells struck their targets.

As Sunrise struck down a foe,
He saw an entrance to the stairs of the tower,
He stormed the Black Tower, killing anyone who got in his way,
Before finding Vladamir at the top.

Vladamir turned as Sunrise burst through the door,
He smiled wickedly and cast a spell in his direction,
Sunrise narrowly dodged it and shouted,
Coward, you fear fighting me like a real man!

Vladamir was incensed by this taunt,
He took up a sword, but paused as he did so,
Recognising the sword in Sunrise' hand, and the expression Sunrise now wore,
And then it hit him.

I killed your father, he laughed wickedly,
Sunrise’ eyes widened with anger,
I’m sure you have heard heroic tales about him, Vladamir taunted,
But the truth is he died begging me for mercy!

Liar! Screamed Sunrise and he charged at Vladamir,
There was a clang of steel on steel,
And both men lost their footing,
Before falling through the door which led to the roof of the tower.

As they landed on the cold hard ground,
The battle below raged on,
The army of the Realm were defeating their evil counterparts,
The wicked beasts could not stand this sort of onslaught.

The battle between Vladamir and Sunrise was an even contest,
They battled for hours, matching each others strikes,
But Vladamir was tiring and made one last, desperate lunge,
Which Sunrise avoided, before chopping his head off.

As Vladamir fell, a shining light blinded Sunrise,
He turned around and, for the first time,
He saw the sun,
It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

He picked up Vladamir’s head and threw it over the edge of the tower,
He heard the evil beasts wail of despair,
And the army of the Realm's yells of victory,
It was finally over.

Sunrise looked down at his comrades and held his sword high in triumph,
Suddenly, the tower began to collapse beneath him,
He thought his death was upon him,
Until one of the creatures of pure heart flew up and whisked him to the ground.

The Black Tower collapsed,
And for the first time in over eighteen years,
Sunlight spread through the Realm of Fantasy,
The reign of Vladamir the Warlock was over…

The reign of Sunrise the Knight was about to begin.