Page 55 - KCN 2020

the darkness, blotting out any sunlight. Their bark was mottled and splotched,
The forest was primordial. Centuries-old trees with sprawling limbs guarded
THE RING its surface diseased. Clumpy combs of wet moss dangled from their rotten

boughs. Underneath the moss, lethal larkspur peppered the mulchy floor.

LEE KE YIN None of that deterred Jose’s determination in seeking the heirloom. After

lots of trekking, he finally found the tree where the heirloom was believed to have
“Reclaim the throne, my heirs, for it is the only way for our family to been hidden.
achieve glory…….”
There was an ancient willow with a nymph guarding the tree. As she was
Lucas Calvarho’s dying wishes were followed by a short brassy cough, then awakened by the visitor, the nymph’s glistening emerald eyes glared at Jose, as her
dead silence. With that, the Calvarho family lost the kingdom throne to the flamed-like hair flickered. She paused after elegantly gliding through Joe, inspect-
Oliveiras, and was deported to a remote land where they settled down ing him once more before taking out the heirloom, which was a diamond ring,
and built their own kingdom. For centuries, the grudge between and spoke to him:
both families burnt like raging fire, thus the goal of reclaiming the
throne from the Oliveira family ran through the Calvarho veins. “This ring has powers, it can reveal anything.”

Beating the Oliveiras seemed like an impossible quest for the Calvarhos. “Anything?”
For four generations, they had tried but failed to take back the throne. It
wasn’t until Jose Calvarho’s birth, that the family mission seemed to be reig- “Yes, master. The past, the future, anything your heart desires.”
nited from the ashes of despair. Something about Jose set him apart from
his siblings: his bicolor eyes. His honey-amber iris and smoky-amethyst Jose held the ring, examining it while catching its radiance. Fascinated
pupil consolidated into one, were, according to folklore, related to myth- by the ring, he wondered what exactly happened back then. Why did
ological creatures. He was like a blooming rose in a field of wildflowers. the Calvarhos fail to take the throne? The next thing he knew, a thick
mist magically formed before him out of thin air. A strong wind whisked
Jose’s ambition in reclaiming the throne grew steadily. There was not a him off to a seemingly familiar place, out of time. Appearing before him
day that he did not stick his head in the heap of the Calvarho ancestral records. in the mist was a figure of man and a woman embracing each other.
The more he read, the more he found outabout his family’s past. Rage slithered
through his veins like a venomous phython, blinding him and consuming him. His It was a tale of two lovers. Lucas Calvarho loved Margaret Oliveira,
trusted advisor, Kruff, intervened when he saw this, and guided the young Calvarho the only daughter of the Oliveiras. Both families had prominent mem-
to tame his wrath and repurpose his anger into strategies for the upcoming war. bers who were chancellors of the king, and both had a chance of succeeding
the throne. Due to their shared position, they held grudges towards each
Jose Calvarho was determined to take back the throne. other. When they discovered the relationship between the two young
lovers, they were disgusted. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back as
The following fall, the crisp autumn winds, the gloomy colours that the Oliveiras blackmailed the Calvarhos into giving up the throne. Since Lucas
clung to the trees, and the deciduous nature of the melancholic season all promised to protect Margaret from harm, he convinced his family to flee.
meant the same thing……War was here.
To the Calvarhos, this was the secret that had to be brought to their
Jose led his troops north for the Oliveira kingdom. Halfway, he graves, thus a distorted truth was passed down. It was this very ring which was
ordered the troops to rest for a few nights in the bordering forest of Volkof. a token of forbidden love, carefully and artfully crafted as an eternal, abiding-
The forest was rumoured to house a powerful Calvarho family heirloom, place for the two young lovers. But should love prove false, and faith be broken,
guarded by a tree nymph. It is said that the secrets held within it would the ring will lose its virtue and be consumed by dark magic, rendering it useless.
bestow the Calvarhos power grand enough to reclaim the throne. Only a
Calvarho descendant would be able to find it. Undoubtedly, it would be Jose The mist lifted and upon knowing the truth of his family, Jose Calvarho

51 . fell to his knees with jaws wide open, shocked. 52