Living Shadows part 1

The sun slowly began to rise over the land of Arcalan revealing a normal looking room. There was nothing out of the ordinary about this room. It had a bed, chest of drawers, and a bedside table. There was a simple smell of BO and flour. The only thing that gave this room some personality was the teenage boy that lies asleep in his bed. He has a look on his face of pleasure for he was having a very nice dream.

"Samuel, it's time to get up and do your chores," his mother shouted from down stairs in the kitchen. Samuel turned onto his hack and sighed. He had been having a wonderful dream where he was fighting the shadows and he was winning all because of this magic sword. He dreampt that he had defeated the Sovereign Shadow and that all the people were praising him. It had been a wonderful dream, but now it was time to wake up and face his tragically dull life. Samuel sat up and rubbed his bright golden eyes as he yawned. Getting dressed was hard since he was too sleepy to tell if his clothes were on right. When he finally managed to have his clothes on correctly he looked at himself in the mirror. Samuel ran his fingers through the front of his blonde hair so that his bangs stuck up out of his face. The contrast with the rest of his short hair was very noticeable. This was just how Samuel liked it. He grew tired of being normal a long time ago. His clothes were ordinary, but there was no avoiding that on a farm. There was no use for cool looking armor or a silk shirt on a farm, so what he had would have to do for now.

"Sam, if you don't come down within the next five minutes, your breakfast is going to the dogs."

"Alright, I'm coming." Sam ran his fingers through his bangs one more time before grabbing his satchel and walking grudgingly downstairs.

Sam hated doing his chores especially the morning ones. He was always half asleep and ended up drifting off if he rested for even a second. Today was especially hard because it was planting day. Whenever the seedlings in the mobile planters grew big enough, they had to be planted in the field and given some of the family's special fertilizer to help it grow quicker. With the shadows moving around and us having to move with it, it's best to have the plants grow rather quickly. The only downside to the fertilizer is that the plants don't have as many nutrients as they would otherwise. This means that people have to eat twice as much as usual. It's always a pain to have to move that many plants. Sam hated the life as a farmer. He always dreamed of doing more with his life, but his family needed him too much for him to follow his dream and become a knight for his kingdom. He practiced all the time though with his friends. They practiced with sticks of course, but it still counted in their heads.

After Sam finished his morning chores he would meet his friends at the waterfall in the woods to practice, but something different happened today. Sam finished his chores early that day and went ahead to the waterfall to meet up with his friends. It really was a beautiful place to practice. Right when Sam got there, the sun was peaking over the trees into the little clearing and was reflecting off of the waterfall. The light seemed to dance and mingle with the smell of daffodils that grew along the river's shore. That's when Sam noticed something. There was something glittering at the bottom of the river. He couldn't tell what it was, but there was definitely something down there. That's when his friends Adam and Jacob made their appearance.

"What are ya looking at Sam?" Jacob asked.

"I don't really know. There's something at the bottom of the river."

"Well then go down and get it," Adam replied.

"No way man. You go."

"What are you scared?" Jacob taunted.

"No, I just don't want to go to the trouble."

"Just go on and get it. There's no current here."

"I'll go, since you two are acting like a couple of wooses." Adam took off his shirt and dove into the water. The other two just stood there waiting for their friend to resurface, but he didn't come up. They waited, and the longer they waited the more anxious they got. Looking down into the water, they could see their friend struggling to retrieve the object. Then when he resurfaced the other two let out their breath in relief, not having realized that they were holding their breath.

"Yea there's something down there, but I couldn't free it from the mud. It must be big."

"Here let me try," Jacob said confidently, but he showed the same results. When he resurfaced Sam was smiling in triumph.

"Told you it was a waste of time."  

"Fine then Mr. I'm better than everyone. I dare you to go get it." Jacob challenged.

"Fine, whatever." Sam took off his brown vest and white shirt, both were caked with dirt. Then he dove into the water. Sam was immediately met with an icy wall and went right through it. He ignored the stinging of the cold water and pressed on. It was relatively easy for Sam to get to the bottom, but whatever was there didn't want to come out easily. Sam struggled and pulled at the object. At first it wouldn't budge, but then he felt it sliding through the mud. With one last, strong pull Sam freed the object. He immediately swam to the surface and gasped for air.

"Ha! He didn't even last three minutes. What was it too much for you to handle?" Jacob taunted.

"Nope. Just enough." Sam held up the object in his hand and realized that it was a sword. It was the most magnificent sword he had ever seen. They all just stood in wonder of the sword. They had been play fighting since they were little and they had never seen a real sword in person before. Sam eventually climbed out of the water and put his clothes back on.

"Whoa man. Just;Whoa," Jacob said in wonder.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything more beautiful in my entire life," Adam mused.  

"Yea; what do you want to do with it?" Sam asked

"What do you mean?" Jacob wondered confusedly.

"I just mean that we need to decide who keeps it."

"You pulled it out dude even when we couldn't. You keep it," Adam said.

"Are you sure?" Sam asked.

"Yea, it's yours man," Jacob assured. Sam wasn't sure why but at that moment, he felt a connection to the sword. He couldn't explain it but he felt like it belonged with him.