Chapter one

on top the hills, were a festive peaceful gathering of royals, nobles, and people from various kingdoms and tribes - all celebrating peaceful times; playing games, dancing and feasting.

amongst them, were two children playing sword fights with wooden swords - one of them, a very young blonde prince named Johan; and the other, a young freckled faced redhaired girl named Lidia. as the heat of the battle escalated between the two swordfighters, the girl used a disarming technique to throw the boy’s sword out of his hand as he fell down to the ground on his rear end, thus winning the game.

“no fair, its not like I am good with the blade like you.” the boy got up from the ground as he grimaced while rubbing the sore pain on his rear end.

“I’m sorry. Not everyone can be trained by swordsmen everyday along with your chief warrior daddy, while some of us have seven sisters to put up with at the castle.”

like a strike of lightning, an idea struck the mind of the red wild haired girl. “I got an Idea.”  

Johan looked at the girl with curious blue sky eyes.

Johan rolled up his sleeves with a burst of confidence.  “You Bet!” 

Not shortly after, the young prince fell down while trying to hold Lidia bridal-Style. Lidia rubbed the back of her head. “Aw man, that wasn't even 10 seconds.” 

“Oh give me a break!” Johan shotted back as he stood back up.

Johan turned and offer his hand to the grounded girl. Lidia lend her hand to Johan and was pulled back up.

“Look at me.” Lidia’s emerald eyes met Johan's eyes. “I swear to you, when I grow up big and strong enough to not only wield the sword to protect you, but to carry you like a princess bride!” 

Lidia’s sparkling emerald eyes widened full of surprise, along with her freckled cheeks turned tomato red as she blushed. “Really? You truly promise me that?” 

Johan glared with resolve as he held both her hands. “I swear by it"

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"My prince, are you sure this is a good idea to meet the woman you love in the middle of this cold area?" 

The prince smiled as he looked at the coach of the armored carriage. "Jack, this is the woman who used to train swords with me since childhood. You worry too much." 

 The prince gave the coach a light glare as he moved his head closer to the window. "And I shouldn't remind you, Jack, that you can be informal with me and just address me by my name." 

 The coach looked back at the prince a bit, the fair, goggled man with a wide pearly white grin, nervous as his short, trim hair moved rapidly in the cold winds. "Sorry, Johan, just nervous about going along with you helping your father to join you on your 'diplomatic trips'. Especially if the woman you love is part of one of the strongest and most powerful wild-man tribes in the outer rims of these kingdom lands - the wolf warriors."

Johan kicked back a bit and rested his legs on the seats on the opposite end of the carriage. The prince sighed. "Jack, I understand that you have been a very beneficial servant who served my father well with your gifted talents for inventing, especially strategic and tactical advantages." 

 Johan looked back at Jack. "But you've also been a good friend. You've even helped escort me to meet the woman I love." 

 "Don't mention it," Jack remarked as he surveyed the perimeter of the snowy environment. 

Johan held up a small box within his gloved hands, he opened the box to take a look at what's inside - a golden engagement ring. "I hope she'll accept my marriage proposal.” Johan pondered to himself. 

 "Here we are." Johan looked out the window of the carriage while storing the engagement ring away in his cloak as Jack the coach pulls over the carriage, slowing the equine pulled vehicle down to a halt at their destination. 

The royal prince left the carriage as he opened the door and hopped on to the ground, the snow crunching beneath his boots. Johan looked left and right as he surveyed the snow covered terrain. Johan spotted a trail of smoking coming from the distance. 

Jack rummaged through the inner pockets of his black coat beneath his black cloak. Jack pulled out a white bird out of his coat. Jack took of the glove of his right hand and guided his index finger and thumb through the feathers on the birds chest to find the one thing he needed - a zipper. 

 Jack opened the zipper to reveal the mechanical inner workings of the white bird he held in his hand - wires, tiny tubes flowing with coolant, clockwork mechanism along with a network of various tiny piston cylinders, and last but not least a power source inside of the metal casing apparatus at the center of the birds endoskeleton torso chassis. Jack pressed the middle button on the center of the power source. The center button lit up, hence the bird itself fluttered a bit as the mechanical inner workings activated and fluctuated back and forth upon activation. 

 "Jack." 

Jack quickly hid the bird under his cloak. "Yes Johan." Jack hectically answered as his eyes shifted left and right rapidly, before looking down at Johan. 

The annoyed prince gave the tinkerer a deadpan glare. "We had a talk about this. As much of a valid concern you have for my safety, I told you not to bring that mechanical contraption of bird to spy on me. Not even mention all the tricks and gadgets you store on your person." 

 Jack taken aback to the princes statement. "Hey! Those hidden gear are necessary. It's always best to at least have a couple tricks up your sleeve if bad scenarios become worse." 

Johan placed his lowered face on the palm of his gloved hands. "There's having a trick up your sleeve, then there's ridiculousness! You are being absolutely ridiculous!" 

 Jack crossed his shoulders. "At least I'm not as bad as that avenger that works with the sheriff in the kingdom your father rules over." 

 Johan rolled his eyes. "Whatever.”

Johan grabbed a large woven basket from the armored horse carriage. “Just stay put I'll be back in a while." 

 "Sure, go ahead. take your sweet time with your diplomatic mission.” Jack reached down below his seat for his leather bag and opened it, revealing a metal box with an assortment of various metal capsules and meals wrapped in wax paper. 

Jack unwrapped the wax paper wrapped meal, revealing a sandwich - a sandwich that has slices of of the finest slices of salami, large flat slices of rotisserie chicken breast cut wrapped bundles of bacon strips of maple and honey and hickory smoked bacon, and steak flavored roast beef melded with grass fed provolone cheese, topped with glistening fresh lettuce lightly brushed with lemon juice, slivers of red wine soaked red onions, and slices of Romanian tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper, all sandwich between two slices of torched multigrain complex carb whole wheat bread that is roasted crunchy on the outside while a bit quite toasty yet soft like fluffy feather stuffed pillows and marshmallows. along with the sandwich, was a bag of olive oil and vinegar flavored crispy potato chips.

Then he opened one of his thermos canisters as he went to savor, the metal thermos released a misty burst trail of steam and looked into the contents of the metal cup: chicken noodle soup. the chicken noodle soup comprising of diced up cube of cooked rotisserie chicken, sticks of rosemary, a pinch of thyme, garlic, sliced carrots, sliced celery, crushed red pepper, fresh parsley, and broth comprising of 4/5ths of chicken broth and 1/5ths of beef broth that is seasoned with better than bouillon seasoning and butter. jack drink the chicken noodle soup from his thermos. 

 jack prepped the last custom thermos to be opened before he went to delightfully enjoy was full of swirling steamy hot sweets. steamy hot chocolate that is made of heated creamy milk mixed with the finest hot chocolate and some high-quality Robusta beans mixed with dark roasted Arabica, along with a drop of two pieces of peppermint candy that melted in the drink, with a dash of pumpkin spice, a pinch of grounded red hot chili pepper powder, and a sprinkle of salt. 

Jack savored the warm delicacies in the cold winter.

As jack was having a lunch break, Prince Johan disappeared in the distance into the snowy trail through the Woodland. Little does Johan and Jack know, a hooded figure riding on horse lurks in the distance as he observed him with a telescoping looking glass. 

"The prince is all alone, my lord. Shall we advance?" Said one of the lords hunting party members as he looked through his pair of telescoping looking glass.

The lord grabbed his bow and string, to then string the two together. "Not just yet. I want the two love birds to get a little cozy with each other, right before deploying the element of surprise.”

the lord of the norths lackey looked up to him with skepticism. "If lady of the wolf clan doesn't cooperate and tries to escape with the prince?" 

 "She won't. I have that taken care of either cooperate or annihilate her people with my war beasts." The lackey didn't dare to emotion react to the lord of the north's plan, but the idea of committing ‘slaughter under trust’ using the war beasts to annihilate the wolf clan under his fairly newfound sovereignty puts a sickening churn deep in his stomach; he can't even throw up under fear of what Ramsey Boltain will do to him in the torture chambers. 

 Ramsey methodically and thoroughly stringed his bow. "Besides, I always love to give my special prey a little something before catching them"

Ramseys lackey raised a eyebrow in a questioning manner trying to guess correctly. "And what will that be, my lord?" 

 The lord of the north held up a special arrow head of his own design. "Despair."

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Prince Johan trekked through the snowy trail of the woods for quite a while. In the snowy trail through the Woodland. The ice and snow crunching beneath his boots as he makes way to his destination toward to source of the smoke.  The walk was lovely too, very quiet with chirp of birds here and there. Nothing too out of the ordinary. 

 Finally he made it to the source of the trail of smoke - a chimney connected to a wooden cabin. the cabin door opened by a woman - a fair skinned freckled face woman with braided band red hair, lime green eyes, and in a green dress and thick furry coat covering her. 

the woman's lime green eyes widened with excitement. “Johan, it's very great to see you! Come in! come in!”

Johan smiled warmly as he entered the cabin. “Thank you very much Lidia.” 

Johan walked towards the wooden table to place the woven basket. Lidia stoked the log fire and flames of the chimney with the metal chimney poking rod. 

“How was the trip on the way here, my dear? I hope it wasn't too much to travel here?”

Johan looks down at the engagement ring he has hidden within his coat pocket to make sure its still there. “Not too bad, my lady. Not too bad. I had some good company, a very dear friend helped me out traveling all the way out here.” 

Lidia cocked a curious look on her face. “A friend assisted your travels? how kind of him. who is this friend of yours may I ask?” Johan looked to Lidia. 

“Just a fairly recent peculiar fellow of mine. His name is jack. Brilliant man he is, despite being a worrywart, he is prepared for anything. Hell, He sometimes make my worrying mother look more sane.” Johann prepped the basket to open the lid before proceeding to rummage through the contents in the woven basket.

Lidia looked curious with her hands behind her back. “Hey Johan, may I ask what you got that in basket there?”

Johan looked back at Lidia then back to the wax paper wrapped object in his hands: “oh this? just something a little special I packed to bring for our diplomatic meeting.” 

Lidia leaned forth with insatiable curiosity from the delicious scent coming from the woven basket. “may I see what's inside?”

“of course.” Johan brings out a smorgasbord's worth of good foods and delicacies - such as meat pies, sandwiches, bread, pies and pastries, a couple bottles of wine and Hot chocolate in special metal mug built by Jack himself. 

“Johan, I’m curious. What's in the sealed metal pint mug?” Lidia pointed at the metal mug curiously. 

Johan grabbed the metal canister. “oh this? This contains special drink made by Jack himself.”

Johan served Lidia with a spare small metal cup of the hot drink, Lidia eyes widened with great surprise after experience a pleasurable sense of exotic aroma flavor from the intoxicating sweet drink.

Lidia held the cup and stare at the bottom of the cup in awe of what she experienced. “Oh my ... this is very good.” Lidia lend her empty steel cup to Johan. “May I have some more, Johan?”

“of course, there's more where that come from.” 

Johan and Lidia had the quite the meal of their time. some brief moments passed, in the warm cozy and toasty interior of the wooden log cabin, Johan and Lidia laid against each other. all snuggled up in a blanket in front of the warm cabin chimney fire.

“See Lidia, this is the life envisioned I for us. The two of us just cozying up to each other in front of the warmth of this fire after a harsh cold hard day of work.” said Johan as he is swirling a glass of wine.

Lidia snuggled up against Johan's shoulder ”yes. That sounds lovely dear, where we can peacefully start our family, having fun and all as we cuddle each other on our rest days.” 

Johan has his grip on the box with the engagement ring in his pocket. “now that you mentioned that, there is something I must tell you.”

Lidia got up. “what is it my dear love?”

Johan got on one knee and shows Lidia the engagement ring in the box. “Lidia, will you marry me?”

Lidia’s eyes welled up with tears. “Johann… That's a lovely dream I'd love for us.” Lidia starts to sob on the verge of bursting to tears. “but I'm afraid to say that I am sorry. That dream wont be coming true!” Lidia face fell into her hands, she sobbed and cried uncontrollably.

Johan step forth and reached out his hand for Lidia’s tear streaming face. “hey, let me wipe the tears off your face. what exactly are you sorry for?”

Lidia sobbed uncontrollably. “I'm sorry because I have to save my people from Annihilation.”

Johan hugged Lidia tightly. “Lidia! There's nothing wrong with that!” 

Lydia pushed Johan away and looked at him in the eye still flowing with tears in her eyes. “you don't get it. I had to save my people -”

Lidia gathered herself just to give a brief answer. “-by giving you up to the lord of the north.”

Johan had a confused look on his face. 

all of a sudden, a massive explosion bursts through the wooden door and glass windows, releasing a hail of splinters and. A wave of armed cloaked attackers swarmed towards the prince. The prince grabbed his sword and fought off the attackers as best as he could, injuring others in the process of self defense. unfortunately for Johan's situation. there were more attackers than he could handle and the overwhelming forces subdued him. 

slow congratulating clapping was heard. “good girl, Lydia. You did a good job fetching me the prince.” Ramsey Boltain congratulated Lidia. 

Lidia gets head patted by Boltain as she held her arm as if she is hurting, looking away from Johan in shame of betrayal of her love of her life - even if coerced, amongst other things such as nature of who and what she is.

Ramsey looked at Lidia. “Now tell me, Lidia. Is there anyone else with the prince?”

“No, just one friend of his named Jack. An brilliant inventor - blacksmith of sorts.” Lidia answered.

“just one blacksmith? interesting…” Ramsey took the information into account. “is that all?” Lidia shamefully nodded in agreement. 

Ramsey Boltain smiled a twisted pearly white grin. “Good.”

Jack sipped his hot drink from his custom built tin pint that could keep his hot drink hot for hours. He couldn't shake off the feeling at the back of his skull but shrugged it off that it could his nervousness-induced imagination. 

Johan did helped to turn it down a notch and to be more openly jovial and think lightly.  

Even then, he does have his technique taught to him by his previous superiors - count to four, Inhale. Count to four, exhale.Along with that, he has a tick for grabbing his pocket watch and clicking the button three times every five or seven seconds. 

Jack believed that if he somehow click four times, that could be sign of bad luck. As superstitious it sounds, even the most successful and smartest of people knew when to fight and when to listen - especially when to stop and heeding to the warning before breaking the limit that could surpassed the point of no return. The scratches grow a little louder. 

Jack can't help but get the feeling in the back of his mind out of his head. His tick of clicking the main button of his pocket watch went a little rapid, but at least he didn't click it four times. That be bad luck.

Jack lifted his tin pint to take a sip of his hot chocolate as he kept clicking the main button of his pocket watch. The horses whined and neighed a bit louder than usual but Jack paid a token gesture of heeding to the horses sounds. Jack lifted the tin pint of his for one more sip of his pint one more time, still clicking the intervals on the main button of his pocket watch. 

Only this time, Jack accidentally clicked the main button of his pocket watch four times after being suddenly struck by something as he felt something warm trickling down his chest. Jack's eyes widened as he found an arrow stuck to his tin pint. 

One of the arrow landed next to the horses. Jack noticed something well lit and sizzling with sparks attached to the arrow - a burning fuse. A loud fire ball of an explosion happened. The horses got caught in the blazing inferno, the horses raised itself high on its hind legs as it galloped its front hooves. The heat of the flames melted the artificial flesh makeover to reveal the mechanical bronze horse skull. 

The horses in turn went to defensive overload as one of the mechanical horses raised its head and swiveled its head around to survey the area for attackers and started spewing out balls of flames out of its mouth, each fire ball releasing a fireball inferno that flushes out the the attacking archers that were hiding.  The other mechanical horse took care of the rest of the assailant's as it unlock and transform the nozzle built in within its jaws, and then spew out a streaming geyser of flame and set all of the flushed out assaulting archers on fire.  

Jack scrambled as he got up on his feet to make way to unfastened the horses. One of the charging horse riders charged toward Jack. Jack rummaged through his pockets for a little something quick and got the wacky doo hickey gadget he need real quick - his transformable bladed brass knuckle revolver. Jack shot a couple of shots to incapacitate the charging horse rider, the horse and his rider fell to the ground. Jack was relieved as the horse rider struggled to get his fallen horse off him to stand, giving jack to run and unfastened the bonds of his horse. Jack quickly got on the coach seat of the armored carriage. One of the attackers lunged at him from the side, jack emptied the rest of the round on him. The other from behind which he countered with a puncture to the attackers belly with the foldable blade. The last one being the horse rider whose horse he had incapacitate earlier, crawled up the carriage steps leading to the coach with an axe.

Jack punched the axe wielding maniac in the mouth with his brass knuckles, making a few teeth fly, and kicked him off the carriage. Jack hastily sat in the coach seat and grabbed the ropes, he finally got the carriage moving with one mission in mind - to rescue prince Johan.

Jack operated the carriage with great haste to save the prince.  Jack rummaged through the box behind his seat and grabbed a cane with a handle made of metal. He connected the end of the cane to the the mechanical socket, then bop, twist and turn the cane to activate the siege systems on the carriage. 

The metal armored hood of the carriage folded and revolving salvo mechanism whined and whirred to lift up a cannon looking contraption with a metal girdle rail feeder with a line of metal ball shells with with a glass jar full of liquids in the center of the shell. Jack fidgeted the cane and a mechanical arm with a control panel showed up to him. Jack positions the machine to get a clear shot of the Forest. He pressed the red button. The machine released a rapid fire hail of projectiles into the deep woods. A massive explosion followed as a result that could've wiped out battle groups during siege warfare is used to burn a trail through the dense make of trees and branches to race through to the location of the princes meeting. Jack put the horses to full speed ahead into the trail blazed inferno. 

All of a sudden, arrows are flying from all directions. Jack frantically manipulates the control board panel to activate the defense systems. The frills of the the armored carriages opened its flaps reveal tube holes - the tubes released the bursts of great sparks in the east, south and west directions. A cacophony of screams of the men being heard were proof that jacks inventions work as to his jovial excitement. 

Too bad his feelings of pride was overshadowed by overwhelming anxiety as he couldn't find the prince or the king would hunt him down. "At least my carriage is moving like the wind. No way this situation could get worse." Unfortunately for Jack, it could get worse. One of his horses has been snatched from the rig by something fast. The echoes of the horses blood curdling screams could be heard before silence. The consequences of these actions halted the carriage suddenly to Jack's utter dismay. The remaining horses when to an overcorrection on the defensive - the mechanical equine beast swiveled its head a full 360° over and over as it breathes fire in all directions to kill whatever killed its fellow brethren. The horse suffers the same horrible fate. Jack scrambled through the chest to find a couple of blunderbuss and quickly dialed the control panels - a wooden naval ship steering wheel with some additional control panels on each side raised itself above and positioned itself in front of the seat. Jack shifted the cane back and forth a bit "This is exactly the scenario I planned and prepared for." jack grinned proudly as the carriages hidden engines fired up and roared as it activated the head lights. The fixed face forward beam of of light revealed the threat the killed his horses - a flesh golem.

The flesh golem stared back at Jack, it stood up as it let's go of one of Jack's mechanical horses neck from its opened jaws full of jagged rusted metal teeth that is slathered in the oil that once flowed through the machine equine tubes. The flickering flame in the nozzle within the mechanical horses jaws has extinguished along with the red light in its eyes faded to nothing. 

 Jack and the flesh golem across in front stared down. Jack revved the engines of his horseless steel carriage, the flesh golem got on all its four limbs, its muscles spring loaded with tension ready to pounce Jack as its next prey. Jack tightly gripped the wheel, his foot on the pedal ready to push down the metal floor, gliding his hand on the trigger of one of the pair of blunderbuss from his side. Jack reach for the thing he needs. 

The flesh golem lunged and leaped as the biomechanical monstrosity prepared its opened jaws and claws to tear Jack to shreds and all. Unfortunately for the creature, this is exactly what jack expected. As jack sprinkled the creature with his first loaded blunderbuss, blinding the creature for a bit as it flails its clawed arms while jack laid his seat far back, he lowered the cannon he used to clear way in the forest and shot the abominable matrimony of flesh and machine further back from him, blowing up the creature into oblivion in a fiery orchestrated cacophony of explosions. As Jack stared at the inferno, he noticed another creature lunged at him from behind due to the creaking noises from the mechanical monstrosities inner-workings, then turned and fire with the last loaded blunderbuss he had at his disposal while the flesh golem fly towards him. The hideous biomechanical creature flailed as it flew back with all the loaded projectiles lodged in its face at high speed momentum. 

Jack all of a sudden got hit by a hail of arrow. He luckily dodged them all, unfortunately unlucky enough that one of the arrows was an exploding arrow that landed on top of the main revolving cannon on top of the armored horseless carriage. 

As Jack noticed the arrow too late quickly covered himself is his dark black cloak. The arrow exploded - resulting in a massive fireball explosion, leaving the iron carriage in a blazing inferno. Knocking jack further back and bumped into the controls, causing the horseless steep armored carriage to spiral out of control and formed donuts. 

Jack spring up quickly to take control of the steering wheel. He escaped as he dodged the incoming hail of bullets. As he drove, he made a sharp turn as the same flesh golem he shot in the face lunged at him. The rotten scented biomechanical beast may have missed but the creature successfully heavily damaged one of the rear wheels of the carriage. Permanently sealing the unfortunate ordeal of the downward spiraling of the steel carriage. 

Jack struggled to retake control as the rolling blazing carriage rolled down the hill. Jack struggled the retake control. As the carriage hit the pond, jack flew high up in the air and into the river. The carriage followed suit, as the blazing inferno on the carriage died out as the carriage submerged in the watery depth, enveloped by the streaming river. 

The lord of the north grinned as he looked through the telescope, watching Jack the tinkerer died in a watery grave. The lord of the north looked back to the chained of young lady of the wolf and the prince of the Solus kingdom, the two bounded bargaining chips - each of them escorted by a pair of two from his hunting party. "Drag them back. They'll be useful for further greater conquest." The lord ordered with a wide pearly white grin that split the cheeks on his fair face, the wicked crooked smile spreading ear to ear. 

"Yes lord Ramsey." Said one of his party members. Ramsey and his hunting party dragged the two off to the further northern lands.

Little do the hunting party know, they've been tracked down by another hunting party. A pair of golden sun eyes stared at the hunting party intensely, taking every key detail of the bounding of the pair of hostages and the hunting parties attack on the royal armored horse carriage. Recording all of it. From every nanometer of details of the recorded scenes, down to the minuscule number of the second. 

The bird flew off the branch, and fly off into the darkening evening sky.

Sometime later, the bird had eventually made a landing upon a black giant metal gauntlet. The owl looked up at the giant hooded dark armored figure that looked at it with bright crimson eyes.

 The bird reported the news to the dark armored mechanical giant. the armored mechanical giant nodded to the report the owl communicated. 

"Yes, fly away little one and keep a close eye on them. I'll prepare the army to deal with the lord of the north." 

 The horned eagle owl flew off of the armored mechanical giants armored gauntlet and fly off into the dark night. 

 The mechanical behemoth of a dark armored knight took off the cloak and stretched his wings and flew away.