A mid-teenage of seventeen boy looked over the lake in his village at night. He was in deep-thought about something. Something in his mind made him ignore the chilly air that was blowing lightly at night in the middle of the month of July. The village he lived in was in the North and it was a cold vilage. It was called Evergreen Village, notably because of the Evergreen trees that surrounded the village and lake all year-round and would never die because of the typical cold weather up in the North.
This boy was named Yoshikuni, by his parents who had sadly never returned from their trip to find a new place to live in. They were tired of the extreme cold winters that their village always had and wanted to live somwhere with a mild climate. They left him when he was a young boy at the age of five and said to him before they left, "We will return Yoshi, and we'll have a new house to move into when we come back!" Yoshi, was his name in short for Yoshikuni.
After they said this they then departed and left in search for the new house. They left him with an old man who had been their neighbor and helped them whenver they needed help with small things. They new that they could trust him because, not only was he like a family member to them because of his kindness, but also because he had once been the guardian for Evergreen Village for 45 years. His name was Sarutaka. However, he had retired ten years ago when he got too old and tired to take on the responsibility. Thusa leaving the town with no guardian for ten straight years. However, the small village had heard stories of the terrible Dragon Prince's return. The village had remembered the old Dragon Prince that had lived 37 years ago and terrorized their village. But Sarutaka had battled the dragon prince when he had invaded into the town and drove the Dragon Prince away. The town cheered for his victory and praised him for saving them.
Yoshikuni was too young and rebellious to understand this at his present age. He thought that this story was just all an imaginary myth that the village played on him for respect of his infamous kindness and genorosity towards them.
'If there is such a Dragon Prince, I'm having a hard time imagining how that old loon defeated him,' he looked at his hands and was looking hard into them. 'He doesn't even have special powers to defeat such a person according to this... legend... or at least... I've never seen his powers,' and scoffed at this thought.
He lifted his hand in front of him and the lake. A stream of water lifted from the lake and dropped back in as he lowered his hand. He then put his hand over the shore of the lake. It instantly froze into ice. He picked up his sword and swished it around creating a strong gust of the chilly air. He stopped. He realized it was getting late and he was getting tired. He went back inside the house and went to his room.
Little did he know that Sarutaka was watching him behind a bush. 'His powers are getting stronger evey year, maybe it is time.' he thought to himself. Sarutaka and Yoshikuni himself knew that Yoshikuni had these special elemental powers since he was a newborn. But Yoshikuni did not know why and did not discover them until he was about to turn six. However, Sarutaka completly understood why and felt and knew that Yoshikuni had these powers ever since he was born. Over the years, Yoshikuni had learend the arts of swordsmanship and had mastered this art after several years of rigourous training. This special village had powers, and feelings. Whenever it knew and felt that the present Guardian of the village was getting old and soon to retire. The elemental powers of the Lake (Water & Ice) and the winds (Air) would choose a newborn in the village, that was destined to become the new Guardian of Evergreen Village and to protect them against any enemies, specifically the Dragon Prince. 'The town has chosen him as the new Guardian. I shall explain this all to him, on his next birthday. I think he will be old enough, and I shall train him to learn how to control these powers as I have learned from the Guardian before me. I will teach him to protect this village.' He put all this thought in great confidence.
Laying on top of his bed, he wore an expression of sadness. Tomorrow was his birthday. He was turning eighteen. However this reminded of his parents. He had always hoped that his parents would show up on his birthday. Looking at his bedside drawer, he pulled it open and there lay a picture of his parents. He looked at it and said to himself, 'Almost 13 years since I was just five and you still haven't shown up.' He had lost hope after ten years but still couldn't go without imagining that it would happen every birthday that passed. He closed the drawer and went to sleep.
