In a ruined old city that lived for thousands of years standing tall with his majesty ruling over the people to protect and support the castle from danger, lived an eight-year-old poor boy named Mark. Mark had deep brown hair and mahogany brown eyes almost mistaken for black. Mark wore old run-down clothes, a ripped-up shirt and torn pants that were beginning to come tight on him since he had them since he was five so you can imagine that they are a bit small on him, but he had nothing else right now. Mark lives on the streets Infront of the royal palace the only closet place he could call home. His family used to be close to the royal family, so close that they owned a house, a bed and rooms even one just for Mark to live in, sleep in, and even have food on the table but now it's gone, all gone. 
  Mark was best friends with the prince, Prince Shawn, he had silky blond bright hair with bright green eyes. Mark and Shawn were born on the same day. Mark was going to be Prince Shawn's butler when he got older. The only reason Mark is homeless now was because his mother was caught with the Queen. Both the King and Mark’s father were so mad that they came together and banished both the Queen and Mark’s mother from the kingdom. Mark’s father continued to be the king's butler, but as for Mark his father didn’t want anything to do with Mark after the incident because Mark looks just like his mother. 
  The days go on and on and Mark is getting older saving up some money here and there trying to get back on his feet and live a good life. On a Saturday afternoon Mark is lying under the old oak tree right next to the bakery when he hears all this commotion over by the palace, so Mark decides to go check it out.  
  When he gets there, he notices guards all around his stuff checking it out and moving stuff around. This made Mark irritated so he goes over to the guards and in the nicest way asks, “what are you doing to my stuff?” The guards look at him and say, “Mark Buford you need to come with us.” Mark hesitated but went with them even though he felt like running the other way, the guards were huge almost like giants but instead he let them take him. The guards escorted Mark through the gates to the palace, the one place Mark never wanted to go to again.  
  Once he got inside the guards told Mark to just stand and wait for the king to arrive. A few moments passed and King Thomas came out. King Thomas is a very tall slender man with deep brown hair and bright green eyes, King Thomas walked very slowly to his throne. After the King sits down, he stares at Mark with sympathetic eyes. After staring at Mark for a few minutes the King speaks “Mark Buford... Do you know why you are here boy?” King Thomas said in this deep old raspy voice. 
  Mark hesitated with his answer because he knew the power the king could do if he made him mad. “Well?” King Thomas said, bringing Mark back from his thoughts. Mark looked at the King and said “No, no I don’t your majesty” Mark looked down at the ground to avoid eye contact, but he could still feel the King’s gaze on him. After a few moments of silence, the King stood up and slowly walked over to Mark, stopping directly in front of him. “Look at me boy” Mark slowly looked up at the King meeting his gaze, admiring his bright green eyes.  
  “Boy take my arm and let me take you through why you have been called down here” the King said, grabbing Mark’s arm. The King takes mark to a room just past the ball room it is a decently sized room with chairs, a table, a chandelier and some other things. There is also a giant bed in the middle of the room. Where Mark’s father lies “your father is dying... and his last wish was to see you one last time” says the King going to sit in a chair next to the bed. 
 Mark’s fists began to tighten and his teeth grinding together, he was furious, but he knew he couldn’t do anything to the king or his father, so he tried to let it all go and instead said “Parden me for speaking freely your majesty but you and my father threw out my mother and said you wanted nothing to do with me. You took me away from your son, my best friend. So, excuse me but it is time I took my leave.” Mark says holding back his tears and rage turning to leave "Mark?" A weak voice calls out from the bed "come here please" the weak voice called again Mark froze in his tracks he knew this voice well even if he had not heard it for a few years "now" the voice called again but blunter enough to make Mark shudder.  
  Mark turned around and walked to the other side of the bed looking at that dying face that betrayed him years ago. Mark looked at his father and his father looked at him, Marks father cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak again "I know you hate me and feel resent for what I did to you and your mother, but it was not a good thing that she did, but I do regret sending her away every day... I wish she were still here but her and the queen hurt many people." There was a short pause before mark had had enough of his father's rambling nonsense.  
  "I do not care who they hurt! You took my mother away from me... I am eight years old, an eight-year-old living on the dirty cold streets because you could not bear to look at me, I am done with this sad sob story from you, I am leaving, and I never want to see you again!" Mark ran out of the palace in tears while his father just lay there regretting what he had done to his boy but unfortunately it was too late... Mark's father had passed away that night from sickness without forgiveness from his only child. Mark had gathered all his things and ran far away from that town, and he told himself that he would not stop until he found his mother.  
  BACK AT THE PALACE, EIGHT YEARS LATER   
  (Mark is now 16)  
  A small bleach blond haired boy enters the king's chambers. The boy walks to the king and bows before sitting in a chair next to the king's bed. “Your majesty, I am here as you requested” There was a pause for the moment before the king spoke “You can stop calling me ‘your majesty’ Shawn you are the future king so there is no need for you to be so formal to me” The king said sitting up in his bed turning so he could get up “Yes of course father, my apologies” Shawn stands from his chair and helps the king stand from his bed.  
The king gets dressed and he and his son walk to the dining hall for breakfast. In the middle of breakfast, the king gently places down his silverware and looks at his son who is still eating. He waits for his son to look back at him before he says anything after a few minutes Shawn looks at his father with a questioning look the king pauses and then starts to speak in his old raspy voice "my boy we need to talk about something" they both look at each other's bright green eyes for a moment before Shawn spoke up "about what father?" Shawn questioned putting down his silverware after finishing all his food satisfied with how it tasted.  
  "Do you remember your old pal, Mark?" The room grew quiet, and Shawn looked shocked at the question his father had just asked him, but he did answer because it is rude to not answer the king's question. "Yes... I do remember him" Shawn choked out not wanting to talk about his forgotten friend. "Well..." The king spoke up "he isn't dead, Shawn" Shawn's plate slipped from his hands and fell to the floor shattering to a million pieces. "He's alive? you are messing with me" Shawn says kneeling on the ground to pick up his plate "I'm not gullible father, Mark is dead and has been dead since you and your useless butler threw him out years ago" Shawn finished picking up the pieces of the broken plate putting them on the table for someone to take them away later. 
“Look what you did father, you made me break Aunt Martha’s favorite plate, I’m tired of your games” As Shawn turns to leave, he was stopped by guards that his father had placed there to stop him if he tried to leave. “Son, I promise this is not a game he is alive, and I want you to go find him and bring him back so he can be a part of your royal nights” The king declares standing up so that his son knows he is serious. Shawn turns around to face his father walking closer “Do you even know if he is alive? You said he left years ago.” 
“How do you know he did not die on his journey? Are you just sending me out alone to chase a ghost or are you trying to get me killed-” “ENOUGH!” Yells the king startling everyone in the room. “He is alive, and I am sure of it, you just need to trust my instinct and go look for him and no you will NOT be alone I am assigning my best nights in our kingdom to aid you. The prince accepted his mission and packed everything he would need but he could not help but think that something bad would happen to him. Why was father sending me to chase a ghost? Were these nights going to kill me? Why? So, the prince left with his night's disguise as a traveler still wondering why. 
The king stays alone in his palace thinking and waiting for something to happen. You see there is a reason the king sent his son away and it was not to find Mark. The king had been given a letter sent by his sister that the king of Rose Hills was going to attack his kingdom and his goal was to kill the prince so there Kingdome would fall, without any ruler the people would be alone gilded by no one and can all be ruled over by someone knew. The king took drastic measures to keep his son alive and keep his Kingdome standing. The goal is to keep the son away for a few years and if he ever does find Mark he can come back and become king. 
Shawn traveled day and night asking around for any sign of Mark but did not find very much. One merchant said he saw Mark steal an apple from his stand. A maiden saw him running from the law out of town, so Mark had to go to a different town. The further Shawn went the more he heard about Mark and the more trouble he was getting himself in...  
Three years and still no sign of Mark, the journey of searching felt more and more pointless, and Shawn felt like he was searching for a lost figure, a dream with no hope of finding. But so many rumors about him being here and there and thieving things just to be able to survive. But one rumor that he heard was that he was seen with two middle aged women said to be concubines but that was not the case it was two women that Shawn had waited to see since he was young. His mother? There she was standing there in a light blue dress with long flowing hair. Shawn ran up and hugged his mom crying never wanting to let go. 
He stayed embracing his mom for what felt like hours. After minutes go by, he lets go and looks towards the other lady... Mark’s mother. But if she were here where was mark? “Do you know where is Mark? I came all this way to bring him- to bring us all home.” The women looked at each other and giggled then turned around at walked towards a barn to show Shawn a sleeping Mark. Shawn smiled seeing his best friend after all these years. “Do you think he remembers me?” Shawn asked hesitantly to wake him up. 
 “Hon you are all he talks about” Marks mother replies smiling. Shawn given a slight smile and turned back around to wake Mark. Mark is overjoyed when he sees his old friend, he gets up and gives him the biggest hug. When he hugged mark, Mark had begun to cough blood was beginning to come out of his mouth, Shawns eyes went from happy bright and shiny to a dark sadness, it was like he was looking at his father and how he was in his bed. Shawn said that “Mark must come back with him” he couldn’t lose Mark not like this, not after everything he just went through, he wanted to see him again just not like this. 
  A few days passed and they were closer to home but the closer they got the more uneasy Mark felt. A village near the castle had this feeling that something was happening, as dark clouds couldn’t only be seen in the distance the distance of the castle. They knew that something bad had happened or was going to happen, but they did not know what. There it was... the disaster, the dark clouds turned into smoke and from the smoke it turned into fire, bodies everywhere. Blood painted the walls. The only thing that stood was a broken palace with his father's stays standing tall over a pile of bodies with a sword stabbed into the back of one. He was dead standing, his eyes faded and blood running down his back. Arrows piercing his heart. This enraged Shawn “Why? How? What was happening here, how could it really be, the kingdom had been attacked.  
  After the funeral of the king Shawn and the people took some time rebuilding the kingdom. Several years in the future of challenging work was being done and the Kingdome was finally restored so now all that was left to do was to make Mark, King Shawn’s personal knight, which he did. Unfortunately, during the rebuilding of the palace Shawn’s mother had fallen ill and passed away. All he had now was his best friend, but if he passed away to then what would he do, he always wanted to rule but at what cost, he was losing everything and forced to look after everyone but no one to look over him.  
  Shawn wanted more he wanted to make the people who killed his father pay. He hated this hole in his heart, he didn’t want anyone else to get hurt also didn’t want to suffer through another loss. So, he began developing a plan to kill every opposing kingdom in a 100-mile radius. 
  The day came Shawn was ready to take his army and attack everything in their path till there was no threat that could touch the ones closest to him, but Mark and everyone in his town was not happy about this and Mark knew that something had to be done about this. “Shawn” Mark said firmly “You cannot destroy these towns there are people who have families, none of them could ever harm us. I stayed in each of the towns you want to demolish, and they were nothing but nice to me.” Shawn stood there in shock at what he was hearing from his best friend “Fine, you trader if you won't help me, I'll do it myself!” Shawn lunged at Mark with the intention to kill. Mark stood there with his arms opened wide as Shawn pierced his heart. Tears began to run down Marks face as his eyes begin to fade into darkness... 
THE END