The King's Prize

Chapter 1

Pan knew very little of his home planet, Tansa. Every one of his nineteen years had been spent on the family farm at the edge of the Great Forest. Morning after endless morning he would wake with the sun, eat a simple breakfast, then follow his father into the fields where he’d work long and hard with only a break for lunch before continuing until the sun’s ebb drew long shadows across the furrowed earth. With just enough light to make it home before the pitch of night descended, there was precious little time to devote to personal interests as his three sisters were able to do. After washing the dirt from his face and hands he would eat dinner, brush his teeth then fall into bed, exhausted. At nineteen he felt old. When thoughts of silent despair wove their way into his consciousness, he would push them aside and fantasize about another life, far different to the one he had, never imagining that his dreams would ever be anything other than dreams.