Prince Jamnin Dammar sat in the palace courtyard with his pet cheetah Jason. His heart full of hate and despair. Jason shifted closer to his master, sensing Jamnin's emotions.

Jamnin couldn't stop replying what had transpired the week prior. Over and over again, it burned in his brain. He stopped fighting the memories, letting them play out once more.

{\One week earlier/}

Jamnin sat quietly in the corner with his nose in yet another book. It's not that he didn't like parties, he just did care for this one.

Usually at balls he'd dance with a few girls his mother set him up with. After awhile he and his big brother would sneak off to stat pulling pranks on the staff and guests. It was tradition for them. But because this ball was celebrating Prince Attam's 17th birthday, Jamnin had to be bored by himself while his brother flirted with exotic princesses.

Since Attam would be crowned Sultan in the coming years, he was going to need to find a queen to rule at his side. The queen played an important role in their government. Attam would have to marry a woman not only a good fit for him, but also as a leader.

Unfortunately, that Jamnin alone and bored at the social gathering. He didn't have any friends who attended these things except for his brother.

He would go talk to the other teens, he just didn't particularly care for their company. The girls always treated him like he was some prize to win, they all want to be his 'friend'. Whereas the other boys try to prove how much better they are than him.

Jamnin heard his mother's voice call out to him to dance with a pretty young lady from a far away island. Jamnin obeyed as he always did.

The dance was a bit awkward, Jamnin still tried to enjoy it. He truly did love to dance, the traditional Adali celebration dances were more his style. No partners, just a group of people performing the vigorous coreography of their ancestors.

When the song finished, the partners parted and continued on to new company. Jamnin bid the princess farewell and decided to go play a practical joke or two on the staff, even if he had to do it alone.

He crawled out on to the roof, a bucket full of slime in each hand. He and Tam had wanted to pull this one for forever but never did out of fear of the wrath of their parents. He spotted a few of the servants on the balcony below. A giddy grin spread it up on his face.

Just as he was about to release the contents of the buckets, Jamnin heard a massive outcry come from the ballroom. The sudden nose startled Jamnin so dramatically that he lost his balance and fell off the roof.

Jamnin woke up a few hours later in the palace's healing ward. Servants and physicians were running this way and that caring for others lying on similar cots to Jamnin. The others seemed in much worse shape than he.

The patients in the clinic suffered afflictions from swords and magic. Jamnin couldn't begin to imagine what happened to those people.

Jamnin had a broken bone or two and bruses.

An older physician saw that he was awake and she immediately began to fuss over the prince. Questions began to come out of the healer's mouth in rapid fire.

"What's your name?"

"Do you know where you are?"

"What is your mother's maiden name?"

"Do you remember what happened?"

On the last one Jamnin froze. He knew he fell off the roof on to one of the many balconies of his home. He did not, however; know what the great commotion was about that caused him to lose his balance.

When he confessed these things to the physician a disdained look crept across the old woman's face. Jamnin suddenly was not sure he wanted to know what had happened.

"I'm so sorry my prince," the woman choked out. "The celebration was attacked, mercenaries they say. Some where lucky to have escaped with their lives. But the men, they-" she paused for a moment.

"They killed your brother and father."

With that sentence, Jamnin's world crumbled to pieces. His best friends and family where gone. He and his mother would be the only ones of the the royal family of Adali left.

Numbness was all he could feel.

/} Present {\

Jamnin's emotions were invaded with raw anguish.

The rapscallions that murdered half his family and countless others were caught by the royal guard before they could escape. Unfortunately, they didn't act on their own terms. Somebody had hired them, and they didn't know who.

•{\/}{/\}{\/}{/\}{\/}•

Hello humans! I finally finished the first official chapter! 😁

So this move the plot along too terribly much, but at least we get a bit of background on Jamnin.

Anywho stay tuned for more!!

Chapterly question: what is your favorite thing to do with your family?

(P.s. bonus points for the person who understands my reason for naming Jamnin's pet what I did😉)