The Aeral Adventures:

The Door is Opened

Chapter One

All good stories start at the beginning, and as this is an earnest attempt to tell a wonderful story well, that is where I shall start. If you have read the tales of a place called Narnia, you may recall how Lord Digory and the Lady Polly traveled to a faraway world called Narnia and you may recall their adventures in said land. As you remember, Digory was called upon by the great Lion, Aslan, to plant a tree in Narnia, and if you remember correctly, you will recall that the tree was to protect Narnia from harm for many years. You will also remember that when Digory returned to his own land, he planted a sister to the Narnian tree. You will remember that years later the tree was turned into a wardrobe, and of course, one cannot forget all of the adventures that came from there. This is the tale of another tree, planted in another faraway world, and the adventures that sprung thereof.

In a world, so far from our own that you would not even know it existed, there was a war. The war was fought between the good King Traeven, rightful heir to the throne of Aeral, and the evil Markin, who was known as the Lord of Darkness. As happens too often, Traeven and his good armies were defeated by Markin and his own. Markin, however, did not kill Traeven, King of Aeral, for he knew that anyone who kills the rightful King dooms Aeral to a quick end, and of course, Markin wanted to be king of Aeral himself. So King Traeven was banished forever to our world, which we call earth, and the Aerals call Rainya. At that time travel from Aeral to Rainya was easily accomplished. Before he left, Traeven cast such good spells over the guardian tree that it would protect his land until his heir could return, and so left his own country, taking with him only a seed from the guardian tree.

In Aeral, all things became dark. Things that should have been remembered were stamped out by Markin and his evil horde. All knowledge of good was erased, Rainya and Traeven were forgotten by the people, and Markin became King of Aeral. But still, a small shaft of hope there was, in the form of the Guardian tree. It was a good that even Markin could not erase, and so, it stood, waiting for the day when Traeven's heir would again set foot on the soil of Aeral, and right would again be known.

Traeven took for himself the name of David, in memory of a king long ago banished. He lived on Rainya and married an Earthling bride, a lovely woman named Lydia and together they bore a son, Joshua. David lived long on the face of the earth, but was sad all of his days, longing for his Aeral. He planted the seed from his guardian tree and watched it grow. On Rainya, it did not have the same powers, but still, it reminded him of home and all that was good. The night that David died, a storm shook the house where they lived, it was as if all nature mourned his passing. The wind beat around the sister guardian tree, and it stood firm. But in the morning, when Lydia went to sit by the tree her husband had loved and mourn his passing, it had collapsed to the ground. It seemed that the tree saw no reason to live if her master was dead. Lydia, knowing how much her husband had loved the tree, caused it to be fashioned into a door for her husband's room. In the room she placed everything that he had loved. The door was carved with intricate designs, designs she had found in her husbands' diary. None of it made sense to Lydia, but it was beautiful, and to her it was her husband, strong and brave, but somehow very sad.

And so the door was made, and so Aeral waited. Both waited for the time when one who was pure in heart enough would step through the door, and make all things right again.